Mr. Cliff and Friends go to Sri Lanka, Part 3: Elephants and The Tooth

I hereby declare this to be a womit-free post! Please continue reading taking solace in that fact. After a short hiatus from talking about my Sri Lanka vacation, I’ll wrap it up in this post.

It’s strange how quickly my sickness came and left. Besides being utterly exhausted, after my dip in the pool, a little bit of fruit, and a 30 minute nap, I felt great. Or maybe I just thought I felt great because anything was better than what I had just gone through. We had a 7 hour drive ahead of us still to get to our destination for the night, but aside from the 40 near-head on crashes we had, the drive was quite relaxing. Still playing the sick card, I got to sit in the reclined front seat with air conditioning vents trained directly on my face. It was nearly impossible to sleep with all of the braking and speeding up and swerving, ect., but the beautiful scenery of Sri Lanka was more than enough to hold my attention. Also, we got to have a nature stop on the way. Andrea said she needed to use the restroom the next time we passed a public toilet. Hermal just kind of grimaced and said that we were hours from a toilet that would be acceptable for us to use. I believed him, as public toilets over here shouldn’t even exist. You can’t just stop by a gas station to relieve yourself and grab some beef jerky and some Mountain Dew. I guess that’s probably why you see so many people just peeing (and going #2 on one occasion) on the side of the road. Being dudes, it wasn’t a big deal for Alan and I, but I was impressed with Andrea’s willingness for a nature squat. I guess growing up on a farm in Ohio helped prepare her for such situations! Or maybe she just really had to go.

Natives working the rice paddies.

We reached our destination of Kandy around 8:00, and climbed up to the top of the hill where our hotel sat. Since we were at the very top of the hill/mountain, there wasn’t really anywhere else to eat, so we settled for the overpriced dinner buffet at the hotel restaurant. The ambiance was nice, but the only food that sounded good to me was ice cream and some fruit. I needed to stay 20ft minimum away from the curries and rice. So after three helpings of ice cream, I went to bed exhausted and ready to start a new day.



The view from our hotel on the top of the hill.

The next morning we got checked out of our hotel and were off to the Temple of the Tooth Relic. Alan has a doctorate in religious studies, so he can explain it better than I ever could. Here is the link to his blog explaining it in detail. The Cliff’s Notes Version (see what I did there?) is that it is a temple built to house one of Buddha’s teeth. It’s crazy to think about it actually being one of his teeth. (Even though I have my doubts that it actually is….but I’ll save my skepticism for another time). But can you imagine if we as Christians had one of Jesus Christ’s teeth? That would be a big deal. I mean we go crazy over the shroud of Turin, and even the possibility of the Holy Grail. Just think if we had one of his teeth! I mean there have been wars fought over this thing, and thousands of people have died to protect/steal it. It is possibly one of the holiest places for people of the Buddhist religion to go. So it was a surreal experience to be there and witness it.

Now we didn’t actually get to see the tooth, as they only bring it out once a year for cleaning and to parade around on an elephant. Side Note: Do you think they use Crest or Colgate when brushing it? (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) But the whole temple complex was amazing. It had several different parts and halls, and even included a library of ancient Buddhists texts. It was another very cool religious and cultural experience that I’m glad I got to experience. Of course, there were the typical annoyances like paying a foreigners entrance fee and another “voluntary tip” for them to keep our shoes safe (while all of the non foreigners just piled theirs along a wall) but it was a small price to pay for such a cool experience.



Temple of the Tooth Relic complex.



A moat is very effective when trying to keep captors from stealing your tooth.



Entrance to the tooth shrine.



Our agenda called for several things throughout the day, including a gem museum, royal botanical gardens, and spice gardens. We went to the gem museum tour which consisted of a 10 minute informational video followed by a 5 minute walkthrough and explanation of different Sri Lanka gems, followed by a hard sales pitch to get you to buy this place’s jewelry. It was all very beautiful stuff, but pretty pricey. Plus I always get annoyed with rackets like this. I’m sure the “gem museum” gives a cut of the profits to the travel company that takes you there. Aaaaaaand of course I got suckered into buying some earrings for the lady friend. Oh well. They were pretty, and maybe will earn me some boyfriend points that I need to catch up on for leaving for 7 months.



Incredible fruit stand we stopped at on the side of the road. They had a lot of cool exotic fruits you don't see anywhere else.



After that we decided to skip the botanical gardens and the spice garden to spend more time at the highlight of the day, and maybe the trip, which was the Pinawala Elephant Orphanage. On the way we stopped at a place where you could actually bathe and ride elephants! Of course, it was pretty much another scam, as your tour guide gave you a 5 minute tour of the “elephant museum” which necessitated a tip at the end, even though we had already paid $20 to get into the damn place. In the interest of time and saving our clothes we decided to skip the bathing but we all decided to take an elephant ride, which was fun. Each elephant has its own trainer, or Mahout, that is the only person the elephant will listen to and take commands from. Basically the elephants and mahouts spend all day every day with each other, sometimes until one of them dies. So they walk alongside giving the elephant orders. We paid for a 15 minute ride, and got about half of that. But I guess the other 7 or 8 minutes would have been about the same. Afterwards we were told to tip the mahout if we had a good time. Then we were told that our tip was not enough. So, during our 30 minute stay at this place, we paid an entry fee to ride the elephant and tipped two separate people. It was pretty annoying, but I guess we did get to ride elephants and have some good pictures from it.



Unfortunately they have to attach a chain from his leg to her neck so it doesn't take off on a rampage.



Another 15 minute ride we arrived at the village where the elephant orphanage is. We got there towards the end of the day. The elephants were about ready to return from the river where they were bathing and frolicking, back to the actual orphanage grounds. It was so cool to see 70 elephants walking through the streets of this village! It was like the running of the bulls in Pamplona, but with larger animals that no one wanted to test and get gored by. We followed the elephants back to the grounds where you could get very close to them and watch them eat and interact. Such a fun experience!



Mahouts preparing for the running of the pachyderms.



And they're off!



The orphanage houses around 70 elephants. Many of the elephants there had been injured in the wild, either by hunters who had shot them to harvest their tusks and left them for dead  or were just plain old.  There was even one who had stepped on a land mine, which was a remnant of the 26 year long Sri Lankan civil war that finally ended in 2009. Most of the elephants there are that were either born there, or born in captivity somewhere else. We were told that the success rate of releasing elephants back into the wild that were born in captivity somewhere else is extremely low, so it is rarely attempted.



It's amazing to watch these guys eat. They literally just rip bark off of trees and eat it.



It was amazing to be this up close and personal with these awesome beasts, and watch them interact with each other. Definitely another experience I’ll never forget.

After the orphanage closed, it was back to the van to drive three hours back to Negombo, the same town we stayed in the first night. That night we ate in a beachfront restaurant and had a couple of drinks. The place was really cool, and was right on the beach. Amazingly we were the only people there. We had a couple of drinks, and since my throat was still recovering and couldn’t handle carbonated beverages, I resorted to drinking the fruity chick drinks on the menu. I think our waiter thought I was joking as I ordered the cocktail of day, which was named Paradise or something like that. He was embarrassed when he realized that I indeed wanted a nice refreshing fruity drink, and after that helped me pick out some other delicious tropical flavored/colored drinks that didn't bring my manhood into question at all.

Decent place to chill at our hotel!

The final day was spent relaxing on the beach. It really was amazing how dead it was. The beaches were amazing, and this is coming from a guy who lived in Hawaii for a year. They were nice and big, with awesome sand and great water. . I don’t really know why there weren’t more people there…I can only guess it’s because Sri Lanka isn’t a place where people think to go.  Even though the weather was beautiful, we were there in the dead period of the tourist season.



Cool outrigger boat on the beach.



I’m not sure where to advise you to put Sri Lanka on your travel bucket list, but I know of the places I’ve been it is at or near the top. For such a small country island, it has so much to offer. If you want history and religious landmarks, it has plenty, and some good ones at that. If you want nature, it has a one of a kind rainforest, and you can also go on safaris to see elephants in the wild, as well as leopards in the right places. You can go on whale watching cruises on the southern coast. If you just want to lay on the beach and not be bothered by huge crowds, this is a perfect place. I know if I ever have the chance, I would jump at the chance to go back to experience more of the island.

Well, this wraps up my Sri Lanka vacation, and might be the last post about travels over here. I might be going to a couple of smaller places, but as far as foreign countries go, this is it! I’ve had some amazing opportunities to travel here, something I’m very thankful for. Thinking back on my first couple of posts where India was the first foreign country I had stepped foot in, it’s amazing how much I’ve been able to do in such a short period of time. I have definitely learned a lot from my travels, and all it’s done is make me thirsty for more adventures! It has also made me appreciate the good old United States of America and how lucky we are to be Americans. There are still many more places I need to travel in my own country!

In about a month I’ll be ending my adventure here and moving back home to America. While this has been an awesome and unforgettable adventure, I absolutely can’t wait to be back amongst family, friends, beef, and the thousands of other things I miss about home. I guess that will also mark the end of this blog, so if there’s anything you want to hear about, speak not or forever hold your peace!