Thursday in Sri Lanka

I found the monkeys! There were at least a dozen monkeys swinging around the trees outside the hotel! Many were the mamas with their babies. They eyed me a bit suspiciously, but kept their distance. AND, I saw my elephant! As we were traveling inland to Colombo, we saw a man walking down the road with his elephant! Exciting!
Today was a travel day to return to Colombo. It took almost six hours. We entered the city just as the schools were letting out for the day and the traffic was unbelievable. I haven’t seen anything like it. Northern Virginians would definitely go crazy with road rage!! But people here seem fine. There is definitely a rhythm and reason to the horn honking. It is not a gesture of anger, as it seems to be in the USA. Instead it is a way of warning, thanking and informing other drivers. It’s interesting, but at times unnerving to ride in the cars! Most of the roads are narrow with just one lane on each side. Passing is interesting for sure. Many people travel in tuk tuks, which are small three-wheeled vehicles. Almost like a motorbike with a row of seating behind the driver. They are covered. Because it was a former British colony, they drive on the "wrong side" (left side) of the road similar to the English. That always takes a bit getting used to! Especially when the driver is going around a circle or entering into hotels! I haven’t seen many women driving at all – in fact the entire time we’ve been here I can remember seeing one woman and that was today in Colombo!
Military presence is very evident throughout the country. We passed what appeared to be a military base, but was in actuality a water filtration plant. There have been threats made by the Tamil Tigers to poison the water. There are police/military stops throughout the country. Interesting is that they are all sponsored by Union Assurance. I guess there are advertising opportunities everywhere!
We met with our staff in Colombo for a bit and enjoyed a tea party. Seems they serve tea every day mid-morning and mid-afternoon. We even stopped for a tea break midway in our travels back to Colombo. But you don’t just drink tea. You enjoy a variety of cakes, etc. as well. We passed many tea plantations on our way to Colombo. Tea was first introduces in 1867 by a Scotsman, James Taylor. The first tea field was planted near Kandy, in the middle of the country. Railways were also built to connect tee coast with the tea fields. The British came to Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was known for a long time, in the late 1700’s and finally granted the country its independence in 1948. The country recently celebrated its independence day and many cars still boast the Sri Lanka flag on the front. The country adopted the name Sri Lanka in 1972.
I have returned to Galle Face hotel until I leave early Saturday morning (at 3 a.m.!). My room seems like a luxury suite. It’s HUGE -- probably larger than many NYC studio apartments. It does have a nice, huge bathtub, which was relaxing.
I am staying one more full day and have a lot of work to do, but also hope to do a little shopping a see a few sites as well! But I am definitely ready to return home to see Gage and Ema! It’s been a wonderful trip, but it’s time to go home!
Other Notes: I was finally able to talk to Ema and Gage again for the first time since leaving Colombo early Sunday morning! I can’t tell, but I think Ema might be mad at me. But she brightened up when I said I would bring her a present! … There is some Indian official building next to my hotel and there are several men on the top with guns very visible. I can see them from my hotel window. … Gage is happy to hear that I think I can go to Indian restaurants with him now. I’ve been eating a lot of curry (and seafood too) while in Sri Lanka. So I think we can hit up some Indian restaurants now. But not right away. I am craving some American food! In fact, we had a light dinner this evening and ate spring rolls, some type of chicken chips (French fries). My president even declared she was tired of rice and needed something different (and she has lived all over the world).