Dancing Queen

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  Kegalle, Sri Lanka
Sunday, October 8, 2006

I awoke on Friday morning to find that flying ants in biblical plague proportions had invaded the bungalow overnight, most of them had shed there wings and were walking around (they are pretty big and bite) a few were still flying around. It took 30 minutes with a stiff broom to encourage them outside and was a pretty shocking way to start the day!

We left MEF at 8.30 by van to Badulla were the Perahera was taking place, 5 hours (and a numb bum) later we arrived, just at the same time as the Truck carry the 2 MEF elephants Rani and Pooja. The Truck had left MEF at 4.30 that morning as it has to travel very slowly and it made our 5-hour journey look pretty fast. I watched as Rani backed down from the truck (backwards) with Chandana directing her with vocal commands and holding her tail like a sort of rudder, its pretty impressive to see something as large as an elephant stepping backwards off a truck and there was a large crowd watching by this time. Sri Lankans on the whole are nervous of elephants, which is pretty understandable as in the wild every year approx 50 people are killed by wild elephants (normally in farming areas where man and elephants are both trying to use the same land). Rani had spotted me from the truck and was waving her trunk at me and by the time she was on the ground she was looking for a fuss and cuddle, as Chandana was with her I went over (even though the MEF elephants are tame we never approach them without there mahout present) I made a fuss of her and then noticed the crowd watching me with great interest whilst at the same time they had all taken a few steps backwards! We took Rani over to a hosepipe where she had a very long drink (she was holding the hose pipe up to her mouth) and then we sprayed her with the hose to cool her down and wash off all the dust she had collected on her travels. I then went off to get some lunch whilst Chandana prepared to take Rani for a well-deserved walk.

Lunch was at a local café and was traditional Sri Lankan food (Rice and Curry) I have eaten in a lot of "local" establishments recently and have finally got the hang of eating rice and curry with my hand. As you only use one hand (the right one) the trick appears to be to mix the rice and curry together and then scoop the rice up using the tips of your fingers tucking your thumb across your palm. Sri Lankans will often tell you that that food tastes much better that way. In the week I had a traditional breakfast (String Hoppers and lentil Dahl) at a roadside café on my way to Colombo, String Hoppers are very fine noodles and the same principle applies in mixing the hoppers together with the lentils.

After Lunch we went to our guest house (up a very steep hill) and had a few hours to relax and drink tea in the lovely garden area before heading back to the first of 2 temples. The first Temple we visited was at the finish of the Perahera route, after a look around and making an offering we traveled to the temple at the start of the route. This Perahera was going to be very small in comparison to the one at Ratapura, having 3 elephants instead of 40 but the up side was it was very personal and friendly and I knew I would have no trouble spotting Rani!

I met up with Chandana who took me up to Rani's bed (a short walk from the crowds gathering outside the temple) she was quite pleased to see us both and even more pleased when he untied her to walk her down to start getting ready for the Perahera. We walked down to lower level stopping only to assist a family who had a large fallen tree across the road leading to there house, Rani moved it totally out of the way in a few minutes and then left them rather a large pile of elephant poo in there front garden as a souvenir of her visit! Then it was on to get Rani dressed, her costume was a fantastic red fabric with various symbols on (I have pictures and will add them here when I get home) it takes a while to dress an elephant, first there is the head covering that ties behind the neck and covers the face and trunk, then each ear has its own covering, a large cloak covers the back and finally lights are added to the head piece. Once she was dressed Chandana took her to the front of the temple were she and Chandana both bowed down at the temple door, clearly Rani had been practsing this (as its not something she normally does) and she was very graceful and the watching crowds were very impressed (as was I)

Then we were invited to a house in the temple grounds for some dinner, I have found that Sri Lankans are very generous and love entertaining guests and as such had prepared a large spread of curry and rice, once we had finished eating we were introduced to the "chief" (not sure that's the correct term, but I think its hard for Sri Lankans to translate the word ) it appears to be a ceremonial position (he is not a monk) but he has a important part to play in the Perahera, walking at the end under a large umbrella, Like the elephants he also has a very ornate costume and he asked us to pose with him whilst he had his photo taken ( which felt a big honour ) we were then taken back to the temple were we discovered that we were to play a part in the opening ceremony. We were asked to wait outside the door that Rani had bowed to earlier and then the chief came out surrounded by drummers and chanting, then we were asked to follow the group around the temple grounds and dome whilst blessings were conducted and lots of chanting, it was such an amazing experance and although I did not understand what was going on it was clearly a great hounor to be included in the group and I felt so privileged to be part of it. Our Perahera duties over we now had time to walk along the line of participants queuing up along side the temple waiting for the parade to start, Rani was around a third of the way along and I stopped for a chat with Chandana, a trunk hug with Rani (who was now very excited) and had some photos taken with them before we walked up to get a good spot. Once the parade started we were treated to the most amazing displays of whip crackers, fire dancers (one of whom caught his arse on fire!) dancers, singers and then came the elephants. First was Pooja the other MEF elephant and then in the distance I saw the unmistakable form of Rani coming towards us. Rani likes to dance and does so at MEF even when there is no music, but give her a Perahera with drummers and singing and she really becomes a dancing queen. To the crowd's delight she was swaying in time to the music and swinging her trunk side to side, in fact the only person who did not seem impressed was the man riding her (from the temple) who looked like he could do with some seasickness tablets! Once Rani has passed we watched for the last elephant (The Temples male tusker) and then once the "chief" had passed we walked back to Temple to meet our driver, whilst we were waiting we were talking with some very young trainee monks and they were delighted to see the photos we had taken on our digital cameras of the Perahera.

Then it was back to our room for a few hours sleep and it was a few hours due to the discovery that our bathroom wall stopped 2 foot short of the ceiling and noise was traveling over from the room next door where they were having a loud and very raucous party. If that not bad enough we where then treated to the sounds of one party goer being very ill in there bathroom for what seemed like hours! At 6 in the morning our van driver banged on the door to tell us that we had been invited to breakfast at the temple (and clearly Monks have breakfast early) Our bedroom light had blown the night before and using the torch on my mobile phone and the light from the now mercifully quite bathroom we got ready and packed in record time. Breakfast at the temple was again very radiantly affair and if you had told me 6 weeks ago I would be able to (and enjoy) eating Rice, curry and chickpeas for breakfast I would have laughed a lot.

Then it was back to MEF and 5 hours (and the same numb feeling in my bum as the day before) we were back to a well deserved afternoon off I spent most of it hand washing clothes that are now soaking wet again as its raining!

Although today is my day off I went down to the river at 6.30 to wash Rani who seemed to get bored with her extended clean after an hour (she was filthy) and started playing games including grabbing my leg underwater with her trunk (makes me jump and her laugh) splashing me with water and her all time favourite of waiting until I am clearly not looking and squirting me with a trunk full of water.

I waiting for a break in the rain (may be some time then) and then will dash back to the bungalow and rescue my washing from the line

Bye for now


Sam

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Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

05 does my bum look big in this ?

06 waiting for the Perahera to start

07 The dancing Queen

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