Wednesday
Trip Start
Dec 08, 2007
1
6
10
Trip End
Dec 16, 2007
Where I stayed
Random Elelphant Park, Sri Lanka
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The bus trip was fun. We all were talking about random topics, and I put the wedding photos on the laptop for everyone to see. That provided a lot of entertainment until the tiredness set in. We all had a little snooze, although not at the same time. Soon, as we hit the windy roads, Harleen and Om began to feel sick. Om seemed to think that it was the fish curry and two hoppers that he had for breakfast. We stopped at a pharmacy for medication. The journey was over four hours long.
We arrived at last, where a few droplets were starting to fall. Instead of going on the elephant safari now, we decided to just see the baby elephants, in case of the rain. We made the right decision. As we walked under the shelter, the rain started to fall. Not long after that, it was pouring. There was even a twister a few hundred meters away. It was funny because the shelter above us didn't stop a thing.
The baby elephants were so cute. They came, two by two to the feeding area where they got fed, and then joined the rest of the baby herd. They didn't seem fazed by the rain. We watched for about an hour before we decided to go back to the hotel. The rain was still gushing down, off the shelter, with even a little river formed. Johanne decided to take one for the team and ran to the bus driver to tell him to move closer. When he got back, he was absolutely soaked. The bus driver came as close as possible, but we still had to run. We gave the umbrella to Mihiri and Om and the other one to Jane who had our cameras in her purse. Henry and Harleen both sensibly had hoodies, but Mum and I just had to sprint as fast as we could. Smart thinking. My thong (or slipper, as the Sri Lankan people say) got caught in the mud, so my feet ended up all muddy.
We arrived at the hotel still early in the day, at about 5:30pm. We had only had a quarter or so of a sandwich for lunch, so we decided to meet for a snack after we unpacked. Mum and my room had a really bad odour, so we tried to air it out, but it didn't work. We tried everything, including lighting candles and flicking aeroguard everywhere. For those of you, like me, who thought aeroguard fixed everything, well you're wrong.
We met outside, in the shelter, on couches, where we had lime juices and sandwiches. Mihiri and Jane ordered a margarita, and the waiters laughed at them! We found out why-they had heaps of alcohol in them. We talked for ages, and laughed when mum rolled aeroguard on her pants so she "wouldn't get bitten". Mihiri went back to her room, to bring some sandwiches to Om, and we soon went in for dinner. It was about 8 in the evening by then, and we ordered from the tiny, tiny menu. The chicken Maryland, that we ordered was battered within and inch of its life. The batter was thicker than the chicken. It came with a side of really salty chips and battered banana. The banana battering was the same savoury battering as the chicken, which I had never had before.
We didn't hang around for long, and went to bed pretty early.
