Sri Lanka : Part 3 Elephant Man

Asia » Sri Lanka
June 11th 2010

Published: June 10th 2010

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christophinoz

Blatant top totty shot

Also spent a week volunteering at an elephant conservation project...

What did I do?

- helped look after one elephant, the crazy Pooja (it means 'prayer' but I think it really means 'poo lots')
- cleaned her bed every day (full of poo) WITH MY BARE HANDS :S
- cleaned her chilling out area every day (full of poo)
- collected all her coconut leaves (so she could make more poo)
- bathed her in the river and scrubbed her clean (her bottom was a bit pooey) whilst trying to avoid her poos floating down the river. She had a toxic case of flatulence.
- helped with the elephant painting, cleaning, teaching the local kids...whilst avoiding poo

My attempt to get to Jaffna in the militarised north

Got on a bus to the militarised north. Stopped at a checkpoint and was kindly asked to get off the bus as didn't have a permit.

Visited the MOD to get a permit to travel by road. Collected permit to fly to Jaffna. Didn't go as costs US$200 by air but US$10 by road. Road is only suitable for the locals to get blown up by landmines

Nose job

Rani loves painting every morning. She wet herself when we told her that American's buy her work for US$350 each!

so no landmine pogo played. Gits.

Random country info

4 hour bus journey = US$2
5kms in a tuk-tuk = US$3
Night in a cheap guest house (bed, shared bathroom, fan) = US$2.50 to US$8
Lunch at a bakery = US$1
Contents of a chili pastry = one MASSIVE chili in pastry. 'Does exactly what is says on the tin' I suppose 😉
625ml of lager = US$1
750ml of arrack (coconut spirit) = US$6
Ginger tea = new addiction
Vegetable roti = new addiction leading to fire breath
Use of chili = in everything. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. I now have an iron stomach.
Eating etiquette = use your hands inc. for rice&curry (interesting after you've been picking up poo all day)
No. of AK47s = more than I've ever seen in my life before. Still a fair bit of tension following the 'end' of the not-so-civil war.

Local buses

They may look like they should be a float in the Sydney Mardi Gras but:

- the drivers are all sexually frustrated Italian rally drivers
- I'm just waiting for a handbrake turn to complete the full set of skills
- they

Pooja

This is my elephant. She has a wonky tail. She eats 100 coconut leaves a day. She then poos most of it out. I had to pick it (worms, maggots... included) all up with my bare hands.

race each other
- they overtake on corners when coming up to the brow of a hill
- biggest vehicle wins but still waiting for that Knight Rider vs Goliath moment...
- don't know why they bother with seats as there's generally more people standing than sitting (even on the 50+ seaters!)
- people get on to sell drinks, sweets, fruit, sing songs, eat light bulbs
- they have so much torque that it feels like a rollercoaster
- the horn must be used every 3 seconds or it will stop working

The standard conversation with a local

Local: Your country?
Christophinoz: Wales
L: Eh? (combined with a very blank look on face)
C: W-aaaaa-llll-eeee-sssssss.
L: Eh?
C: You know, the country next to England.
L: Oh, England!
C: No, Wales. It's a different country...

😊

So after 3 superb months in Sri Lanka I'm now off to South Africa to check out a small footy tournoi. Tix to 4 games in le bag!

Some other photos here if you're having a really long lunch surfing t'internet:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44482107@N07/sets/72157624077365835/

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