Santa's Workshop

Ministry of Crab

Elise's cousin was supposed to come to Sri Lanka in December for a week-long visit to the island. Unfortunately,  Omicron had other thoughts on the matter, and Nick and his family ended up postponing or canceling the trip for the time being. 

Their visit would have coincided with his birthday, so we made plans to go to one of the best restaurants in all of South Asia, a destination we had not yet had the opportunity to visit for ourselves, Ministry of Crab. Fortunately, we love crabs, and, coincidentally, a college classmate of mine is the owner and head chef (though he wasn't in the house the night we visited). 

We had heard a lot of hype about MoC, and it did not disappoint. Sam and Peter shared a buttered Crab while Elise and I shared a phenomenal Crab curry. It was the perfect way to start the holiday season!

Tuk-Tuk Tour

One recent Friday evening, Elise and I set out with a few friends and colleagues for a tour around Colombo.  Now, we've been living in Colombo for almost two and a half years at this point.  What could there be to see that you haven't seen already? one may ask. 

Well, considering the last 21 months and counting have been spent mostly sequestered to our house, there is actually quite a bit of Colombo we hadn't seen yet.  Also, what made this tour a little different was we were getting a ground's eye-view of the city, live and in-person, from inside a tuk-tuk.

In short, it was one of the most fun things I've done in Colombo.  I'm not shy to say Colombo isn't my favorite city, but the tour showed me a side of it I, heretofore, had not seen and really liked, much more reminiscent of India.  

We started the tour at what by all appearances was a run-down, Wes Andersonesque hotel at the entrance of the old port of Colombo.  The rooftop bar had a sweeping view of Colombo, so it was an interesting historical perspective to imagine the city before there were cars or even tuk-tuks, for that matter. 

We then took a short jaunt to Pettah, which in Tamil means 'outside'.  This was one of the first neighborhood of Colombo and its close proximity to the port made it a prime marketplace.  It is still the heart of commerce, filled with Tamil and Muslim trading families dating back generations.  There, we sampled the wares of a coffee peddler and grinder, before taking a walk through the bustling vegetable market.  

In Pettah, we stopped for fried fish bites and a beer on the roof a speakeasy overlooking the bustling market below. Dark clouds rolled in, and it started to sprinkle. By the time we made it to our last stop, Sri Ponnambala Waneswarar temple, it was pouring. We sought shelter inside the temple just as the temple priests began their nightly drumming.

Rock Climbing in Kodigahakanda

A few weeks ago, we drove a short way outside of town to a nature reserve where we got to go rock climbing. It was our first time climbing outside, so a different kind of challenge.  I was surprised how raw my fingertips got!

Dambulla

After our day climbing Sigiriya rock, we stopped in Dambulla to see the Buddhist cave temples on the way back to Colombo. 

Dambulla is home to the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. There are more than 80 documented caves which contain statues and paintings related to Buddha and his life. There are a total of 153 Buddha statues, including the giant "lying down Buddha", three statues of Sri Lankan kings, and four statues of Hindu gods and goddesses. 

Sigiriya, Part Two

Sigiriya

This weekend, we finally made it to one of Sri Lanka's most famous sites, Sigiriya, an ancient palace located atop a 200 meter rock. 

In 477 AD, Kashyapa, the Buddhist King Dhatusena's son by a non-royal consort, seized the throne from his father and killed him, following a coup assisted by Migara, the King’s nephew and army commander. The rightful heir, Moggallana, fearing for his life, fled to South India. Afraid of an attack by Moggallana, Kashyapa moved the capital and his residence from the traditional Buddhist capital of Anuradhapura to the more secure Sigiriya. Sigiriya was then developed into a complex city and fortress. 

He built his palace on top of the rock and decorated its sides with colorful frescoes. On a small plateau about halfway up the side of this rock he built a gateway in the form of an enormous lion.

Our guide, Lal, telling us about the man-eating crocodiles in the inner moat.  

I've learned over time to be less wary of guides.  When Lal made a beeline for our car as we pulled into the completely deserted parking lot, I suppressed my immediate instinct to turn him away. Not only was I sympathetic to Lal's plight (there hadn't been many visitors, much less foreign tourists, to the site since the beginning of the pandemic), but I remembered how much value our guide in Egypt added. I'm glad we decided to let Lal join us. I'm not sure how much choice we had; I'm sure he wouldn't have taken 'no' for an answer. 

The feet of the lions is all that remain of the entrance to the upper levels.

Before the morning was over, we learned King Kashyapa lived a pretty posh life. At the base of the rock,, there were several large rectangular swimming holes. Lal pointed out the seat where the king sat as he watched his 500 concubines swim nude. When he was ready to return to the palace, he and the queen were carried back up the rock in a rickshaw. 

The kids were riveted. The trip was the type of adventure their pandemic life had a been lacking, hanging on to the side of a cliff, scaling rickety metal stairs that threatened to come unriveted from the rock face at any moment. Not to mention the near bee attack, fleeing monks, orange robes flapping behind them, cobras and pythons. The entire experience was harrowing, thrilling, electrifying in a way nothing we'd done since the pandemic started was.