This trip was organized for us by our friends at ARTISANS OF LEISURE IN NYC.... Planned months ahead, this is a long awaited break from work, life, and Winter!!!
Tuesday March 10th - We departed JFK Airport on our first ever "Emirates" Airline flight.
About 10 hours later we arrived at the Dubai Airport ( very contemporary and beautiful) for a layover
awaiting our flight to Mumbai. I took photos of the airport here and shopped in their bookstore.
Fascinating.
We will arrive in Mumbai early Wednesday evening on very little sleep I'm afraid. This is a long journey! Our trip will take us to Mumbai, Cochin, the backwaters of Kerala aboard a cruise boat, then
To Columbo, Sri Lanka, and on to the Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka, and the Hill Country.
Wednesday evening, 3/11, we arrived at our Mumbai Hotel, the Oberoi. It looks out over the esplanade on the Arabian Sea. If we could see far enough, it would be the coastline of Yemen and Oman to the West. It's a very beautiful place with an excellent Indian restaurant, "ZIYA" .
Our first activity after showers of course was DINNER! Appetizer was "Seafood Chatka": Achari Prawns in a spicy marinade, chili garlic scallops and a potato pea crush. Entree was "Raan Mussallam", a dish made with lamb that is marinated overnight in Indian spices, then roasted and finished in the tandoori, tadka dahl ( lentil stew) roomaly roti, a type of gourmet naan, and
little vegetable pates with sauces . It was an exquisite way to begin the culinary portion of our exploration of the South of India.
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| Oberoi Mumbai Lobby |
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| The Oberoi is the lower building in the foreground. It overlooks the Arabian Sea. |
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| Mumbai can also look like this. Borrowed from a 2005 website. 21 Million inhabitants and counting, and the infrastructure is..... well it's India. There is no subway here, so the biggest problem is the traffic! WAY too many cars ! |
Thursday 3/12... It is 5am and we are up preparing to depart at 6:30 for the airport. We are told the traffic will be light at that time of the morning. We have never seen such a "zoo" on the roads anywhere. It is amazing there aren't 20 crashes every 3 kms. All sorts of vehicles vying for space on the road and honking at each other constantly. Chaos! We will arrive in COCHIN at about 2pm today.
Namaste!!!!!
In Cochin ( or Kochi) at the Vivanta by Taj Malabar Hotel...... Lunch at the beautiful "Rice Boat"
seafood restaurant in the Hotel......Menu was Crab and coconut soup, Flash grilled calamari with Masala ( indian spices), Red snapper 3 ways : wrapped in a banana leaf with savory veggies and roasted, grilled with masala, and in a curry sauce with basmati rice. White wine ( Sula) from India. What a feast!
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| Red snapper preparations at the Rice Boat in Cochin |
Afternoon touring to visit a local laundry facility, Old Dutch Church originally built by the Portugese in 1503, and Chinese fishing nets on the beach.
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One of many ironing stations at the laundry. they heat the irons in the traditional way.
They burn coconut shells inside the iron. No cords to worry about! |
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| The old Church in Cochin. WW1 memorial in stone in front of it. |
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| These painted trucks line the streets. |
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| Fisherman clean out nets after a day at work. It's about 4pm |
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| Downtown Cochin.. SO much calmer than Mumbai! |
Hotel for a NAP and a swim in the fabulous pool overlooking the bay that leads to the Arabian Ocean.
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| They don't call them "Infinity Pools" for nothing. I had a delicious swim here.... |
Then a grilled fish and seafood dinner at the nearby Casino Hotel. We dined outdoors by candlelight.
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| The "Menu" at the fish place. The guy brought these to our table. Very fresh . |
Friday, 3/12 - This region , Kerala, is the home of Ayurveda, so we are starting the day with an 8am
Ayurveda massage in the Hotel spa.'
The massage was totally unique... lots of oil , steaming and detoxing for both of us. Then we drove for 2 hours to arrive at the "BACKWATERS OF KERALA" tour location. Kerala is a state on the SouthWestern corner of India. Loads of shoreline, and the enormous LAKE VEMBANAD. Our boat is the Oberoi M.V. Vrinda. It holds 16 passengers.
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| Nautical dining room ... our first lunch with other guests. It was a traditional Kerala banquet. Next to us at the table are Paula and Gus from Brazil. |
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| The meal is served on a big banana leaf. Saves on the dishwasher. It was yummy and very small portions thankfully. |
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| Villagers at a stop along the lake |
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Kerala Rice Paddy ready for harvest
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Life in Kerala revolves around the ocean. We think they are off on a fishing trip.
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| Baskets prepared to collect fish off the boats for market |
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| These guys performed for us one evening on the boat. Traditional dance theater. This is quite an art form and only done in this part of India. |
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| They are both men but one plays the woman. They performed a tragic myth for us. |
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| St Marys Catholic Church and school. I borrowed this photo and its apparently a wet day. We had couple of heavy showers during our time on the river..... |
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| Bananas at the Saturday market in Cochin |
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| Pumping water out of the rice field the old fashioned way. Now they mostly use machines. |
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| Beautiful traditional paintings on the walls of the Portuguese Palace in Cochin. |
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Saying farewell to our wonderful staff on the river boat. We really enjoyed all of them.
NOW ON TO SRI LANKA.....An island Country only 30 miles off the south shore of India.
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Monday, March 16th, we left India and flew to COLUMBO, SRI LANKA.
We arrived at the TINTAGEL HOTEL on a sultry night just in time for dinner on the hotel patio. This was once the home of the Prime Minister and his family.
It was a VERY nice way to be introduced to Sri Lanka ( Formerly known as Ceylon when the British were in charge). |
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Tuesday, March 17th was a long day. We drove with driver and guide from Columbo all the way to our Hotel in the CULTURAL TRIANGLE... THE ULAGALLA RESORT. It's up in the northern part of the Sri Lanka ( means "Resplendant Island") near a large town called Anuradhapura. The plan is to start at the remotest place from Columbo and then work our way back. We drove for about 8 hours that day. Torture!!! but we
Saw a lot of the country. |
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| En route we stopped at a gas station with an interesting fire fighting system. |
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| Although we find Sri Lanka to be more "civilized" than India, it is still a Third World Country. These are their "shopping malls" and they line the streets of every town. |
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We had an appointment to have lunch with the owner of this elephant reserve near Kegalle. It is called "The Millennium Elephant Foundation". the owner is Carmini, and this place has been in her husband's family for generations. She is now a widow and keeps the place going. They protect and rescue injured and retired elephants. This one damaged his knee
in a mudslide. He will be with them for the rest of his life. In spite of the chains you see, it is a very humane place. |
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| Here we are with a 25 year old female. She is the only elephant born on the property. |
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| We've arrived at ULAGALLA.... A beautiful Hotel.... 58 Acres with 20 bungalows and this gorgeous pool. |
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| This is the breakfast tray. Everything is homemade here and produce from their own organic garden. HEAVEN! |
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Our cabin in the woods at ULAGALLA.... Sadly the private pool in background is too cold for swimming, but we dipped our toes in. Loads of wildlife here.
Bikes, hiking horses, kayaking..... we did the spa and the bikes and some birdwatching with our guide , Walter. He is a big wildlife man and his favorites are the birds. over 400 species here. |
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| Wednesday, the 18th....We visited the "Cradle of Buddhism" and found a wedding party doing a shoot. These are two of the bridesmaids. |
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| Here's the Bride. She was stunning! |
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| Part of the temple complex where pilgrims come to visit the tree which was taken from the original fig tree in India where Buddha was first enlightened. |
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| This is the actual Fig tree at the temple. Surrounded by walls so the elephants can't come and damage it. |
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| One of the Buddhist Monks. These people are totally cared for by the local community. Their purpose is to meditate and pass on the teachings of the Buddha and be celibate....Every day they are fed before noon. Mostly rice and veg curry prepared by families in their local village. |
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| A remarkable White Stupa.They are sacred commemorative monuments, usually housing some kind of relics. |
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| Jettawana Stupa. Part of a monastic community of 2,000 monks in 6th century AD. This one is the tallest solid brick stupas in the world. 470 feet. |
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| Abayagiri Stupa is 2nd highest. 370 feet tall. You'll notice the women are dressed in a mixture of traditional and Western styles. This is common in Sri Lanka. In India, we never saw a woman in Western clothing. Always some form of traditional Indian dress. |
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| Thursday the 19th Ray and I celebrated 35 years since the day we met!! We also visited the LION ROCK of SIGIRIYA which was at one time inhabited by King Kashyapa ( 5th century AD). Before that the rock and caves there formed a monestary for Buddhist monks. Famous for frescoes of beautiful women painted on the walls about half way up. Due to heat, crowds, and desire to conserve our energy ( laziness) we chose to visit the museum and see copies of the frescoes there. |
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| Loads of excavation has revealed the remains of quite a large complex leading to the Rock Fort |
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| Monkeys everywhere. It's a living zoo. |
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| This is a carved guardstone at an ancient monastic site. |
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| On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Sri Lanka version of a "Department Store" to look for a swimsuit. That's me in the dress standing just inside the door. |
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| Touring the organic gardens at Ulagalla prior to cooking class with the chef. |
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| We prepared 4 dishes which Ray and I enjoyed for lunch. Chef Rohann was my teacher . |
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Here is the meal we made in class. Clockwise from top left: Dal ( lentils) with spinach, Gotu Kola salad, Chips,
Chicken curry, Eggplant Moju. |
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| Sri Lanka "Lion" Beer goes great with our dishes. After lunch we had a couples massage at the spa, then a walking tour with Walter to watch the birds. A busy day!! |
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| A peacock posed for us on Friday morning by the pool |
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| March 20th........The "Golden Temple" and Buddhist Museum......This is at the base of the CAVE TEMPLE of Dumbulla. We drove to a midpoint and climbed many stairs to the caves. |
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First inhabited in 1,000 BC by King Abaya and his followers. He escaped from usurpers here to rebuild his army. He had a huge reclining statue of Buddha carved in a small cave here. He later reemerged and restored his power. His cave became the beginning of a series of 5 cave installations, done over many centuries by different kings. Quite remarkable work.
I'm in the pink top walking with Walter. |
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| This Buddha is sporting the "flame of enlightenment" on top of his head. If he doesn't have that, he is still meditating and working on it. |
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| Amazing Sculptures carved out of wood with plaster coatings to create the folds of the clothing. There are a LOT of carved Buddahs in this cave, work that spanned the 4th to 12th centuries, AD. |
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We made a stop at lunchtime to visit "The Spice Garden". We were met by a gentleman from the Ayurvedic institute
who showed us the sample plants where spices such as turmeric, ginger, cloves, cardamom, etc grow from. In this photo we are at the Ayurvedic healing products demo and we are tasting a tea made from healing spices. Ray liked it!!!
We bought a whole bunch of medicinals from him. We sure hope Ayurveda has the healing qualities that it claims. We'll keep you posted!! |
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| The town of Matale has a great Tamil ( South Indian) Hindu Temple and we stopped to shoot photos. These "Dravidian" temples are incredibly colorful and ornate, and every little sculpture represents something . |
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| Ray's close up of the Matale temple exterior. We were not able to get inside at that time of day. |
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Friday evening, March 20th, we drove to the major town of KANDY to stay at "The STONE HOUSE" hotel.
I swam in the private pool set in the woods before dinner. |
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| A real highlight was this dance troupe from town that came to the hotel to do a show. They performed dances and amazing feats for almost an hour. |
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| The dancer with the spinning plates. |
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| They even ate fire and walked on burning coals at the end! This guy was super! |
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| Our Dinner at the Stone House. We are starting to recognize some of these dishes as they are quite traditional and delicious....... |
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Saturday morning, Walter Oorloff, our guide, and and our driver, Mahish took us to see the most important Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka.
The Temple of the tooth. They have a relic from the true Buddha. Guess what it is!! |
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| Central Statue in the gallery of pictures. Paintings line the walls and tell the story of the Buddha's life. |
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| Ray poses with our guide, Walter Oorloff, in the Kings assembly Hall at the Temple. |
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| This is a large Temple Complex with many gardens and buildings. Ray managed to shoot it without a crowd of people. That was a feat because the place was very crowded with people paying their respects, praying and bringing Offerings. |
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| Offerings come mostly in the form of flowers on trays and small plates. This street outside the temple is full of flower sellers. |
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| After the temple we took a stroll through the Kandy Botanical Gardens and encountered this couple. Another wedding photo shoot day. |
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| Next it was off to the KANDY Train Station to catch the 3 hour ride to the TEA TRAILS HOTEL near the town of Hatton, South of Kandy. We don't recommend the trains in this part of the world . |
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Amazing vistas awaited us as we drove to the hotel up a windy mountain road. Tea was discovered in China in 2700BC.
The British discovered it and in the 18th century a Brit called James Taylor brought it to Sri Lanka. Over time they tore down the forests over thousands of acres in this region and planted tea. They used natural stone to build walls to terrace the mountainsides. Today there are hundreds of tea plantations here and it's a booming industry providing work for many in the fields and factories. |
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| Ray shot me on the veranda as we embarked on an early morning walk among the tea bushes. |
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| There is a small Hindu temple on top of our mountain. We are at 4,000 ft. The tallest peak is at 7,000 ft. |
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| The Road Warriors! Mahish, our driver, on the left and Walter Oorloff, our guide. We are departing on Sunday morning for our TEA FACTORY TOUR |
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The Norwood factory where tea is processed ( all naturally) and packaged to be auctioned to the wholesalers.
Sunday morning is a good time for a group tour. Not much work going on inside. |
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| Our guide, Andrew, showing the 3 stages of tea leaf process. Andrew is a retired "Planter", or factory manager. He gave a very complete tour with a tasting at the end. We learned SO much about TEA! |
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| The real Deal!! Ready for packaging. |
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| A poster of the grades of tea they make in Sri Lanka. It all comes from the same plant. |
It's now Monday, March 23rd, and we must depart our lovely hotel in the Tea Country and spend another long day driving to the South East corner of this Island to the town of Tangalle and the Amanwella Beach Resort. The first 4 hours were rough. Windy roads and scary traffic. The way people pass , or drive around , each other is very frightening when you are not used to it. We drove through major Tea country, then into the area where the Rubber trees are planted. Then through many
towns to a major highway. We finally reached our hotel at 4:30 pm... after 7 1/2 hours of driving!
But it was worth it! Beautiful Hotel on the beach!!!!!
3 Nights here to rest and relax! YES!!!!
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We stopped for gas in the town near Hatton, and this guy had a veggie stand right by the gas station.
Note the piles of coconuts on the ground. |
AMANWELLA RESORT
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Here is the main building at AMANWELLA RESORT..... one of many beautiful AMAN HOTELS.
If you'd like to see mere, just go to their website. Right on a lovely crescent beach near the Southern town of Tengalle. We arrived Monday, March 23rd for a three night stay.
Very Restfull!!!
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Looking over the pool and sea from our dining veranda.
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| As we drove out the Hotel driveway, this young man was bringing his herd of water buffalo home. I took this photo right out of the car window. |
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| The Tangalle Fish Market. There are several, but this one is right where the boats come in every morning. They fish during the night. I only lasted 5 minutes there. Sorry. Too much blood and dead fish. |
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This was my breakfast one morning..... a traditional one. the rice noodles are called "String Hoppers" and on the left is a yellow vege curry, centre is coconut and chill Sambal, and then a delicious chicken curry. With Celyon Tea.
It felt very genuine and I had variations on this several times. |
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| A view of the ocean through the coconut grove outside our room. |
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| We walked this beach several times, just near the hotel Beach Restaurant. |
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Did I mention? April is the hottest time of the year here, and it is fast approaching. Every day is a little hotter and VERY humid. The last few days of this trip were pretty unbearable. Our hotel rooms were the only spaces that were air conditioned,
and generally not cool enough. I'm at the Hotel lobby area near the restaurant, thinking of jumping in that pond. |
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On Thursday the 26th, we drove from Tangalle to Galle, further west along that Southern Coast, headed in the direction of Columbo and the airport to come home. We stopped here to pose by a little bay that charmed us.
And below is a Hindu temple along the Galle Road. We stopped by just as they were doing a ceremony making offerrings to Shiva, the deity.
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| That's one way to catch fish...... Ray almost fell off the cliff getting this shot! Whew! |
Next Stop on the 26th was the Colonial Style AMANGALLE HOTEL in the FORT TOWN OF GALLE. |
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| Here is the Gracious Colonial Amangalle Hotel. Our final stop.... Parts of it were built by the Dutch in the 1600s, but the main building was British in the 1800s. The Portuguese settled in Sri Lanka and built many forts, one here, then the Dutch came in the 1600s and took over. British came in the 1700s and were here for over 150 years . This hotel is situated in a really big fort on the coast. The ramparts protected it from that huge tsunami in 2004. Many costal areas in Sri Lanka were badly damaged then, and many people killed. |
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| The Lobby at Amangalla |
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| The 1830s Dutch Reform Church just down the street from the Hotel |
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| Another Church in the GALLE FORT... This one is the old Anglican Church |
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| The main lighthouse at the Fort |
The next group of photos were all taken on Friday Morning, March 27th during a driving / walking tour of the Galle Fort. It was a really warm morning. After that tour with Walter, we spent the afternoon in the cool of the hotel. Ray had a Balinese massage with a therapist from Bhutan. I scheduled a consultation with the local Ayurvedic Doctor who keeps a consultation room at the
Hotel Spa. She taught me quite a bit about how Ayurveda works and what a good doc is able to do using herbs and other natural methods of healing.
The Following morning, we rose very early to drive to the Columbo Airport and catch our Emirates flight to Dubai, and then on to JFK. "Ayubowan" is Singhalese for Greetings, Farewells, Health and long Life......... AYUBOWAN
