Elephants!

She is no hooker she is selling Cashews

I am writing this at 30,000 feet having just left Colombo for Mumbai. We left our hotel this morning about 11am and headed for a jewelry manufacturer and show room. Sri Lanka is a major source of gems and there are gem stores everywhere. They mine for most gems except Emeralds (Brazil), Diamonds (Africa) and Rubies (Burma). This is the 2^nd store where they had a very good explanation of the mining, selection, grading and cutting of gems. One thing I hadn’t realized is that there are only two Precious Gems (Diamonds and Sapphires). The interesting thing to me was that what makes them precious is not their rarity (which I assumed) but their hardness. Diamonds are rated a 10, and Sapphires a 9. Who knew?

From there we went to an Elephant Orphanage. It is just what it name implies. Orphaned elephants are brought here. Some are very young babies. The place is immaculate. It is amazing to see these large herds of elephants roaming around. You can see them nursing, or even being fed milk from a bottle. The elephants are led down a street from the orphanage to the river where we watched them frolic, drink and bath for at least an hour. Some of these elephants will become Temple Elephants, others will live out there days here. It is very humane. The Mahoots who tend the elephants have their own language that they speak. No one but another mahoot knows the language. They can speak to the elephant and tell it to stop, turn right, turn left, back up, raise their foot etc.

The final stop on the 4 hour drive to the airport in Colombo was an absolute hoot. Sri Lanka grows a lot of cashews (they grow on a tree). In one village, famous for its cashews, women sell them by the wayside. The women are all dressed in fancy wear and wave their arms to flag to motorists to sell them cashews. If you didn’t know what was going on, you would think they were all hookers, trying to get tricks. They flirt and wave. It is very funny. No men are allowed to sell cashews in the village.

A few final thoughts about Sri Lanka as we leave. The Sri Lankans are incredibly nice. Everyone is helpful. The Infrastructure is far better than India, nice roads, internet everywhere. Less people I am sure also helps. The traffic is quite tame compared to the insanity of driving in India.

There are very few crafts in Sri Lanka. They experienced a long civil war that only ended a few years ago. It was explained to us the army pay was quite high and many young men from craft producing families joined the army and lost touch with their heritage..

Durian fruit is foul smelling. In America I have only seen it frozen in Asian Markets. In Sri Lanka it is sold fresh by the road side. Our guide said that if someone buys a Durian, they aren’t allowed on a bus because the smell is so awful, although the fruit apparently is tasty.

You feel very safe in Sri Lanka. It has a low crime rate. The speed limit in most areas of Sri Lanka is 70 Kilometers Per Hour. That equates to about 43 miles per hour! It is takes a long time to drive between cities!

Sri Lankans have bad teeth, I have no idea why (maybe eating fresh Durian?). All I know is that half of our guides had major missing teeth. If you are a thinking of becoming a dentist, there is a lot of work available for you in Sri Lanka.

I like to take pictures when I travel, and I always pack a spare camera, just incase something happens to my primary camera. This is the first time that I decided not to take a spare, but use the iPhone Camera as backup. I actually forgot to bring my camera to one event and the iPhone did fine. No more lugging two cameras for me.

One final thought, Sri Lankans like to drink. For a culture that is mixture of Buddhist, Hindu and Muslims I am glad they have found a common area of agreement!

For our final excitement of the day, arrived in Mumbai and they had no reservation for us. They finally figured out the reservation was under Cathy’s name. They upgraded us to a suite. All is very well!