Traveling while living abroad
Taking advantage of your location- Post 3 of 3
We were given the advice to try a better, warmer, calmer beach about 4 more hours up the coast on the east called Pasikuda. Lall agreed it would be a much better fit for us, and so we left on the next adventure. The kids admittedly were becoming a little road weary since each location seemed to be 4–5 hours away from the next. They were good sports, though, and the scenery was nothing to complain about.
On this leg of the trip, our youngest daughter saw a huge spider in the passenger seat above Ravi’s head. She eventually squeaked words of warning out, and as Ravi flipped down the sun visor, a huntsman spider darted around it. That thing was buttered lightening. No way in heck was Ravi going to catch it. The whole car was screaming and freaking out. The entire car except for our driver Lall, who was calm as could be. He didn’t even turn his head, he simply used his peripheral vision to see the giant arachnid and knocked it down, right onto Ravi’s lap. Ravi swooshed it off and sedately went about his non-spider business of looking out the window. How he could be so nonchalant while the world was crashing down around us, I will never know. The kids and I spent the rest of the drive silently reciting Hail Marys and making promises to God with our feet up off the van floor.
If you have never seen a huntsman spider (or a cane spider in Hawai’i) then you are a blessed soul who will never feel the effects of Mercury in retrograde. For those who have seen this vile creature in person, we know its image will survive in perpetuity in the catalog of our nightmares. Seared into our brains like a flaming hot iron brands a cow’s hide. They get much larger, but the one we saw was the size of the inside of a roll of duct tape and according to a rumor I just made up, it can read your mind. I am certain this spider will turn up in our lives again.
Though not fast enough, we pulled up to the Amethyst Resort in Pasikuda Beach and were immediately each greeted with a fragrant, chilled washcloth and cold glass of fresh sour sop nectar. Where was the paparazzi, because we were gosh dang superstars at that moment. Our accommodations were pleasant and spacious, and the beachfront hotel was charming and luxurious at the same time. A pretty wooden footbridge takes you across a crocodile filled river that separates the living quarters from the dining quarters. We crossed it multiple times each day and always saw a crocodile.
The Indian Ocean here was gorgeous. Turquoise waters that were calm and soothing and the perfect temperature. Warm enough to where you never had to “work” your way into it, and cool enough to where you could stay in pleasantly for a long time. This was dreamy, and I wished we had just come here and skipped the whole Arugam Bay fiasco altogether, but you live and you learn. Ravi and I soaked up the sun, bobbed in the warm clean water, and relaxed while we watched the kids simply enjoying playing together. It really was heavenly.
Alas, all good things must come to an end, and we knew we had 8 hours of travelling ahead of us to make it back to Colombo in 2 days for our return flight home. Kandy was a cool place in the center of the country, surrounded by tea plantations and bursting with history. It was mid-point on our return, so we figured we should head there for the next night and maybe hit up some culture if we could.
Numbers are deceiving. We saw that the distance to Kandy from Pasikuda was 200 kilometers. No problem, except that a lot of roads in Sri Lanka are not freeways, they are simply roads. 2 lane, shoulderless roads highly traversed by pedestrians, bicyclists, and tuk tuks. That means the average speed that you can move is about negative 20 miles an hour. The process is daunting and slow. Passing slower vehicles (people, cows, or horses) is common in India and also common in Sri Lanka. The trick is to tailgate really hard, honk your horn, and swerve wildly in front of oncoming traffic, narrowly avoiding collision. Wash, rinse, repeat. Do this at a top speed of 35 mph and you, too, can have yourself an authentic Sri Lankan or Indian driving experience in the comfort of your own country.
There is an incredible 2,500-year-old Buddhist temple built into mountain caves along the way called Dambulla. Pictures do not do it justice. Who even thinks to build a temple into a mountain? In today’s world people can barely wrap their mind around converting their guest room into a theater room, yet 2,500 years ago someone was like, “Hey, Imma turn that mountain into a temple!”
The carvings are mostly of Buddha, but there are a couple of other deities thrown in for good balance. You are expected to dress modestly for this temple visit, so a few of us rented sarongs from the temple to wrap around our uncovered legs. We each received a Buddhist prayer and a white thread tied around our wrist as a symbol of peace, good health, and community. I am not Buddhist, but I loved the ceremony and meaning behind this gesture and will wait to see how long it stays on my wrist. Sri Lanka is 70% Buddhist, so you can definitely see the influence of this practice throughout the country and its people.
We left in awe of this sacred place with a rekindled appreciation of what humans are capable of creating. With an idea, a purpose, rudimentary tools, and mineral paints came the formation of this amazing UNESCO World Heritage Site that has been drawing pilgrims for over 22 centuries to its gilded interiors. All of us were grateful to have seen it in person. After descending the ancient steps and allowing the heaviness of our visit to dissipate, we all loaded back into the van to continue our trip to Kandy.
Fox Kandy by Fox (I know this name is comical) was the 5-star hotel we booked and after a grueling, scary journey, seemingly to the very peak of a ridiculously steep mountain we made it. An interesting thing about Sri Lanka is that it’s been colonized by a number of countries (Dutch, British, and Portuguese) that have each left a bit of their DNA in the present day Sri Lanka. You can see it in the city and hotel names, you see it in the architecture and furnishings, and you see it in the food. Fox Kandy struck me as British Colonial in their behavior and presentation upon arrival. We were greeted with sweetened, hot Jasmine tea to sip on while our bags were loaded onto a hand trolley and brought to our rooms. Dinner was buffet style, and once again, we loaded up on all the foods and flavor profiles we were missing since moving to India.
Breakfast was also a wonderful buffet, and the kids and Ravi enjoyed the infinity pool while I enjoyed the shaded chaise lounge nearby. After a restful start to the day, we headed back down the other side of Kandy and towards Negombo where we would spend our final night in Sri Lanka. It is a coastal city and closer to the airport than Colombo.
Dambulla Cave Temple had been the perfect culturally and historically enriching experience to bookend our Sri Lankan trip. We felt fulfilled and ready to return to India. Our drive from Kandy to Negombo was uneventful and after checking in to our final hotel, the kids played in the pool while Ravi and I shared a Sri Lankan beer and talked about our experiences of the week.
Funny enough, a lot of our vacations are like this. We plan for culture and history or some great experience to share with our kids. Then we spend all this time preparing and all this money, when sometimes the most fun and rewarding thing for them is a buffet-style meal and a pool. Yet, I am still excited to visit the next country, even though I know that spider is waiting for us.