kissing elephants

Wild women do

So that was Sri Lanka, and this is a photo of the new messy me, as requested by Nicola. And no, I haven't just got out of bed. Different?

By the way, Steve's much better Sri Lanka photos can be seen under Interesting Stuff below.

Next on to Adelaide.

Dancing queens

While enjoying a quiet day sunbathing by the pool, we were joined by around a hundred people on a works do. They started drinking around ten in the morning and kept going for most of the day accompanied by a very loud live band. Nothing new there then - but what was the most intriguing thing about this event was the boys dancing. None of the few females that were there danced but all the men did, all day, very enthusiastically, holding and hugging each other, showing off their moves and generally behaving like western girls. When they weren't dancing they were walking around holding hands and putting their arms around each other. And no, they weren't gay - just enjoying their friends in a very different way from western boys. A very interesting occasion indeed.

Tsunami effect

Over the last few days of the trip we journeyed along the south coast and settled at a hotel in Ahangama right by the ocean. Its hard to look at the sea without imagining what it was like that day. There are still hundreds of examples of flattened homes and business with gravestones sited next to lots of them - a stark visual reminder of the 30,000 people who died. Many people are living in tents on top of what's left of their homes while others have replaced their stone homes with huts.

But despite stories of aid not reaching the people who need it, there seems to be a significant amount of rehabilitation going on. People are rebuilding their homes by the sea, fisherman are taking out their boats, and life goes on.

The coast is such a dichotomy of rugged beauty and devastation. People are struggling to survive while watching westerners enjoying their holidays. And yet there is little bitterness. They continue to be welcoming and smiling, being resourceful as they can by selling whatever they can get their hands on, shells, handmade toy boats, photos of their family.

Yala National Park

More animals on a jeep safari of Yala National Park - wild boar, buffalo, elephants and my first crocodiles. The ranger that sat in our 4x4 was particularly helpful - he didn't spot anything but every five minutes would nudge Andrew and point out one of the thousands of spotted deer we could see - thanks.

The weirdest moment was when we reached the beach. It was the first real sign of the tsunami effect. A restaurant which had been in construction was flattened to the floor. 200 people and god knows how many animals died there that day. The same sort of tourist groups that we were.

The best bit of the day was the drive back at dusk through villages filled with people going about their evening activities. As I stared into the warmly lit houses, it was strange to see that all the families and kids were doing what most UK families are doing around that time - watching TV.

Hill Country

From Kitugala, we travelled north higher and higher, into the tea plantations with their temple-like landscapes, until we reach Nurawa Eliya. This is Sri Lanka's highest town and is a combination of old colonialism and new commerce but with little money to spend. It is populated mainly by Indian Tamils who were brought over by the British to work for a pittance in the fields because no-one else will. A very strange town indeed but did find the internet there in someone's attic room.

From there we took a walk across Horton Plains to see the view from World's End which was basically white soup so a bit of a disappointment. The rain and mist made the landscape seem very like the Peak district. I suppose I expected it to feel more wild and desolate but I can imagine it looks amazing in the sun.

So, having had enough of the cold, we started our journey down the mountains to the coast.

Intruders of the male and leech kind

So now the adventure really starts. We left Kandy and travelled into hill country - wet, wet and more wet. The damp musty hotel was next to a swirling river which filled up with rain while we were there.

The first night we were there, Janet and I went to bed around midnight after a game of zilch. We were both out like lights, like most nights under our matching mosquito nets. At some point around three, something, I don't know what, woke me. The light from the hallway bathed the room in an orange glow. As I turned over in bed my eyes surveyed the room, left to right, blurred through the yellow netting. But then a shape I didn't recognise. Not a cupboard or a suitcase - but a human.

Now I was wide awake. This wasn't Janet on her way to the bathroom. This was a man naked except a sarong, shaved head and big arms standing right next to me with his hand on the mosquito net about to lift it. 'What are you doing?' I said. 'Get out'. At the same moment, Janet sat up. My visitor said something in Sinhalese and then slowly, calmly walked out of the room, without a sound.

If we both hadn't been there I would have thought I'd dreamed him. But no, he was very real and it was very scary. So to take my mind off it all the next day, we went for a jungle walk which was in fact a leech endurance test. It was all going fine until Roshan says 'now we go this way'. This way, was through undergrowth with little path to speak of. 'Oh and there's quite a lot of leeches from now on'.

That was an understatement. Hundreds of the blighters wiggling on the ground just waiting to grab hold of our shoes and crawl into our socks to feast. We soon realised that when one person stopped to flick one off, the rest of us would be attacked from all sides. 'Keep moving, keep moving' was the constant squeal but to no avail.

So how were the jungle views and the plant life? God knows, we spent the whole time looking at the floor. After what seemed like forever, we reached the river and were taken across in a rickety old thing but safe from our leech invaders. Our vigilance paid off and no-one got bitten. But I couldn't wait to get away from the place.

Miss Candy in Kandy

I forgot to say that while I was in Sri Lanka, I set up a new business combining stylish hairdressing and state of the art technological equipment. Its going well so far....

Three nights in my home town, Kandy where we combined city sights, temples, elephants and spontaneous tuk tuk racing. We visited the Temple of the Tooth, the most sacred religious site in the country where Lord Buddha's tooth is stored. Well, so they say. Apparently the last time it was seen was in 1953 and looked like a buffalo's tooth but they still queue up with money and gifts for a glimpse of the golden casket. That's faith for you.

75% of the country are Buddhist, the national religion with the remain Christians, Hindus and Muslims. Because Buddhism is a philosophy, you can be a Buddhist Hindu if you want which is somewhat confusing. The west coast is mainly Catholic, easily identified by the garish neon Virgin Marys and Jesuses at each street corner. Most modern day symbols are suitably vulgar including a great temple we visited which depicted life-size models of what happened to you if you go to hell. Some really nice disembowelling going on.

Where does a monk keep his mobile phone? In his man bag. No, not a joke. We met a rather handsome monk outside one of the temples who whipped out his mobile phone from his handbag. He had a chat with our tour leader, the main topic of conversation? Cricket of course.

In the evening, we had a crazy ride back from a restaurant in four tuk tuks. Our driver got a bit over excited, greatly encouraged by my co-pilot, Andrew I must say, and we ended up doing some nifty over-taking on windy roads. I was fearing for my life at one moment but completely forgot this when we went from last place to arriving first. Come on!

Kissing elephants at Pinnewala

Having not had my fill of elephants we headed off to the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage which has 73 orphans who roam a large area of land next to the town. We were able to get pretty close to them until one of the bulls got a bit tense. I've never heard an elephant roar - it's like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park.

We also got to see a seven day old ellie who was the first one to be conceived in the the orphanage, but the best sight of the day was watching 70 elephants march down the high street passing all the shops filled with elephant souvenirs and down to the river for a bath.

A massage to India

Remember I wrote that a recent masseur had said I was going to become an alternative therapist, well I decided to test out the main complementary therapy in Sri Lanka - Ayurvedic. It seems pretty logical, using herbs, spices and plants to treat ailments but the most exciting bit is the massage. So in my professional research capacity, I decided to check out a few on the way.

The first was for free in a Spice Garden in Matale. I whipped off my top along with the rest of the group for a bald man to pummel my back and shoulders and generally mess up my hair for ten minutes in a large tent. I was slightly perturbed as he walked up behind me and whispered in my ear 'Do you have a bra on?' What? Yes, of course, what sort of girl do you think I am! Oh I see, you want me to take my t-shirt off.....'You have very tight shoulders', he said... yes, I know, thanks for that, now do something about it.

The second was a full body in Kandy with a sweet tiny lady with gentle hands. This time I stripped off in a sort of themed mud hut filled with candles. Very atmospheric, as the world bustled by outside, i felt like I was in some remote village instead of the hotel gardens. Nice and relaxing, no pain.

The third was a different bottle of massage oil altogether. Described as one of the best, we could only be disappointed. We were whisked to a dingy hostel and ushered into dark rooms two at a time - luckily I was with Sarah and not Steve. A man with sandpaper hands hurriedly pushed me into all sorts of positions and basically put his hands where they shouldn't have been. He kept asking me if it was too hard - yes, thought I - oh no, I said feebily. Suddenly I was pushed out into the daylight again not quite knowing what had happened but feeling slightly sullied. Hardly a relaxing experience.

The fourth at the beach was a dream. Just a back and shoulders but the man had magical hands. I was intrigued as I saw the slightly drunk smiles on the girls' faces as each came out from his little room. He was amazing. Hard to start with generating lots of heat but then softer and softer until you didn't realise he'd stopped touching you. He also had a way of moving around the room without you realising it which was slightly disconcerting. Mmmm, how do you think I can get him back through customs?

So the latest career idea, to write a Rough Guide to Massage, what do you reckon? I'm sure you must all have massage stories... let's hear them.

A cycle ride for coconuts

The cycle ride in the country around Giritale was my favourite part of the trip. Finally we got off the tourist trail and I felt like I'd experienced the real Sri Lanka. I really enjoyed cycling again, except my sore bottom. Some of the tracks were pretty hairy so I was glad I'd had some off-road experience.

We biked along the river passing farmers, rice fields, buffaloes, women washing their clothes, people bathing, huts and houses. Children would come running out of their homes shouting to us until we waved back. I had a lovely moment as I came towards a little girl in her white dress coming home from school. She stuck out her hand to touch mine as I passed her, greeting me with her warm smile.

During the ride we stopped off at a coconut farmers house where he zipped up the tree and brought down coconuts for us to drink. After our first game of cricket of the trip with the family we set off again.

The Sri Lankans really know about work life balance. Whenever you drive through places you see lots of people (men, generally) standing around talking and watching the world go by. There's no hurry, no rush, things get done when they get done. I'm also surprised at how westernised a lot of places are. And while there is obviously a lot of poverty, there is little squalor. Even though it is classed as a third world country there is a completely free education and a health service for everyone - which is more than we have.