Letters from Sri Lanka - Neon Buddha

Sri Lanka Photo Album

Just before coming into Sri Lanka I was able to set up volunteer work on Workaway with a family-owned hotel in Tissaramahama near the southeast coast. That was the only thing I did to prepare for Sri Lanka - I was ready to be surprised about the country would offer.

I landed at the international airport near Colombo & then began a very long journey to Tissa by bus. The first thing I learned about Sri Lanka is that they love to surround images of Buddha with colorful, flashing neon lights. I noted this on my first bus ride - there was a lovely image of Buddha sitting in a preaching pose surrounded by… flashing lights! The Sri Lankans have a particular flair for dressing up Buddhist (& even Christian) images and temples; more lights, more gilding, more color, more…everything. The second thing I learned about Sri Lanka is that the bus drivers are crazy!!

The bus route to Tissa was along the coast - terrific! I got to see the lovely beaches on one side & the beautiful palms & tropical foliage on the other. But yikes! The 2-lane road passes through almost a continuous stream of small towns and all the buses, cars, & motorbikes honk their horns incessantly!  The buses come barreling through towns & if not honking & passing constantly, they are stopping abruptly to avoid collisions. Seven exhausting hours of this later - I arrived at the sweet little town of Tissa that would be my home for the next week. I had a week of small town life and no buses!

I had accepted the volunteer position of being a housekeeper in a 7-room hotel with some trepidation. I have had such great Workaway experiences in the other inns & hostels that I thought I should get a feel for other hotel jobs. I knew it would be risky for me - cleaning rooms? - but I figured it would be an eye-opening experience & a chance to experience some, uhhhh, humility!  The host family is lovely - a 30-something married couple with 13 & 10 year old sons - all very sweet. Early the next day I found myself being trained to clean the rooms. Now really, I am a good housekeeper, I am organized, efficient, & can tell what is clean & not clean. Well - apparently not so much! Asanka, the wife, & Kapila, the husband have very specific instructions on how to do everything & eagle eyes that catch every water spot or bit of dust I left behind. I cleaned, then they inspected, & …I cleaned again!  Humility yes - but that only lasts a day or two. Their expectations were totally fine though - who would not want the most clean, tidy, water spot free hotel room. I never faulted them for their expectations - I just had to tame my own dang self to accept their perfection. I think the real challenge was the heat & humidity - that would challenge any northerner.

In truth the job overall was a good one & taught me yet another side of hotel work. I started work around 7am but finished by 11am and in between Asanka served me delicious chai (sweet milk tea) and a curry breakfast. Well she did add on more jobs - cleaning the office & patio - but heck I am here to work.  Asanka is a great cook &amp

; I loved the meals (breakfast, lunch, & dinner) she prepared for me. I usually ate with her & sometimes the kids in their home above the hotel. After work I was free to explore the town & surrounding area & before I left they gave me a discounted safari in the Yala National Park to see the resident leopards, elephants, and loads of peacocks.  Tissa is lovely little town with a

large lake, several beautiful ancient Buddhist stupas, & it's surrounded by rice paddies. I also found plenty of time to chat with travelers passing through. In the evenings I helped Asanka & Kapila with their online booking applications; we managed to update & improve the content in their Booking.com & TripAdvisor pages & they were very happy about that.  After 5-days of work & 2-days off I fulfilled my work agreement & was ready to start exploring Sri Lanka. And, oh by the way, I don't think I'll be looking for anymore hotel housekeeping jobs for a while, maybe there is another way to learn some humility!

Fortunately, decent bus & train services make Sri Lanka a very easy & safe country for independent travel on public transportation. The island is fairly large and has a variety of regions and lots of coast to explore. The coastline is extensive & most of it can be reached easily but I decided to focus my remaining 3 weeks in the central area, mostly in the cooler highlands. Traveling through the tea plantation districts in central Sri Lanka was definitely a highlight. There are vast stretches of tea plantations & rice paddies that are managed by hand - planting, fertilizing, & harvesting. The vistas are beautiful & it's easy to hike along the paths that border the fields. Sri Lanka is very picturesque - flowers, forests, fruits & plantations, homes & Buddhist stupas tucked among the foliage & little villages hug the rail lines & roads. The pace is mellow & seems unhurried but there are still signs of busy work & productivity. Harvesting fruit & vegetables, drying coffee, fishing, & selling products along the road & in town. Tourism is helping the economy & finding a tour offering or independent guide is easy - for me, when needed, it was easy enough to hire a tuk-tuk driver to take me to local sites.

Although the temperate zone of Ella, highlands rich in tea plantations & incredible landscape rich with forests, fruit trees, & palms, was the most scenic area I visited, it was the Buddhist cave temple of Dambulla farther north in the more tropical lowlands that was the most impressive & my favorite site to visit. The caves that make up this World Heritage Site were originally used as a monastery in the 2nd & 3rd century BC; they were transformed into a temple sometime during the 1st century BC.  A series of 5 contiguous chambers sit deeply in the underside of a natural rock that rises 500 feet over the valley below. Over 80 holy caves are scattered across this small mount.  Along the long steep walk up to the rocks is the modern (1990's) Golden Buddha, a 100 foot gold-plated statue of the Buddha in a sitting pose with his hands in the dharmachakra mudra (a pose that represents the teaching of the wheel of Dharma) serenely looking out over the plains below. Except for being incredibly over-the-top big & gold; this statue does creates a peaceful mood & certainly is an easy landmark - you can't miss getting to the caves if you can see this Buddha.

I found the cave complex to be really magical. Arriving very early, I walked through the chambers without crowds so that I had plenty of time to take in the stillness & aura created by Sri Lankan artwork. Each cave is filled with dozens & dozens of statues of the Buddha; most are identical though varying in height to accommodate the slope of the cave walls; a few vary by depicting different mudras (hand poses depicting a spiritual state: compassion, teaching, grounding). The ceilings are covered with thousands of repeating images of the Buddha - it made me think that both the painting & the viewing of these images was a form of mantra or chant. There is just something so simple & peaceful about the caves; it's apparent a great deal of devotion was present in the building of the temple. I spent several hours at the site - enough time to walk through caves a second time & then sit & watch people come struggling up the hill & then easing into the quiet setting as they wandered through the caves. The site is a pilgrimage for Sri Lankan Buddhists, so people of all ages & abilities make their way up the trail to the caves.

From Dambulla I travelled on by more crazy buses to a suburb of the capital of Colombo where I spent my last few days on the west coast beach. I suited up for couple of scuba dives with other foreigners  we were fortunate to find  only moderately bleached coral (bleaching occurs when prolonged warm water kills the colorful algae that cover & feed the coral, the coral appears white & will eventually die if the water temps stay high). I spotted some new-to-me species of fish, not too many unfortunately but colorful & interesting. The last few days were pleasant & lazy; walking along the beach & enjoying the sunsets.

In all the areas I visited I found the Sri Lankans to be

exceptionally friendly & helpful, but very independent; they are not keen on being compared to Indiana. From my outsider perspective they seem to have an easy & natural balance to daily life. Family is of course the priority, so it's common to see extended families living & socializing together. The cities & towns are fairly well developed & there is a feeling of comfort & prosperity. I could see that the Sri Lankans keep busy with work & productivity - but at a relaxed pace. People take the time to stop & have tea & a snack with friends during the day, there were always plenty of people taking walks & having picnics along the lakes or parks. I even ran into groups of people who

would travel as a small group to visit a park, jumping out when the spirit moved them to turn up the radio & dance! And, especially endearing, was seeing families & friends gathering at a canal, river, or lake to soap up & bathe (modestly covered!). That was an especially common sight in the late afternoons in Tissa where the weather is warm. The waterways could be filled with people taking a bath right outside.  That was also a great opportunity for roadside food vendors to offer tea, fried treats & amazingly delicious buffalo yogurt for a snack.

I have a wonderful last memory of Sri Lanka as I was heading for the airport on my last day. I took the train from the suburb into Colombo - jumping on at a small station. It was just before dusk & we stopped at many villages along the way picking up people who were on their way to the capital for an evening of pre-New Year celebrations.  Our train passed along the beach where the tracks ran; with windows & doors open, the people, silhouetted against the beach, settled silently into the ride, the breeze, & the setting sun. It seemed that they could simply enjoy the train's rocking & the quiet stillness of an evening at home in Sri Lanka.