Highway Robbery, I Tell Ya

Our hotel has an overpriced breakfast buffet to the tune of $15 per person, and we didn't think it was worth it, so we tried to get by with whatever snacks we had packed. Here, Nicole spreads peanut butter and some jelly she took from our Delta flight on an old piece of bread. Our meals have reached an all-time low.

After our unfulfilling breakfast of floppy bread, nuts, and nutrigrain bars, we ventured off to Sigiriya Rock. It is a very famous site from an archaeological and historic standpoint, and the popular thing to do is to hike up to the top of the rock to see the ruins of an ancient settlement. It is, however, as we discovered really really expensive...and they didn't take credit card. It was the equivalent of $30 per person, which for perspective, is $20 more than entrance to the Louvre. I was in disbelief at the price, and to be honest kind of frustrated. Because part of the payment processing involved showing a passport.

You see, if you have a certain passport, maybe you can get a better deal if you catch my drift. The sky was very grey and looked like it could rain any minute, so the prospect of climbing up lots of stairs sandwiched between a rock face and a Chinese tour group wasn't hugely appealing. And in the end, it wasn't even an option because we literally could not afford it. We talked to the driver regarding our options, and he negotiated with a tuk tuk driver to take us to a neighboring rock called Pidurangala, roughly 2km away. This one was only $3, so that seemed more reasonable.

We set out for the top, traversing many narrow and uneven steps and we got a taste of what Sigiriya would have been like...minus the crowds of suckers foreign tourists. After climbing for just a few minutes, we reached one plateau where we could see a miniature buddha and also a glimpse of Sigiriya rock.



As we continued our climb, it began to rain. Lightly at first, then developed into a downpour that never really let up. While under the canopy of trees, we were mostly protected, but eventually the path opened up as we neared the top, and the it seemed that everyone who was on the path going up or down seemed to have taken shelter underneath a rock overhang next to a statue of Buddha lying down.

We waited there for perhaps twenty minutes waiting to see if conditions would improve. No one budged. We all stood there - bonded by our fear of slippery steps and getting wet. Eventually someone had to make a move, and it was me. I was hungry. I feared if we waited too long, I would end up missing lunch. But rather than continue to the summit (what was the point, visibility was less than 1/2 mile through fog), we reversed carefully down the path until reaching the safety of the trees and finally the bottom.

For the afternoon, we had scheduled a jeep safari trek through a nearby national park with the hope of seeing some elephants, but the rain was relentless. I checked the forecast and it said 100% chance of rain throughout the entire duration of the safari. Today has been one letdown after another. Now we face the chance of going on a safari and not seeing any animals, which kind of defeats the purpose. Sigh. When we got back to our hotel for a short break before the safari, room service had been in our room and created this display.

We're going to need it.

On the Road Again

We set off on another long road trip, making a brief pit stop at a place called Nine Arch Gap, where we watched the train cruise (slowly) across a bridge to the other side of the valley.

We settled in for the long journey ahead of us. This country has given me a great deal of perspective regarding time and distance. I really shouldn't complain about driving to Burbank from the Westside anymore . . . but I will. Places on a map look so close, yet take shockingly large amounts of time to connect. It is simply the reality in 2016. It would not surprise me if in the next decade there is an island-wide system of major highways connecting the main cities. It would certainly make things a lot easier...especially on folks like our driver, who was struggling to find a place off the road that had any rice left. On that note, Nicole is sick of rice. She is craving a burger and salad.




Meanwhile back in the car, our driver made a separate stop to a stand to buy coconuts. He quickly downed one on the side of the road and gave another one to me. Coconut water is nothing new to me. It is a dime a dozen in Los Angeles, and I was never terribly fond of it. However, it was handed to me, having already been purchased, so I felt obligated. I put on my best present face, "mmmMMm different than what I expected!" Thirty miles later, I was still nursing it when it sloshed over onto my pants. Within another ten miles, it found itself being tossed out the passenger side window.



We ultimately checked in to the Cinnamon Lodge hotel in Habarana. They really push buffets here, and they're a bit overpriced, so Nicole and I decided to walk around to see if there were any other options. We settled on the neighboring hotel, where to Nicole's misfortune, we had rice and curry . . . again. Poor Nicole. She just wants that burger. Overall, she's been a good sport. For someone who doesn't like spicy foods or things with lots of flavor, she made quite the transition from Honey Bunches of Oats to Dhal curry. Tomorrow will be a busy day around Sigiriya. We have been warned that it could be quite hot. Stay tuned.

98 Acres Is The Place To Be

We awoke this morning to the soft warm glow of the sun rising above the mountains. I stepped out onto our balcony to snap some pictures and do some video to capture the sounds of the very active wildlife. In spite of the many moths and other creatures buzzing about, we both slept very well throughout the night. The netting seems to have done its job. It was now about 7am, and we decided to go for a short hike to a place called Little Adam's Peak.

It was only about half a mile from our villa to the top of the peak, and it gave us good views looking back toward the 98 Acres Resort. It was nice and cool for our brief trek. There were many stray dogs along the path, and especially at the top. Nothing annoys me quicker than a pack of strays following me wherever I go. Poor lil' Cole and lil' Brian had to contend with lil' Mopsy atop lil' Adam's Peak. Eventually they discovered we weren't as interesting as some other tourists, and we seemed to give them the slip.

This was not before two of them ganged up on another and literally pushed it off the side of the mountain. It seemed like a survivable fall, but we never saw that dog again. Dogs are terrible people.

In any event, after taking our pictures, we made our way back down the hill and to the 98 acres resort. We had some breakfast with a 360º panorama of the surrounding area. Christmas music was playing in the background. I forgot where I was for a bit.

I was a bit surprised at the extent at which people celebrate Christmas. There are wreaths and trees everywhere with music playing at all hotel lobbies and restaurants. I have to keep reminding myself that I am in fact in the highlands in the middle of Sri Lanka. We are a long way from home.

Today we have a long drive in store for us again. We are trying to figure out a few stops to break it up, but there will still be at least a three hour stretch with nothing. Wish us luck.

We Could Use an Umbrella-ella-Ella

It was a very calm morning on Sri Lanka's south coast. We walked briefly on the beach and it seemed we were the only ones up. We had scheduled a driver to pick us up around 10:00. He was an hour and a half late. It wasn't the best start of our journey up country to Ella. When he did finally arrive, he felt the need to keep asking directions or inquiring about shortcuts despite google maps confirming that we were on the correct routing the entire time. At one point he stopped to ask a man holding balloons -- which I think we can all agree is the universal sign for someone who knows there way around.

And thus, a 130 mile drive took more than five hours. I was having flashbacks to Cuba, but instead of the car breaking down, it was just a really slow drive entailing getting stuck behind tuk tuks, swerving for cows or stray dogs, and stopping to ask directions. Eventually, however, we did arrive in Ella, up in mist-draped green mountains in Sri Lanka's interior. The temperature here is much cooler and the sounds of the local wildlife (namely insects) are quite pronounced, especially now at night. It is like listening to a sound machine that helps one sleep.

With such lush green mountains, it was apparent that this area gets a good amount of rainfall, and it only took an hour from checking in to the 98 Acres resort, that it began to rain quite hard. We scurried to the restaurant for dinner where Nicole and I both had rice and curry with various toppings ranging from beets to cabbage and finished it off with some curd (and beer obviously). We are staying at a very nice place overlooking the hills. We essentially have our own little villa of sorts. There were a few resident moths already making themselves comfortable, but who can blame them. It's a nice place. After relaxing for a bit, we put the netting down around our bed and settled in.

Golly, We're in Galle

Isuru has had a few schedule changes over the last few weeks since he was recently hired at SriLankan Airlines. Since he had to work today, his brother was nice enough to drive us south to Galle, which is more of a beach and resort area. There is a new highway going between Colombo and Galle which has shaved the time it takes to get to the south, but it still seemed far. We were able to check in to our hotel and changed into our beach gear to sit by the water for a bit. After that we had a late lunch of rice and curry and then hired a tuk tuk driver to take us to Galle fort.

The fort has basically been around since the 1600s and was primarily occupied by the Dutch. Now the area consists of quaint looking shops and restaurants, all enclosed by the old walls of the fort which overlooks the Indian Ocean. We were there around sunset, but there was so much haze on the horizon, our pictures didn't really turn out as we'd hoped. We walked around the perimeter for a bit where we saw a lighthouse and some other unique looking buildings that look like they had been around for a long time.

While everyone had their cameras pointed toward the sunset, I found the lush greenery in the other direction more interesting. There were quite a few people walking around the fort -- the most tourists we had seen since the Taj Mahal. After walking around most of the fort, we zig-zagged through the narrow streets amongst the restaurants and shops. Nobody was really sitting down to eat, so we figured it was a better bet to just head back to our hotel.

Something wasn't relayed quite accurately, and I noticed that the tuktuk had overshot the hotel. Fortunately I recognized this fairly quick and he made a u-turn. At least so far, it seems Sri Lankans are much more inclined to be friendly to us and not just follow and stare. Nicole, in particular, appreciates this. Our only trouble seems to be some language issues. Nicole specified in five different ways, that she didn't want any cheese on her pasta for lunch. This was somehow interpreted as extra cheese, but what can you do.
We were feeling a bit lazy, so we figured we would just order some food up to our room to eat on the balcony. After that, we walked back down to the beach to take some pictures. They had the water somewhat lit with lights up above, which made it look very turquoise. We dipped our feet into the Indian Ocean to say we had now set foot in all of the world's oceans with the exception of the Southern Ocean, but that would require going to Antarctica, and we kind of like this whole summer in December thing we have going on.

Two friends, two countries, one day.

Today was fairly low key. We met up with Uma later in the morning to go to the nearby Sobha City Mall. It is a very modern complex with many upscale shops. We were basically just mall walkers, chatting as we slowly walked around. Eventually we went outside the mall to sit overlooking a manmade lake with many high-rise apartment buildings towering above it. It was very interesting learning about each other's culture. It was fascinating to hear about the dating culture (or lack thereof) in India. It is like a twilight zone where people use Tinder to find someone to marry.

Eventually we had to leave, however because we had an afternoon flight and the airport was about an hour and a half drive. We said our goodbyes and had our final experience with Indian traffic. The Cochin Airport is only slightly more efficient than Delhi. A man with a cart full of luggage tried to cut us off in line, but the guard stopped the man and allowed us to maintain our place. There was still excessive redundancy, though. After the guard at the entrance, I had my boarding pass looked at five different times, and stamped three times by three different people with the same stamp. Passing through customs was very similar to waiting at the check-in counter for American Airlines. There's a lot of activity behind the desk and a lot of typing, but what actually occurs is a mystery. The level of security is probably more heightened than in America because everyone gets patted down and wanded after passing through the metal detector, so all these steps may be arguably better, but it just seems there are an unnecessary number of hoops to jump through.

It was a short flight from Cochin to Colombo in Sri Lanka. Going through customs and immigration here was significantly easier and streamlined. It was a welcome change. Just outside the baggage claim, my friend Isuru, a former student from my flight instructing days was waiting along with another flying club student, Dinindu. They were kind enough to come pick us up and take us from the airport into town. We drove down the new highway, so it was a relatively short trip until we hit the traffic of the city. It's interesting to be in yet another country. While tuk tuks are still zipping around on the roads, there are not very many other similarities between the two countries that are separated by just a short flight.

Colombo is a city undergoing transformation. There is a lot of development going on with new luxury hotels popping up everywhere. We checked in to the Cinnamon Red Hotel and then met up to do dinner at a place called the Cricket Club. It had a menu that covered all the bases from fish to pasta to chicken sandwiches to mexican wraps. I went with fish & chips. Nicole, being the Italian that she is, went for the pasta. Needless to say, it was a very different meal from yesterday. We made it an early night in an attempt to catch up on much needed sleep. We're on the move again tomorrow.

Immersion

We met up with Uma for lunch at her house. Her mom had prepared some traditional Kerala cuisine that consisted of rice, vegetable curry, and beet root, and poppadoms. All of this went on our plates and we mashed it together with our hands before balling it up and eating it.
*Dear mom, we all washed our hands first. All of the ingredients were either fried, baked, or cooked. I took pepto.
There was also some curd (yogurt-like dip) to add to the mix as well. After a few servings, we all had rice pudding.

Afterward, we walked around Uma's neighborhood as she pointed out the different buildings and shared a little bit of the history of the area. We walked inside the house behind Nicole in this picture, which is like 800 years old or something crazy like that. The building was in a state of disrepair, but interesting to see nonetheless. We continued walking around the neighborhood. It was all very relaxing and surreal.

When I think of cultures and places that are a complete 180 from my own, I think this is it. And yet here we were, thousands of miles from home, casually walking through a neighborhood of a small town in southern India. While it was of course amazing to see a famous site like the Taj Mahal yesterday. Today, I feel like I really saw India -- which was a much more interesting experience that was (quite literally) hands-on. Nicole was on her best behavior as well and was willing to try new things. You should all be very proud of her.


We had an afternoon snack of tea and bananas, that were picked from across the street. We talked about filmmaking, the differences between the American and Indian film industries, and how women are perceived in each one, which surprisingly or not is probably not all that different. Then as chance would have it, a photographer for The Hindu, an Indian newspaper wanted to do a photograph for an article regarding Nicole's and Uma's film, so we got in the car and went to the town center near a Hindu temple to do the pictures.

For whatever reason, I somehow ended up being in some of the photos. It was not clear why, but I was instructed to do so. I thought it was because of confusion. Perhaps I was perceived as being the producer or something because I am a man. That is where my mind went anyway. It could be completely false, but I couldn't really disprove the theory because there was a language barrier. I could end up in a photograph in an Indian newspaper without knowing why, but after all I am one half of Bricole (everyone's favorite celebrity couple). This brings me to a small anecdote from our walk earlier.

Two women who knew Uma stopped her in the street to ask about Nicole and I. The exchange took place in malayalam so we didn't really know what was being said. We just smiled and waved. Apparently they were asking what our story was. Were we brother and sister? Were we to be wed? When is the wedding date? When Uma translated it for us, we were somewhat surprised that a conversation that went on for little more than 10 seconds had somehow already discussed marriage. Even my most pushy relatives wait at least an hour or two. It's a fascinating cultural difference that puts so much emphasis on the need to marry, but not dating. To be fair, most Americans probably find Nicole's and my situation unusual. And I think things like that expose a lot of cultural bias within our own society and without. Thrissur, India is certainly very different from the westside of Los Angeles, and I'm sure people in America would be quick to judge the practice of arranged marriages in India, but folks in the U.S. are just as quick to scoff at the idea that Nicole and I have been together for more than seven years and are not engaged. So there you have it -- everyone thinks we're ridiculous, despite being everyone's favorite celebrity couple.