really gorgeous and also really weird

After a breakfast of the very best egg hoppers ever, we hit the road for Hatton, up in the center of the country in the tea hills. I didn't think the trip could be as carsick-inducing as the trip along the southern coast. Boy was I wrong. After we left the expressway to Colombo, it was nothing but short and tight little hairpin curves the rest of the way -- a couple of hours. But also now going up as well as fast and slow. Very carsick, no fun. Being a driver here takes nerves of steel (well, being a passenger here takes nerves of steel too) because the roads are not very wide and there are big trucks and huge buses and tuk-tuks and cars and people on bicycles and people on foot. On hairpin curves. So the car gets behind a tuk-tuk and decides to pass . . . CAN'T SEE!! CAN'T SEE!! . . . but we pass anyway. And oncoming is a bus or a truck, or a couple of tuk-tuks, but do we stop? No. We do not. We keep going, they keep coming, and at the last minute we jerk back into our lane right in front of the vehicle we were passing, and the walkers barely look up and the bicyclists just keep cycling. We often do a three-across and sometimes a four-across, taking up the shoulders on both sides. Nerves of steel, a gut of steel, and me in the backseat, carsick. It was a very long trip.

As always, the driver calls our hotel to get directions, only today our very good driver just stopped on the busy road and parked to make the call. I kept thinking oncoming traffic! Traffic behind, they won't see us until they hit us! and yet no one hit us, and we rounded the roundabout and turned onto what was surely the wrong road. Right? Surely this isn't right, it's a broken down alley, behind some industrial building. Wait, call again -- no, ask those people walking. We turned down another broken road and that was it. Our guesthouse. It didn't look like a place people would stay, it was very bizarre. Sanjay was waiting for us and escorted us upstairs to the big living area, where he handed me a big cellophane-wrapped bouquet of flowers, the kind you get at any western grocery store (what am I supposed to do with them?! I don't have a vase....). We got our welcome drink, watermelon juice, and hot towels for our hands and faces, followed by a tour of the guesthouse. The three bedrooms upstairs are saved for Emirates (people from the UAE), and the lone bedroom downstairs was for us. The whole place just has an empty feeling but also a very strange, where the hell are we kind of feeling, too. There are orange and black bad paintings of stylized African women on the walls, odd chandelier-type light fixtures, and uncomfortable out-of-place furniture throughout. But Sanjay is very nice, very very nice, eager to help us whether we like it or not. We wanted to walk into town and that made him a nervous wreck. He wanted to send someone with us, and Marc had to press hard, push back, and insist that we were going to walk into town by ourselves. We were locked in and he had to let us out; as we were leaving, Sanjay said something about coming to town and we couldn't quite make sense of it. As we got into town, Marc said he had a feeling Sanjay was going to be there to stalk us -- and sure enough, there he was. He had a van and a driver and he came running across the street to hurry us into the van so the driver could drive us around.

I finally just whispered to Marc that we had to surrender, we had to just let Sanjay have his way. And the driver was a nice guy, very friendly and with good English. He drove us to the main section of Hatton and let us just walk around as long as we wanted. That was fun -- we felt more unusual there than anywhere else, people were staring at us more than in the other places we've been. We didn't see any other tourists of any kind as we walked around, and it was very interesting.

Chivas chicken, surely not with whiskey

funky bus coming through town

so colorful

fast food, Sri Lankan style

selling lots of leaves and stuff

Marc in Hatton

New Vegetable Center and
Adworld Video Vision??

oh yeah! Christmas trees everywhere. Which is pretty weird for a predominately
Buddhist country. There are Muslims and Hindus too, but that's mostly it.

Our driver then took us through the tea hills -- giant incredibly beautiful tea estates -- to show us a well-known waterfall. The pictures just do not do the place justice, and I knew they wouldn't when we were taking them. We stopped and plucked a leaf off a tea bush and they're thick and tough, like any leaf on a bush. They reminded me of grape vines in some way, tough old long-established plants. The driver said that they'd been farming those tea plants for more than 100 years; every few years they prune the plants down to nubs and in a year to 18 months they're back at full bloom. Women do the picking, and men do the heavier work -- pruning and fertilizing. The hills are terraced with beautiful rows of emerald green plants, and the whole area is just stunning -- high peaks with clouds on top, deep valleys, waterfalls popping up everywhere, rivers running down in the bottom of the valleys, just absolutely beautiful. Some huge trees had brilliant red-orange flowers on the ends of the branches, amazing color. There were trees that looked like Dr. Seuss trees, with little bloops up the whole long trunk. But mainly it was just green and lush and amazing.

gorgeous

unbelievably green

right before we walked down to see the waterfall
(and then we had to walk back up, of course)

such a beautiful world

tea

a valley

just one of the waterfalls

It was unbelievably beautiful. When we were down in one of the valleys we noticed that it had started misting; our driver said that every afternoon the clouds on top of the mountains come down into the valley for the evening -- in the morning we won't even be able to see the valley until the sun gets up and the mists start climbing back to the top of the mountain. Really gorgeous.

We stopped at a tea castle to buy some tea and toured the little tea museum. IT WAS STRANGE. All the lights were off, we thought maybe the place was closed, but it was just empty and so they kept the lights off. There was the manager and three or four women employees, and they turned on the lights and walked us around. When we left, I assume they turned the lights off until another potential customer came by.

Back at our very strange hotel, we got ready for dinner. Sanjay had asked us what we wanted and we'd said chicken and wild boar (local specialties). We are the only guests in the place, and when it was time to eat we left our room with some trepidation. We walked up the stairs into the dining room - one huge, long table, formally set - and took our seats. Sanjay and the two old men who cooked the dinner brought it out: stewed boar (in little chunks), chicken curry, dahl, some kind of potato, chapatis, and puri. The food was just amazing, and we were so glad because the experience of eating it was so strange and bizarre. Whenever we were alone, Marc and I looked at each other with wide eyes, whispered isn't this weird??, and tried to eat. Sanjay would come and hover, and boss the old men around. When a dish was getting empty -- just a third left -- they'd whisk it away on a little tray with a doily and eventually bring it back full again. Usually, if we'd just been allowed to finish what was in the dish that's all we'd have wanted. Once they took the food away and didn't bring it back, and we wanted it. The hovering was so weird, and in the big empty place, with the strange art and the weird decor, Marc kept saying he was having a hard time understanding the food because none of the rest of the experience was Sri Lankan, at all. One or the other of the old men would be lurking in a corner, watching us. It was peculiar and weird. After breakfast in the morning and one last renegade walk, we're heading on to Kandy.

See what I mean? Really gorgeous and really weird.

it felt sacred to me

A few years ago, someone spotted a whale off the coast of southern Sri Lanka, and people held their breath. Yes, more whales, lots of whales. Sperm whales, blue whales, right whales. And so a tourist industry was born to go alongside the surfing and general beach vacation opportunities here. When I learned about this, I got almost sick and dizzy, I so wanted to go. I so wanted to see whales, living whales. I've seen sperm whale skeletons several weeks ago at the Museum of Natural History in New York (and I wrote about it here); I've watched documentaries and television shows about whales; of course I've read Moby Dick a few times, and remain so thoroughly moved by that book as only a bookish person can be. I've wondered what is it about whales? What is it? Their size. Their intelligence. Their singing. Their mystery. Their elusiveness -- you can't see a blue whale at Sea World. And they're mammals, like us.

And so last night we arranged for a tuk-tuk driver to pick us up at 6am and drive us to nearby Mirissa, where the whale boats depart. I didn't sleep last night, couldn't sleep, hoping I would get to see a whale. Hoping and dreaming and trying to be still even though I felt so carbonated about it all. We got on board and pulled away from the harbor around 7am and my cheeks ached from grinning.

the harbor

you have NO IDEA how excited I was

Marc, happy to go with me

and off we went, out to the deep sea

Pretty quickly we came upon a sea turtle plugging away, heading for shore. Even though it was surprisingly large, and even though I tried to get several shots of it, I wasn't successful -- the waves seemed to block it just as I'd snap the picture. Then we crossed paths with a pod of dolphins:

I had to keep reminding myself not to be jaded -- "JUST" dolphins -- how ridiculous of me!
I was on a boat in the Indian Ocean and I saw dolphins leaping past me, and that's amazing.

Of course there's no guarantee that we'd see whales, and after we passed the dolphins we went for quite a long time seeing nothing but the horizon and the other whale boats full of people hoping for a sighting. Marc and I thought that surely we'd have seen one by that point, maybe we wouldn't get to see one, and then the eagle-eyed crew got excited and started pointing:

they were really good -- the captain would say to me, "he's getting ready to come now," and I'd look
where he was pointing and see nothing. and then there he would be.

right whales -- we didn't see any breach or tail-slap, unfortunately

all the boats cut their engines and we sat there in silence, watching. there were whales underneath.
it felt like church to me, all of us gathered in silence, waiting.

there's another one. we saw several, including a mother and baby.

By the time we'd been out for 3 hours, more or less, we'd seen only right whales -- no blues, no sperm whales. But suddenly the captain cut the engine and we all sat, floating in silence. He told me there was a sperm whale in the area, it dove down about 40 minutes earlier so it should be up again in five minutes or so. A sperm whale -- Moby Dick -- I got so excited I felt like throwing up. We waited and the crew watched, both sides, straight ahead, watching and watching. Suddenly one of them pointed at the horizon straight ahead -- there it was! We could see the spout, and it was so far ahead of us, on the horizon, so I can only imagine how enormous that spout must have been. He turned on our engines and we went in pursuit, but the whale stayed that far ahead of us, blowing his spout over and over. One of the crew said, "He's running!" Finally he went tails-up, we could even see that from so far away -- he must have been tremendous -- and when he dove down, our trip was done. I didn't even try to take pictures, I just wanted to watch it with my own real-time eyes. A sperm whale.

everyone crashed after the intense hours watching for whales. it made me laugh.

When we were near the harbor, we came upon a little fishing boat with a great big catch -- no idea what kind of fish it was, but check this out:

a good day of fishing, for sure!

I am so happy, and feel immense gratitude for having the chance to be on this trip, for having the opportunity to go out on a boat looking for whales, and for having the experience of being as close to them as I was today. Marc and I plan to go to Alaska in the near future, where the chances of seeing whales breaching and tail-slapping is even greater. Lucky mud, lucky me.

so here's our Sri Lanka story

This afternoon we went to the wall overlooking the sea to sit for a while and enjoy the view. It was breezy and a beautiful time of day; the heat had passed and the place wasn't crowded yet. I had a cappuccino to try to kick the tail end of a headache. We were just talking and watching the clouds when suddenly there was a small crowd of people standing over us, surrounding us -- a family:

that's the dad in the middle, and the mom in the red and yellow

 We were sitting and looking up at them, and the dad asked where we are from then told us he and his family are from here, from Galle. He told us a little bit of the history with the Dutch, and asked where else we were going. When we mentioned Kandy, he said ah, the terrorism, it's safe to go there now. We are Muslims. We talked a little more, and then they stepped away slightly....and then the young girl in green ran back to me and asked to see my black ring. Then she asked if she could have it -- and immediately I knew that of course she could have it. She giggled and ran away, and the whole family was laughing. She asked if she could really have it, and then we all took pictures together.

the girl in green is now the owner of my black ring. the little girl on the far left held my hand the whole time.

It was the strangest thing, so funny and surprising. There were all kinds of photo groupings, and they were taking pictures of us too. We're not exactly sure what was going on, I don't think it was as simple as this story I'm telling but I don't know exactly how to fully understand it. But I'm glad for that young girl to have my black ring, and I'm glad for her to have a story to tell, too.

food glorious food, spicy mangoes and veggies

This morning we did what we most love to do when we travel: we found our way to the markets. People usually ask me what kinds of things we do -- do we visit museums, for instance -- but this is what we do. We check out the markets and we try to eat all the local food we can find.

one of Marc's art shots -- eggplants and a beautiful wedge of pumpkin

banana market

Buddha watches over all

fish market stall

smaller fish market stall, right on the water

A big street along the water front. It feels like this to be in Galle.

vegetables

more vegetables

the pineapple lady

punkins

mango slices, salted and sprinkled with chili -- SO good!

spice shack -- lots of turmeric there in front

or just buy spices already ground

a tailor's shop -- I just loved the turquoise color and the falling-apartness of it

tuk-tuk and an ox cart

It's hot and steamy here this morning, so we're walking and resting, walking and stopping, eating and resting, repeat. We went to a tiny little cafe along the rampart in Galle Fort for lunch today and shared a wonderful kotthu roti with chicken and egg and veg:

this is so so good. I can't wait for Marc to learn how to make it for me.

Galle is a really great city; I can understand how the place works, I have a sense of what it is to live here. Galle Fort is a good bit touristy, like a smaller and quieter French Quarter, somehow, though not nearly as trashy. There are a lot of museums here if that's your thing!

they only have indoor voices

One thing we have noticed, everywhere we've gone in Sri Lanka so far, is that the people are extraordinarily soft-spoken. Their quiet voices go along with their drawn-inward presences; the people we have met have been uniformly warm and friendly, smiling and connecting, it's just that there is something self-contained about them in the loveliest way. Perhaps it's because they are Buddhists, I have no idea. But it's a pleasure to need to lean in a little bit to interact with them, a pleasure to listen for their words.

We arrived in Galle yesterday afternoon after another long, winding trip along the coast. The road is a series of S and C curves, tight ones, and a lot of stopping and starting, slowing and passing. It's been a great many years since I've been carsick, but that trip did it to me in both directions. It is a beautiful drive otherwise, through a series of small villages and urban cities, like Matara. As you drive along the ocean, it's quite common to see this:

it's an ingenious way to fish in the surf -- stilts as far as you can see
in both directions (this one isn't my picture -- we were driving too fast!)

Galle is quite a beautiful city, and one in which the Dutch colonial period is visible everywhere. The fort was built by the Dutch, beginning in 1663, and it occupies most of the promontory that forms the older part of Galle. The fort a World Heritage Site and it's really quite beautiful and lived in and on. After we checked into our room -- SO different from our hotel in Tangalle, this is just a room in a guesthouse -- we headed to the wall to watch the sunset, and to watch the people.

While we did see some western tourists, the place seemed full of people who live here, playing cricket and walking along the wall to do what we were doing, to enjoy the sunset. As we sat on the wall, several pairs of young people sat down next to us, and they seemed to be enjoying being there together. The young man and woman right next to me kept taking photos of each other, and then they'd each form half a heart with their hands and put them together, and take a photo of the sunset through the heart of their hands. They were just so beautiful, so sweet with each other. There were women wearing gorgeous and bright colored saris, a group of elderly women walking together, families out for the late afternoon, and what was notable to us was that the tourists were unfriendly, unsmiling, but the Sri Lankan people smiled at us. Really strange.

But the setting was so beautiful.

the sound of the cricket bat is so specific

part of the wall

a crumbling old building

the white Galle lighthouse

sunset, so beautiful

sunset, so very beautiful

gorgeously colored tuk-tuks

incredibly beautiful, this place

an orange-robed Buddhist monk at the temple

After the sun set, we found a little restaurant we'd read about, Lucky Fort, and enjoyed the next in a string of wonderful Sri Lankan dinners, this one with TEN curries:  pineapple, dhal, eggplant, jackfruit, sweet potato, pumpkin, kankun leaves, green bean, radish, fried fish, and of course papadam. The restaurant was a few little tables in front of someone's home, and the mother made the food while her son served it. When we told him to tell his mother how much we enjoyed her food, he lit up and ran into the house to bring her to us. It was quite adorable.

Today we'll poke around Galle, wind our way through the streets, see what there is to see, and have a low-key day here. Tomorrow we're taking a tuk-tuk back along the winding road to nearby Mirissa, where we'll go out on a boat to see blue whales and sperm whales....if we're lucky. I think if I were to see either or both, I might just die of happiness right on the spot. Fingers crossed.