Sri Lanka - Uda Walawe National Park

After the baby elephant feeding, we arrived at our hotel, Kalu's Hideaway.  It is owned by a famous Sri Lankan cricket player and is a beautiful 8-room hotel.  Most people stay only one night, either after an evening safari or before a morning safari.  We stayed two nights, with a morning safari in the middle.

The restaurant at the hotel uses all vegetables and fruits grown on the property, except the coconuts which come from the coastal areas since they need salty soil.  The region we were in is known for rice and bananas.  We learned that Sri Lanka has 36 different  varieties of bananas!

Since the hotel only has eight rooms and is fairly isolated, Jack had the run of the place - including a tree house, hammocks, gardens and orchards.  The staff loooooved him and made him special meals including several fresh squeezed juices and as much fruit as he wanted.

The tree house

Obviously, Jack's favorite tree in the garden - the Jackfruit tree

A peacock that kept getting into the garden

The next morning, we piled into a open-top jeep and headed into the park for a safari.  One border of the park is a reservoir and a dam which supplies the electricity for the surrounding area, including the electric fences along the other park boundaries. 

The jeep ride was incredibly bumpy, going through mud and fields on paths through the park.  We saw dozens of elephants - there are 600 elephants in the park - as well as wild water buffalo, peacocks, a few monkeys and crocodiles, and beautiful tropical birds. 

Our welcoming party, blocking the road!

On the way back to our hotel, our driver stopped and bought us fresh sugar cane.  The man selling it on the side of the road cut the outer part off and told us to take small bites of the hard, stringy cane, suck the sweet juice out, and then spit it out.  Jack mostly liked being allowed to spit!

 We headed back to the hotel for a nap and an afternoon at the pool.  Our ride was slowed by a farmer herding his water buffalo across the dam.  Reminds me of my dad herding the buffalo across Stadium Road in Brantwood :)

Jack decided that it would be hilarious if Grandpa's buffalo went swimming like the buffalo in Sri Lanka.  Speaking of Grandpa, my parents are coming soon!  They leave Saturday and arrive on Sunday!!!!  Rob will be taking a group of students to Green Camp in Bali for a week so Jack and I will hang with Grandma and Grandpa. 

One more Sri Lanka post to come...about the sea turtle hatchery. 

Baby update...17 weeks and starting to feel the kicking! 

Jack's Passport Photo Shoot

We need new passport photos for Jack, so Rob and I thought we could take them ourselves rather than going to a photo place.  The requirements say to have a "neutral expression."    Here are Jack's attempts.

The winner

Sri Lanka - a journey inland

When we booked our hotels in Sri Lanka in July, they were already very full. There were two nights that we could not get a room on Mirissa beach where we wanted to be, so we took advantage of this and travelled inland to Uda Walawe National Park.  It was a three hour ride on narrow, hilly, winding roads through amazing small towns.  Anyone who has ever been on a road trip with me knows how my queasy stomach took that...

Luckily there were lots of distractions to take pictures of as we drove.  Along the way the road was full of bicycles, motorcycles, tuk tuks, and...stray dogs, cows, water buffalo, and land monitors.  It seems that every family in Sri Lanka has a cow or two, or maybe a water buffalo, and they like to tie them up right next to the road.  But sometimes they walk their animals down the road, or maybe they get off their rope...

Water buffalo and egrets

Land monitor

A huge Buddha near the southernmost tip of Sri Lanka

Busy street

As we drove to the park, we followed the southern road along the coast for a while.  Our driver told us that the tsunami of 2004 completely wiped out many of the towns we were driving through, and they had since been rebuilt.  Some buildings had been left standing, with windows broken out and significant damage to the walls.  It was heartbreaking to hear the driver tell of the tragedy and all the people who were affected, but amazing to see how much had been rebuilt.

We turned north away from the ocean and entered an area of rich soil known for its 36 varieties of bananas and plentiful rice. 

Rice field

One way to carry bananas

Another banana transport method

As we neared our destination, our driver excitedly announced that he had driven fast enough to get to the baby elephant feeding area in time for the noon feeding.  This was the first we had heard of this and we were excited.  In the National Park, they gather up the baby elephants three times a day to feed them milk from a bottle.  The elephants know when the feeding times are and show up at the corral and wait for the gate to be opened.  One at a time they drink from a huge bottle that is mounted on the fence, and then return to the wild of the park.  The youngest we saw was about three months old.

Baby elephants ready for feeding

Jack couldn't take his eyes off the elephants long enough to take a family picture, but who can blame him?

 

We then went to our hotel to get some rest before the big safari the next morning.  That will be in the next post!

P.S.  If you noticed I'm looking a little thick around the middle, it is not from too many pina coladas on the beach...a baby girl will join us in July!

Sri Lanka - Snake Farm

One day we took an excusion by tuk tuk to a local snake farm.  There is a doctor that raises poisonous snakes in order to produce antidotes for snake bites. 

The snake doctor

This snake was not poisonous, or at least not really poisonous

Jack proved not to have a healthy fear of snakes, including hissing cobras

Such as strange feeling...like your necklace is moving on its own

P.S. Here are some tuk tuks...three wheeled vehicles that are used as taxis all over Sri Lanka

Christmas in Sri Lanka

We just returned from two weeks in Sri Lanka!  It was a wonderful, relaxing vacation.  Two other families from our school also went so Jack had friends to play in the waves with.  We spent most of the time on the beach, digging in the sand or splashing in the Indian Ocean.  We also took a three-day journey inland to a National Park for a safari.

On Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, the hotel had dinner on the beach, with a bonfire and grilled turkey and lots of fruit and vegetable carvings.

A traditional Sri Lankan band entertained us.  They came over to sing right to Jack several times and even let him try the drum.

Yes, Rob is holding the bonfire in his hand :)

On Christmas morning, we discovered that Santa had filled Jack's stocking in the hotel room!  Somehow Grandma Karin sent a crocheted elephant and dragon with Santa.  He also brought Lightning McQueen underwear and playdoh.

More to come...

Phuket, Thailand

In early November, we headed to Phuket for a week, during the Hajj break. This is when Muslims from around the world journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the holiest site in Islam.  With all these travellers coming in, we thought we might as well get out :)

We met many of these pilgrims in the Bahrain airport while we were waiting for our flight, and they, I assume, were waiting for connections to Jeddah.  I tried to sneakily take some photos of their traditional Hajj dress, which involved lots of draped white blankets.

In Phuket we went on an amazing tour to the Ban Pae National Park.  We made the short hike up to Ban Pae Waterfall, where we climbed on the rocks and swam in the water. 

A crab at the base of the waterfall

Rob and Jack by the waterfall

 At the base of the waterfall lies the Gibbon Rescue Project.  This is an organization that rescues and rehabilitates gibbons, which are often mistreated in Thailand by being used in monkey shows and to pose for photos with tourists.  After rehabilitation, they are released into the wild, but some of the gibbons have never learned to make attachments and will never survive in the wild so they have giant cages to play in.

One of the rescued gibbons

My favorite flower, orchids

 We also took a trip to the Phuket Zoo and several beaches.  Some of the highlights are below.

Just in case the monkeys looked tasty...

The highlight for Rob

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also had the opportunity to go kayaking. 

 As we were walking down the dock to the kayaks, Jack was getting pretty tired and hungry and hot.  I gave him a bag of mini breadsticks that I had been saving just for a time like this, when he would need a pick-me-up.  Soon we saw some adorable monkeys sitting around.  As we walked, one monkey jumped up on one side of the dock and made some adorable noises, so we all looked (a distraction).  Just then, the alpha male monkey, the gang leader, jumped up from the other side and stole Jack's breadsticks right out of his hands!  The bag broke open and breadsticks flew everywhere.  About ten other monkeys appeared and there was a mad race for the snacks.  Needless to say, Jack had a meltdown, but Rob thought it was hysterical.

The gang

The leader, the one that Jack is still having nightmares about!

 Soon we are off to Sri Lanka for the Christmas break, and will of course follow up with more pictures!  My parents are visiting in February, Rob is leading two student trips, and his parents should be coming in May.  I'm sure that will keep us busy and make time fly until we see you again.  Merry Christmas everyone!

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

A few weeks ago, I travelled with the DHS varsity volleyball team to KAUST for our Saudi Arabian Intra-Kingdom Activities Council (SAIKAC) tournament.

First of all, we were the champions!  It was really fun coaching because my girls are very talented, they played well in the games, and they were good sports the whole time.  The teams we played against were either American or British schools around the Kingdom.

To get to KAUST, we flew from Dammam to Jeddah, about a two hour flight.  Then we took a bus for 1 1/2 hours north to KAUST.  The girls are all seasoned travellers but keeping track of everyone's boarding passes and checking on them for curfew was still a little work.  I had a co-coach with me, as we have to have both a male and a female chaperone for travelling with students.

At KAUST, the girls stayed with host families, mostly the KAUST players.  Brandon, the other coach, and I were hosted by the school nurse.  She turned out to be the wife of KAUST's Chief Informations Officer, so we stayed in the "upper management" part of the campus!

The beautiful mansion we stayed in for the weekend

KAUST is, as I mentioned, an hour and a half away from Jeddah.  The University is the main part of the campus, and obviously the reason for its existence.  But the campus also contains a preschool and K-12 school for University employees' children, several mosques, many restaurants, recreation facilities, two beautiful beaches (with sand imported from Spain because there is a sand shortage in Saudi), a golf course, and housing for all employees.  It is a self-contained city.  And it is so green, with grass and trees and gardens everywhere.

The main mosque

Housing next to one of the rivers on campus

The center square where many restaurants are located, next to the university

KAUST is progressive in many ways.  It is the first Saudi-sponsored co-educational University, for one thing.  On campus, women are allowed to drive and abayas are not required.  They have many Saudi staff members, and have needed to create an all-girls wing on the K-12 school because some of the families are uncomfortable with having their daughters educated alongside boys.  Overall the campus had a very fun, relaxed feeling and I really enjoyed my visit there.  Mostly I enjoyed driving my host family's dune buggy around!