Sunday, November 28, 2010

Portugal- NATO protests

After my 2 nights in Porto, I took the train back to Lisbon for my final 2 nights. My trip coincided with the NATO meetings that were taking place, many world leaders were in Lisbon, and so the city wasn't really functioning at normal capacity. Trains were delayed, security was jacked up, and I was camera ready. I spent one of the afternoons taking photos of the massive protests that were taking place. Pretty much all the signs and yelling were in Portuguese. It was completely different than similar protests I have seen in London, and Washington DC. Super peaceful- lots of locals, many of them elderly taking part.




Portugal- Porto

After spending 3 nights in Lisbon, I took the train to Porto. It takes about 3hrs by train, and it was super easy, and very direct. From the train station I took the Porto metro direct to the hostel I had booked. I booked 2 nights in Porto. The weather was rainy and pretty cold for the 2 days I was there, never really felt like I could warm up. Luckily, the hostel gave me extra blankets which helped!

A girl that I met here in Saudi had arranged for her friend to take me around the 1st night I was there. We went for a traditional Porto meal called Francesinha (I think I spelt this right). Its the most interesting, fattening, delicious sandwich. Its sort of like a grilled cheese with a slice of ham, sausage, beef, and then draped in cheese, and covered in a sauce similar to tomato soup. Looked weird as hell, but was really good paired with a local beer!! From there we went to a local Port Bar, and tasted Port wine. Delicious.


I only had one full day to sight see, and of course it rained cats and dogs. I jumped on a tourist bus, and toured the city. Really wanted to take so many more photos than the weather allowed, but Mother Nature wasn't cooperating. I went to the Igreja de Sao Francisco- an amazing church. Unfortunately, no photos allowed- so I will just have to say that the entire place was covered in ornate wood carvings covered in gold. It was complete Bling Bling, Catholic church style!! The rain continued, so naturally I did what any trapped person living in Saudi Arabia would do- headed to the nearest bar, and sipped Port for the afternoon. My final night in Porto was spent at my hostel, drinking wine, eating cheese, and chatting with other travelers.
Capela das Almas
Torre dos Clerigos

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Portugal- Lisbon

This past week I ventured solo to Portugal, and the trip went about 100% better then I could have imagined. I flew from Riyadh to London, and from London to Lisbon. In the airport I met a American girl at the currency counter who was also traveling solo, so we shared a taxi to our accommodations, and made plans to meet the following day. I checked into a hostel in Lisbon called the Travellers House- this is seriously the best hostel I have ever been to. Very social, super clean, and great rooms. Every night the hostel had an organized activity so it was super easy to meet people!!! I met another great American girl, and fabulous guy from Czech, a couple Kiwis, and a lovely guy from Sri Lanka.

I spent the days touring the city. Lisbon has many great viewpoints, and it was lovely just wandering the back alleys of the city. I felt completely safe, and the metro was very easy to get around on. At night we went on pub crawls, to after hours clubs, and spent a night listening to traditional Portuguese/Brazilian music, and watching the locals dance. The food was delicious- very fresh seafood. If you go to Lisbon be sure to visit a restaurant called Bonjardim- they serve the most mouth watering BBQ chicken you will ever eat. Seriously the best, I went twice it was so good!!!



Friday, November 12, 2010

November Thoughts

So I have been back from Sri Lanka for almost 2 weeks, and I'll be leaving on Monday for an 8 day trip to Portugal. This will be my 1st solo trip, and I'm a mix of nervous and being super excited. I love travelling with my friends, but am really looking forward to having some selfish "what do I want to do today" time! Am also looking forward to having some time to figure my camera settings out more, and aimlessly wander taking photos.

The last 2 weeks have been a blur. I switched from night shift to day shift and my body isn't keeping up too well. Throw in some overtime, and a night at the German Embassy, and I'm darn near exhausted (and ready for another vacation). Work is still...well...work, really. Spent most of today inhaling 2nd hand smoke from 3 of my patients who were puffing away in their rooms. Otherwise, not really much to complain of. The weather is turning chilly by desert standards, and I've had a break out the 2 hoodies I brought with me. I can't quite believe its mid November, and I've been here nearing 7 months!! More when I return from Portugal!!!

Sri Lanka- the Southern Beaches

After spending the morning at the elephant orphanage we started our long drive back towards Colombo, and then started down the coast towards Galle. Our final destination was Hikkadura Beach which is about 18km west of Galle. The drive took us close to 5 hours, we stopped off to eat and take photos along the way. I was really surprised by the amount of tsunami damaged buildings visible 6 years later. We passed many deserted unlivable places. It was really heart wrenching to think of what these local people went through, and the destruction that remains is a constant reminder. We stopped at a couple Tsunami Memorial sites to pay our respects. At one of the memorials I met a local woman who showed us one of the mass burial sites that sits alongside the sea. Her 22 year old son is buried there along with some 1700+ others. Meeting her brought me to tears. Her house was completely ruined, and she is now raising her grandson. Everyone we met had been affected by the Tsunami. After visiting Ground Zero and Hiroshima I can say that this was much more somber. This was a disaster brought on by nature, and these locals have to live by and look at the ocean everyday, wondering when it will happen again.



We spent the next couple days lounging at the beach or pool. We took an afternoon day trip to see the city of Galle. The fort part of Galle was largely unaffected by the tsunami, as the large outer fort wall prevented water from damaging the old city. The same cannot be said for the downtown and unprotected beach portions of the city. We spent our last day slowly making our way back to Colombo. We stopped off at several antique stores, a moonstone mine, another gem factory, and had lunch in Bentota overlooking the water. Bentota seemed really chill, and I would add this to my list when I return to Sri Lanka. We also stopped at a sea turtle conservation project. We were able to hold 2 day old sea turtles, and even got to see a ticklish albino turtle (yes you read that right!) They are one of several similar organizations that work with local fishermen to rescue turtle eggs, and release them back into the ocean. You can arrange to volunteer with them if ever in Sri Lanka. Their website is www.seaturtleszone.com


Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Sri Lanka- Pinnewala Elephant Orphange

On our 4th day in Sri Lanka we woke up early to make it to the elephant orphanage for feeding time. The orphanage was about an hour from where we were staying- and we took a lovely drive via back roads thru small villages. The elephant orphanage is quite large- and home to some 80+ elephants of varying ages. They charge around $20US for admission, another $5 to take your camera and $2.50 to bottle feed an elephant. We paid to bring our cameras in, but to be honest- no one checked whether we had paid or not. I would strongly recommend not paying extra for the bottle feeding. You basically crowd around a coral and get in line to feed 2 elephants, and the whole thing takes less then 30 seconds for them to finish the bottle. You would be better just to take photos of someone else doing it, or opt for the breastfeeding option. Just kidding. This will promptly get you escorted off the property.

Most of the elephants are roaming in the feeding area in the morning. You can interact with them to some degree. The elephants are separated from the people by a barrier of rocks with signs stating to not go beyond this area. Lucky for us the elephants could not read, and while we were there 2 young ones tried to make a break for it. We were like a bunch of teenage girls ooohing and ahhhhhing over them until their trainers caught wind of their plan, and yelled them back behind the barrier. It was a really amazing experience. You can get great photos with the elephants- but expect to be hassled for tips for every posed photo you get. Some of the elephants are chained and we weren't sure if this was because they were dangerous, or just new and in training. Either way it was hard to see them like that.




This was a highlight of our trip. You can also organize to volunteer with them if this tickles your fancy!!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Sri Lanka- Is there such a thing as a bad massage??

Let me preface this blog by saying that I'm not picky about massages- or at least wasn't picky until Sri Lanka. Let me set the mood: we had ordered massages to our hotel room. 3 girls- 2 masseuses. The guy who was to be giving my massage walked into the room wearing a matching sweatsuit, and informed me to undress while proceeding to (1) stay in the room, and (2) gesture to me to undress in front of him. This should have been the 1st sign that things were slightly askew. After asking him to politely step out while I undressed I draped myself in a towel and came out to find him setting up shop next to a stool- that's right a massage on a stool. He asked me to sit on a stool facing a mirror "so I could watch." Watch what? You're probably asking yourself, as I was in this moment- well just wait for it!! He told me we would start with a head massage, and poured some type of peppery smelling liquid on the crown of my head. I immediately thought "was this used in last nights dinner??" Instead of massaging this into my head he began to rub it into my hair, and then my hair against my scalp. I quickly started to resemble an 80's rocker. I had to close my eyes to keep from laughing at the disaster that was unfolding in the mirror in front of me. I suddenly had volume I hadn't realized was possible, nor really should be possible. I cringed to think of what a horror it would be to comb this mess out.

Next came the drawing on the back portion of the massage. He noted that I have a butterfly tattoo, and began to lightly draw on my back while informing me that this was called the "butterfly touch." For this I did actually laugh out loud. Part of me wondered if my friends had put him up to this. I felt like I was back in Grade school and someone was drawing on my back and I was supposed to guess what the design was.

Next we moved the show to the bed. I mostly kept wondering when the "massage" was going to start. The next 30 minutes were spent either tickling me, scratching me, or karate chopping my ass. I honestly thought I was getting punked Sri Lankan style. Then came the icing on the cake- he pinched my love handles and said in a deep voice "too much fat." I was like "no shit Sri Lankan- you ain't tellin me anything new." He proceeded to demonstrate standing ab crunches telling me "body #1, body good." He then informed me that he was Mr Kandy 2001. Finally is was over. My hair looked borderline amazing. My friends almost peed themselves when they saw me. I decided to walk around the Mansion with my hair like this. The woman at the front desk asked how we liked our massages- I just pointed at my hair.

Random thoughts during massage:
-Is this dude for real.
-Am I really paying for this.
-"Dead puppies" to keep from laughing.
-I wish I had this shit show on video.
-They have a Mr Kandy competition???

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Sri Lanka- the Temple Tour

We awoke on Day 2 to the sounds of drums and chanting around 7am. To our surprise there was a wedding at the hotel- apparently Sri Lankan weddings are a morning into the afternoon shin dig. We headed down for breakfast and were invited to watch as the wedding had hired dancers. It was amazing to be invited to take photos of such an intimate event. The dancing was quite similar in style to Balinese dancing, very colorful and energetic. We snapped a bunch of pics before heading to eat.


Sri Lanka is made up of a mix of religions- Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic/Christian. They appear to be equally accepting of one another. The Kandy area is home to several temples/shrines, the most famous of all is the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (yes you read that right). We started off day 2 with a visit to see about a Buddha tooth. This temple costs about $10 to visit, and there are several smaller temples on the site. Sri Lankan Buddhists believe that they are to make one visit to this temple in their lifetime- so be warned it can get quite crowded. We were probably 3 of the tallest people waiting in a line of several hundred people, and let me say if they could have, they would have pushed us over to get to the tooth. In the end we couldn't even really see the tooth, but it was still a great experience, and I took a ton of photos!!

From here we toured a local tea factory- tea is a huge export here, and said to be some of the best in the world. It also makes great gifts, and with Christmas just around the corner I'm getting my shopping done early!! We enjoyed a lovely cup of tea and then headed to visit 3 more temples in the area. The first 2 we saw (Gadaladeniya and Lankatilake) were quite similar, and both quite remarkable. Both of these shrines had Buddhist and Hindu temples on site. The Buddha statues inside the temple were the exact same, just different colours.
Gadaladeniya Temple
Lankatilake Temple
A Monk at Lankatilake Temple

The third last temple we visited this day was the Embekka Temple, which I personally could have skipped. Maybe it was the downpour of rain when we arrived, maybe it was because it is so much smaller than the other 2, maybe it was the fresh smell of rat poop?? If you are a fan of rat poop then by all means go- otherwise there are many other things to see.

We also toured a Spice Farm while in the area- really awesome, but once again since this is very touristy things are priced accordingly. We ate a lovely lunch overlooking Kandy in an area called "Upper Lake" very beautiful views from there. We toured a Gem factory with beautiful jewelery, but I honestly think it's cheaper for me to buy jewelery here in Saudi, so we just browsed. We decided to really relax for our last night in Kandy, and ordered massages in our hotel room- my next blog will be about this!!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Sri Lanka- Kandy Area

This past week I spent a lovely, mostly relaxing 6 days in Sri Lanka. Why Sri Lanka you might ask?? Cheap cheap tickets!! Before planning this trip I really knew nothing about this island south of India, apart from the devastating Tsunami that hit in 2004. I will write more about the after effects of the Tsunami when I blog about the beach area. For now lets talk about Kandy! The 3 of us (a Canadian, a Kiwi, and an American) arrived late in the afternoon via Riyadh-Abu Dhabi- Colombo. We had arranged a driver to pick us up at the airport, however; there was a last minute switcharoo as the original driver got a last minute visa to the UK, but he sent a replacement driver in his place.

We headed off towards the city of Kandy- we had booked to stay 2 nights at the Mansion Hotel about 8km outside of Kandy. The roads are very narrow, scattered with any variety of pedestrian, stray dog, bicycle, motorbike/scooter, 3 wheeler, car, van, bus, semi, cows ect. Driving can be rather "white knuckling" and the phrase "Oh Shit" became my theme statement every time I got into the van. We arrived at the Mansion after dark, and it was a little difficult to find, but well worth the trouble. The place is beautiful, large, and welcoming. The bathroom alone was practically the size of my room back in Saudi. We checked in, headed to the outside eating area, and proceeded to down several bottles of delicious wine we acquired at the Duty Free in the airport. Ah Heaven!

The next morning we awoke and I vaguely recalled telling the waiter the night before (thru my wine haze) that I did not want a western breakfast in the morning, but instead wanted the Sri Lankan breakfast!! My stomach cringed- and I thought "you'll probably regret that decision later!" To my surprise it was delicious- an assortment of curries served over top these things called string hoppers which loosely resemble Top Ramen noodle paddies. Delicious- I would come to eagerly look forward to breakfast this entire trip, and would pout if they ran out or worst weren't available.
We spend our first day exploring Sigiriya which is about a 2-3hr drive from Kandy. Sigiriya is a enormous rock that served as a palace and a monastery sometime around 490's AD. It is known a UNESCO site- and they are working on uncovering more of the ruins. It is said that the king who build the palace had 500 women in his harem who lived (and worked) on the site, and he had topless paintings of them adorning the grounds. Sadly only about 15 or so remain. Interestingly all the paintings we saw the women were incredibly large breasted- picture DD sized, and not that I stare at women's breasts, but none of the local women appeared to be packing breasts like this?? Anyways... Sigiriya is a moderate climb involving some steep steps and takes about an hour to get up. The site is pricey by Sri Lankan standards and costs $25US to get in. We hired a guide which was well worth it for the amazing history alone. This was definitely a highlight of the trip, and the views from the top are stunning!!

There are many restaurants near Sigiriya, but I would avoid eating in this area if you are following any type of budget. This area is a tourist haven, and you will pay for meals accordingly. We of coarse didn't know this- and paid well over $100US for a nothing special meal. From here we toured a local Batik factory- and saw the fabric dying process 1st hand. Batik is hand dyed fabric in complicated patterns involving many different colours used as wall decorations or clothing. Pretty cool, but once again not nearly as cheap as I would have expected.

After a full day of touring we headed back to our hotel for what may have been the slowest dinner in the history of time. Luckily we had more wine to pass the time.... and Uno (some old school entertainment). We loved staying at the Mansion, but meals were average (apart from dinner) and service very very slow. Now on to the temples!!