These were like real fortress gates, the kind you'd expect to see in a castle just before the portcullis. Except bigger. Honestly, they were about 20 feet high with a giant wall around the entire resort and it took a couple of minutes to let the inner chambers know we were here and worthy of admittance.
Once we got in the door, it was wonderful. This was our splurge for the week, the fanciest hotel, and it was gorgeous. The pool was huge, the rooms likewise and packed with amenities (ipod! Bose DVD! espresso! plasma TV!) The best part was that, even with the super posh amenities we felt relaxed and welcome. There was no problem with letting the kids run around and explore and enjoy themselves. We took them to a CMU function at the Four Seasons in Doha and our nerves were shot trying to control their, ahem, exuberance, but no such stress here. The staff was friendly and genuine, and I felt like they were really looking out for us. We took a day to chill out before we could even think about doing any more touring around. The beach was pretty rocky in front of the hotel so we spent most of the time at the pool.
It wasn't a hardship.
It's a good thing we liked the hotel, because the following two days were solid rain. But it takes more than a warm drizzle to pen us up and there wasn't thunder so we stayed outside and swam and explored the beach.
That was where I started to get a better sense of the place. All beaches in Sri Lanka are public, so the moment C and I stepped down from the resort property to play in the sand we were targeted by the tuk-tuk drivers trying to sell a ride. We had been warned by Nandana and the hotel not to accept these offers - you just aren't sure enough of where you'll end up. I didn't get the sense there was a danger of abduction, but you could get shaken down or abandoned. So there was no way I was buying a ride. Once I was able to get that message across ("I'm not getting in a tuk-tuk, and there's no way I'm going to put my kids in a tuk-tuk. We can talk about America, we can talk about Sri Lanka, we can talk about the weather, I'm happy to talk. But I'm not buying a ride."), we were actually able to talk and it was really enlightening.
The southern coast of Sri Lanka was hard hit by the tsunami in December 2004 and the evidence still is everywhere. It was dark and late when we drove in, but even so I was aware that Nandana's commentary changed from identifying the types of farm (coconut, pineapple, tea, tobacco, banana, turpentine, etc.) to noting the impact of the tsunami: in this empty stretch there were houses. Here the commuter train was swept from its tracks, killing hundreds. See the boats still grounded well away from the shore. Many hotels and homes have been rebuilt, and life has clearly moved on but all along the coastline there are are homes and shops where only ruins remain like memories.
The memory is a constant shadow on the people as well. Everyone we met had a comment on what it was like before the tsunami. I was glad that when the tuk-tuk drivers heard I was American they told me, "After the tsunami the Americans were the first ones here. 24 hours later they came with supplies to help us." "Bill Clinton stood on that spot to speak." I saw a Habitat for Humanity t-shirt, UNICEF trucks (from the UN), and a US Aid outpost; it was good to feel proud of my country, like we had actually done something right in the global community. At the same time I felt completely impotent, because clearly there is so much left to do, and so little I could help. But that afternoon I could talk and listen. You wonder whether it's ghoulish to go to a tourist spot after a disaster, but at this point I think what Sri Lanka needs most is to bring back their economy, and this is the right time to go. Of course, now the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) violence is crippling the tourist industry, so I don't know how they're going to get past that.
Enough said. I didn't take pictures of tsunami damage, but we did get some nice ones on our last day, so here we'll cut back to the vacation. By Thursday we were ready to venture out again. We arranged for a tour of the old Dutch and Portugese forts at Galle and stopped at a turtle hatchery on the way home. Maybe we were spoiled by Sigiriya, but Galle wasn't as impressive as we had hoped. On the other hand, the turtle hatchery was very cool.
For the last 15 years, this small outfit on the beach has been buying back the turtle eggs that beach combers dig up to sell at the market as food. They identify, label, and re-bury the eggs and then raise the young turtles until they have a decent shot at survival in the wild. We got to see green turtles and hawksbills, but they also had leatherback eggs buried. This baby green turtle was four weeks old.
Watch your finger, dad!
Even A got brave and fished a couple out of the water.
We made an extra donation for the opportunity to release six young turtles back to the sea. It was a stirring experience, much more up close and personal than you'd ever be allowed to get in the US.
I was unsuccessful in uploading a movie to this site; click here for a youtube video of the release.
It was another excellent day.
Our last day in Sri Lanka was pretty much eaten up by travel. We got out early and walked along the beach until we found a good spot to body surf in the Indian Ocean. Check out was at noon, and Nandana picked us up and delivered us to the airport in plenty of time to make our flight.
