Sri Lanka. An hour's flight from Bangalore landed us in Colombo. This was to be the much planned, much anticipated family holiday. And seriously fun it turned out to be.
Bentota
One the southern tip of the island is the seaside village/town of Bentota. What I will remember is the ocean, the vast sandy beaches in their pristine beauty, and the backwater lagoons. What N will remember is the ocean. And the swimming pool. Between which he alternated the entire time we were there. And refused to come back from. The rest of us soaked up the sun and surf too. I didn't want to come away from the ocean, where the water was just the right temperature, the waves were just the right size. There is something so therapeutic of being in the ocean. I knew I would not get to experience it in a while, so I wanted to make the most of the time there. Other than that, time was spent basically in lazing around, and enjoying the pretty delicious Sri Lankan cuisine, which is very similar to Manglorean food, and hence amazingly alluring.
memories to cherish:
~ N jumping into the pool about 200 (not kidding) times before 4 of us dragged him away for the night
~ N navigating the waves with Jajja and Bomma
~ G, R, P and I lying on the beach chairs at night, the full moon above us, singing the night away, with G on the guitar. It was truly so awesome!
Kandy
From the beach to the mountains, it was. Couple of hours drive through green Lanka, and we were in Elephant land! Stopped at a restaurant overlooking a river (literally on the banks) for lunch, and minutes into us landing there, came a horde - literally - of about 50 or so elephants to bathe in the river. It was a hot day, and the elephants just swarmed down into the water. After that, it was pure delight to watch their antics, especially the baby elephants. They were just too cute. Behaving like little rascals. I pointed that out to N. He pretended not to understand the reference. But open-mouthed he watched the elephants. After lunch, it was an elephant ride. N could not believe his luck. And neither could I - because there was nothing in between me and the elephant - no seat, no mat, no nothing. And it was, uh, painful. And I had to hold on to N who was sitting in front of me. This was no America - where we would get harnesses, safety instructions, cushions to buffer our backside from raw hide, etc, etc. This was the land of the Elephant, the ride of the free. It was our chance to touch base with the animal, to experience nature. Sure, but I could have done without the chaffing.
From there, it was onwards to the Tooth Temple ("Tooth" because it holds an actual tooth of the Buddha as a holy relic) . Beautiful, serene, ancient, spiritual. Buddhism is captivating on many levels. I wanted to soak up the history of the place some more. However, N was at his hyper best, and my attention was more focused on avoiding disaster at every step (like N rummaging through sacred temple artifacts when no one was looking, etc). Oh, and one of the rules of visiting the temple was that one's knees are covered, as a mark of respect. Couple of us were in shorts - unacceptable. So, our driver Areef lends us a lungi (for P), and R helpfully lends me a sarong. So we don those on top of our shorts. Made for a hilarious sight. T-shirts, sarong/lungi, sneakers. Caption: Lunginathan and Sarongeshwari (courtesy R!). Look for the picture on FB (right!)
After this, destination our resort at the top of the hills. Beautiful view of the city, lights on the hills. Next day, woke up early to be bathed in clouds. Slowly the mist lifted to reveal the gorgeous views of the place. Could have easily spent another day there doing nothing.
SL is a very, very nice vacation destination. What jumped out in the 3 days were how well behaved the people in general were, how clean the streets were, and how everyone followed traffic rule, even inside a crowded city. I'm not kidding about this. Makes you wonder what the matter with Indians is. Really.
All in all, a memory (the fiasco with Sri Lankan Air notwithstanding!) that 6 of us, and hopefully even the 7th (in some shape or form) will have forever. Happy sixtieth birthday Mey!
Bentota
One the southern tip of the island is the seaside village/town of Bentota. What I will remember is the ocean, the vast sandy beaches in their pristine beauty, and the backwater lagoons. What N will remember is the ocean. And the swimming pool. Between which he alternated the entire time we were there. And refused to come back from. The rest of us soaked up the sun and surf too. I didn't want to come away from the ocean, where the water was just the right temperature, the waves were just the right size. There is something so therapeutic of being in the ocean. I knew I would not get to experience it in a while, so I wanted to make the most of the time there. Other than that, time was spent basically in lazing around, and enjoying the pretty delicious Sri Lankan cuisine, which is very similar to Manglorean food, and hence amazingly alluring.
memories to cherish:
~ N jumping into the pool about 200 (not kidding) times before 4 of us dragged him away for the night
~ N navigating the waves with Jajja and Bomma
~ G, R, P and I lying on the beach chairs at night, the full moon above us, singing the night away, with G on the guitar. It was truly so awesome!
Kandy
From the beach to the mountains, it was. Couple of hours drive through green Lanka, and we were in Elephant land! Stopped at a restaurant overlooking a river (literally on the banks) for lunch, and minutes into us landing there, came a horde - literally - of about 50 or so elephants to bathe in the river. It was a hot day, and the elephants just swarmed down into the water. After that, it was pure delight to watch their antics, especially the baby elephants. They were just too cute. Behaving like little rascals. I pointed that out to N. He pretended not to understand the reference. But open-mouthed he watched the elephants. After lunch, it was an elephant ride. N could not believe his luck. And neither could I - because there was nothing in between me and the elephant - no seat, no mat, no nothing. And it was, uh, painful. And I had to hold on to N who was sitting in front of me. This was no America - where we would get harnesses, safety instructions, cushions to buffer our backside from raw hide, etc, etc. This was the land of the Elephant, the ride of the free. It was our chance to touch base with the animal, to experience nature. Sure, but I could have done without the chaffing.
From there, it was onwards to the Tooth Temple ("Tooth" because it holds an actual tooth of the Buddha as a holy relic) . Beautiful, serene, ancient, spiritual. Buddhism is captivating on many levels. I wanted to soak up the history of the place some more. However, N was at his hyper best, and my attention was more focused on avoiding disaster at every step (like N rummaging through sacred temple artifacts when no one was looking, etc). Oh, and one of the rules of visiting the temple was that one's knees are covered, as a mark of respect. Couple of us were in shorts - unacceptable. So, our driver Areef lends us a lungi (for P), and R helpfully lends me a sarong. So we don those on top of our shorts. Made for a hilarious sight. T-shirts, sarong/lungi, sneakers. Caption: Lunginathan and Sarongeshwari (courtesy R!). Look for the picture on FB (right!)
After this, destination our resort at the top of the hills. Beautiful view of the city, lights on the hills. Next day, woke up early to be bathed in clouds. Slowly the mist lifted to reveal the gorgeous views of the place. Could have easily spent another day there doing nothing.
SL is a very, very nice vacation destination. What jumped out in the 3 days were how well behaved the people in general were, how clean the streets were, and how everyone followed traffic rule, even inside a crowded city. I'm not kidding about this. Makes you wonder what the matter with Indians is. Really.
All in all, a memory (the fiasco with Sri Lankan Air notwithstanding!) that 6 of us, and hopefully even the 7th (in some shape or form) will have forever. Happy sixtieth birthday Mey!
2 comments:
Correction - It's LunginaDhan :-P
Nice post G! And I had a great time with you too!
LOL..I stand corrected!
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