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Published: March 4th 2013
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We took the bus and a train from Adam’s Peak to Ella, and gazed at some of the most stellar views thus far from our train window: at one point we were above the plain of clouds to the right of us, while, in direct contrast, the son majestically shone on densely green vegetation to the left of us.
We spent an afternoon in Ella, which is a small town up in the hills; we took a walk and visited a tea factory. Some of you may know that Lipton made his tea money in Sri Lanka; I was also surprised to find that the tea leaves are the same for both black and green tea, the difference being in how the tea leaves are processed. That is, however, according to our tour guide, whose English wasn’t the best, so if some of you tea connoisseurs would like to confirm that tidbit of information, it would be great. We went to dinner with a Polish couple we’d met and I finally ate my Lamprai with a fair amount of beer. The following morning we took a bus to Tangalla on the southern coast of the country to relax
on the beach and, for me, an opportunity to take a break and try to beat this cold finally.
We found a hotel right on the beach, with a balcony view of the Indian Ocean. The beaches in Tangalla are pretty, tropically lined with palm trees, stretching for many secluded miles; the sand almost burns orange, and the ocean was nearly 80 degrees F. We sat around, took some walks along the beach, and ate a lot more than we have for some time: good fried fish, beer and fries. The waves were rough, so swimming was difficult at times, but there are pockets of calm waters here and there. At night, large bats the size of hawks patrol the sky, while crabs, with eyes that shoot straight up from their heads, scurry along the beach. On one of our walks, Klaudia saw a pineapple tree and wanted one. So, I jumped up and grabbed hold of a branch to climb up the tree, when suddenly the branch broke, sending me plummeting 2 feet on my back. The pineapples weren’t even ripe yet.
We did have our first encounter with gigantic Asian cockroaches at
our hotel, which were impossible to kill with their ability to fly; nevertheless, we had two days of sun, beach, food and beer, then on to Mirissa for some more of the same.
We’re currently in Mirissa now – a sort of hippie, resort-like beach town: last night, rather than the pervasive Marley music playing, we could hear Euro-trash music blaring till 4 am. I have always contended this, and will continue to contend, that European club music is some of the worst shit I’ve ever heard, unless, I suppose, you’re a German completely tweaking on ecstasy; and when it’s irritably keeping you from getting some shut eye, it’s all the more shitty. Otherwise, the town is “chill”, as one Brit told me as we got in: I’m drinking a Lion beer on the beach as I write, full from a rice and curry lunch. Life is good.
And I’m all caught up… Tomorrow, it’s on to dreaded Colombo again, then on the plane to Cochin, India.
So, just want to end this one with an incident that occurred this morning. Monkeys are everywhere here, and they’re pushy little suckers. I
walked over to a fruit stand to buy some pineapples, mango and oranges for breakfast, and I could swear that the monkeys began to stalk me then. I returned to our room and we sat down on the patio to eat. One of them surreptitiously walked over a low roof and began to stare at us. I quickly turned to Klaudia and gently pleaded with her not to throw them anything; but, as you may have predicted, before I could even finish my sentence, an orange peel fell into the monkey’s mouth. Well, in brief time, his entire family arrived, including papa, who was as big as a mid-sized dog. They surrounded us like a perfidious gang, eyeing the juicy fruit on the table; one yawned, giving us a glimpse of long, razor fangs. Fearful of those teeth, we quickly grabbed the fruit and jumped into our room, whose door led directly onto the patio. However, we’d foolishly forgotten a plastic bag full of peels from various fruits we’d eaten the day before on the patio stairs – the feast began. All we could do was watch the mayhem from our room window, with the monkeys sometimes peeking in on
us as well, their furry, contumacious heads appearing from under the sill. I thought one of them even might have given me the finger. Our neighbors began to exit their rooms to see what all the commotion was, but quickly – and smartly – shut themselves back in when violence erupted between papa and another monkey trying to get his share. All anyone could do was wait as monkey steps vibrated on the metal roof; and wait we did, for a good half hour, during a routine electricity shut down, till they had had their fill. Don’t mess with Asian monkeys.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Great fish photo!
We will continue to follow your travels as our trip has just ended and we want to know what others are up to. We are living in Santa Rosa, CA for a few months so we may do some blogging about wine country.