I had a fabulous time in Sri Lanka this past week! Now, I'm back in Kuwait and thought I'd update this before life gets crazy again. I'm taking an online course and we only have 8 more weeks of school... In those 8 weeks, we have a big "splash day" for KG1 and also a Nursery Rhyme Theater, when my kiddos will perform songs and act out the rhymes. I'm not so worried about that part, but my lack of artistic skills is making me worry about how we will make the backgrounds! Eeek! Okay. I still have one more day of spring break, so let me get back to that....
On Thursday, April 5th, Jake, Rachel, Connie and I headed to the airport. I find it really amusing the lack of security they have at the Kuwait airport and others.... They don't make you take out liquids and don't care how much you have.... You can walk through the machine and make it beep and they don't check you..... They also don't have any plan for how people board the plane... They just open the doors and people swarm to line up. Not that I'm in a hurry to sit down, but it's crazy! We made it to Bahrain and had about 30 minutes until our flight boarded. So, we stood in line to get money exchanged. While we were waiting, we hear over the intercom that our flight is on "last call" and is ready to depart. We book it down to the gate and people are still lining up to board! The same thing happened on the way back today--- it said the flight was boarding and no one was moving! Weird.
We arrived in Sri Lanka at 4 am on Friday. After a stop at Duty Free and the money exchange, we were on our way to the beach! Rachel, Jake and I got to our hotel around 7 am. Our rooms weren't ready, so we took some pictures, had breakfast and enjoyed being at the beach!
Once our rooms were ready, we headed to the beach to soak up the sun! After a while, we decided to go get some food/drinks to keep in our rooms, so we got a tuk-tuk driver and asked him to take us to the store. He ended up inviting us to his home (to make us feel sorry for him and give him extra money, but it was still cool!) where we watched him climb a tree to get coconuts, met his cute kids and wife and Rachel and I found the school we want to work at! :) Not really, but it would be awesome to live there.
After that adventure, we went back to the hotel and enjoyed reading by the ocean and watching the sunset. We also enjoyed our first "happy hour" on our balconies--- this was a nightly occurence before dinner.
On our second day, we wandered into the town of Unawatuna for lunch and shopping. We picked a random seafood restaurant and it ended up being our favorite meal! Rachel and I had fried shrimp, while Jake had calamari. There was a pineapple salad with it and it was absolutely delicious. The food was so fresh! After lunch, we did some souvenir shopping-- I got some wood carvings to take home and later in the week I bought a few beautiful paintings. The only place I found a shot glass to add to my collection was at the airport! We also signed ourselves up for surfing lessons for the next day. We were stoked for that! After walking around in the heat and humidity, it was time for a nap. Then the nightly ritual of happy hour began again, before we headed down to another beach to celebrate a friend's birthday! :)
The next day was our "surfing" day! We were all a bit nervous, but it was so much fun! Best workout ever.... my arms and shoulders were so sore the next day! Rachel was able to stand up a few times, but Jake and I need practice. :) I loved just being in the water though! After an hour surfing lesson, we were wiped out and enjoyed lunch near our hotel before taking much needed naps. That evening, Jake had made reservations at a restaurant next door for dinner. You had to make reservations 3 hours in advance to get the homemade curries. It was a delicious meal of shrimp, chicken, fish and pumpkin curries and several Mai Tai's to drink. We ended the night by lounging in the chairs at the restaurant overlooking the ocean and watching a massive lightning storm!
When we woke up the next morning, it was still cloudy out from the storm the night before. We lazed around reading our Kindles until it started to clear up. We headed out to a lagoon for a tour of a few different islands in the lagoon. It started from a herbal garden/plantation and we got a tour of that when we got back from the lagoon. We boarded our boat and headed out to the huge lagoon. It was beautiful! There were people fishing and crabbing on traditional boats. We saw two temples that were beautiful and in the middle of this jungle island. Eagles were flying everywhere around us. We enjoyed fresh cinnamon tea and watched a monkey play in the tree while drinking our tea. When we got back from the boat tour, we walked around the herbal garden and the next thing we know, we are all getting head and back massages! The three of us managed to get into some random adventures! After our lagoon tour, we took a tuk-tuk into the town of Galle. It's an old Dutch fort town and was really neat to see. We started by having lunch at a cafe I had read about online- it was a rooftop restaurant and had yummy food! I had a lime-coconut soup and pad thai (and beer, of course!). After lunch, we walked around the walls of the fort. The sky looked like it was going to rain any minute, but it held off and made for some beautiful backgrounds in my photos. By 4:00, we were all exhausted and ready for relaxing on our balconies!
The next day, we had planned to spend the entire day in Hikkaduwa, another beach town about 30 minutes north of where we were staying. We got up early and took a very long tuk-tuk ride to Hikkaduwa. On the way, our tuk-tuk needed it's brakes fixed and got a flat tire. Thinking back, maybe we should have just turned around then! We made it to Hikkaduwa and visited a turtle farm- the turtles were awesome and I want one for a pet! Then we had lunch at a small restaurant before deciding we weren't all that impressed with the town and headed back to our own little paradise. When we got back, I went down to the beach to wait for Rachel and Jake. I was reading my book, when all of a sudden my whole body shook. I thought I twitched or something weird happened, but then about 10 minutes later a woman walked by asking if we spoke English or German. She told us there had been a big earthquake (what I felt!) in the Indian Ocean and that there might be a tsunami, so we might want to "take care and leave." We immediately went back to our hotel and the owner was there. He told us not to worry and he would take us to his home (about a mile inland). My heart was racing about a million miles a minute, as it brought back all those stupid earthquake memories! Rachel, Jake and I got into a truck and we were driven to the hotel owner's home. We weren't sure it was far enough inland, so he took us to the pool/spa area a bit further up. We were met there by about 10 Germans and 4 teachers who are working in Dubai. Luckily, we had internet and I had my phone, so I was looking up everything on the news about it and we were all able to call our parents and let them know what was happening. The hotel staff brought us tea and were very calm. The owner told us that in the 2004 tsunami, he evacuated the guests to where we were and the water did not go very far. That made me feel a bit better. About 5 hours later, we got the "all clear" to go back to the hotel. The first thing we did was make some STRONG beverages to take the edge off our nerves.
Our last day was upon us. We spent the morning at the beach and had lunch in Unawatuna. We enjoyed our last happy hour and watched a beautiful sunset! I've decided I'm going back next spring break. I'm going to start with the elephant orphanage next time and end the week at the beach. It was an amazing vacation with the best company I could ask for. I did a lot of reading on my Kindle, watching the ocean, playing cards with friends and relaxing. It was awesome. Now, it's back to school!
On Thursday, April 5th, Jake, Rachel, Connie and I headed to the airport. I find it really amusing the lack of security they have at the Kuwait airport and others.... They don't make you take out liquids and don't care how much you have.... You can walk through the machine and make it beep and they don't check you..... They also don't have any plan for how people board the plane... They just open the doors and people swarm to line up. Not that I'm in a hurry to sit down, but it's crazy! We made it to Bahrain and had about 30 minutes until our flight boarded. So, we stood in line to get money exchanged. While we were waiting, we hear over the intercom that our flight is on "last call" and is ready to depart. We book it down to the gate and people are still lining up to board! The same thing happened on the way back today--- it said the flight was boarding and no one was moving! Weird.
We arrived in Sri Lanka at 4 am on Friday. After a stop at Duty Free and the money exchange, we were on our way to the beach! Rachel, Jake and I got to our hotel around 7 am. Our rooms weren't ready, so we took some pictures, had breakfast and enjoyed being at the beach!
The next day was our "surfing" day! We were all a bit nervous, but it was so much fun! Best workout ever.... my arms and shoulders were so sore the next day! Rachel was able to stand up a few times, but Jake and I need practice. :) I loved just being in the water though! After an hour surfing lesson, we were wiped out and enjoyed lunch near our hotel before taking much needed naps. That evening, Jake had made reservations at a restaurant next door for dinner. You had to make reservations 3 hours in advance to get the homemade curries. It was a delicious meal of shrimp, chicken, fish and pumpkin curries and several Mai Tai's to drink. We ended the night by lounging in the chairs at the restaurant overlooking the ocean and watching a massive lightning storm!
Our last day was upon us. We spent the morning at the beach and had lunch in Unawatuna. We enjoyed our last happy hour and watched a beautiful sunset! I've decided I'm going back next spring break. I'm going to start with the elephant orphanage next time and end the week at the beach. It was an amazing vacation with the best company I could ask for. I did a lot of reading on my Kindle, watching the ocean, playing cards with friends and relaxing. It was awesome. Now, it's back to school!
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