Three Days in Sri Lanka

Our flight to Sri Lanka left at the ungodly hour of 2 am out of Coimbatore. Due to heightened security at the airport, we had to show three hours early, and Coimbatore is over two hours drive from Wellington. This meant that we headed for the airport at around 10 pm and had the pleasure of sitting around the airport with nothing to do until our departure. I managed to get in a few catnaps, but for the most part, Jodi and I were both pretty much fried by the time we arrived in Colombo at four in the morning.

After passing through customs, we met up with our driver for the next three days arranged by my Sri Lankan friend Ruwan. The driver's name was Mr. Dayarathna, though Jodi decided she preferred the name Diorama, so we stuck with that. We drove in from the airport and finagled an early check-in at our hotel. After catching a solid six-hour refresher nap, we had Diorama pick us up after lunch for some city sight-seeing. We arranged for him to meet us at 2 pm, just after our lunch. We were about fifteen minutes late in coming out of lunch, and Diorama was a bit upset with us. This was our first indication that Diorama had his own plans for how this three-day tour was going to happen. Regardless, we set off for some sight-seeing and shopping around Colombo. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate and it rained on us most of that afternoon. We did manage to get in some souvenier shopping, but no photo opportunities really arose.

The next day we began (promptly) at 6 am. Our first destination was the Pinnewalla Elephant Orphanage, about three hours from Colombo. The orphanage is home to some 80 or so elephants living in semi-captivity. As you enter the grounds, there are signs everywhere telling you to avoid approaching the elephants and not to try touching them. Of course, if you slip the minders a little tip, they will happily take your picture in the middle of the herd while petting the baby elephants.

The elephants lead a pretty simple life of wandering around the compound getting fed and frolicking in the water. It turned out to be a good opportunity to see a herd up close.

The next stop on our itinerary was another three hours of driving away towards the center of Sri Lanka to the ancient city of Sigiriya. Sigiriya is a rock fortress built in the late fifth century AD, though its exact purpose is not completely understood. The rock is surrounded by gardens, and is full of ancient caves and structures. A modern staircase gets you to the top now, but it is still a good 200 meters of climbing to get there.

L: Jodi and I before the climb R: View of the gardens from the top of the rock

L: Ancient cave frescoes of court women R: With Jodi at the top

After a sweaty climb to top of the rock and still reeling from our early wake-up call, Jodi and I were ready to get to our hotel to shower, eat, and generally bum around for the evening. We met Diorama at the car park and told him we were ready to go. His plan, however, was for us to have our lunch before going to the hotel. When I told him that we weren't hungry, his response was, "Yes, but I am hungry." Of course, he didn't mention that he gets commissions from the guest houses where he takes us to eat, but I'm well aware of how that works. So we wound up stopping so that he could get some tea before taking us to our hotel for the night. On the plus side, we stayed in a fantastic hotel tucked into the wilderness called the Heritance Kandalama. If you're ever in central Sri Lanka, check it out.

On our last full day in Sri Lanka, we departed the hotel and took a quick stop at the Golden Temple in Dambulla. The Golden Temple is a set of Buddhist temples cut into some caves in the rocks on a hillside in the city of Dambulla. Each cave is filled with various statues of the Buddha.

Modern entrance to the temple complex.

Outside the caves.



Buddhas everywhere...

From Dambulla, we proceeded to our final destination, the city of Kandy. Along the way, we stopped for tea. Jodi and I just had a Coke and some chips, but I noticed that our bill included tea and a cake. This just happened to be what Diorama had during the stop. I didn't say anything, but was beginning to wonder why I was paying for his food when the fee we'd already agreed on included his food and lodging.

Once we got to Kandy, we headed for the home of my friend Ranjith, who offered to let us stay in his house (which was empty while he's attending the same course that I'm in). Diorama wasn't too keen on us staying at a residence (which wouldn't be paying him commission), and he tried to talk us into some hotels that he knew in the town. We insisted however, so Diorama drove us to the house where we met by Ranjith's in-laws. They were extremely nice to us and cooked us some authentic Sri Lankan cuisine for lunch. Diorama roamed about the house like some sort of building inspector, to "make sure it was up to our standards". He also invited himself to eat lunch with us.

That afternoon we headed into the Kandy city center to look around a bit. The town is fairly small and is centered around a pretty little lake.

We also attended a Sri Lankan cultural show, basically traditional drummers and dancers performing Sri Lankan routines.

The main attraction in Kandy though, is the Temple of the Tooth (Sri Dalada Maligawa). This Buddhist temple houses a tooth which is supposedly the only surviving relic of the Buddha. We visited during the evening rituals, and the temple was filled with worshippers hoping to catch a glimpse of the relic (or rather a glimpse of the box that holds seven other boxes, the smallest of which contains the actual tooth). To me, the temple was unlike most of the other Buddhist temples I'd been to, especially in northern India and Japan. Those temples are usually very quiet and meditative. This temple was almost more like a Hindu temple, as there was much noise and general chaos in the rituals.

Outside of the temple

Drummers announce the daily puja.

The faithful wait for the tooth chamber to be opened.

Shrines

For dinner, Jodi and I decided to make a quick stop at a Pizza Hut next to the Temple. We figured this would be a good place to get a quick bite since we had an early wake-up the next morning to catch a flight. We told Diorama we'd be stopping for dinner. He replied that he wasn't yet hungry, but he supposed he could find something to take away for later. How nice of him to concur. This meal turned out to be the final straw in our Diorama Dilemma. First he decided to sit down and have dinner with us. This isn't the usual etiquette for a driver. After getting the hint that we didn't really want to chat with him, he took his to-go order and went down to wait for us in the car. We finished up dinner and got our bill. Sure enough, the weasel hadn't paid for his food and stuck us with the bill. I'd put up with his quirks for the first two days, but this was too much. In the car on the way back to the house, I asked him if maybe I'd misunderstood our arrangement and that maybe he could explain why I was paying him food and lodging in his fee, as well as picking up his checks at restaurants. I think this really embarrassed him, and he promised to pay me back for the food and then sulked all the way back to the house (by the way, he also weaseled his way into staying in the same house with us that night). The next morning we left early for the three hour drive back to the international airport to catch our flight to the Maldives. On the way, Diorama paid for our breakfast just to show how generous he was. If you ever want to live out the Diorama experience for yourself, just drop me a line. I think I still have his number somewhere...