We just got back from 12 days in Sri Lanka… and it was an amazing trip on multiple dimensions: a great service opportunity, a truly local experience staying with a very kind Sri Lankan family (riding everywhere in a tuk-tuk, all 6 of us), beautiful nature and resorts during the last part of the trip, and so many animals to see on safari!
Our main reason for the trip was to have an opportunity to do service as a family. We went through a US-based volunteer organization called IFRE to find an orphanage where we could volunteer all together. We went to the Ruhunu Orphanage in Galle.
We flew from Zurich to Colombo on Saturday, Dec. 21, stopping in Doha and arriving Sunday, Dec. 22nd (on the Dreamliner!). The first thing we noticed - it was hot! About 30 C. We were picked up at the airport and driven to Galle about 3 hours away (nothing is that many kilometres, but it takes a very long time given the traffic on relatively small roads). The driving is another story… We stayed at the home of Michael Ferreira and his family, just across the street from the ocean in Galle. Michael is the country coordinator for IFRE's volunteers, and he and his family were great! We ate all of our meals there, including a big feast on Christmas day. Michael's granddaughter was just younger than Meredith and they had a great time playing together. And Michael's son-in-law Indika drove us everywhere in his tuk-tuk - all 6 of us (so much for seatbelts and booster seats!)
We went to the orphanage on Monday morning, met some of the staff and toured the center. We gave all the kids a treat - in both the babies section and the preschool section (this orphanage is run by the Sri Lankan government and has about 50 children from age 0-6). We then continued to volunteer during the week, mainly playing with the children in the 3-6 preschool group. We helped them write/ draw, played with them, and gave them lots of hugs. We tidied up for the teacher between activities and played outside with the kids. We sat with then during reading time and learned some Sinhala (and helped out with some of the English words) and sang with them. We will never forget some of the songs they sang with a British CD - our favorite was one that had to do with eating a peanut, getting sick, having an operation, and thanking the doctor afterwards when everyone was happy again! "Cut it open, cut it open, cut it open, just now…" will always bring a smile to everyone in our family! We event to to help with the bathing of the kids at mid-day. It was a very cute and fun "assembly line" process where everyone's hair was shampooed and they had fun in the showers, then drying off and getting dressed. We found the orphanage, specifically the preschool age where we volunteered, to be a happy place. The teacher smiled and was patient, and the kids were generally happy. That was their family, and they knew each other well. The baby room was a bit sadder, as there were rows or cribs. But I suspect it's necessary to have that - and there aren't enough caregivers to hold every baby. It was a good experience for all of us, and something we won't soon forget (we weren't allowed to take many photos - especially of the children - but we have a few).
We brought some clothes, toys and music from home to donate to the orphanage, but we also asked them what they needed when we got there. Each of the kids had gotten $100 for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Francis, and they could each decide how much of that they wanted to spend on something for the orphanage. Elise gave $40, Nate gave $40, William gave $60 and Meredith gave all $100. The orphanage said they could use a TV for the baby room, so the babies had some stimulation when they were in their cribs. So we all went out in the tuk-tuk to find the best TV for the best price. We found one we liked (at the fifth or sixth store…we wanted to get as big as possible for the price) and took it the next day to the orphanage (it just fit in the back of the tuk-tuk!). We hired someone to install it our last day there, and Dave, Nathan and Michael helped to get it all set up!
One thing we heard a lot about while were were there was the Tsunami in 2004. It happened on Boxing Day, Dec. 26th, so it was the 9-year anniversary while were were there. We heard some amazing stories from people there about their experience that day. It was really a unique and special experience to stay with a local family and get a sense of the real way of life in Galle.
We did all kinds of amazing things in the afternoons after spending time at the orphanage, including spending time at the beach which was beautiful and natural, visiting a turtle farm and actually setting newly-hatched baby turtles free into the ocean, visiting Cinnamon Island to see an old cinnamon maker demonstrate how he grows cinnamon (Dave asked him how long he had lived there, and he simply said he didn't know - as long as he could remember). We also saw a Buddhist temple on another small island, visited a silk factory and a batik factory, and even saw the famous stick fishermen (and the boys tried it out). On Christmas Day we walked around the Dutch Fort in Galle, then had a barbecue on the beach with our host family and the other volunteers.
The following weekend we said goodbye to our host family and left Galle for Uda Walawe where we checked into a very nice hotel, the Grand Uda Walawe. We at a quick lunch, then went on a safari in Uda Walawe park where we saw lots of elephants up close! The next morning we went to the elephant orphanage where we saw the elephants being fed milk and toured a great museum with a film that described the many animals we had seen the day before, and more that we would see over the next few days.
Later that day we were driven to Yala, the most famous national park in Sri Lanka. We stayed at the Cinnamon Wild resort in Yala, which was incredible! This resort is a group of "jungle chalets" spread across to property, in the boundary area of the park. There is no fence between the official end of the park and the boundary area (the fence is on the outside of the boundary area to keep animals from going into the villages outside the boundary area). It was amazing! When we checked in we were given very strict instructions for safety, including not walking anywhere after dark (even calling the front desk so someone could escort us to the restaurant). The buildings were small with 2 chalets each, so we had our own little building with two chalets for our family. During the night there were monkeys jumping on the roof, and we saw all kinds of animals just outside the door.
The morning we were packing to check out, Meredith had the door to the kids room open and was on the porch. She came in and said a baby lizard wanted to come in. I looked outside, and it was a land monitor! Not exactly what I would call a baby, either! It was so much fun for all of us to see these animals.
Twice while walking to the restaurant we saw huge snakes just slithering by! And lots of wild boars walking through the pool area near the lake…and we learned about a cool plant called Mimosa that closes up when you touch it! It was all around our lodge.
In the center of the resort was a lake with several crocodiles and water buffalo. Dave, Nate and I had an interesting encounter with a water buffalo when we went on a nature hike with the naturalist one morning. We were walking around the resort and he was telling us about animals, birds and plants, when we heard a noise in the bushes beside the trail. A water buffalo walked out and he casually said we should just keep walking. Then another water buffalo (with horns) came out. We looked back at him and he scratched his feet as if he were a bull in a bullring! The naturalist made a noise, and the water buffalo relaxed. Dave was ready to run (which probably wasn't a bad idea!). Later the naturalist told us all you can really do is stay away from water buffalo…but they can run faster than you, so it's best to just keep your distance! The rest of the tour was also really interesting - we saw elephant tracks from the night before!
We went on two big safaris in Yala, one in the morning and one in the evening. We saw lots of different animals, but we didn't see the leopard (we saw fresh tracks, but no leopard!).
From Yala we went on a very windy long drive (3+ hours), stopping first at Buduruwagala which is a huge carving of Budha in a rock. Then we made it to our destination of Haputale in the mountains of Sri Lanka. The hotel, Melheim Resort, was amazing - with just 14 rooms, it was only 3 years old and it was really beautiful. We were there for just one night - New Year's Eve! The view from the hotel was incredible, and we had fun at the nice New Year's Gala with food and live music (a Sri Lankan band that sang American songs and local songs as well - we liked their performance of the local songs best!).
From Haputale we took the train to Kandy. I must say, the train was quite different from the train in Switzerland! It was old…from British colonial times. It was an experience…that lasted 6 hours! But we finally made it to Kandy where our driver met us (he drove while we took the train, and he made it there two hours sooner). We stayed at Earl's Regency on the hill above Kandy. It was a huge hotel with an amazing buffet.
The next morning we went to the Temple of the Tooth, the most famous Buddhist temple in the country, where it is said that Buddha's tooth is kept. We took of our shoes before entering, then followed in the line to get into the temple, then up the stairs to where the tooth is housed. It's behind some doors in a case and the doors are only opened once in a while. Our guide said we were luck since they were opening it that day…but I'm not sure we felt so lucky when it actually happened. We were jammed in with lots of people, totally sweating, waiting for a glance of the tooth. When the door finally opened, there was a mass of people pushing, and I was trying to make sure I didn't lose William! All the photos were blurry with all these people pushing, and we finally got our of the crowd. As Elise said, "That was an interesting cultural experience!" We then visited a gem center where we got a tour of a jewelry factory and learned how gems are mined and made into jewelry. The blue sapphire is the most famous (a Sri Lankan blue sapphire was used in Princess Diana's ring, which is now Princess Kate's).
It was a very full and fun trip - and we have lots of great memories from this amazing country and very kind people.
We did all kinds of amazing things in the afternoons after spending time at the orphanage, including spending time at the beach which was beautiful and natural, visiting a turtle farm and actually setting newly-hatched baby turtles free into the ocean, visiting Cinnamon Island to see an old cinnamon maker demonstrate how he grows cinnamon (Dave asked him how long he had lived there, and he simply said he didn't know - as long as he could remember). We also saw a Buddhist temple on another small island, visited a silk factory and a batik factory, and even saw the famous stick fishermen (and the boys tried it out). On Christmas Day we walked around the Dutch Fort in Galle, then had a barbecue on the beach with our host family and the other volunteers.
Later that day we were driven to Yala, the most famous national park in Sri Lanka. We stayed at the Cinnamon Wild resort in Yala, which was incredible! This resort is a group of "jungle chalets" spread across to property, in the boundary area of the park. There is no fence between the official end of the park and the boundary area (the fence is on the outside of the boundary area to keep animals from going into the villages outside the boundary area). It was amazing! When we checked in we were given very strict instructions for safety, including not walking anywhere after dark (even calling the front desk so someone could escort us to the restaurant). The buildings were small with 2 chalets each, so we had our own little building with two chalets for our family. During the night there were monkeys jumping on the roof, and we saw all kinds of animals just outside the door.
The morning we were packing to check out, Meredith had the door to the kids room open and was on the porch. She came in and said a baby lizard wanted to come in. I looked outside, and it was a land monitor! Not exactly what I would call a baby, either! It was so much fun for all of us to see these animals.
Twice while walking to the restaurant we saw huge snakes just slithering by! And lots of wild boars walking through the pool area near the lake…and we learned about a cool plant called Mimosa that closes up when you touch it! It was all around our lodge.
In the center of the resort was a lake with several crocodiles and water buffalo. Dave, Nate and I had an interesting encounter with a water buffalo when we went on a nature hike with the naturalist one morning. We were walking around the resort and he was telling us about animals, birds and plants, when we heard a noise in the bushes beside the trail. A water buffalo walked out and he casually said we should just keep walking. Then another water buffalo (with horns) came out. We looked back at him and he scratched his feet as if he were a bull in a bullring! The naturalist made a noise, and the water buffalo relaxed. Dave was ready to run (which probably wasn't a bad idea!). Later the naturalist told us all you can really do is stay away from water buffalo…but they can run faster than you, so it's best to just keep your distance! The rest of the tour was also really interesting - we saw elephant tracks from the night before!
We went on two big safaris in Yala, one in the morning and one in the evening. We saw lots of different animals, but we didn't see the leopard (we saw fresh tracks, but no leopard!).
From Yala we went on a very windy long drive (3+ hours), stopping first at Buduruwagala which is a huge carving of Budha in a rock. Then we made it to our destination of Haputale in the mountains of Sri Lanka. The hotel, Melheim Resort, was amazing - with just 14 rooms, it was only 3 years old and it was really beautiful. We were there for just one night - New Year's Eve! The view from the hotel was incredible, and we had fun at the nice New Year's Gala with food and live music (a Sri Lankan band that sang American songs and local songs as well - we liked their performance of the local songs best!).
On our way back to Colombo we stopped at the Pinnawella Elephant Orphanage which was a lot of fun. When we arrived the elephants were in the river and we got to have our pictures taken with them. We then ate lunch overlooking the river and the elephants! The culmination was when all the elephants paraded up the street, between the shops, back to their grazing area. They were right next to us (in fact William almost got in their way as he was walking from Elise and me to Dave, so our driver Brian had to grab him!).
It was a very full and fun trip - and we have lots of great memories from this amazing country and very kind people.
