A Brown Guy's Travels Day 46

· Day 46, August 17th, 0430: Colombo, Sri Lanka – Bangkok, Thailand – Taipei, Taiwan

Three cheers (or something) for early morning flights from airports that are way out of town, making you get up way too early just so you can make your long flight! Yay! Yipee! Boo! We got up before the sun did and piled our luggage into the cab. The luggage promptly fell out of the back of the taxi/van at the first turn. Super. Nothing makes your day like getting up too early and hopping in a van that doesn’t have properly latching doors. It’s down-right therapeutic, and definitely doesn’t jack your blood-pressure way through the roof. At any rate, we made it to the airport. I happened to sit next to another guy who was half Sri Lankan and half white (he was British, though), and we had a good chat. We landed in Bangkok for our connecting flight (the delay was a short 45 minutes), then got a pleasant surprise when we boarded the next flight to Taipei. Our seats had been upgraded to first class on the Jumbo-Jet to Taipei! The seats in first class are massive (picture a LAZ-Boy recliner) and come with your own big comfortable blanket and pillow. You also get your own storage compartments, headphones/TV set, complete with your choice of movies, and/or awesome old Nintendo games that were a nice trip down memory lane to the days of my childhood. There’s also enough legroom to set up a tent in. Definitely a sweet surprise. After landing in Taipei, we hopped a city bus to the main area of town (Taipei has an excellent public transportation system) and found a little hole-in-the-wall hostel called the Happy Family. It’s a nice little place run by a nice little man named Mr. Lee. I’m sure it isn’t a popular name in these parts, so if you want a good hostel, you could probably just look him up in the phone book. Well, maybe not. Anyhow, it’s bed time for this brown guy—hope you enjoyed my day!

A Brown Guy's Travels Day 45

· Day 45, August 16th, 2100: Colombo, Sri Lanka

It was a shopping/errand running day today, and we actually managed to get a lot done. After that, we headed to the Galle Face Hotel, a fancy joint that’s housed many dignitaries, ambassadors, movie stars, etc. Back in the day, when my mom was traveling, she had occasion to be at the hotel in the beautiful courtyard that overlooks the ocean. We decided to go there in honour of our mom and have a second generation enjoy the delicious food and incredible atmosphere of the ritzy hotel (their desert buffet is incredible). It was a fantastic cap to an enjoyable day. Maybe one day I’ll be able to afford to stay there! Ha ha…maybe next time I travel…

A Brown Guy's Travels Day 44

· Day 44, August 15th, 2050: Arugam Bay – Colombo, Sri Lanka

Today was a really long day—we were up early to catch our busy bus (which was late and packed) for ten hours to get to Colombo, from where we fly onwards and upwards to Taipei later on. We headed back to the hotel we stayed at the first time—this time, it was in the midst of a terrific downpour, which made a great cap to our already awesome day. Looking grubby, and a little worse for the wear, we found some good food, and settled in early for the busy next day. That’s all for now, folks. Later.

A Brown Guy's Travels Days 38 - 43

· Days 38 – 43, August 9th – 14th: Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka

Surf’s up, dude! Our days here in Arugam Bay have been wonderfully full of routine—we get up, surf, eat, surf, relax, eat, surf, and then relax for the evening. Our hotel has shown a couple of movies over the nights, and we’ve had a great time meeting new people from all over (mostly the States). Our friends David and Lou-lou joined us the first night for the full moon party on the beach, and ended up taking a hotel just down the way from us. We decided to get together and have a barbecue supper one night, so David, being the generous host he is, went to the market and bought a 15 pound Tuna! How the crap are we going to eat 15 pounds of Tuna? Thank goodness for good refrigeration! Believe me we had more than enough to feed a small army, even sharing with the cool hotel managers and a passer-by. All in all, the days filled with surfing, relaxing, and visiting, and the nights filled with fun quirky company have been by far the best of the trip. I’ll definitely miss Arugam Bay, and it is one place I’ll have to come back to visit some day in the future. The peacefulness of the people combined with the beauty and rhythm of the ocean have come together to make Arugam Bay my favourite stop on our trek so far, and one that I’ll remember every time I smell the saltwater of the ocean, or catch the yearning to surf again after seeing someone else enjoy the rush—it’s a little slice of paradise that I’m grateful for being able to be a part of. Thanks forever, Arugam Bay!

A Brown Guy's Travels Day 37

· Day 37, August 8th, 1800: Ella en route to Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka

Well, today our day was chalk-full of riding a couple of buses packed a la sardines in sweltering heat. I love traveling…mostly. Just kidding—the uncomfortable days make you enjoy the good days more. I’m anticipating quite a few good days here in Arugam Bay. The city, despite being partially ruined in the tsunami, has a laid back, ‘what to do?’ feel to it. The people seem to have recovered and handled the tragedy well. It’s refreshing to see people dealing with the problem and moving on with life, as opposed to obsessing about the problem and being paralyzed by fear and anger, then poorly handling their resulting anger by channeling it against others. If this has too much of a political undertone for the reader, don’t worry, I’m done ranting. There’s no doubt much more joy in the blogs to come.

A Brown Guy's Travels Day 36

· Day 36, August 7th, 2140: Ella, Sri Lanka

Today we relaxed for the morning and planned the next couple days. We’ll be heading out to the coast to do some surfing! I’m glad we’ll finally see the ocean and be able to jump right in. Later on in the day, the three of us walked to a hiking trail called Ella Rock. Bud and Sarah weren’t up for the whole four hour hike, so I trekked on solo after about an hour. The views from the top definitely made it worth the arduous hike up the mountain, the highest point for a long way around. Like they say, all good things are worth working for. After that, it was back to the Rasta restaurant for another great evening with good food and awesome company. I love traveling…

A Brown Guy's Travels Day 35

· Day 35, August 6th, 2300: Hatton en route to Ella, Sri Lanka

This morning, we went on a really neat tour of the Lipton Tea Factory, and learned about the whole process of tea making; everything from the leaf plucking to the drying, crushing, rolling, cutting, sifting sorting, more cutting, etc, to the packing was shown to us at the factory, along with some the statistics kept over the years in the logbooks. It was really neat to see the whole thing from start to finish, and to be involved personally a few days ago when we actually got to pluck leaves with the locals. Later, we caught the train to Ella, which is a sleepy little city nestled in the hills of Sri Lanka’s beautiful mountain ranges. We got some supper with David and Lou-lou (a Frenchman and an English lady we first bumped into in Kandy) at a crazy Rastafarian-themed restaurant/coffee house. The place had a red-yellow-green coloured bamboo picket fence, posters of Bob Marley, and reggae beats drifting out over the speakers. It was definitely the coolest restaurant we’ve eaten at so far. After dinner, the owner of the restaurant and a few of his friends taught us how to play Carom, a popular local game. It’s one I remember from when I was a little kid, put couldn’t remember how to play. The locals in the small towns, at least as far as we’ve experienced have been kind, and most willing to have you as a part of their day. By the end of the night, we were offered an invitation to come back the next night and enjoy their company again. A little kindness goes a long ways…