Sri Lanka

Sri  Lanka is the land of tea plantations, spice farms, and gemstones. I sampled and bought some of each.

 I spent hours at one of the jewelry stores in Kandy selecting stones and  designing my jewelry. I found two oval shaped amethyst stones that I had made into earrings. I chose blue topaz stones for earrings and a pendant for my sister . I also designed a gold Buddhist Wheel of Life pendant with a small, circular white sapphire stone in the center. I was able to pick up my treasures the next day. 

We also stopped at a moonstone mine in Meetiyagoda ( I love that word ).  Of course, I had to purchase moonstone earrings. The mining process is very unique. A person goes down into the mine, which is about 20 meters deep, using a single rope as a ladder. He also has a bucket . Using a handmade tool, he scrapes soil of the walls of the opening and places the soil  places into the bucket. The soil is brought up and washed in a basket to remove the debris, leaving only the stones. Southern Sri Lanka has both white and blue moonstones. The light gets inside the stones which then gives them their color. The manual jewelry making is on site. Cutting, shaping, polishing, and setting is all done manually. The finished products were amazing. If I had the money, and the social life to wear my treasures, I could have gotten into real trouble.

Spice farms are prevalent in Sri Lanka which is know for growing Clove, Cinnamon, Cardamon, Nutmeg, Pepper, Cocoa, Vanilla, and many other. We stopped at a plantatin Kandy. It  was interesting to see spices, that we only see in bottles, actually alive and growing. Vanilla, nutmeg, and ginger were three that we saw. The “live” ginger is yellow and quite different from the brown, dry sticks we see at home. The outer bark is stripped from a branch and the second layer is what is used. The fresh ginger is so good. We ate a delicious traditional Sri Lankan meal and were able to observe the two cooks as they cooked our food.

The Royal Botanical Garden is one of the finest gardens that I have visited. It includeds ovewr 4,000 species of plants ( including medicinal plants), spices and palm trees. The quant railway station at Peradeniya is very unique and colorful. The scenery on the train journey  from Kandy to Hatton is spectacular on the train trip from . As much as I like flying, I think an “around the world by train” trip would be grand. 

We spent two nights Ceylon in tea country. The first night  we stayed at the Camilla Hills Bungalows which were very modern with a gorgeous view. The second night we stayed at Ceylon Tea Trails Resort, a restored colonial era tea planter residence. It was built in the late 1800’s and very much the British elite lodge. It borders the World Heritage Center Highlands. It was interesting to see the contrast between the two hotels .Everything is so green in tea country. The elevation is 1250 meters. Women,  who get paid $5.00 per day,  pick the tea. It is backbreaking work in the hot sun.

The next stop was the Leopard Trails campsite on the Southeastern Coast. The campsite is in the buffer zone of Yala National Park. One game drive was sufficient for me. During a two hour game drive we saw two elephants and several  birds. I am used to Kenya where the animals are plentiful in the parks. The  other mornings I chose to stay in  camp and thoroughly  enjoyed  having a private a breakfast served on the entrance of my  tent. The service was exquisite. I could easily get accustomed to this lifestyle.

In Galle we actually stayed inside Gall Fort. Marco Polo stopped at this port in 1299 AD. Chinese, Persian, Arab, Indian, Javanese, Sumatran, Portugese, Dutch, and finally the British all ruled here. Our hotel served tea everyday at 4:00 PM. Among the highlights of this area was viewing the old traditional technique of spearfishing on stilts.

One of the fun highlights of the trip was a cooking class at the teacher's house. Not only was the cooking interesting but we also got to experience an actual household, with household help I might add, and then we ate all the food that we prepared.

We spent our last night at the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo. We were upgraded to a suite with an ocean view. We had cocktails at the beach bar before dinner and a wonderful, just caught, fish dinner to end our stay.

All in all Sri Lanka is very unique with many different cultures and religions, definitely a worthwhile stop on a worldview voyage.