Wrapping up Sri Lanka

A week in Sri Lanka probably doesn't deserve 3 posts but oh well...

The beach at Unawatuna was wonderful! Highly recommended. I got up wicked early to do sunrise picts (first two). Had breakfast at my hotel; Sun N Sea which is now a living tribute to the owner's wife who died in the tsunami - including photos, paintings and the piece of door she clung to. The rains meant visibility for scuba diving was bad so they didn't want to take me out. Too bad - I haven't been diving since 2001! Instead I laid on the beach.... all day... Seriously. The ocean was wonderful - the first day it was what I'll call Grandma-appropriate waves (totally mild and perfect for floating for hours). The second day was Grandpa-appropriate; rough enough for good body surfing. Mom, correct me if I've reversed the labels:)

For sunset I thought I'd head into Galle, which is surrounded by a fort built by the Dutch in the 1600s. While the tsunami devastated Unawatuna, the fort walls totally protected Galle. It also has shops and nice restaurants (Unawatuna has almost nothing except beach huts). And while it was lovely, I realized I'd much rather continue lying on the beach. One of the surprises of Galle was all the different religions co-mingling. You see the pictures of monks and young muslim kids and there were also tons of churches. Nice to see.

Final thoughts on how Sri Lanka is different than India:

• didn't see anyone peeing on the street
• far less horn honking
• my rickshaw (called tuk-tuks) had a sun roof; plexiglass and all
• much more catering to western food tastes; did I mention that all my colleagues found thai food too hot to eat:) Now they see what I mean!
• A store called Baghdad Gifts (okay not really different than India but it struck me as funny)
• 5 hour drive - only 2 McDonalds (and with beef!)
• Dogs aren't scared of my patented pretend to throw a rock at them trick - don't know if sri lankans are nicer to their dogs or the dogs are just tougher.
  

Colombo to Unawatuna

The conference had its closing ceremony this morning – which I skipped. The conference was good overall. We brought 11 people from India (7 posters and 5 presentations) and ran into colleagues from Nepal, Cambodia, China, Myanmar and Pakistan. Compared to the Australia conference it wasn’t nearly as scientific – which is good and bad. Good because stuff was more usable and practical (and a lot more representation from ‘community members’) but bad because the level of the presenters was incredibly variable; many were completely pathetic. It was the first international conference held in Sri Lanka and you could tell. For me as presenter it meant that my presentation didn’t really relate much to the others in my session (mine was on the fact that the majority of men who pay for sex in our areas aren’t truckers or migrants and was part of a violence prevention session) and for me as an attendee it meant that it was hard to know which sessions to go to. And the organization of the whole thing really tested my patience. My colleagues – most of whom had never been out of India or to a conference – said they were disappointed that they didn’t learn more but actually it was useful in terms of building everyone’s ability to know how to navigate these things in the future, and for contacts and for actual learnings (who knew that Indonesia had such a comprehensive HIV prevention/treatment program for drug users in its prisons?).

So instead of going to the closing ceremony I decided to try my luck on a second class train ticket to head to the beach. Various books said Unawatuna (described as top 10 beach in the world pre-tsunami) was 2 to 5 hours away. I successfully got a train ticket and got on the right train (was a bit touch and go there) but there’s no first class on this train and honestly I saw no difference between 2^nd and 3^rd. It was PACKED! And of course I was lugging around a medium-sized trolley bag and computer bag and camera bag and weighed down by all the materials I had picked up at the conference. Not well packed for the situation. Fortunately, as is almost always the case, some poor gentleman took pity on me and shoved his way through the crowd with my bag until he found a place that satisfied him for me. He then made various suggestions about how to best situate myself, went to his cabin and returned back at stops to suggest I move based on whether people were clearing out or coming on. Honestly, the kindness of strangers is always amazing. He made up for all the people who frustrated me in my first few days. So I stood near the door of the train, sardeened between various sized people and the bathroom (lovely). I was beginning to question my desire to save money (it was $1.80 for the train and $60 for a taxi) but it’s all about expectation setting – I knew it would be insane, and it was.

The train follows the coast – really closely (as you can see from the top pict). It’s easy to tell how a train was swept away on this track for one of the greatest losses of life in the tsunami. The cars from that infamous event are actually the ones you see on the left of the side of the train – they are completely battered, as if a mob took bats and stones to them for hours. The scenery was pretty – the one side ocean and the other palms and villages (all pictured). After the first hour, the train crowd thinned. I still had to stand but could occasionally move my legs or arms. Thankfully the trip was just under 3 hours and arrived at a great little beach. I had an incident while laying out with a group of local boys (maybe 16 year olds) being extremely vulgar and having to raise the issue with their care taker. But other than that – the weather is perfect, the ocean is really nice to swim in and a stunning shade of aqua, sitting in a beach hut with a beer watching a stunning sunset over the palm forests – it just doesn’t get better. I’ve got big plans for tomorrow which includes 5 hours of sitting on the beach.

Sri Lanka - first two days

Crazy moment of the day - lounging on a chair by the pool at the hotel listening to "Country Road - West Virginia" while an iguana the size of my arm walked under my chair and disappeared. Literally - never saw him again!

I'm not sure I'm in the best position to be judging Sri Lanka yet - my flight left Delhi at 2am and arrived in Colombo at 5am - which is not the best way to get sleep. And then the conference I'm attending (ICAAP - international congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific) provides a bus from the airport to the hotel which of course means lots of waiting and then a crazy line at check-in as we all descend on the desk at the same time. So I'm tired.

But I have to say I'm not overly impressed with Colombo. It's just India with guns, beef and better beer. The city doesn't really seem like a big city (the indians keep noting the streets are abandoned) as it just has some hotels - and not much else of note. I'm told there's good cheap clothes (cuz, yeah, I need more clothes) and the beach is pretty but not one where I would lay out as it's packed with indian men who can't swim and it's sorta dirty. So you can get that in India. Service has been really poor so far which isn't helped by the fact that I clearly haven't mastered the Sri Lankan accent, as I have for India - because people here have NO idea what I'm saying.

I did hear the President speak today at the opening ceremony. His speech wasn't bad - but they really want people to think Sri Lanka is safe. Really really want that.

The rest of the island sounds really nice, with tea estates, gorgeous beaches and elephant orphanages. I'm planning on heading to a beach at the end of the week and am looking forward to it. But I guess I was expecting more from Colombo. I think I'll sit by the pool tomorrow until 2 when the work starts!

Back in the NCR

NCR=National Capital Region (it's what they call Delhi and its suburbs).

Anyways, I'm back and it's hot!! It's about 10pm and my thermometer reads 90F and wicked humid!!!! I stepped off the plane and it hit me like a ton of bricks (along with that lovely Delhi smell). For a quick summary of my travels in the US

Southern Cal: First I went to Kristin's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and it was so nice to see Kristin and her family. Some highlights:

• The bride and groom walking out to the reception to House of Pain's 'Jump Around'
  
• The slide show of Kristin and Larry's lives - so sweet and inspired Kristin's little brother to comment that we haven't changed since high school (not sure yet whether that's a good thing)
  

Amherst was great as always; lots of scrabble with mom and john, time with Kin, browsing used record stores, lots of coffee. Great food.

The final stop in the US was good old Lancaster County PA. This involved an Amish vegetable auction where my cousin got an egg sandwich, I got a donut and mom's partner John bought 8 large boxes of tomatoes. The kids actually looked poor, ripped dirty clothes and barefoot. That was unexpected. And the women were hefty and it was enjoyable to think that men must have very different ideals of women there. Got some good family time with Grandma, aunts and uncles and cousins. Much needed. And Rachel made a trip up for a quick lunch and walk and then turned right around. THANKS RACHEL!!!

Headed to Sri Lanka in a week so will definitely have more good stories then.