So Sri Lanka

On November 4, 3 girls from work and I decided to celebrate our November break (for Eid) by going to Sri Lanka! We took a red-eye flight from Dubai and arrived in Sri Lanka at 3:30 in the morning. We met our driver (who had a sign with Rachelle's name on it) and he drove us through the dark to our first destination. It was wonderful to see vegetation again and to smell the humidity in the air. Yay for life!

Day 1 adventure:

• arrive in Kandy in the morning and have breakfast before being shown to our rooms
• owner of hotel drove us into town, weaving through the traffic and following the embassy drivers
• he pulled quickly to the left where we discovered that our car had broken down outside the fire station
•  firefighters pulld up chairs and grabbed some coffee to watch the stranded white girls
• we went over to take a picture with the fire trucks
• random dude picked us up and took us to the jem factory where we all spent too much money on jems
• then we went to the mask factory where I bought some creepy but cool masks, hand carved and painted
• afterwards we stopped for a snack - some delicious corn from the side of the road, best ever!
• then we went and rode elephants
• the mean men with sticks stabbed the elephants as we rode through the trees and then into the water to bathe the elephants
• the elephants squirted us with water and then we scrubbed them and fed them bananas to make up for the torture
• long day one comes to an end

Day 2 adventures:

• went to the botanical gardens on our way out of town 
• saw many beautiful flowers and thousands of giant bats....wiat...those aren't birds! bah!
• headed up into the hill country
• saw tea plantations and factories
• stopped at a tea factory for a tour. discovered that most teas are made from the same leaves, but it's just how they're dried that changes them (except for white tea). crazy
• drank and bought some yummy tea
• went further into tea country and had lunch lakeside - beautiful
• drove back through the beautiful
• we got back and the hotel owner decided to take us out to see the giant Buddha in Kandy
• we snuck in in the dark so we didn't have to pay admission
• the first sighting of giant bats took place
  

Day 3 adventures:

• we woke up earlyish to head out to Sigiriya - the ancient lions feet ruins
• it was really hot
• we saw cocodiles
• we hiked up the ruins
• it was really hot and hard
• we made it! nobody passed out!
• then we hiked back down and drove back to the hotel
• on the way home we stopped at the creepy herbal "doctor" on the side of the road
• we learned a lot about cool plants and spices and how they can help you
• the creepy doctor preached at us and bragged about himself
• we were led into a dark tim shack where "doctors in training" gave us massages....we were clothed, but it was still disturbing
• we were then led into the merchandise area (ps - I bought hair removal lotion, which then removed the skin from my armpit)

Days 4, 5,and 6:

• train ride from Kandy, through Colombo (the capital) to Hikkaduwa
• we arrived in beach country and travelled by tuk tuk to our destination
• get to the hotel to find out that they gave away our room
• roamed the streets trying to find a place to stay
• found the dolphin restaurant where we stayed with our private balcony and beach view
• fantastically lazed around on the beach, ate yummy food, and shopped (way too much)
• ladies on the beach harassed us while we tried to relax. We did buy some beautiful things from them and I made friends with Sandra
• the lonely worker at the hotel talked with us all of the time, asking about dating back in Canada and how to find a soulmate. haha

That pretty much Sums it up. Sri Lanka was awesome!