We were very lucky to have been in touch with a guy, who set up everything for us on our trip. Everything from hotels to transportation to tours was taken care of. Our flight landed in Colombo at 8:30am which meant..... you guessed it no rest for the tired. We hit the ground running and were off on our first tour. We spent the next 90 minutes driving in a van to Pinnwala the elephant orphanage. The first stop on the tour at the orphanage was to the Poo Paper factory. I know what your thinking, and yes you would be correct the paper factory was made entirely out of elephant poop. It was neat and interesting to see how they made these different paper products. After the smelly tour.... just kidding we had lunch overlooking a river where some of the elephants were bathing. Here are some photos.
After having lunch, we went into the actual elephant orphanage where I got to bottle feed a baby elephants and walk around and pet elephants. It was neat how there was not gates or boundaries, the elephants were able to just roam around at their leisure. I was dissapointed not to see more then a few baby elephants but it was cool none the less.
After the elephant orphanage we took another long drive about 2 hours to the north to the city of Kandy. Kandy is a beautiful sleepy little town in the middle of Sri Lanka. After the long drive we made it just in time to some traditional Sri Lankan cultural dancing. The costumes were beautiful and very elaborate and the dancing was stunning. It reminded me of my friend Lucky's wedding that I went to back in August. She is from Sri Lanka and had some traditional dancing at her wedding. After the cultural dancing we checked into our hotel which was okay, but not the most stunning hotel I have ever stayed at but, it had air conditioning, was clean, and a good firm bed. We had dinner which literally took 90 minutes to receive, but was delicious. We tried to relax after dinner and post some picture but the internet in Sri Lanka is terrible no matter where you go.
After a really great nights sleep we awoke bright and early to a buffet breakfast in the hotel. We then took a short drive to the "Tooth Temple" where a tooth of Buda is kept and worshipped by the local people. Really beautiful temple. After the short visit to the temple we.... you guessed it got into the Van for another nice long drive through the countryside to the largest botanical garden in Asia. They had some of the most beautiful Orchids, flowers and plants. They had these really unusual curved trees that were really cool.
A waterfall that we stopped to see on one of our drives
The next part of our vacation took us on a 2.5 hour train ride through the beautiful countryside. It was taking us to our Hotel in Ella another small beautiful town. The hotel was more like a hostel, and while the food and the rooms were lacking the stunning view definitely made up for the lack luster hotel. After what was a long night, we again got up nice and early and took another long drive to Mackwoods the largest tea plantation in Sri Lanka. After leaving the tea plantation we took another long drive to our final destination for our trip Hikkaduwa on the southern coast on the water.
The last few days of vacation were spent exploring Hikkaduwa and the surrounding areas. One day we went to a turtle farm where a man is saving and rescuing turtle eggs and handicapped turtles from poachers and people who are trying to eat them. That same day we went out on the lagoon and some islands, where we got a fish pedicure. It was a really neat experience.
So... one thing I got asked a lot when I returned is, "Was it amazing?" I have to admit I was disappointed with the country. I was excited to get out of Kuwait and it was another country to check off the list but it was just not what I expected. The country itself was very run down and very poor, there were very few resort places, which we were definitely not staying at. The food was fine, but not amazing. The company I was with was great and I really enjoyed the people I was with.
On an even worse note the last day in Sri Lanka I got sick. I had a headache, sore throat, congestion and even fever. As you can imagine the trip home was miserable. I have to take a 2.5 hour ride to the airport at 9pm so we arrived around midnight. We checked in and thought there would be lines, but no so we had to wait over 3 hours till our 3:15am flight. We again had a short layover in Dubai putting us back in Kuwait around 9am. Since I was sick one of my ears did not pop which made me miserable. I came home and slept off and on for about 22 hours. The next day I felt a little better but still pretty miserable, were on friday now.
Saturday I got even worse and saturday evening around 1am I woke up and got sick, I got sick all over my bedroom and bathroom floor. For the next 8 hours I woke up even hour just about and got sick into a bucket thank god. Sunday I went to the hospital and come to find out not only did I have the flu but I had Diabetic Keto Assidosis. So needless to say not good and I ended up spending the next 4 days in the hospital. I am much better now and thankfully have everything back under control.
Until the next adventure... stay tuned and I promise I won't take as long between posts.
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