monday february 21st 2011 (galle, sri lanka)
We were escorted through the channel into historic Galle harbour and dropped the hook near a buoy beside an old fort built by the Dutch in 1663 where we were told to wait for a Navy patrol.
|
An hour later the Navy guys had boarded the vessel. Once satisfied through heated interrogation and close scrutiny that we were in fact not transporting Tamil Tiger rebels into the secure area we were free to proceed to the docks. Their inhumane methods mainly involved complimenting the boat, and asking a lot of questions about the pictures of friends and family we have hanging on the wall. “Excuse me sir and who is this one?” The whole thing took about 10 minutes and once they were finished they offered to ride in with us to help us handle the lines. We would need to drop our anchor and then back in, squeezing between two other boats and eventually tie the stern to the dock. There was no drama. Between our Navy line handlers and a couple of helpful neighbours we were soon safely med-moored to the dock on the inside of the harbour. The entrance requirements that followed would not be so easy and took up the remainder of our day.
 22-Feb-2011 17:26, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 6.3, 8.89mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 80 |
We were involved in waiting, signing or handing over documents from 9AM to 3PM, a marathon not endured since Cuba. The total cost incurred was 200 USD which included berthing for 30 days, our agents fee, entrance and departure fees. Not bad at all, and like Cuba, the experience although long and drawn out was not unpleasant due to an interesting procession of characters involved.
Polite and chatty officials carried out their business in a detailed but friendly manner, and all but the Immigration guy visited the boat. This is a nice bonus that saves us from trooping all over town on a wild goose chase trying to find random unmarked offices.
The opening game of the cricket world cup featured Sri Lanka, against none other than Canada on the same day that we arrived. It started at about the same time that the Immigration guy was scheduled to arrive, so it was no surprise to find him sitting there in the office watching the game, revealing why he was the only official not to visit Slapdash personally.
With the boat sorted and bureaucracy satisfied we found a beachside bar 10 minutes away in a place called Unawatuna. It was here that we would celebrate our successful passage in the traditional manner. Talking about the good and the bad from the passage now safely behind us while gushing over what exciting things would be in store for us in the new land over rounds of local Lager has become a venerated and rowdily enjoyed first day ritual.
This was followed as usual by a good long deep dark sleep of the dead.
tuesday february 22nd 2011 (galle, sri lanka)
We spent our first two days in Galle tending to the boat. While I ferried 12 jerry cans of diesel and as many full of water back and forth along the rickety floating plastic lego dock, Jaime sweated it out inside the boat returning Slapdash to her former pre-passage glory. We dropped off a ton of salty laundry, mostly sheets and towels. My only contribution was a pair of board shorts, 1 shirt and a sarong. The temporary repairs made underway got us here just fine, but we also took the headsail down again and walked it into town to a lady near the docks who does sail repairs with an old Singer sewing machine.
Turns out we neighboured up to the right people. Paul and Natalie are a cool American couple on a big bad ass sailboat who have been doing this type of thing for 12 years. Along with some great stories Paul revealed himself to be an excellent mechanic. Big mistake. Before long we had the leaky injector valve off our engine and parts and tools spread all over the cockpit. We tried a few different things before landing on the culprit, a little rubber o-ring had worn and cracked. After installing a suitable replacement Beaker is now keeping its diesel inside the cylinders where it belongs.
wednesday february 24th 2011 (galle, sri lanka)
During our victory celebration on our first night in Sri Lanka we met Shar and Mitch. We spotted them because they were reading one of the same books we had just finished (Cloud Atlas). Then upon further examination it turns out that these two jokers had the nerve to not only hail from the same country as us, but the same city and then to our mutual surprise even the same neighbourhood! We hit it off and after one false start finally had them over to the boat last night.
The evening started slowly as we waited around in a little office for over an hour while all the necessary papers were completed, delivered and filed in order to process their ‘visitor passes’. It is strange living inside this little sealed and secure area, but other than the odd thing like this and having to show our own passes every time we enter or leave it’s not too bad. We made up for the slow start with a strong finish. To Jaime’s delight Shar showed us her weakness for Gin, while Mitch kept pace with me and the Captain (Morgan that is). Their passes were only good for the day, which meant leaping off the stern and negotiating the rickety floating lego dock in the dark, then passing through the checkpoint on the way back to their hotel. We’ve since heard that they made it back okay and apart from a couple of close calls on the dock had an uneventful trip home. The officials even pretended not to notice that they had overstayed the 4PM visitors curfew by about 8 hours.
|
We have endured a couple of hot and sweaty decidedly un-fun days and we were looking forward to something entirely different. At first I tried stealing a tuk tuk, but had trouble with the hand start and grip shift. The owner, Saman, and Jaime found this quite funny and offered no assistance whatsoever so I abandoned the caper and went on to plan B.
|
On our first night out we had noticed some motorbike rental places in Unawatuna. We took a tuk tuk back there today (no, not the same one) and started bike shopping. It took the better part of the afternoon negotiating and test driving, but we learned in Thailand that this is time well spent; we had big plans for these bikes and they needed to be tip top. I settled on a nearly new 250cc Bajaj for 800 rupee a day, and Jaime found an automatic 100cc scooter to her liking for 600. Rupees trade at about 100 to 1, so we are now into the bike portion of this expedition for 14 dollars a day for the two of us.
I strapped my paddle to the side and we headed West along the coast. I traded for this paddle back in Vanuatu and ever since have been lugging the thing around having artisans carve their best into the handle and blade. I’ve had work done in Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Indonesia etc. Frankly, it’s been a pain in the ass. On the other hand I have a feeling that once it’s finished it will become my most prized possession. After a couple of stops I found a good carver named Mr. Namal in Hikkaduwa and left the paddle with him. We continued on to Ambalangota when Jaime’s bike which had been acting up all but died on us. We were off to a slow start. We made it to a mechanic who tore into the little bike with gusto. Within an hour he had it capable of highway speeds again. We were charged 50 rupees for the service. Yes, that’s 50 cents.
24-Feb-2011 22:26, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 4.1, 6.53mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 80 |
25-Feb-2011 00:12, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 80 |
With 1 gimpy bike and only a smidge into our epic bike trip we decided to play it safe and return the faulty merchandise to sender. We hate a false start, but having experienced the hassle of an unreliable bike on our Thailand trip we decided it was worth the extra day. We rode back to Unawatuna that night and returned the bike. At first this seemed like a defeat, but all of this changed when we found the replacement… a pink scooter called ‘scooty’ with a matching pink bowling ball helmet. What could be better?
Early on Jaime had expressed concern about some of the obstacles on the roads, a concern not unwarranted as not much later she was rammed by some crazy cow that came bolting straight into traffic. The -smack!- of bovine skull meeting plastic and ass was clearly audible and I watched the back end of Jaime’s scooter get lifted off the ground and shifted over nearly a foot. In an impressive display of good riding she regained control of the bike and pulled slowly over to the side.
26-Feb-2011 18:50, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 4.1, 6.53mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80 |
26-Feb-2011 16:02, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80 |
Not long after that we passed a sign stating that we were entering an elephant corridor. This caused a slight pause but she rallied and we continued on. Happy to report that in Sri Lanka the Pachyderms are much better behaved than the stupid cows. It’s a good thing too, look at the size of that big fella in the second picture.
24-Feb-2011 22:03, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 4.5, 5.0mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 80 |
03-Mar-2011 17:31, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 5.6, 14.67mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 80 |
Suicide cows and elephants aside it became bone rattling-ly obvious on our second day out that mammals would not be the only challenge that we would contend with on this trip. We had spent the previous night in a shitty roach motel in Hambantota. It was pretty bad, but the owners ancient toothless wife added some ambiance when her incense and almost hypnotic Buddhist chants drifted in from the other room. It lent an exotic feel to the place and kept our minds from lingering on unpleasant thoughts like, I wonder when the last time this bedding was changed, as we drifted off to sleep.
Not wanting to see our room in the daylight we were off well before sunrise. I chose the road less traveled, a hair like wisp of a line up through the center of the map. Roads conditions varied between bad and really bad. Sometimes there were none at all.
26-Feb-2011 15:20, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 80 |
|
Fortunately the scenery on this trip varied from gagging to ‘oh my god’ which more than made up for anything else.
26-Feb-2011 20:38, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 4.0, 5.0mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80 |
|
Catch that? One more time for the slow learners. Roads very bad…
28-Feb-2011 17:20, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 4.4, 8.89mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 80 |
|
26-Feb-2011 22:44, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 5.0, 5.0mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 80 |
… scenery very good.
|
|
|
We would get underway early, and pick up breakfast somewhere along the way. For some reason being the first ones on the road and freezing our asses off until the sun comes up gives a bike trip kind of a hearty and adventurous kind of feel. Breakfast was whatever we could find along the way. Sometimes it was a sugar cookie and a bag of peanuts at a Sri Lankan truck stop, other times it was an early morning fruit stand. In the mountains the fruit was amazing, in this category even giving the previously unchallenged Polynesia a serious run for it’s money.
26-Feb-2011 14:05, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.02 sec, ISO 80 |
26-Feb-2011 20:34, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 5.0, 5.0mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80 |
28-Feb-2011 02:11, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.4 sec, ISO 100 |
In Sri Lanka there are over 3 million tuk tuks and apparently no building codes.
26-Feb-2011 20:57, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 5.1, 18.2mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 80 |
26-Feb-2011 19:50, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 4.0, 5.0mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80 |
The tuk tuks look like funky retro 60′s art from the Jetsons, but we’ve seen them in showrooms and wrapped up on trucks being delivered. They arrive brand new looking like this.
28-Feb-2011 19:30, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 5.1, 18.2mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 100 |
|
In some ways Sri Lanka reminded us a lot of our trip through Cuba. Economic necessity paves the way for all sorts of strange looking contraptions built by resourceful and proud people. The two man electric weed eater and rototiller with wheels pick-up trucks were among our very favorites.
22-Feb-2011 17:29, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 5.1, 18.2mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80 |
26-Feb-2011 16:30, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80 |
The old cars and trucks are still in service here too, often suitably back dropped by crumbling character buildings.
28-Feb-2011 20:05, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 4.0, 13.18mm, 0.013 sec, ISO 80 |
28-Feb-2011 17:54, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 4.5, 7.57mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80 |
|
Like Cuba, Sri Lanka boasts some smart little dressers. Ever wonder why the poorest countries we visit seem to have the most sharply dressed, well behaved and happy little kids?
28-Feb-2011 21:06, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 4.3, 7.57mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 80 |
Everywhere there are good quality curious and friendly people around doing whatever it takes to get by…
26-Feb-2011 17:42, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 80 |
25-Feb-2011 21:35, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 5.1, 18.2mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 80 |
28-Feb-2011 17:34, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 4.0, 5.0mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80 |
28-Feb-2011 17:32, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 4.5, 5.0mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 80 |
28-Feb-2011 19:13, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 5.1, 18.2mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 160 |
… and then there was this distinctly Cuban hamburger patty from the Queens pub in Kandy. We think it may have actually been pork. To be fair we both agree completely that for some reason Sri Lanka has by far the most consistently delicious french fries. In that regard we have yet to be let down.
02-Mar-2011 21:38, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100 |
At some point we arrived in Delhousie and stupidly decided to climb Adam’s peak. This was after a phenomenally beautiful ride. Despite the relatively low mileage we had planned for that day it still took us hours. We couldn’t seem to make it more than 100 meters before stopping to gape, gawk or snap a few pictures. It was like we had spent the whole day riding through a manicured park, a scenic painting or the Butchart Gardens. Half the time we just couldn’t believe what we were seeing. The other half the time we were scared shitless when the landscape would pull our attention away from a dumpster sized pothole causing a quick correction and severe heart attack. This would always be followed by vows of never doing that again, which would be followed 5 minutes later by exactly the same scenario playing out again. Only the dumpster sized pothole varied; at times was a thousand foot cliff, or a relic of an old bus which are all seemingly driven by psychotic meth heads in Sri Lanka.
We splurged on a 20 dollar a night guesthouse so that we could have this view of the objective from our little patio.
|
Adam’s Peak’s peak is at 2243 meters. It’s Sri Lanka’s second highest but most holy. There’s a monastery up there and every year over a half million pilgrims visit. There’s also a footprint at the top and depending on who your parents are, it belongs to either Shiva (Hindu), Adam (Muslim), or Buddha (Buddhist). We joined the pilgrims that day who at least had the benefit of religious zeal to keep them warm. They must have wondered at what motivated us to get out of bed at 2AM to join them.
There were little tea huts all the way up which allowed us to duck in out of the occasional rain, and I will admit that the lights along the path and orange glow from the monastery gave it the trek a surreal and reverent edge. There’s also a bit of giddy fraternity to be enjoyed when a whole bunch of random people are stuck together doing something really uncomfortable. We painfully learned the difference between sea legs and mountain legs, but managed to make the summit before sunrise. This is meant to be an awesome sight, especially when “the distinctive shape of the mountain casts a triangular shadow on the surrounding plain and can be seen to move quickly downward as the sun rises”, but we really have no idea. There was a full gale blowing sheets of rain horizontally when we set foot on top. The miserable weather was nicely paired with these wailing monks playing some kind of horrible nerve wracking instruments. We rang the bell at the top whose significance I’ve forgotten, ate a samosa, Jaime went pee and we started back down even before the sun had come up.
On the way back down we were treated to some spectacular vistas, wearing the impossible to conceal smug looks of people on decent. These are the same and probably imaginary looks we stared at on faces for hours as we labored up.
|
|
Jaime’s hat garnered a lot of attention with the pilgrims. For the whole 6 hours people would comment, ask for a picture or just laugh hysterically. I recommend googling up some images for Adam’s Peak, it really is quite stunning day or night and we just didn’t have the gear to get tricky low light and wide angle shots to do it justice.
These three little dudes accompanied us most of the way down chirping away happily while we grunted out pained winded responses. This was their 10th summit, and while we were having difficulty walking they ran off ahead at the bottom on their way to school.
|
|
After nearly 10,000 steps (9600) and a 14 kilometer round trip we were back at our guest house before breakfast. Jaime is a ruthless slave driver and her itinerary included a 4 hour ride to Kandy that same day. We decided to leave right after breakfast before our legs seized up completely. We saw an elephant along the way and an unusual cluster of natural car wash’s. One section of the road was bordered by a rock face which had all these natural springs. Each one had a guy with a hose attached to the rock somewhere and a little car wash sign. Far more interesting and scenic than any coin operated tin shed at home. We couldn’t resist the opportunity to take off a few layers of mud and dirt from the road hogs.
|
|
Then we found a monkey and fed him a piece of corn. Uncharacteristically, he did not attack me. Corn is they key. I am the monkey whisperer.
|
I bet this place wonders why tourists are always stopping to take a picture but never come in to eat anything.
|
In Columbo we met up once again with Shar and Mitch who at this time were rollin like celebs in a pimped up Landy with driver. We wondered about their secret lives. They scored tickets to the Canada vs Pakistan match and off we went. At the game which Canada lost, they introduced us to the ‘beer case’ and our lives will never be the same.
|
|
Afterwards the girls drunkenly decided that they knew exactly where we had parked and foolishly stormed off…
|
|
… heartlessly leaving Mitch and I to fend off hordes of young cricket hooligans. Eventually we manged to evade the rascals and heroically save the girls. They were inside the Landy waiting for us exactly where they… er, we said it would be. At least that’s how we remember it.
|
By this time Jaime and I were incapable of taking stairs. We were also both suffering from vicious colds, both parting gifts from our escapade at Adam’s Peak. We barely left the hotel room for the next day and a half. Unable to justify the ridiculously overpriced hotel we were in any longer we left Columbo and were soon back on a beautiful hot coastal road.
25-Feb-2011 20:07, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 6.3, 8.89mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80 |
|
|
It was an incredible trip and a great way to see the country. Of course there’s a million things we missed, but we’ve been at it for 10 days and feel like we gave it a pretty fair effort. Every day we finished covered in black soot, grimy from head to toe. The dust and carbon monoxide often left us hacking, wheezing and wishing for an oxygen tent. Accommodations were sometimes dirty, always spartan, usually offset with million dollar views. The vast majority of the people we met were genuine, curious and sincere. A few tried their best to separate us from our money. We were sometimes faced with a noticeably old fashioned view on women. When Jaime went out by herself there would be the occasional idiots to fend off, and she was often asked ‘where is your husband’, and indeed it was unusual to see a local woman out by herself most places. Except for the upscale hotel tapas bars and restaurants we didn’t see a single local gal out at a pub, they were an all male domain. In all of our travels we didn’t see a local lady on motorbike or scooter. All this but Sri Lanka was the first country in the world to have a female Prime Minister?
Real hassles were few and far between if there were any at all. We had been warned that the touts in Sri Lanka can be very aggressive and every official will be looking for baksheesh. Maybe we’ve just developed a ‘don’t even bother with us’ look of the veteran traveler, but neither of these things were true in our experience. We haven’t been hit up for any kind of bribe, been hassled by a cop for imaginary ‘pay on the spot’ infractions, or met a tout in a league with those in Kuta Beach or even Mexico for that matter. The incredible beaches, surf and highlands really surprised us as did the wildlife. We nearly ran over a 3 foot Monitor lizard as he did his hurried reptilian best to waggle across the road in front of us. The smiles and waves returned by locals ratio is as high here as it has been anywhere on our trip. It’s affordable and there’s a ton of interesting natural wonders and a diverse colorful history that spans back through to medieval times. It can be quaint with class. Take-away wrappers are scrap paper, usually kids schoolwork. Serviettes at the little mom and pop shacks are always strips of cut up newspaper, and yet in the same place the cream for your coffee is heated up before being served. Speaking of which, the food here is totally underrated. Samosas, Rotty’s,curries, and varieties of sambols are excellent. It’s easy for two people to have an excellent meal for less than 5 bucks. Note: it will be assumed that as a ‘foreigner’ you will want bland food. You need to ask every time to have dishes prepared spicy if you want to enjoy the real local flavors.
We both give Sri Lanka an enthusiastic thumbs up.
28-Feb-2011 21:25, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.006 sec, ISO 80 |
24-Feb-2011 18:46, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80 |
|
wednesday march 9th 2011 (hikkaduwa, sri lanka)
We haven’t quite made it back to Galle yet. We have been holed up in Hikkaduwa in a big clean airy beach side guesthouse. We are literally right beside the water, which affords a pretty spectacular view of the sunset every night.
|
That’s also the view towards the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. Hikkaduwa is suitable base camp for our daily correspondence with shipping companies, people that have just made the passage, news feeds from Somalia and NATO, placement agencies for Yemeni mercenaries, route planning for South Africa, and concerned friends and family back home. I’ve been at it for two days straight and will post all of our views on this matter, hopefully along with a plan of action soon.
22-Feb-2011 17:30, OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. u1030SW,S1030SW , 4.0, 5.0mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80 |
Just wanna input that you have a very decent website , I love the style and design it actually stands out.
Posted by Detroit Dumpster Rental | 16. Jul, 2011, 9:08 pmHmmm, the possibility of encountering a 60 foot wave or traveling through countries where the norm is $6 beers. Hmmmm
Posted by Ken Page | 31. Mar, 2011, 7:46 pmas long as you keep buying us beer Ken it’s a no-brainer! :)
Posted by theslapdash | 31. Mar, 2011, 7:55 pmI have your WJ T4. What do you want me to do with it? Why are there bullet holes on your home page? No email at the moment…
Posted by di-jeff-nk | 24. Mar, 2011, 10:44 amIf I buy you another beer?
Please slap out another update.
I hate suggesting what people do but Jaime said in three days or so about two weeks ago. You don’t want us to think your a lier do you?
Posted by Ken Page | 23. Mar, 2011, 9:38 amGirl’s lie. And boys are unreliable. …I think we make a good team. I promise I will poke him in the belly until he writes a new log. Oh dammit, I already revealed that girls lie. D’oh.
Posted by Jaime | 31. Mar, 2011, 6:34 pmYou know you guys have us all held hostage……….waitng to hear what’s coming next!
Posted by Ken Page | 18. Mar, 2011, 3:17 amWe are kinda like Somali’s. But much nicer I think.
Posted by Jaime | 18. Mar, 2011, 4:14 pmWow, you guys are awesome, I wish I could do that. Hehe.. Anyway, seriously, just catching up on your site and the writing is as comic as it is insightfull, don’t ever let your website get out of date (like mine) :-)
Posted by Kirk | 15. Mar, 2011, 10:50 amCaptain Kook! Wish you were here, you’d LOVE the motorbike trip. It was made for our biker gang.
Posted by Jaime | 18. Mar, 2011, 4:15 pmDon’t be put off sailing around the Cape. We sailed from the other side – Cape Verde via Tristan Da Cunha and 40 south. 6,500miles non stop. One of our best sails. Should be easier from where you are. Wait for us and we will join you. Stay safe.
Posted by James & Lorna s/v Mind the Gap | 15. Mar, 2011, 10:39 amHi guys! Nothing has been ruled out but we aren’t too keen to cross the ITCZ again. New Zealand was hard enough without throwing a Cape into the mix. But would be great to catch up! may see you there!
Posted by Jaime | 18. Mar, 2011, 4:16 pm10 days! LOL. Almost cancels out the passage to get there.
Posted by A & C | 12. Mar, 2011, 7:20 pmDon’t know how but land always seems to cancel out the rough passages. It’s a good thing; the logs would be crap!
Posted by Jaime | 18. Mar, 2011, 4:17 pmLooks like an awesome place … so magical and beautiful.
Posted by Mid-Life Cruising! | 11. Mar, 2011, 12:19 amYou said it. It’s all that AND a tasty roti.
Posted by Jaime | 18. Mar, 2011, 4:18 pmAwesome!
My jealousy is reaching new heights. I will burn incense and pray to the monkey gods to bite your bums.
Posted by patrick somers | 10. Mar, 2011, 4:03 amIs that why that monkey at the beach was eyeballing me??
Posted by Jaime | 18. Mar, 2011, 4:19 pmThis post was exceptional. The pictures are all beautiful, especially the last one of the sunset.
Posted by Norman Harrison | 10. Mar, 2011, 3:13 amThanks Norman. I hate to rub it but this is the view from our little guesthouse. Ok maybe ‘hate’ is too strong a word…
Posted by Jaime | 18. Mar, 2011, 4:20 pmGreat post!
Great Pics!
Great commentary!
Posted by J. Schieffelin | 10. Mar, 2011, 1:37 amGreat comment!
Posted by Jaime | 18. Mar, 2011, 4:21 pmI never would have considered Sri Lanka as an awesome place to explore, but it looks to be just that. Kinda like Laos with an Indian twist? Very cool. Good work with the bikes, we love hearing of your two wheeled adventures in the boonies!
Posted by Pamela Bayntun | 10. Mar, 2011, 1:18 amThis place has you guys written all over it. A bike adventure with a few fun twists; potholes, scooter-ramming cows, road grime. Awesome.
Posted by Jaime | 18. Mar, 2011, 4:22 pmI’ve never heard of Sri Lanka as a travel destination before but it sounds amazing! Good Luck with the travel arrangements.
Posted by Lorry Reynish & Joanna Richardson | 09. Mar, 2011, 11:50 pmThanks prairie dwellers! Git out here and see what we’re raving about.
Posted by Jaime | 18. Mar, 2011, 4:24 pm(staring blankly at the comment box)
Wow!
Posted by Ken Page | 09. Mar, 2011, 9:30 pmmy sentiments exactly!!
Posted by vicky page | 09. Mar, 2011, 11:44 pmTotally know what you mean. Felt this way when rounding a bend on a steep mountain road taking in the tea plantations.
Posted by Jaime | 18. Mar, 2011, 4:25 pm