home again

We always go into our trips filled with excitement and hope. Often, the places we go are places we've dreamed about for one reason or another; with India, for example, we both had a deep love of Indian food, I'd longed to see it my whole life, and my favorite writers were Desi. I felt such a deep affinity for the place before we left, and could hardly have been more excited. That was the only trip we've taken where our expectations were smashed and we were so disappointed. All our other trips have at a minimum met our expectations, and some (like Vietnam and Bali) far far exceeded them.

I think Sri Lanka exceeded both our expectations. We went into the trip hoping we'd love it, of course, and we had some specific thoughts about what it would be like (primarily focused on the food, which we were somewhat familiar with after watching a lot of youtube videos and eating at the Sri Lankan restaurant in New York), but otherwise not a lot of specifics. We thought it would be similar to India (but better, we hoped).

Sri Lanka is its own thing, its own place, even though curry is a common food with India, and saris are frequently worn by women there, too. But the curries are more varied (and sometimes much spicier), and the saris have a little peplum of sorts. The wonderfully evocative head waggle is everywhere, and I never got tired of watching the full range of variations -- a single dip, a rapid waggle, a dip and waggle -- a kind of morse code, it seemed to me.

The trip was probably our best eating trip together, characterized by wonderful breakfasts (Marc will learn how to make egg hoppers for me, and that delicious onion sambol and the various chili condiments). Of all the egg hoppers we had, the very best was made by Ravi's mother at Pedlar 162, the guesthouse we stayed at in Galle:

DANG it, so so so so good. Onion chili sambol, and a perfectly cooked egg in a crisp little
hopper, topped with dal curry that was so warm with spices

We ate a lot of curry. A LOT of curry, including 17 at one meal, which topped the earlier record of 10 at one meal. The best curries we had were at a little shack-type place in the corner of the bus station parking lot in Tangalle. I'm still daydreaming about the okra curry we had there, at Prem. Surprisingly, we had very little kotthu roti, and it was much harder to find than we thought it would be!

We saw such beautiful scenery; Rekawa beach is the most wonderful beach either of us had ever seen, and Marc spent a lot of time there.


The wall of Galle Fort was a nice place to sit and watch Indian Ocean sunsets. The incredible tea hill estates up around Hatton were otherworldly in their rich green beauty. And then Kandy, which surprised me more than Marc because he'd been looking at pictures of it during his planning. And then the whale trip, and the elephant trip, both experiences I'll remember the rest of my life.

Some random impressions and notes I made throughout the trip:

• Sri Lanka is thronged with crows! They're the most common bird, thick flocks of them everywhere. Sometimes the sound of them in the trees was kind of eerie, there were so many. They weren't glossy black crows, they were kind of dull with a paler gray collar around their necks (and sometimes their necks were strangely scrawny), but they had that giant crow beak, that crow caw, the whole crow thing. I didn't know to expect that, but it was a distinctive thing about Sri Lanka.

• A common side-of-the-road food was roasted/steamed corn in the husk. Driving along the highway we'd see stand after stand of a smoking pot (or, on occasion, a kind of wheelbarrow) with corn on the cob for sale. One cab driver asked if we wanted to stop for some corn. It always looked and smelled very good.

• The randomness of signs in English kind of surprised us. We couldn't figure out why some things would be in English, in small towns where every other thing around it was not in English. "Artyfishell Flowers" made me laugh. "Cargill's Food City: On Your Way Home" made me curious.

• Bob Marley (and reggae stuff) and Che Guevara are ubiquitous. 

• Sayings printed on tuk-tuks were sometimes funny, like "Too much ego will kill your talent."

• There were scarecrows, or something, hanging from the fronts of buildings. I'd think it was a man hanging off the building's front, and it would startle me to death -- a grown man's pants and shirt, stuffed, with a cloth head attached at the top, just kind of affixed to the front of some buildings. It was invariably jarring, and I wonder what it was about.

• Although 70% of the country is Buddhist, 13% Hindu, and 10% Muslims, Christians were represented. There was even a Jehovah's Witness place we passed, and a giant Catholic church with a huge sign that read "Lazarus Come Forth!"

• As always, we ate a lot of very sweet little bananas. When we were on our way to Negombo, we passed a stand that prompted Marc to say the bananas were all the colors of M&Ms (in the pre-blue M&M years), and it was so true. Vivid reds, oranges, yellows, green, and browns. Love those sweet little bananas and wish we could get them here.

• In a place so dense and lush with the most gorgeous flowers, we'd occasionally see a little plant nursery -- never large, but with some hanging baskets and potted plants. It always struck us as funny. 

It was just a wonderful, close, loving trip, another in a long series of such trips, and we had such fun together. We'll remember Sri Lanka with happy tummies and warm memories, and I think we'd both be glad to return some day.

we loved the tea estates

Here's a link to the whole huge Flickr set, if you're interested (or really bored!).

the lying-around continues

These posts from Tangalle must become monotonous in the way other people's quiet pleasure seems. Delicious food, swimming, lying in the sun, reading, talking walks, repeat. Our hotel is about 12 bumpy kilometers from Tangalle so we go in once a day for this and that, but otherwise we are hanging around the hotel and relaxing. From our room, we see the big lagoon and so yesterday we decided to follow the hotel's map ("very easy!") and after two tries, we just couldn't find it. It's right there!! How can we miss it! And yet we did. Marc went out once, early in the morning, and came back feeling defeated, but together we couldn't find it either. Crazy. It's right there.

i love the delicate colors, in a country that's usually characterized by deep and rich colors

crabs crawling all over the rocks at the beach

the rock pool near our hotel, on the Indian Ocean. so beautiful.

this young monitor lizard lives in that shell by the hotel restaurant

really cute, for a monitor lizard!

this one crossed the road when we were wandering through the countryside.
a little less cute.

And so we swam, we lay in the sun, I read a lot, we snoozed, and in the late afternoon we tuk-tuked into Tangalle to go to the bank and do some errands. The driver took us here and there and waited as long as we wanted, but that always makes me feel anxious. I know he's just sitting there in the tuk-tuk, and it's kind of hot, and I'm aware that he's just sitting there in the tuk-tuk waiting for us. We went into the bank to change some dollars and the young woman who helped us was the most beautiful woman I can ever remember seeing. By far. I couldn't take my eyes off her beautiful face, and her eyelashes were thicker and longer than any eyelashes I've ever seen, even fake ones. Hers were real and unadorned and just beautiful. Her face lit up when we said we were going to Galle next, when she asked about our visit to Sri Lanka. She is from Galle, and she stays in Tangalle while she works because it's a 2-hour drive. I hated leaving the bank because I wanted to keep looking at her. There are uniformed men holding long rifles everywhere; the guy inside the bank lobby was old and toothless, but his rifle was very long and visible.

One thing we wanted to see in Tangalle was the harbor, but it turned out to be simply a working harbor, and since we were there in the mid-afternoon all the action was over for the day.

We decided to have dinner back at our hotel and I WISH the light had been better because we finally had kotthu roti and it was amazing. They crisp-fry curry leaves to sprinkle on top, and they're so light but crunchy and add a nice peppery bite to the kotthu roti. I'm going to miss Sri Lankan food very much, and will probably want it every time I return to New York. Marc will probably learn to make it for me, too.

Today's mission is to find that damn lagoon -- we'll use the hotel bikes this time for a change of pace. We'll swim and lie in the sun. I'll keep reading (books 7 and 8 now, boy will I have a lot of book review writing to do when I'm home!). We'll tuk-tuk into town this evening to eat Indian food at this little place in the bus station, one of the top two restaurants in Tangalle. Another beautiful day in this paradise, surrounded by physical beauty and people beauty and sun and happiness.

Happy day after Thanksgiving, everyone. So much to be thankful for!

food, horses, and tuktuks

We hung around the pool yesterday afternoon, just hanging out with our friend Ginger. I've never seen such a strange horse; she stood next to Marc and me as we sat in the lounge chairs, and when we went to the pool, she just kept standing there, as if she were waiting for us. She put her cheek next to Marc's and just kept it there, and then she rested it on top of his head for a long time. I was in the chair reading while Marc kept swimming, and she stood behind my chair and started bopping her head to the left of my head, over the top to the right, over the top to the left, over the top to the right, over and over and over in a rhythm. She'd whack me on top of my head with her bony jaw and she just wouldn't stop. Occasionally she'd rest on top of my head. She just wouldn't leave us, and finally one of the staff lured her away with a piece of bread. It was so funny.

We hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us into Tangalle for dinner, at the Cactus Lounge. It's not much more than a little shack on the beach with tables stuck in the sand, but it's the best restaurant in Tangalle and we were excited to eat there. The owner asked us how we'd heard of his place -- TripAdvisor, he asked? We asked about lobster and he said we had to order that a day in advance so he has it fresh. He said, "If you like my food, maybe you will come back," and I loved him for that. His food, not the food. I ordered grilled prawns and Marc got mixed grill, with a fish steak, baby octopus, calamari, and prawns. The meal came with a plate of baby shoestring fried potatoes, the best EVER, and a salad of cabbage, carrots, onions, and tomatoes. It was an amazing meal, all the way around.

you can't imagine how great these were

tuk-tuking it into town

always a close call with traffic!

considering the menu at Cactus Lounge -- a lovely view!

lots of delicious food for us

perfect crunchy salad, and so fresh

The road from our hotel into Tangalle is paved in short spurts, with much longer sections of dirt road pocked with holes and giant ruts, so it was a little rough in spots and slow going. Our tuk-tuk driver was a handsome young man who took the rough patches with great care and slow speed; he was constantly passed by other tuk-tuk drivers who weren't apparently worried about the road. Marc and I figured that since one of the very few complaints about our hotel is the rough road into Tangalle, the hotel owners caution the tuk-tuk drivers to take the trip slowly -- and those other speedier tuk-tuk drivers aren't carrying guests of our hotel. It was fun going so slowly, getting to watch the life going on as we passed by. Small markets with young people standing around, people walking somewhere in the dark, other people walking from Tangalle into the countryside carrying bags of chips and other food.

My already-limited affection for the peacocks is wearing thin after a night of listening to it shriek and scream. Bastard peacock. :)

noisy thing, shrieking like a woman being murdered

We were up by 6:15 this morning and since we'd ordered breakfast at 7:30, we decided to take a walk to the beach. It's quite a stunning beach, and so empty of people, always.

Marc's, mine, and a dog's footprints in the sand

someone built this little fort

Marc on the morning beach

rock outcroppings

the rock pool, with striated rocks, and crawling with crabs

For breakfast this morning, instead of ordering the traditional Sri Lankan feast we tried another specialty: chili eggs with bacon curry. It was delicious -- the egg slightly runny, on top of a thick piece of toast, with chilis poached into the egg. The bacon curry was interesting, not quite what we thought (though I don't think we had a very clear idea of what to expect). It wasn't fried, exactly; it was just like bacon with curry sauce on it. It was good, but we decided we'd go back to the traditional Sri Lankan feast breakfast tomorrow.

chili eggs with bacon curry and coconut sambol

The young men who work here are soft-spoken and sweet. This morning our waiter asked if we were from London. Usually, when we travel and people ask where we're from, all we need to say is New York City and they know that place. Here, though, they look at us with deep confusion, it doesn't register. Saying United States doesn't always register either; we have to say America. It's always funny trying to figure out how to answer the question, but this is the first time New York City hasn't meant a damn thing. Our waiter is from "up country," he said, and he asked if we'd been there -- he said he missed it. We told him where we were going and he seemed to understand us but I'm not actually sure he did.

There is something very subtle my pronunciation must miss. Most of the time, for instance, if I say kotthu roti people will eventually guess what I mean. They'll say it back to me and it sounds to me like we're saying the same thing but we clearly aren't. Sometimes I'll say it and the person just looks at me blankly. My Texan mouth must be unable to make (and my ear to hear) the different diphthongs required to pronounce the words so they are intelligible.

Our plan for the day is to take a tuk-tuk into town and do some poking around, a little shopping, some planning, and then have dinner. In the afternoon we'll swim, I'm sure. The weather has been outstanding, although it bears no relationship to the weather reports we see online. In fact, it's the opposite. The skies have been blue, with a few white clouds the last few days and online it'll say cloudy and overcast with rain. Today it says few clouds, but instead the skies are dark and heavy, no blue to be seen. So we'll see.

A few years ago we spent Thanksgiving Day at Angkor Wat, and it was the most unusual Thanksgiving I'd ever spent at that point. But returning home in early December, after missing Thanksgiving at home, left me caught off guard by the holidays -- they seemed to just whoosh by before I realized what was going on. I wonder if it'll be the same this year, since once again we're missing Thanksgiving at home; it seems to mark the beginning of the holiday season in a way I didn't realize. But it's ok. Thanksgiving in Sri Lanka is pretty wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my friends at home in America, and love to all of you.

oh my heavens, the food

Our excited anticipation of Sri Lanka was focused on the extraordinary beauty of the place and the food. OK, quite heavily on the food. We love love love spicy food, it's never spicy enough, and we knew the food here would be spicy. And also spiced, delicately and subtly. Cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, turmeric, this IS a spice island, you know. In my last post I wrote about our dinner last night, but I forgot to talk about the music. The restaurant is small, open air, with fish ponds around the perimeter. We ate by dim candlelight and listened to lots of Ray Charles. Old Ray Charles too, songs like I Got a Woman. Then a bit of softer jazz, then back to Ray Charles. And the trees were full of frogs singing, and birds making all kinds of sounds, and strange insects -- a whole symphony of jungle sounds. Somehow it was perfect and wonderful.

This hotel is amazing; we'd read about how perfect it is, how the staff anticipate your needs but do so in the most unobtrusive way. When we were walking back to our little bungalow in the dark, after dinner last night, I saw a young man in the near distance with a pale flashlight. As we approached he started walking in the direction we were going and it took a few seconds to realize that he was there to light the way for us. He stopped just past our walkway and turned to shine the light up toward our door, and then stepped away when we had unlocked the door. It's a beautiful place, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's beautiful, absolutely, and peaceful, and everyone who works here is so friendly but not in your face, at all.

Unfortunately, the medication I'm taking for this severe itching from the bug bites gave me a second migraine in the middle of the night, so I lay awake for a long time listening to the wildlife outside, including the peacocks doing their screaming-woman sounds, and the roosters doing their thing.

This morning we were looking forward to our big traditional Sri Lankan breakfast at 8am. We were up earlier so we walked around a bit. In addition to the other wildlife here, there is a gentle little horse living on the property named Ginger. Ginger thinks she's a dog, I think. She acts like a pet -- she'll fall into step behind, walk up for a pet, she hangs out by people. She apparently has a little pet of her own, a white bird that walks next to her.

funny tree on the way to the beach

Marc and Ginger

Ginger and her little pet

these kerosene pots hang on every tree; they are flaming torches at night

morning beach

morning beach

interesting plant with leaves like coins

We walked over to the restaurant for breakfast after a little walk around the grounds. I was looking forward to the coffee, which helps this headache, but also the food. In Colombo we had string hoppers, but it's the egg hoppers I've been most looking forward to. We'd ordered the Sri Lankan breakfast -- you have to order it a day in advance, it's a big deal -- and we didn't know what to expect beyond egg hoppers, which would've been plenty. Instead, it was a GIANT feast. A plate piled with string hoppers, and a table filled with bowls of fish curry, dal curry, potato curry, a pea and coconut mix, coconut sambol, a plate of four egg hoppers with the spicy pepper condiment, fresh juice (watermelon for me, mixed for Marc), and a huge pot of thick, dark French press coffee. Playing in the restaurant: ABBY ROAD of all things, the whole album. It was surreal and fantastic and wonderful and incredible and there was much happiness and moaning around the table.

OK, who could even eat ALL THIS? And the egg hoppers hadn't even arrived.

curries on top of string hoppers, coconut sambol atop the whole shebang

thick, fresh juices

how can I ever have breakfast without egg hoppers, ever ever again?

I'm in the room for a while babying my aching head; Marc just came back from the rock pool and said it's the most perfect beach he's ever been on -- one after another peak experience moments. It's so wonderful seeing him be so happy and relaxed. Gosh we are happy. Things are good back at home, things are well with friends and family, and except for my migraines and itching, things are well with me. So very much to be thankful for.

Colombo to Tangalle

Our last day in Colombo was spent in search of. In search of the markets, in search of some medication for me, and an increasingly desperate search for kotthu roti. Wherever we go, one of Marc's and my favorite things to do is prowl through the markets. In Colombo, the markets are in the neighborhood called Pettah. One of the distinctive things about the market in Pettah is that most of the sellers in the stalls had microphones and seemed to doing an auctioneer's patter. It was very loud and chaotic, since the place was crowded with people and trucks and buses and tuk-tuks already.

just another day at the market

standing on the bridge over the busy street looking down at the market stalls

the same, on the other side of the road

one of the many microphone yelling guys -- that's him in the blue shirt crouched on top of stuff

tuk-tuks are our favorite way to get around on vacation.

a busy street in Pettah

tuk-tuks everywhere.

traffic cops wear GIANT gloves with red markings, the better to see them

the Sri Lanka Railway station

he bore a very heavy load

and so did he, on a very busy street packed with buses and trucks

When we went to Java earlier this year, I got these enormous bright red bites on my stomach and legs -- very itchy. Got them here too, and they were even itchier. It was hot and sticky and that made me itch even more, so after the chaos and noise of the market, I hung out in our room and read while Marc made a number of missions out to find some medication for me. I wish I could be a little butterfly floating above, watching him on these trips; he talks to everyone, asks for help, has all these interactions trying to get what he needs. While he was out, he found a place that had kotthu roti -- which was much more elusive than we ever dreamed it would be. We thought you could hardly turn a corner without running into a stall selling the stuff, but we could never find it. When it was time for dinner, we tried to find a few different places we'd been told about, read in the guidebooks, whatever (couldn't re-find the place Marc saw earlier, either), but we could not find any of them. It was very frustrating; it's one of the main things we were looking forward to. We finally stumbled into a little shop that was pretty seedy and filthy. Dark. One strange guy kept staring at me the whole time and made me feel very uncomfortable. They made egg hoppers and we were told they sold kotthu roti, but we aren't sure. It certainly wasn't what he were expecting; it was heavy and greasy and really kind of gross. Didn't even take a picture of it. We were so disappointed.

we shoulda had the egg hoppers

This morning we had our breakfast and checked out because the taxi was supposed to pick us up at 8am for the 4-hour drive to Tangalle. He finally arrived at 8:40 and told us it was a 5-hour drive, but we'd heard so many varied estimates of how long it should take so we weren't surprised. It was only $85 for such a long trip, and the car was a very comfortable Prius. The first part of the trip was on an expressway, straight and quick, about 75% of the way in terms of miles. But that last 25% was NOT on an expressway, and it was on a very windy road that hugged the Indian Ocean and wound through one small village and town after another. That last 25% of the trip took more than half the time. The driver kept the air conditioning on very low, and I was sitting in the back seat with Marc. So I was hot, the roads were winding, our progress was stop and start, swerving and honking....and I got severely car sick. I was already feeling bad from the medication I was taking for the severe itching, and it started my day with a migraine, so I was not having my best day. At all. I was leaning back with my eyes closed, trying to be still and quiet and not throw up, when Marc grabbed my knee as the car pulled over. Monitor lizards crossing the road. And turns out they just look like really giant creepy lizards, but kinda cool too:

no frame of reference, I know -- trust me, it was really big.

When a monitor lizard crosses the road, you let it. There were two or three crossing together, and by the time I got my camera and tried to capture them, I could only get this guy.

The place we're staying in Tangalle is absolutely wonderful, and extremely remote. We got to Tangalle and went through town, then turned off and wound our way down tiny little roads, turned again onto an even tinier road, passed emerald green fields with water buffalo and snowy white egrets, then turned onto an even tinier road. Then there we were. We were met with strings of frangipani placed around our necks, cold wet cloths for our hands, and we were escorted to our little bungalow:

our room -- yeah, I don't know how to pronounce it either. "Five" works for me.

SO happy to be here.

the bathroom is bigger than our NYC apartment. This half has the tub.

me on the deck with a view of the lagoon

that's our place. #5.

a smallish pool, because the beach is just right over there. still, the pool is nice.

oh, there's the other half of the giant bathroom. it's really giant, did i say that already?

After a huge ordeal, I got the situation worked out with idiotic Blogger so I could get caught up here, and then we took a little walk over to the beautiful beach. It's empty and so lovely.

we passed a huge field full of these guys as we walked to the beach. 

it's gorgeous. That's the rock pool in the distance, where we'll swim. The current is too strong otherwise.

a shot in the other direction. beach love.

no idea, but i liked the way it looked.

cuttlefish bones EVERYWHERE.

We ate a gorgeous meal, Sri Lankan specialties -- folded inside an enormous square banana leaf package was steamed rice, a piece of fish, some prawns, a vegetable cutlet, and a variety of spiced treats to stir in. There was a bowl of boiled egg curry to spoon over the rice and it was just exquisite. Very subtle and heavily spiced with cardamom and cloves and curry leaves and just layers and layers of delicate flavor. I loved it. We unfortunately ordered desserts, which were disappointing, but it's OK. That curry and fish and rice were so good it's easy to just let it have the last word.

And now we sleep. It's 9:15pm here and tomorrow we're going to explore Tangalle and line up some snorkeling. Do some beach walking. Swimming. Relaxing. Reading for me (I've finished 4 books already, starting on the 5th and 6th) and some beach meditation for Marc. Good food, no doubt. Maybe even some kotthu roti, we'll see about that.

Loving Sri Lanka so far. So glad to be here. xo