Last one...for now. (03/06/05)
Damn! I was so sure I posted this before I left!
I am back in New York, safe and sound so far. My biggest and most sincere thanks to all of you for reading and writing back to me while I was gone. I will post the last dispatch from Sri Lanka as well even though its a week old now. again sorry, I forgot that it never went up.
David
Ok everybody, at this point I leave for home in all of 40 hours, not that I am counting down.
As I said in the last post, I spent the weekend outside of Colombo in Kandy and climbed Adams Peak. I can safely say it was a learning experience worth my time. I still handle obscenely large crowds in tight spaces as well as I always have and when I haven’t slept in over 24 hours I am still a ball of hugs and kisses. The climb took longer than I would ever have thought and more of an exercise in frustration than a climb up a mountain to watch the sunrise from a centuries old temple in the jungle should be. I knew that this was “pilgrim season” however I would not have bet. I did watch the sunrise from the mountain and it was an amazing one. When you climb you start very late night or early morning 1 am 2 am sort of thing. Unfortunately I chose to climb on a Saturday and was mixing in with tens of thousands of pilgrims making their way up as well. For maybe the second time in my life I will actually listen to my father and since I have nothing nice to say I wont say anything at all. Which is of course a way of saying something anyway so maybe I didn’t listen so well after all. (Sorry Pop!) 6 kilometers (each way) of walking to the start of the path followed by nearly 7 more up over 5000 stone carved steps (then back down that 7 km) will make your calves sing to you the next day. All told I figure it was 25 Km (+/-) of walking, stair climbing and a bit of hiking in there too. The way down hurt more than the way up by far. Nothing will make you feel less out of shape (especially when you think your in good shape to begin with) than seeing small children on top of parents shoulders the whole way up or better than that pregnant women climbing up and down! Oh yah many people climb barefoot. I felt pretty soft after seeing that.
I will say this, in one weekend I have traveled by train through the mountains and tea plantations, seen a second Kandyian dance performance complete with fire eating and fire walking (to me it was more fun watching the tour groups watching than the performance itself) shopped a bit, went to an Ayurvedic clinic, saw the botanical gardens, washed an elephant, rode an elephant, went to a few different Buddhist and Hindu temples and climbed a mountain. Despite all of this I managed to have a good time for a bit and now I am back in Colombo.
I will not likely be posting again until I am back In the US and that one will likely be just a “made it back, here is the stupid thing I did in customs type post” which lets be honest I could find out that its illegal to bring back a live monkey in your carry on presuming he made it through security in the first place. We are working on our sit still and be quiet commands, he will learn or he will be bound and gagged!
Just kidding, the monkey I bought was dead already, they are cheaper that way you know.
If anyone ever takes a vacation to Sri Lanka, feel free to give me a shout and I will be happy to throw in my two cents.
Thanks for all the emails, support, well wishes and for reading my hardly professional opinions. I hope that this isn’t the last time I get to do this.
Take care and again thank you so very much for everything.
David
No, I did not buy a dead monkey, or a live one for that matter.
I am back in New York, safe and sound so far. My biggest and most sincere thanks to all of you for reading and writing back to me while I was gone. I will post the last dispatch from Sri Lanka as well even though its a week old now. again sorry, I forgot that it never went up.
David
Ok everybody, at this point I leave for home in all of 40 hours, not that I am counting down.
As I said in the last post, I spent the weekend outside of Colombo in Kandy and climbed Adams Peak. I can safely say it was a learning experience worth my time. I still handle obscenely large crowds in tight spaces as well as I always have and when I haven’t slept in over 24 hours I am still a ball of hugs and kisses. The climb took longer than I would ever have thought and more of an exercise in frustration than a climb up a mountain to watch the sunrise from a centuries old temple in the jungle should be. I knew that this was “pilgrim season” however I would not have bet. I did watch the sunrise from the mountain and it was an amazing one. When you climb you start very late night or early morning 1 am 2 am sort of thing. Unfortunately I chose to climb on a Saturday and was mixing in with tens of thousands of pilgrims making their way up as well. For maybe the second time in my life I will actually listen to my father and since I have nothing nice to say I wont say anything at all. Which is of course a way of saying something anyway so maybe I didn’t listen so well after all. (Sorry Pop!) 6 kilometers (each way) of walking to the start of the path followed by nearly 7 more up over 5000 stone carved steps (then back down that 7 km) will make your calves sing to you the next day. All told I figure it was 25 Km (+/-) of walking, stair climbing and a bit of hiking in there too. The way down hurt more than the way up by far. Nothing will make you feel less out of shape (especially when you think your in good shape to begin with) than seeing small children on top of parents shoulders the whole way up or better than that pregnant women climbing up and down! Oh yah many people climb barefoot. I felt pretty soft after seeing that.
I will say this, in one weekend I have traveled by train through the mountains and tea plantations, seen a second Kandyian dance performance complete with fire eating and fire walking (to me it was more fun watching the tour groups watching than the performance itself) shopped a bit, went to an Ayurvedic clinic, saw the botanical gardens, washed an elephant, rode an elephant, went to a few different Buddhist and Hindu temples and climbed a mountain. Despite all of this I managed to have a good time for a bit and now I am back in Colombo.
I will not likely be posting again until I am back In the US and that one will likely be just a “made it back, here is the stupid thing I did in customs type post” which lets be honest I could find out that its illegal to bring back a live monkey in your carry on presuming he made it through security in the first place. We are working on our sit still and be quiet commands, he will learn or he will be bound and gagged!
Just kidding, the monkey I bought was dead already, they are cheaper that way you know.
If anyone ever takes a vacation to Sri Lanka, feel free to give me a shout and I will be happy to throw in my two cents.
Thanks for all the emails, support, well wishes and for reading my hardly professional opinions. I hope that this isn’t the last time I get to do this.
Take care and again thank you so very much for everything.
David
No, I did not buy a dead monkey, or a live one for that matter.
posted by davidlang at 1:09 PM
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