Mombay Airport

This morning, Jen and I got up early as usual, packed our bags (as usual) and went downstairs in our hotel to get some breakfast before leaving for the airport. Dorgee was there, pacing (as usual). We ate a quick breakfast, loaded up the taxi with our bags, took some last minute pictures with Dorgee, and were off to the Kathmandu Airport. It was a foggy morning and there was very little traffic. We pulled into the airport, found where we needed to go, said goodbye to Dorgee, and were off. As we stood in line at the ticket counter, we kept hearing other people say that their flights to London were delayed and I thought - so glad I'm not going to London! As we got to the ticket counter, the woman told us that we were unable to check in due to the weather conditions. Apparently no one with a connecting flight could check in because everything is delayed.

We waited and waited and then they finally let the people flying to London check in before us. A man approached us who worked with the airline and asked where we were going. We told him Colombo, Sri Lanka and he said that we couldn't check in because we would miss our connecting flight in Delhi, but that he'd look into other options. He took my itinerary and left and we didn't see him again for about 45 minutes. Everyone else was gone at this point except for one man who was just sitting with his luggage on a cart (we couldn't figure him out). Turns out that 45 minutes would be the shortest time we had to wait today...

He finally came back and told us that our only option was to fly to Mumbai/Bombay at 1:15 p.m. and then take the 2:10 a.m. flight to Colombo, arriving at 4:45 a.m. the next morning. I told him that this was not okay and we needed another option. He disappeared for another 15 minutes and then came back. Nothin'. At this point all dreams of having a nice, free hotel room in Colombo that Jen had booked for us using her points at the Hilton vanished and the harsh reality that we'd be living in airports ALL DAY today replaced it. Lame. SOOOOO lame.

We waited for a few more hours in Kathmandu and finally boarded our flight to Mumbai after passing through 3 security pat-downs. I don't get that. How the heck am I going to pick up a weapon in the few seconds since you last patted me down??? Once we landed in Mumbai (Jen calls it Mombay!), a lady with the airline asked us if we were flying to Colombo. We told her yes and she told us to wait. There were about 8 of us and they were going to give us the "special" treatment since we'd gotten the short end of the stick today. We waited and she led our small group to a room next to the security headquarters where men with guns kept coming in and out and both men and women in uniform seemed to be checking in and out. They told us to give them our passports so they could get us our tickets. 2 HOURS LATER, we finally had our passports and tickets returned to us. Yeah. Jen and I played MASH and pretty much planned out our lives while waiting for our passports to come back.

So then, the lady takes us through security and parades us through the airport to the "Executive Lounge" for some "refreshment". This consisted of coffee or tea and then a sandwich - none of which I eat or drink. Awesome. Just waited for over 2 hours for nothing! I left hungry and so frustrated. I tried to find food in the airport, but everything either had gluten or a really strange person working the cash register that had a new lame excuse for why he couldn't get me food each time I tried to order (the cash register doesn't work, you can't pick just one item to order, it will cost you 4 times more than what it costs everyone else...). I finally buckled and went to KFC (which my family will laugh at because they know I hate it) and got chicken fingers, then spent time picking off the gluten coating. :) Good times!

I have been sitting here in the Mumbai Airport for the past 8 hours with just 2 more to go and have seen some very interesting things. After wandering the great vastness that is this airport (it's actually ridiculously small for an international hub), we decided to crash at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on their cushy overstuffed chairs. At first, things were silent and all that we could hear was this ridiculously annoying music playing that takes old classics like "On Top of Old Smokey" and puts an orchestra to them, making it an elevator music classic. I think we've heard the loop about 30 times now.

Anyway, there was this family that caught my attention that began to gather near us. I think that they are Sikh. At first they looked like any other family with a mother, father, and 2 sons, but then more and more of them came. It seemed that each time I looked up, there were more of them here! But the thing that I think amazed me more than anything was their happiness. I guess that I have seen a lot of people in the past 6 weeks who are a bit oppressed by either religion or culture, but these people were smiling and laughing and so enjoying this sweet little baby boy. One of the fathers in the group kept throwing him up in the air and making him laugh as his 2 boys (probably about 8 and 6) looked on and laughed. I think it is amazing how much joy one little baby can bring into anyone's life - such perspective!

I know this nightmare will end. I know we'll eventually get there. I know one day I will be home again. Sometimes we have to just wait and wait and wait to get where we need to go.

Ella Enchanted

After waking up at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday morning and reading in my bed for about an hour, we got up and had our first showers of the trip (and they were actually warm!). We went down to the little restaurant that they have here at the guesthouse and ordered some fresh fruit bowls and Sri Lankan omelets. The fresh fruit was so delightful - bananas, guava, pineapple... and the Sri Lankan omelets consisted of some raw onions, tomatoes, and some chili pepper - tasty!

We set out on our journey for the day to Ella Rock around 9:30 a.m. The instructions we were given were to walk to the top of the road and follow the railroad tracks for about 45 minutes past the metal bridge and look for the waterfall, then make a hard left into a village and find a guide. The nice man also warned us that the train would be coming at 9:47, so get off the tracks at that time. We set out walking the tracks and noticed that all the locals just walk right down the middle of them. The women and children were friendly and would say hello back to us, but the men wouldn't - I guess it's a cultural thing...

Well, 9:47 came and we cleared off the tracks. A local woman kept walking on the tracks then yelled something out and started running down the tracks - we assumed that she was telling us the train was coming, so we stopped and watched. The train went by and had people hanging all over it. We then got back on the tracks and found the metal bridge and also a really nice local man who said hello and then began to follow us. Jen was getting a little nervous, but I told her that he seemed harmless and if he tried anything I could totally take him (he was a rather petite man)! We found the waterfall as well and took some beautiful pictures, then off we went to the village of guides. Turns out our "stalker" became our guide up the mountain. He showed us the pathway to the waterfall and we got right on top of it, then he started taking us up the mountain. It felt like he was running up the mountain and I couldn't believe it! We made excellent time. I didn't make it all the way up the mountain - turns out that when you can't eat carbs, you really feel it when you hike (I was told by my doctor that I can't have gluten during this trip to see if that is my food allergy - L.A.M.E.)! I stopped a little over halfway up and waited with an INCREDIBLE view and Jen said that we have a better view from our guesthouse room.

We ran back down the mountain after our shirpa, paid him his 2000 rupees and walked back down the railroad tracks. Instead of taking the turnoff to our guesthouse, we went to Main Street instead and found a great little restaurant that served us tropical fruit smoothies. I had for lunch a veggie pot which consisted of some steamed vegetables (green beans, carrots, potatoes, and some other root veggie) with some cheese and curried lentils. Delightful. We hiked back up to our place and I took a brief nap while Jen went and got a very oily massage. We then had a cooking lesson from the cooks in our kitchen here. We got to gut out a coconut (the only interactive part of the experience) and watch them make chicken curry, fish curry, beet curry, bean curry and tomato soup. It was very interesting and took them 3.5 hours to show because things are so involved. We finally ate at about 8 p.m. and filled our plates so full with the about 8 different dishes - the curries were chicken, fish, beets, long beans (green beans), coconut, pumpkin, potato and cucumbers - so delicious!

It is now Sunday morning and I woke up at 5 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. We saw monkeys in the trees next to our room early and the beautiful purple and pink morning light. Today we travel back to Colombo - another long car ride.....

This is where our journey began - along the railroad tracks.

 We saw these all over Sri Lanka - little Buddhas.

The train...

There were tea plantations everywhere - climbing up the hills..

The waterfall from above..

We saw small, petite women and men carrying the hugest loads on their heads.  This is one woman we met along the path..

The view..

Our guide

The "road" home

Our many types of curry!  SOOOO yummy!!!

Sri Lanka - a land of beauty

After over 19 hours on planes, we finally landed in Sri Lanka on Friday, January 21 in the early morning. Local time was 8:45 a.m. - 13.5 hours ahead of PST. Yeah - that half hour extra is weird. Anyway, upon arrival, the excitement of the reality of my situation finally hit me - we are here! Our adventure can now officially begin! We got off the plane and went through customs - the EASIEST customs I've ever been through. They take your passport, look at it for about 10 seconds, run it through their system, stamp it with a "30 day entry" stamp and send you on your way! No cash paid, no hassle. It was fantastic (although now that I think about it, I wonder who else got into this country so easily.....).

We picked up our luggage and went outside to find the sign with our name on it and "Zion Guesthouse" - which we found quickly. Our driver was really nice and took us to his van which was SWEET - it looks like a nicer version of a VW bus with air conditioning! We piled in and as we did, a dog ran out from under the car. Random. We started out on the road and I tried talking to our driver for as long as I could, only to realize that he does't speak English very well at all. I said, "So the drive to Ella is about 3-4 hours, right?" He said, "Oh no, it's about 6 hours!" Oh! Right! Buckle up! Jen and I were grateful to have a nice van to make the trek.

As we started out on the drive, we quickly realized that this was the best decision EVER! It was our own personal tour of the island - a look at what local life is really like here. I kept thinking about Zanzibar as we drove through the small towns - rural, third world country land with people all over. All of the kids were in uniforms for school. There were many Muslims, Hindu, Buddhists, and other religions apparent through dress as well as mosques and temples dotting the land. They drive on the left side of the road here and have some pretty interesting traffic laws as well. Pretty much, it's if you feel like you should pass someone, you can - even if it means that you endanger the lives of you, your passengers, the poor pedestrians on the sides of the street, the drivers and passengers of the cars in front of you and in the lane of traffic sailing toward you. It made for quite the adventure. We went sailing through the streets, swerving around 3-wheelers (their main form of transportation - think motorcycle with 3 wheels and a back seat), dodging busses and seeing breathtaking landscape.

The land is GORGEOUS. I don't know that I've been anywhere where the landscape looks so much like National Geographic's pages - and I've been to a lot of places. Everything is green and lush - tea plantations cover the land with jutting peaks and rolling hills. Our driver stopped to get us some fresh coconuts and gave us some coconuts to drink the milk. I am not a fan of most drinks other than water - the sweetness of juice makes me sick to my stomach. Having drunken coconut milk in the past I was not too thrilled about this prospect, but was so grateful for the kind offering. As I began to drink I realized that this was a different kind of coconut - the nectar was sweeter and the chalkiness that usually exists was not present. I drank and drank and should have stopped....then he gave us a coconut split open with a little scoop made out of the top of it to scrape off the meat. The meat on this coconut was different! It was smooth and not chewy. At this point, I could handle no more and gratefully gave it back to my new friend.

We set back out on the road, about 2 1/2 hours into our 6 hour journey, it was at this point that the roads began to wind and wind and wind. If you've ever been to Maui, think the Road to Hanna times 3 1/2 hours and a LOT of elevation. Yeah, that coconut milk was not my friend anymore. I felt on the verge of throwing up the rest of the way, but was grateful at least by the breathtaking views. I'm not one to get road sick ever, but this was different. I was mad at Jen who fell asleep and slept through the whole thing. Lame.

When we arrived in Ella in the middle of the Hill Country, we immediately saw why the reviews for this place were so magical. We climbed up the side of a mountain in the van and he stopped at the top to say, "We are here." I looked out the side of the van only to see what appeared to be a drop off and said, "Where? Really?" I climbed down the steep, steep stairs to come to a beautiful house that overlooks the Ella Valley. We checked in and they took us to our room with a balcony and a hammock and 3 twin beds inside as well as our own bathroom with warm water (our biggest fear on this trip are the traditional toilets.....). It was about 3:30 p.m. local time and we asked for some food since all that I'd eaten all day was some coconut milk and we all know how that went over. They made us some delicious chicken curry with rice - my staple as of late. We tried to make each other stay up as late as possible which ended up being about 8 p.m. then slept like rocks until 6 a.m.

We woke up this morning only to see that yesterday wasn't a dream. We are in a beautiful place with one of the best views we have ever had in our lives. Today is a day of hiking and taking a cooking class from a local. Should be wonderful!

The gooey coconut..

 Jen in our hammock!

The view from our balcony was incredible!