Monkey rescue by the side of the road on the way to Ella. Looked to me like he’s either been electrocuted (tho i couldn't see any wires nearby), had a stroke, or had slipped out of the overhanging branches trying to jump across the road and fallen the 20+ ft… his right arm and leg were stiff and useless, and he was terrified and in shock, every time he tried to get up to run away, he’d just spin in a circle around his useless back leg and then fall again. A crowd of about 10 people gathered and 3 of us managed to catch him and put him into a 20kilo woven plastic rice sack. Tuk-tuk driver then promised to drive him back into town to find some district official who could the contact a vet. I really don't hold much hope that he received treatment, but I DO hope they put him out of his misery painlessly. It was kind of terrible. Life in the wild… brutal.
The news that Uma was failing and needed to be set free…timing. Weirdly synchronous with me totally losing it over a street dog I came across on the way to Ella I stopped to say a prayer for this one, and just lost it big time - hysterical weeping in a road stall parking lot…almost feels like Uma was calling out to me in that moment, to say goodbye. Ella - torrential insane rains driving there and then for several hours, watched it all from balcony overlooking entire valley. Next day, Ayurvedic massage in 2-room mud hut - herbal steam in a large wooden barrel cut in half and hinged to open, a little yoke opening for head and neck to stick out, everything else inside on a slatted platform with towels spread with various herbs and leaves. I felt like a magician’s assistant waiting to be cut in half and miraculously resurrected.Deep into the tourist Authentic experience fantasy, my masseuse/attendant sits on a stool at my side and talks on her cellphone for 5 minutes!…whanh, whanh, whanh…
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Safari in Yala National Park - up at 4:30. jeep ride by lake with full-ish moon and into sunrise... already worth it and we've not yet reached the wildlife reserve! 7 hrs bouncing in the back of a jeep over roads that would give a goat an anxiety attack, through puddles up past the wheel wells, heat, dust. Short on elephants, but mongoose, peacocks, monkeys, green bee eaters (my new absolute favorite birds in the whole world), marabou, wild boar, monitor lizards, one crocodile, water buffalo, spotted deer, flying fox trees… distance + iphone + not many good shots :(
sri lankan notes - wednesday
Well, wonders never cease…quite the turnaround, from my tired to the core, I-just-want-to go-home state of mind. My final week in Sri Lanka was so full and so rich, so full of wonder!!! Having a difficult time giving each experience its due, so have decided to go the roundup route. Here’s the timeline: Sunday 1/17 - Saturday 1/23 surf Midigama, 5 breaks. new friends. Dinesh picks me up here. elephant and sneaky swim in lake. Saturday 1/23 leave Midigama, sleep in Tissa Sunday 1/24 safari in Yala, sleep in Ella Monday 1/25 train to Nuwara Eliya, tea factory on the way to Kandy Tuesday 1/26 & Wednesday 1/27 Kandy - Sacred Temple of the Tooth Relic @ 5:30 am Thursday 1/28 & Friday 1/29 Sigiriya - unofficial safari, lion rock, meditation rock sunset with bike ride through village Saturday 1/30 Cave temple at Dambulla, then drive to Negombo, and airport by 11pm. Left all my power adapters and cords in D’s car :((( 1/22/2016
Kind of a depressing end to my stay here in Midigama - no, depressing is too strong a word… let’s just say i’m going out with a whimper, not a bang! Nick & Diane left this morning, then Brent left, I had a pretty lackluster surf in the dying swell, and it’s the windiest day yet, so whatever breaks haven’t gone completely flat are completely blown out - even Rams, which I watch from my wee balcony, is barely working, and the fews waves that come through just kind of fold over themselves, limply, as if they're tired... :((( Well, I suppose it gives me lots of time to pack…?! I’m psyched for this next (& last) leg of the trip - kind of packing in a lot of nature and temples into an 8 day sprint through all of the hill country, and then the crazy four-flights-&-four-countries marathon back to SF…gonna try to rally and make it good :) aka Christ the Cosmonaut, hangin' in the back of a songthaew in thailand. also seen gracing the grill of 18 wheelers. :)
The ocean has much to teach. This morning I learned about patience, and thus managed to have a really good session instead of a grumpy one! Nick (Swiss-American guy who lives in Perth) brought me to what he said was a great longboard break for dawn patrol… might’ve been a great longboard break yesterday, but this morning it was heaving and closing out! Still, I worked through my chagrin and was patient, and it turned into a nice session, where I eventually had a right all to myself - a good level of challenge without the element of abject terror :) Surfed for a bit with a really nice (and drop-dead gorgeous) Swedish woman, who works at the surf camp nearby. It’s always an extra pleasure to surf with another woman who knows her stuff - she ripped!!! The waves here are interesting - you can get caught on a flat plateau and not be sure you’ve actually caught the wave and then boom it jacks up and your surfboard is hovering over thin air like a diving board over a pool! some very exciting drops, and decent rides if you work them right. I also realized that I have a slight tendency to confer authority to those who actually don’t know any more, and sometimes know even less, than I do… and often they are men. Nick for example, is older than I, and talks as though he knows what’s what in terms of surfing, but after following him now twice into the water at different breaks, I realize 1) that he doesn’t, and 2) that I actually have all the know-how I need to guide myself through surfing strange waters, and it does not serve me to defer to another in this manner. Surfing is a “terrain” where I have allowed myself a degree of “learned helplessness” - the division of labor in my relationship with A, my main surf buddy until recently, being such that he read the charts,reports, whatever, and often made the call about where best to surf, etc. I allowed myself not to learn things that any self-respecting person should really know, because it was easy, and worked! I know this is a common phenomenon in long term relationships, and it is the source of some amusement - A, for example, would go all but apoplectic and have a mild anxiety attack trying to fold a fitted sheet - that became part of my terrain. I, in turn, turn stone cold in the face of many computer-y things - that was his area of expertise. It’s efficient, but I would caution those who recognize this pattern in their own relationships to shake it up a bit. It’s like learning to brush your teeth with your left hand (if you are right-handed, that is) - kind of awkward and a pain in the ass at first, but really a good idea, because you never know when your dominant hand might just fall off!!! best be prepared :))) Anyway, this is not a new revelation, but brought the matter into focus in a way that I appreciated. Post-surf, breakfast back “home” was a parade of the Walking Wounded! First Brent (my neighbor, nice guy from LA) came in, all brittle and stiff, his forehead stitched, in some kind of shoulder brace with half his back bandaged and the whole side of one leg covered in a plaid of scabs. He was on his scooter yesterday morning and got nailed by a car - 18 hrs of really awful sounding hospital treatment, stitches, minimal wound care and X-rays and he made it back here by midnight, lucky to be alive. Scary, Then Rachel (young Irish surfer) came in, her reef rash is now infected and she’ll be out of the water for a good while. I’m knocking on wood & thanking my lucky stars a lot today!!! Took a little trip in to Welligama with Nick and Diane (an Australian woman, and Nick’s wife) - they’ve kind of adopted me, which I have been appreciating <3 Bus travel here is really fun, with the occasional busker getting on board, and the buses and dashboards always decked out in some incredible buddhist display, flashing LED lights, etc. Anyhoo, it was just a functional run to find an ATM and get some iced coffee, no fascinating stories to report… and now, an afternoon of R & R, and then a sunset surf, if this wind lets up. Last Word - no pm surf :( …but instead a little goodbye beer fest ( my first alcohol in weeks) with Nick & Diane, who head off tomorrow, Simon, a super nice surf instructor from the UK, and a new arrival, Carla from Argentina, who I already love! Hopefully we will hit dawn patrol together tomorrow, my last surf day in Sri Lanka. I am really hoping to get 2 sessions in, gods willing. :) |
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December 2016
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