Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka was amazing! It was never a country we thought about visiting, but we're really glad we went!! From Kuwait it's an inexpensive flight and a great option for a week holiday. We stayed at Rita's hotel. 

Photo of the restaurant side.

One of the rooms

 


As you can see in the photos, it was more of a big guesthouse than hotel. The room we stayed in didn't have AC, but we didn't need it because we were in our bathing suits the whole time!

The beach in Hikkaduwa was beautiful! 

The sun was really intense so we had to be careful how long we stayed out. The water was refreshing and the surf was great for Michael! Most of the day was spent with friends at the hotel restaurant enjoying a cold Lion beer and eating! The food was delicious-vegetable noodles, fresh calamari, curry, chopsuey, avocado and tomato toast, freshly squeezed juice! And everything was so affordable!! The room was $25 a night, food was $4 for entrees and beers were $1. 

There were days when we actually got up from the table other than to lay out and swim! We went shopping around Hikkaduwa where I got a few dresses. It's amazing how clean the streets are. We even saw men cleaning up leaves after rain. 

We visited a sea turtle hatchery/rescue. They're having problems with people digging up sea turtle nests to sell the eggs for people to eat (men eat them for virility.)

We released a baby sea turtle!

Our flight was Tuesday night, so early Monday morning we left for Kandy which is 3 hours north in the mountains. We visited a tea factory, shops, herb and spice garden, pineapple plantation, and saw a Sri Lankan traditional dance performance. 

We also visited the Tooth Relic. This Buddhist temple is one that all Buddhists will visit at least once in their life. After Buddha died, his tooth was found on the pyre, someone tried to destroy it and couldn't (the miracle) and now it is in Sri Lanka in a gold shrine polished so bright that it's white our photos.

Easily my favorite part of the tour was riding an elephant! Puja is a 25 years young Asian elephant. Looks fun but it was really scary! At one point he reached up to get leaves off a branch, but the change in angle felt like he was about to sit! 

We stayed at a nice hotel that night (the same guesthouse feel). The hotel was not near a busy road and the windows had open screens above it, so we could hear all of the animals in the mountains. It was like someone was playing a "sounds of the rain forrest" CD.

The best part of the trip were the people who went! We're all teachers at ACA in Kuwait and all have a travelling heart. Even with our strict "No School Talk" policy, we enjoyed rich conversation,  lots of laughter, and singing and dancing every night! 

This was a quote on a wall in Rita's hotel: 

"A ship in its harbor is safe, but ships aren't meant for harbors."