Weekend #3 - Udawalawe & Poya

Friday after work we tried to catch a bus to Udawalawe park and spend the night in a hotel outside of the resort. But Friday we were in the field and didn't get home until late. So by the time we got to the buses they were few and far between. So we delcided to get up at the literal crack of dawn on Saturday to bus out there and go on a Safari.

We managed to make a bus in Tangalle and changed over successfully in Embilipitya. We were dropped off into the lap of an awaiting Safari driver and after accepting his initial ow season offer we took off with him in the back of his 4WD army green truck.

On our way to the park we passed along the dyke of the reservoir and saw our first Elephant!

 

A lone male probably begging food off the passer-bys.

Krista in the truck working on what would eventually become the best windswept wolverine-esque hairdoo in the history of Krista hairdoos.

 

After paying the foreigner fee again! We picked up a guide who came with the park fees and were off. The road was definately 4WD necessary. This is a bit of a tamer section at the beginning of the park. There were peacocks and peahens all over the place. Sadly, its another month until their breeding plumage comes in.

We stopped at one of the "tanks" as our guide called them. There was a crocodile cruising around. The water buffalo in the water were unconcerned. Apparently crocodiles only go after the young and they were on the bank circled by the adults. 

Another crocodile sunning on the bank.

This is Krista and our first sighting of elephants within the confines of the park!. I think this was a mom and a few of her children. 

This was the largest group we saw of the day. This mom had a young calf and was nursing it under this tree while she was snoozing.

Some of the other members of the group. They were all grazing. They sort of whack at the grass then find a good chunck and twirl it until they get it then shove it in their mouths.

Our guide kindly took a picture with both of us and the elephants. There are better pictures, but I thought this one was hilarious.

One of the teenagers was getting curious and thought that she would come and eat near our truck.

She got pretty close. I probably should have smiled bigger, but I was concerned about the approaching elephants....

When it was time to move on, the elephants had sort of surrounded the vehicle As we drove, there was a mom and her baby beside the road. When we passed she got stressed and made a charge for the truck with ears wagging and trunk sticking out. Luckily our guide was swift and scared her off as he got pick an waved his hat round.

It was good to be reminded that these are wild animals.

My camera battery died at this point, so forgive the lack of pictures.

Next we came across a young male standing in the middle of the road. As we approached he trumpeted and rand into the brush. He was calling his mom who came up close to the truck and started growling. A low rumbling growl. She eventually relaxed and we Krista got some nice pictures of the pair.

We continued on our journey, we saw a jackel, hornbill, spotted deer, wild boar, monitor lizards, grey heron, hawk eagle, Sea eagle (not seagull), monkeys, parakeets and other marvelous bird.

We also went to the place where you can spend the night for a fee. The guide showed us a tower to climd with great 360 view of the reservoir and the mountain range. He pointed out some of the small towns up in the hills and Adam's peak.

On our way out of the park we saw another group of elephants and some more birds. 

The bus ride back was just as sucessful and even more cramped, but we made it home tired and happy.

 SUNDAY-

Today we tried to go to the market, but everything was closed. We were offered watermelon from people and strolled around. Today is the full moon holiday (Poya) so it wasn't a major shock to find everything closed.. We also saw a motorbike get sideswiped by a bus right beside us (we were on the sidewalk). The fellas on the bike were alright, but not so much the bike. I hate hearing the sound of crunching metal. There were lots of people on the scene to help and being that no one was seriously injured we felt it was okay to move on a after a few minutes.

Weekend #2 - Blowhole and Rock Temple

SATURDAY -

We woke up on Saturday morning to monsoon rains. The lagoon outside of our place which is about the size of a football field, filled 2 feet higher than the level it was sitting in a few hours. We spent the morning having a slow breakfast and reading and catching up on a few things we neglected over the week. Then I said, enough of this. We are Vancouverites, when did a little rain ever stop us from doing anything. The answer is fairly often, but since the rain had begun to ease we decided to get out of the house.

The staff at Moonstone called a Tuk-tuk for us and we were on our way. After hurtling down the main road a few clicks we were off in the "sub-urbs" again. Passing a few lagoons, produce stands, cows, mangey dogs and homes along the way.

Our driver let us out here. He told us to go up these steps to get to the blowhole. He waited, we went.

I would call them stairs, but they are not really stairs. They are stone steps that are crookedy ad jaggedy.

This was a small beach on the way to the Blowhole. I could stay here for a while.

We paid a foreigner fee to get in. I am thinking it was about 3 times as much as the locals pay. But its not like I can try to fake that I am from this country. Not by a long shot. Anways there were more stairs to the top of the rocks and then a fantastic view of the hole. There were lots of local people there taking in the sight. We waited around for about 10 minutes before things started to take off and the blowhole lived up to its name. 

 Blowhole in action.

The crowd of people where hoooooooooo-ing and hollering to encourage the spray to come up.

 A snap of us in front of the hole. We didn't get to close as suggested by the signage. And the bars.

We were just about to leave when the blowhole gave another shorter and less impressive performace, but it was appreciated, none the less.

Krista posing in the mangroves. Some of the people from work had tried to take us with them when they went last week, but we missed them because they were super late for the arranged meeting time, and they took a bunch of photos and posed here, so we took some too!

SUNDAY -

At our usual Saturday night dinner at Ruwan's (our landlord's) place we arranged a tuk-tuk ride from his brother the tuk-tuk guy to go to the Muligiri rock temple Sunday morning.

Again, another crazy tuk-tuk ride through town and into a more rural area. Our guy once again dropped us off and pointed to some stairs. So, we climbed them.

The stairs leading up from the parking lot to the ticket office. Where again we had to pay a foreigner price. C'est la vie I guess. The guy at the ticket office was albino and spoke pretty good English. He told us to check a few rooms on this level then head on up in the other direction.

There were several little rooms in the rock temple Each had granite walls that were covered (every inch) with either a painted pattern or scenes like this one. Even the roof was painted.

Each room had a massive yellow Buddha in a side-lying position along the back wall. I am not really sure what the significance of that was. But it was cool to see. There were also other statues of the Buddha in each room.

This is looking up form the bottom of the big granite rock to the top.

A little lizard we found basking in the sun on the terracotta roof tiles. We saw Sri Lankan people carrying these up as we were going down to repair the temples at the top. Probably another reason we pay a foreigner entrance fee ;)

 

Krista climbing even more stairs!

Krista sitting at the edge of the rock with the valley behind her. Almost at the top!

These stairs to the last level were crazy. I don't think this picture does it justice. They were steep and headed  at an unusual angle. They were mind boggling like something you would expect to see out of one of those optical illusion paintings.

Temple at the top.

We saw these monkeys on our way down. The moma has a baby. So cute!

View up the rock again with a bell in the foreground.

View from the top.

Our legs were pretty beat after doing the climb. And we were really sweaty. But it was worth it. The few temples we have been to have an air of peace and serenity about them. They seem to always be very calm places with good energy.

At Work

Navajeeana

I took some quick pictures at the end of the day today. Just to give the people back home what a physio gets to work with in Sri Lanka. Enjoy!

 

Me and my 83 year old osteoperotic hip fracture patient. She is a trooper, coming for 2 one hour sessions each day.

Maru, Genius (his nickname) and me. Students we are workingwith from Colombo university. They taught us how to wrap amputee stumps today!

One of the curtained off treatment areas. Complete with untrasound machine. Vindya the rehab assistant is way ahead of the RAs in Canada and uses that thing "like it aint no thang".

Outdoor parallel bars. Enough said.

Shelf o' toys and the first stationary bike ever.

The rehab gym with the neuro bed. 

The fan was broken until yesterday. So this room just got a whole lot better!

First Weekend

We planned on going to Ho-o maniya Blowhole with some of the therapists and staff from the centre. But when we showed up at the centre we were shooed away by the security man. We decided to wait outside the gates for our friends to meet us. We waited for 45 minutes allowing for some rubber time. We thought that the rain probably kept them away. So we left. We called home talked to some of our family members for a bit, then headed to check out the beaches.


Our beach dog

Unfortunately that afternoon it was really rainy. It is the monsoon season after all.  While we were walking along the side of the road, a dog decided to start following us. We were wary at first thinking it might want our snacks or have rabies or something, but no, she just wanted some company. She was a very nice looking dog and really friendly. She would jaunt up ahead of us and then turn back to make sure we were still there.

Empty urchin shell

We check out the two beaches close by, and after getting caught in a minor rain shower we went for some rice and curry in a 2nd floor restaurant with a killer view. Rice and curry and Coca-cola. Life doesn't get much better. Our dog friend came with us of course, and the woman at the restaurant told us that this pooch follows all the travelers and even tried to hop into their vehicles. While we were eating lunch the local house crows kept trying to get into the buffet. The did manage to get a few papadoms.

View from the restaurant

After we went to the beach again and found some really awesome shells. The it really started to rain. And get windy. So one of the guys under a beach hut beckoned us under. Turns out this is the fat, bald guy that our Canadian liaison warned us about. Ooops. Luckily we managed to escape after a brief converstation.

waves crashing the point rocks

That night our landlord made us dinner and we watched copious amounts of GLEE.


On Sunday we arranged to travel to Kalemetiya lagoon via our landlords nieghbour/brother's tuk-tuk. We got up pretty early and then headed out. On a scale of granny to death gripping the side rails of the tuk-tuk, he was about a 7. So it was a nice peaceful drive.

Kalemetiya turned out to be amazing. Its not the right time of year for birds, as most are in their summer nesting grounds, bu we still saw  fair few. We also saw crocodiles and monitor lizards and water buffalo. In the park we hired a man to paddle us around the lagoon. That was pretty neat. Krista and I aren't sure how to boat actually works being that physics is neither of our strong suits, but we didnt tip and got back to the shore in one piece and dry.

stretch of unoccupied beach opposite the lagoon

crocodile

After our boat guide cut us own some young coconut to drink and eat. MMMMMMM, Refreshing!

land monitor lizard

 Krista wondering if the boat is going to tip

wild peacock

wild buffalo

Water flowers

the lagoon

water lily

mmmmmm, coconut water!

Week 1 - Change of Pace, Change of Perspective

At Navajeevana they just recently instituted appointments for their patients. Previously they were just having patients arrive when it was convenient for them. Then it was decided to be more effective appointments would be instituted, however, given the nature of the culture, this is not strictly adhered to by the patients. They are still getting used to the system. Also appointments are supposed to be about 45 minutes according to one of the therapists, however, patients usually end up staying much longer than that, especially if they are living at the centre while receiving treatment.

Coming from a culture where being on time is paramount to how things get done, this has been a difficult adjustment for me. Its not that I like knowing what is coming through the door, I actually don't mind that part. Its the pace of waiting around not knowing when someone is going to show up. It seems like the Sri Lankan therapists are used to the down time and make use f it. I like having my down time scheduled. For example, in Canada we would know that there would be no patient coming until 9:30, so it would be a good time to start tacking a larger project. I have adapted by bringing my resource book in and have taken to looking up conditions and the treatments for them to fill the time. Also, I don't think 1 hour appointments (aside from initial assessments), let alone appointments that drag on for 3 hours are for me. I like to do my assessment, provide my treatment and education and then move onto the next patient. By the 45 minute mark either I have exhausted the patient or I have run out of ideas for the day. And really the patient doesn't need me there to stand over them while they do their isometric quad exercises. Maybe the first couple of sets but after that they usually have it. So the last couple of days and y aim for this week is to see if I can change, become more of a neuro therapist who would love to have unlimited time with patients to be able to get the reps in and to think more like a Sri Lankan and take my tea in the middle of seeing a patient to let them have a rest. Perhaps changing my North american frame of reference will help me be a better therapist in the Sri Lankan system. When in Rome...

First few days.... this is, um, different

Work here is going to be very different. That was evident on the first day. The patients sort of saunter in at anytime they feel like. One of the physios was telling us that they just recently switched to the appointment system, but the patients are still getting used to it, as most of them just come whenever they want to. This makes the day really interesting, because you never know what is going to walk through the door! Rubber time is what they call it. And often the patients stick around for a long time because they come from far away and their appointments are not frequent. We are not entirely sure ho long appointments are supposed to last here. 

There are currently 3 other students here from Colombo: Isha, Samantha and Manoj. All boys. Its been interesting working with them and seeing what they do. For instance they don't know a of manual therapy, but they are very good at giving exercises. They have been especially useful in communicating with the patients as most of them don't speak English. Sinhaha is the language here and it sounds beautiful, but its, going to be a challenge. Although today I did learn to count to three. And the colors blue, red and green. Other than that I am lost.

Everyone's made us feel very welcome though, offering advice on staying safe and travelling and letting us use the pool and wifi at moonstone. 

Navajeevana, the rehab centre for the whole southern country.

Cleo, Raelene's dog

View from Ralene's place at Moonstone Villas

After our second day on the job. So sticky.

Home Seet Home (for the next 5 weeks)

 We arrived jet lagged and absolutely shattered on Friday to our new place. Our landlord seems very helpful and they are even going to teach us how too cook a bit. We also found out today that they're going to change our sheets and towels every few days! What a treat since we are such sweaty messes! Anyways, I always get asked what my place looks like when I am staying somewhere new. So here are a few picts to tantalize the senses.

This is our kitchen. Complete with a extra bed! I have to admit when I first walked in and saw this I thought that this might be the entire apartment. 

This is our actual bedroom. The mosquitos seem to like Krista's side of the bed better. 

What would an apartment in Asia be without a toilet that combines the shower?

This is officially my favorite room of our place I like to eat here and to do my morning yoga. 35 day yoga challenge anyone. I am going to give it a shot anyways.