The first time we visited Sri Lanka in 2014, we fell in love with this small, pearl shape, multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual country at the southern tip of India. We spent 3 weeks here, mostly exploring the Southern part of the island, moving slowly and doing a first assessment of Sri Lanka as a potential home base for us in Asia, in the future.
Soon Sri Lanka became rich with opportunities for work, for travel and for impact. All who follow our journey know that Peta fell in love with baby elephant Namal. Fast forward multiple months and we are still very much on track to have Ben simultaneously pursuing business opportunities and both of us working toward a solution for a prosthetic leg for Namal.
We land in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, with one way tickets from Bali. From the green rice fields of Bali to the congested city streets of Colombo – not exactly an easy transition.
On our flight from Dempasar Bali to Colombo Sri Lanka, we are the only “gringos”.
We have three objectives: 1) explore more of the country, 2) expand Ben’s business potential with the Sri Lankan government and Air Force and 3) help Namal get a new prosthetic leg.
In our guest house in Colombo, a symbolic painting on the wall hinting at our core mission in Sri Lanka: Baby elephant Namal.
Over the past year, in Chicago, we started a fund raising initiative to finance a prosthetic leg for Namal (who lost his leg to a poacher’s trap). Our efforts have focused on building up a team of 3D printing experts, combining them with elephant specialists and prosthetics experts to try and come up with a viable solution.
See: http://www.greenglobaltrek.org/2015/05/baby-elephant-namal-needs-a-new-leg.html
Meeting with a local 3D printing company in Colombo, to discuss potential collaboration on prosthetic 3D printing for animals and humans. We are assembling a team which has both 3D printing capability and animal and human prosthetic technical knowledge.
Travel by tuk tuk — the fastest easiest way to get around traffic congested Colombo. Often a “hair raising” experience, with many near misses as tuk tuk drivers weave in and out of traffic at break neck speed. Best to shut your eyes!
On the other hand, shutting our eyes would rob us of the myriad little gems to be found hidden here and there on the streets of Colombo. For example, fresh coconut water…
More treats to be found: Dohsa! While the geo-political relationship between Sri Lanka and India is a complicated one, everyone wins on the culinary front. Curry and rice is the staple of Sri Lankan cuisine. Vegetable curries, mutton curries, chicken curries and of course seafood curries…
Across the road from where we stayed, we found the “Dohsa House” – $1 for a dohsa with chutneys. We are transported back to Kerala in Southern India at the first bite.
Breakfast in our guest house. Curried shrimp cabbage salad and coconut palm sugar crepes.
We have yet to lock in on a preferred spot in Colombo, both in terms of neighborhoods and in terms of a specific “home base”. The key factor in Colombo is to preferably be walking distance or a short tuk tuk ride to where you need to be / want to go. i.e. avoid the traffic. Ben has numerous meetings, holding meetings in hotel lobbies, at the US embassy and with key international organizations represented in Colombo. (Lucky he had a suit made in Chiang Mai!).
Initially, we bounce around between various spots, looking for comfort and convenience – an AirBNB guesthouse, a low cost hotel that we quickly escape from, a more upscale hotel that is one block from the ocean front… Each accommodation yields a few vignettes of Colombo.
Around the corner from our guesthouse. Chinese foot reflexology spa open 24/7.
Even though Colombo is a traffic congested city, it does have an ocean front, which brings a welcome relief from urban life.
Peta has set up a writing job for a unique boutique hotel in a Colombo neighborhood we have not spent much time in – Mount Lavinia. One of the great advantages of Peta’s pursuit of writing gigs along our Green Global Trek is that we get to discover neighborhoods and stay in some spacious, luxurious digs. Quite the treat.
Restored lovingly and with a sense of flair, the Margosa Residencies provide us with a luxurious abode steps away from a very pleasant city beach in the Colombo district of Mount Lavinia. A multitude of beach-side restaurants where we can put our feet in the sand, under the full moon, eating fresh seafood from the Indian Ocean. Colombo is starting to grow on us.
This will make a good base for us in Colombo in the years ahead. Our Asian Green Global Trek is only 2 years in and Sri Lanka is firming up as one of our anchor locations.
A fast moving red passenger train speeds by a few times a day, steps from the beach and right in front of where we are staying. We both enjoy the old fashioned train noises, as the train whizzes by with passengers hanging out the open doorways and clustered around the windows.
Feet in the sand, cappucino and salads. A good place to relax and unwind after braving the Colombo traffic.
Mount Lavinia has a surprisingly nice city beach. The sand is soft and clean, the water is warm and the sun is shining.
Kite flying, one of the few activities taking place on this big stretch of sandy beach right next to the city.
In Sri Lanka, cricket is a religion in and of itself. Our status is instantly elevated with locals once they find out Peta is from South Africa, due to the prowess of the South African cricket team. (This is a bit reminiscent of the positive response we got from Cubans when we told them we lived in Nicaragua.) Instant kinship! We have to “brush up” on current famous South African cricket players.
Yum, dosa! I remember them being dirt cheap and very tasty in Kerala. Here in Vancouver we have a favourite place (“House of Dosa”) where all the dosas go for $6 on Monday evenings, so that’s definitely the night of choice. I’ve heard people say that Sri Lanka is “India Lite”, any thoughts?
Thanks for your comments Gili.
Sri Lanka is more complicated than that.. Only a small minority of its population is Hindu, with the majority being Singhalese Buddhist. The language, the food are distinct from India, yet when we travelled to the predominantly Hindu North we did feel transported back to India. Stay tuned for quite a few more blog posts coming up on this fascinating country.
Great post. I’m looking forward to reading more about this country as it’s high on our “places to go” list.
Thanks Caroline.
You can take a look at our blog posts from our first visit in October 2014, which will give you some good ideas of what it’s like to travel in the South of the country.(Archive: Sri Lanka)
In the next few weeks we will be posting quite a few entries with lots of photos from our time in Sri Lanka in early February.
Sri Lanka is certainly one of the most interesting and diverse countries we have ever been in.
Eric L.
You got me brushing up on my geography, as I had no idea where you are…
The food sounds scrumptious!
What a challenge you have stepping up to provide a prosthetic leg for the elephant!
I am envious…
Eric yes.. Sri Lanka is not an obvious tourist destination like Thailand for example, and it is still rather
“rough” around the edges, which is a huge part of its charm and authenticity.
Helping baby elephant Namal has been a focus and dream of mine for a year and to finally be in a place where it is actually happening is really an amazing feeling of accomplishment. Stay tuned for that story!! Coming up soon….
I felt quite transported to Colombo. The setup you have in Lavinia looks wonderful. And the food had me drooling. Dohsas! Yum 🙂
Alison
Thanks Alison. We were pretty pleased to have found such a serene and aesthetically pleasing place in Mount Lavinia. Now we know where we will stay when we return to Sri Lanka next as we surely will both for Ben’s work and for Namals leg.
The dohsas were very delicious as were the curries.
My children the voyagers, the adventurers !!!!!! You will have plenty of exciting memories for your old age!!!!!!
YES YES happily “guilty as charged!”…. This is what happens when you pair up a Sagittarius and an Aries!
We ARE doing our best to have as MANY exciting moments (and memories) as we can!
Sri Lanka is high on my list of places I want to visit since It has a lot to offer with great culture, landscapes and delicious food. Your food pictures have made me very hungry, I love curries and spicy food. I do hope the baby elephant will adapt well to his new prosthetic leg.
Thanks for your feedback Gilda!
Sri Lanka truly does have a wealth of diversity … We will be posting more stories in the next few weeks which will really whet your appetite! And if you love spicy food, then food wise too you will be very happy. The food is super spicy unless you request of otherwise. Stay tuned!
Scenic, tasty, relaxing, busy: I’m green with envy! Thanks for allowing us to live vicariously. I’m sending on the Namal website to the science students at Tufts where elephants are the school mascot. Fingers crossed something comes of it! XO
Thanks Ellyn! We will be doing more fund raising for Namal, as he will need a new prosthetic device every 6 months or so, given how quickly elephants grow. Once he has his “own” bank account it will be much easier hopefully to get larger donations and groups behind the effort. It would be awesome to somehow involve Tufts students in the fund raising.
Love following your adventures!
Thanks Alon, glad you are enjoying the blog!
A very interesting post. I like what you guys are doing. I spent a little time on the beach near Colombo. Others say Sri Lanka is “wonderful.” But for some reason, I didn’t get that feeling. Perhaps I needed to get away from where I was? Good luck with your happenings there. How did/do you get writing jobs on the go like this?
Thanks Badfish.
Were you only on a beach near Colombo? If so, I can understand why you didn’t get a great feeling about Sri Lanka as Colombo is the least appealing place and once you get out into smaller and also more rural areas it’s a totally different place of course. (It would be as of you went to India but did not get beyond Delhi.) So keep reading as more Sri Lankan treats and wonder are about to be blogged about. I do hope you give it a second chance.
I really lucked out by getting my first writing job with a chain of Luxurious 5 star hotels, writing for their blog, and once I had that, they were a great reference for other jobs in the same vein.