Sri Lanka

We wish we stayed much longer in Sri Lanka. It was really great and we barely saw a fraction of it. So we are already plotting our return. 

We slowed down our pace considerably for this week and tried to recover a bit. We first spent three nights in Colombo, a city full of green trees that contrasted dramatically with the overwhelmingly white buildings. It was lovely and reminded us a bit of Mexico City. We used tuk-tuks to get around which was a lot of fun and our hotel had a rooftop infinity pool with an incredible view that was especially amazing at sunset. 

The guide for our scheduled food tour got sick but he kindly walked us through the tour via video and we still learned a lot, including that Sri Lankan food (and tea) is delicious with incredible flavor and spice. We also visited Gangaramaya and Seema Malaka, a Buddhist temple complex.  The Gangaramaya Temple is famous for many reasons, including its varied architecture and that its Bodhi tree is believed to be where the Buddha meditated to reach enlightenment. Seema Malaka is nearby on the lake and is used more for meditation purposes, rather than worship.  It was redesigned in the 1970s by Geoffrey Bawa, arguably Sri Lanka’s most famous architect.  We also made quick visits to Viharamahadevi Park – mainly because of the name which has “Devi” in it — and the Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque in Pettah Market with its distinctive red and white exterior. It felt a bit like the counterpart to our beloved black and white striped church in Sienna, Italy.

We spent the rest of our trip in Habarana, an area known as the “cultural triangle.”  We had a particularly nice tuk-tuk driver on our last day in Colombo who said he had a car so we hired him for the rest of the trip. He showed up with a fancy, decked out van that thrilled the kids so we knew we were off to a good start.  On the way to Habarana, we stopped to visit the Dambulla Cave Temple which consists of five Buddhist cave shrines, each with beautiful statues and brilliant, detailed murals covering the entire caves. The shrines have been used by monks since the 3rd century BCE and continue to be active today.  

In Habarana, we were lucky to stay in another beautiful spot, this time a 2-bedroom villa in the jungle with monkeys (and mosquitos) joining us for breakfast. We continued to go slow, doing school, taxes, and other exciting things and it was nice to be in such a lovely spot with wraparound views of nature.  We did manage to get out a bit, however. We went on a half-day jeep safari to see Asian elephants — because you can never see enough elephants — and we were lucky to have more close encounters with baby elephants, in particular.

And on our last full day we climbed Sigiriya Lion Rock, an ancient rock fortress dating back to the 5th century AD. The history behind the fortress is pretty intense: in essence, the king’s son who was born out of wedlock was upset he would not inherit the throne; he killed his father and took over; and he created the fortress as a new capital to avoid the wrath of the other son (who eventually returned and defeated him). The entrance to the fortress was a huge lion but only the paws remain. We were initially worried about the 1200 steps — and I was worried about the height — but it was all pretty manageable.  At the top, the view was breathtaking (or was that the steps?) and we were able to FaceTime with AR and the kids as we remembered our late Uncle K at one of his favorite spots.

On the way to the airport, we stopped at a seed farm where an Ayurvedic practitioner showed us all the things that would fix our ailments, including our skin.  We tried to find an ethical elephant orphanage but both attempts were a bust so we gave up and headed to the airport for a long overnight trip to Cambodia.

With love in our hearts, remembering Uncle K.