Whales. That is what I think about when I am going to celebrate a big birthday number, like 55. So I searched and searched and finally found the perfect trip with the Aggressor Fleet to snorkel with Blue whales in Sri Lanka.
We decided to do an overland tour the week before the whale trip to see a bit of this tiny island that lies to the Southwest of India. It has a fascinating and painful history starting with colonization by the Portuguese, Dutch and finally the British who granted independence in 1948. What most people think of when they think of Sri Lanka (that used to be known as Ceylon) is the 30 year civil war between the Hindu Tamil in the far North and the Buddhist Sinhalese who occupy most of the island. This war finally came to a bitter end in 2009.
We landed in Colombo at midnight because the airport was under construction and all flights were being crammed into a small window in the middle of the night so work could be done during the daylight hours. Our hotel was called the Topaz and was situated on the coast a bit North of Colombo in a small town called Negombo.
The hotel was cheap and adequate with a lovely view of the ocean. We rested for a day and then started a pre-arranged whirlwind tour of the Northern parts of the island.
We had our own private van and driver, Kosala, and most importantly, air conditioning! It was painfully hot and humid. We started our trip with a drive North up the coast passing churches, mosques, and Hindu and Buddhist temples.
It was impressive to see all these religions represented so close together. Buddhism is the predominant religion on the island, the next being Hindu and then the Christians and Muslims.
Our first day was a safari in Wilpattu National Park with the hope of spotting the elusive leopard. It was a long, arduous, bouncy ride and we saw mongoose, fox, snakes, lizards, monkeys, crocodiles, myriad brightly feathered birds but nary a leopard or sloth bear.
Our hotels on this tour were all 4 star and were lush by our standards. The food was always tasty with curries, chutneys, rice, hoppers (fried noodles), and delicious fresh fruits. We would pass hundreds of fruit, vegetable and fish stands and realized that this country had it all. We rarely saw anyone begging and most seemed well nourished.
The following day we started with Anuradhadpura, the old capital and ancient Buddhist temple. It was spread out over many acres so we were grateful that Kosala drove us from site to site rather than doing the usual bike or walking tour. Here the main attraction was the old Bodhi tree which came from a seedling from the original tree where Buddha attained enlightenment. While here there were worshippers dressed all in white doing a puja celebration by walking, chanting and carrying flowers and flags to honor Buddha.
We then visited Habarana where we did a village safari. This entailed taking a cart pulled by an ox over muddy potholed tracks, then switching to a boat to cross a lake to what is supposed to be a replica of an old time village. Here they showed us how they used to make roti (rice flat bread) with coconut sambal (a spicy sauce to go on the bread). The process was labor intensive but the results were delicious!
After this we went on another evening safari at Kaudulla Park and it was just a joke how many tourist jeeps there were. We did see wild elephants but really with all of the jeeps it was hard to enjoy.
The following day we hiked up Sigiriya which is a cultural and geologic wonder, and UNESCO heritage site. The rock is a volcanic plug from an extinct volcano and shoots up into the air from a flat plain around it. Halfway up the hundreds of tourists clamber through a circular stairway to see old paintings on a cave wall, still colorful to this day. As we neared the top we came upon two enormous lion paws with more thin steep stairs leading up to the top. This climb was not for the faint of heart! And it was brutally hot and humid making reaching the top even more of an accomplishment. However, when you see a young woman carrying her baby on her back it does rob you a bit of that pride.
After this arduous hike we visited a relaxed spice garden to learn about the trees and plants that provide the basis of the Ayurvedic medicine so popular in this ountry. Kosala and I had done an Ayurvedic massage the night before and what a wonderful experience that was! They separated the men and women and the entire process took about an hour and a half. I was stripped down by a petit woman, sat in a chair and rubbed vigorously, especially the top of my head. Then the massage was continued on a table, one of many lined up full of naked tourists from all over the world. During the massage a tropical thunderstorm started and all the lights went off. This did not seem to bother the masseuses as they continued their work by candlelight. It really made the whole experience all the more magical. After the massage we are placed in a wooden round coffin like structure with heated leaves to lie on. Even with my head popping out of the top I felt too claustrophobic to finish my time there and opted to just sit in the sauna.
We drove to Kandy which is a lovely large city in the central mountains. This area is near where the tea plantations begin and flow over the hills. Sri Lanka is known for its tea exports and visiting a tea factory we learned so much about the leaves and drying processes. I had no idea it was so complicated! That night in Kandy, Kosala and I went to a cultural dance show which was a fun introduction to the movements, instruments, costumes and spiritual significance of dance in this area. They even had fire walkers at the end.
The next day we visited the Temple of the Tooth where Buddha's tooth is kept and worshiped. On the way there we passed many couples in traditional wedding attire having their pictures taken at a sacred place before they said their vows. This was a solemn place with all dressed in white and sitting quietly praying in front of the altar where the tooth is kept.
While in Kandy we visited an odd hotel and restaurant called Helga's Folly for a cup of tea. This place was like a museum of the weird and we even got to meet the owner, Helga, herself!
On the way back to Negombo we stopped at Pinwalla Elephant Orphanage. Here they rescue injured elephants and they have been fairly successful in breeding them. Still it was a sad place and felt more like a zoo. One elephant just stood around chained so that tourists could feed it and take pictures.
When we returned to our hotel Topaz back in Negombo, we fell into a deep sleep only to be awakened by a text that our whale tour had been cancelled!
We were devastated. It turned out the government had pulled all of the permits because some of the snorkel boats had been getting too close to the ocean mammals and were harassing them. One report was that two dolphins had died. For this reason we could at least appreciate that the government was stepping in to protect the animals, but that did little to assuage our disappointment. We spent the day trying to decide if we should just go home, find whales somewhere else, go to the Maldives to scuba dive, or just continue exploring the beautiful island of Sri Lanka. The latter was certainly the easiest to do.
We signed up for a Southern island tour with the same company as the Northern one. Again we had our own driver, Chinteka, and the much needed air-conditioned vehicle. We spent too long in a coastal town Hikkaduwa where we thought we could scuba dive. We did and quickly discovered that indeed all the coral was still dead from the tsunami of 2004 and global warming, clumsy tourists, etc. It was a real disappointment. We headed further South to a small town called Mirissa which was much more laid back. Here we snorkeled all day and saw many fish and even three large Leatherback turtles!
Finally we ended up at the Yala National Park for one more try at a safari and finding a leopard. I admit, I was a bit obsessed. Our driver heard about a leopard and took off at break neck speed over holes and creeks and rocks and we ended up at a long line of jeeps passing one by one to see a lone leopard trying to sleep on a branch in a tree right next to the road. We finally got our 3 minutes and indeed it was beautiful and I felt a bit relieved. The following day on safari we could now just relax and see whatever was there. We did see a sloth bear cross the road. We saw heaps of elephants playing in the water. We saw peacock strutting and shimmering for their peahens. Lots of black faced langurs. And too many little brown toque macaque monkeys trying to steal our food at our otherwise peaceful lunch break alongside a supposedly crocodile free river. Throw in a delicious pizza and all in all it was a satisfying couple of days.
On the way back to Negombo we stopped at a gem mine to learn that it is still done in the centuries old manner of digging a hole and dropping down by rope and digging by hand, then washing by hand, then picking out the gems by hand. We met some of the workers and were told that they wanted it this way because mechanization would eliminate the little bit of work they had. Supposedly they are allowed to keep the smaller gems and sell them. I'm not sure how much of this is true but I did not buy any gems because I just don't wear them due to their questionable sources. We also got stuck in the traffic of a small town cricket rivalry with the two teams taking over the road with their pre-game celebrations.
We spent my birthday and our last night in Sri Lanka eating a spiny lobster (we'd already had too many shrimp including the giant ones) and reminisced on our trip. We had had a good time seeing a truly beautiful island country. The people, culture, food, history and landscape were all spectacular, delicious and fascinating… but… it was not swimming with whales.
photo: caters news agency
