Let's Visit Sri Lanka!

Well, dearies, I'm back from my 4-month odyssey.  It was a thrill-- a wonderful trip filled with new friendships, new experiences and personal growth.  So much still to share with you- lots of catching up!

Well, after our visit to Myanmar, we had a few sea days and then stopped in Sri Lanka, the teardrop of India.

It is a good thing that we overnighted there- Laird had been looking for a challenging hike and found one- Adam's Peak.  He took a taxi out to a bed and breakfast near the mountain, spent the night, got up at 2:30 in the morning, and completed one of the most strenuous climbs he's ever experienced (it was all steps of various depths--I think over 5,000 of them).  It was a race for him to make it back to the ship- traffic is nothing if not complex in Sri Lanka- for our 4 pm sail.  Yep, we started making plans as to how to get him to India if he didn't make it, but thanks to a couple of no-show embarking passengers, we were delayed sailing for an hour and all was well.  Ask him about the trek sometime-- he's glad he did it,  but was hurting for two days afterwards!

So what did I do?  Well, I took a trip to a lovely Buddhist temple.

Tradition holds that Lord Buddha preached at this site, and the spot is held in great reverence.

The carvings of the exterior walls of the temple caught my eye...

I'm wondering why Lord Ganesh is sitting on top of a pig....something I must research.  I know there is a story there.

Always in search of elephants for Miss Maddie Jane...

Aren't these figures fun?

Cheeky little devils!!