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sri lanka We are getting ready to leave South Asia, as you all know, and we are trying to see as many local places as we can before we are removed from this part of the world. Some of us call this “adventure”. I call it hubris. We got a little too big for our britches (pregnancy jokes can wait until later, thank you) Like Icaraus before us, we flew too close to the sun. We went to Sri Lanka. Like all places around here, Sri Lanka has a long and checkered past of myth, empire, and war. It is the island that, in the Ramayana, is home to the evil demon god Ravanna, who is notorious for his ten black demon heads and for stealing the beautiful Sita from Rama, the god king. It is in the land of Lanka that Ravanna enters into battle with the great monkey-god Hanuman. Hanuman wins, to make a long story short. Throughout history, the island has been revered as one of the most beautiful places on earth. Famously, Marco Polo, that well-traveled personage, called it the finest island in the world. Once known as the island of Serendib, it brought the word “serendipity” into the English language through the pen of Horace Walpole. Placed securely on the spice routes by its fine spices and the vast quantities of precious gems, it was an important port to the Portuguese (who likened it's shape to a pearl), the British (who likened it's shape to a teardrop, falling from the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent), and to the Dutch (who, being more practical in nature, likened it's shape to a leg of ham). And I suppose that you all know that the war still goes on, often despite logic and meaning. On the day that we arrived, a massive bomb was detonated under a bus that was carrying school children to take their 8th-grade exams, and mourners attending a funeral for a soldier who had recently been killed in battle with the Tamil Tigers. Over 60 people were killed. It was a shocking end to the somewhat false peace treaty that was still pretending to be in place. We are not beach people, to say the least. I hate it when you get sand all up in your pants and sunburn and it's all sweaty and the water is too cold and there are sharks in the water and I'm scared to death of the ocean anyway, so why bother sitting in the hot sun with sand in your butt? Luckily, Sri Lanka is one of those rare places that contain an extraordinary array of environments in a very small space. The coast is known for its luxurious beaches while, a couple of hours away, the mountains are high and chilly and full of cold, clean waterfalls. Obviously, we headed straight for the mountains. First, we went to Kandy. | ||
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