End o'India- and Sri Lanka

It's so strange when people ask me what my favorite countries are. It seems that my final 3 (Sri Lanka, El Salvador, and Ethiopia),... don't involve lots of crazy activities or tons of chaos. The only things tying them together are good food, good sunsets, and wonderful people... plus they're all cheap cheap cheap!

I took leave of my last Swede (Emil! You're my last!) and headed to Trichy for my flight to Colombo, set to take off on the 24th. I spent one moderately restful night in some shabby motel while watching the Nancy Drew movie and tweezing my toes. The next morning, I rose early for my 9am flight and took a taxi to the airport, tipping the driver heavily and shouting "G'BYE INDIA!" before beelining for the air-conditioned building in a manner reminiscent of a marathon runner hitting the tape. (If you've ever been to India- I'm sure you can relate). Upon arrival, I proudly presented my passport to the security agent and told him I'd be on the Mihin Lanka flight to Colombo. He responded that there were no scheduled flights with Mihin Lanka that day, and kindly asked me to step aside for the next passenger.

In the complaint office, 25 minutes later, I found out that my flight, which I had only booked a week or so in advance, had been canceled, and people had been notified by phone. When I asked why no one sent an e-mail, I was met with blank stares. Seriously, you have time to call EVERYONE by phone,... but no time to send an e-mail blast? Anyway, I was told to come back tomorrow (as if being told that there would be "no flight today" was the same as "no chocolate milk today")... and I damn near swallowed it and walked outside to find a taxi when I met Danielle, a Minnesotan who was supposed to be on the same flight. This is us standing in front of the Ambassador which brought us to the Meridian Hotel, where we stayed our last night in India with room service and HBO. People from Minneapolis get their shit handled (and handle it for me in the process). Hooray!

Anyway, we arrived in Sri Lanka the next day and made our way to Hikkaduwa, a surf town on the South-Western shore with the best waves and best nightlife in all Sri Lanka. I spent about 2 days there... but with the bug bites I got in India all infected and oozing (I'm sure you want to hear all about it), I found that in lieu of ostrasizing myself from the obscenely beautiful surf community, it was altogether better to piss off into the hill country for a little R&R. On the way, I met Catherine, a nurse from England who wasn't disgusted by my horrible ankles, and together, we made our way to Ella.

I won't post too much about Ella except to say it was lovely and that I met some friendly Canadians that greatly enhanced my experiences there.

A few days in Ella, a day or so in Haputale, and then on to Kandy to meet Emil for some elephant riding, botanical garden strolling, and 8th wonder of the world viewing.... although from entirely different perspectives. Having paid outside my budget for the RIDE out to Sigiraya... I was shocked to find that the ENTRANCE to the site was 3x outside my budget entirely. Strange that 30 dollars at home can seem like so little, but on the road, it's a fortune! At first, I was pretty bummed, especially as no one else seemed to have the financial limitations that I have. Luckily, I ran into some locals on a moped, who told me about the photo at the top of the post. Best hike of Sri Lanka, and it was free! I was the only one up there, enjoying the view, the sunshine, and a bag of cheese bits all to myself. Lovely!

From Sigiraya, we headed straight to Hikkaduwa for the nightlife, surf, and snorkeling. The timing was perfect, as some day old turtles were just being released within a couple days of our arrival. Here's a flappy little bugger I got to play with a bit before seeing him off into the ocean to begin a life of seaweed eating, jet stream riding, and female turtle romancing. So cute!

Anyway, several things happened from then until today... but I'll keep it down to just two... #1) Emil stepped on a sea urchin within a minute of his first Sri Lankan swimming experience. Here is Sam from Montreal picking out the spikes with a swiss army knife and a safety pin from someone's birthday card. Emil's been quite the trooper, but it made for a funny trail of gauze while he swam today as we #2) snorkeled with some giant sea turtles. Below is a photo of me feeding one seaweed. It's so crazy- I suppose they come close to shore in order to grab the abundance of seaweed covering the rocks... but the act of swimming in the water with them, stroking their backs and even grabbing onto their shells and letting them drag you (albeit not very far-- I reckon I need to lose a couple pounds) was bizzarre and humbling. I'm so small and clumsy! This was definitely the height of my Hikkaduwan experiences!

Anyway, tomorrow I continue north for Adam's peak and the hill country (again) until the night of the 21st, when it's on to Thailand!