This post will combine our stops in Mayotte, Nosy Be, and Mahajanga. Where in the world are these strange sounding places? Mayotte is in the Comoros Islands off the east coast of Africa near the Seychelles. It is the only one of the Comoros that has voted to remain French and as of last year was made a Department of France. That is like a state in the US. Nosy Be and Mahajanga are in Madagascar, another island off the east coast of Africa and literally worlds apart from anything you may imagine an island in the Indian Ocean might be.

Mayotte was a short stop and we took a bus tour of the island. We visited the botanical garden, the eroded rock dunes, called “padzas”, a giant Baobab tree, a primitive salt factory, and had a nice lunch. We determined that we had seen just about all Mayotte has to offer.

The botanical garden was small, had a few unusual specimens of indigenous trees and shrubs, and took about a half-hour to get through. The eroded rock dunes are quite unusual as they are very colorful, mostly reddish hues, and are located in an almost inaccessible part of the island. Truth be told, both Bonnie and I could not make our way up to the top and the scenic lookout.

Our lunch stop was probably the most delightful part of the day’s journey. The restaurant was so rustic that we thought we might want to bring our own glasses and silverware. Once we got over the rusticity of the place and saw the food, it was easier to relax and enjoy both the food and the views. The restaurant was on the beach – not near the beach, but ON the beach. The sand was a black sand, similar to what might be found in Hawaii and very warm to the touch. The temperature hovered around 100° all day. We were greeted by women in traditional dress with face makeup indicating their marital status. Solid color and lines for married women and flowers and intricate designs for single women. BTW, the term women is used loosely here since many girls are married around the age of 12. Mayotte is very African for being part of France…

 

Following our lunch we visited the “Museé de Sel” or Salt Museum. This is a living museum where women demonstrate the art of producing salt from seawater and mangrove silt. They scrape the ground by hand using a shell, then they sift the soil/salt mixture and rinse it with sea water. This is followed by evaporating the salt-rich rinse water in large tubs over open fires for about a day. The salt that remains is then packaged and sold locally – or to tourists…

Making salt: upper left is the "factory"; upper right is the ladies scraping the salt-rich silt; lower left is the evaporation tank; lower right is the finished product ready for packaging.

 

The finished products.

We then drove a short piece up the road to look at one of the world’s oldest trees – a very large Baobab tree. I can’t vouch for the age of the tree, but the guide was convinced that it was at least 300-400 years.

Finally, we drove back to the pier, tendered out to the waiting Silver Whisper for a shower and a rest. We had to build our strength for the next day in Nosy Be and our visit to the Lemur colony – that’s Lemur colony, not Leper colony…

Nosy Be is an island off the coast of Madagascar, which itself is an island, the fourth largest in the world after Greenland, Iceland, and Borneo (Australia doesn’t count since we consider it a continent). Madagascar is not a wealthy country. It is about the most third-world place we have visited.

We tendered in to the pier at the aptly-named Hellville. Hellville, while possibly a statement of fact, was actually named for a long-deceased French Admiral named – what else – Antoine de Hell. We immediately walked about 20 yards to our “water taxi” or shuttle boat that would take us to Nosy Komba and the Lemur colony (and miss the dubious pleasures of Hellville itself). Nosy Komba is yet another island off Nosy Be that is home to about 5000 permanent inhabitants (human) and several hundred Lemurs in a protected areas on the island.

The landing on the island was a “wet landing,” that is, there was no dock. The boat just pulled up as close to the beach as he could get and we walked off into the surf. The villagers were all out to greet us since few cruise ships stop here (about 10-15 a year, mostly Italian [Costa we were told]). Most of the greeters were children. Madagascar has one of the highest birth rates in the world – and one of the highest children’s mortality rates as well. The kids were just heartbreakers. They are so cute and so innocent – even though most were dancing and selling trinkets for money. We refrained from giving in to throwing a few coins or dollars into the baskets since that only encourages them to skip school and beg.

After wending our way through a few of the “streets” of the village where everyone seemed to be selling something, we made our way into the Lemur sanctuary. Along the way our guide, Angelot, gave us a lesson in the local flora and fauna. We were also accompanied by one of the men who works in the sanctuary and he brought back specimens of geckos and plants for a close-up look. Madagascar is thought to have broken off from Africa millions of years ago and many of the various species of plants and animals are unique to Madagascar (and the Comoros due to the proximity of the two island groups).

Among the most prized commodities are chocolate, ylang-ylang (more in a minute), and coffee. Madagascar chocolate and coffee are among the richest in the world. Ylang-ylang is a tree that produces lovely yellow flowers. The flowers are harvested and pressed to obtain an essential oil that is used in perfume manufacture. Among the most famous perfumes that rely on this specific oil are Chanel No. 5 and Guerlain. It takes about 45 kilos of flowers to produce one kilo of oil. That may explain why many perfumes are so expensive.

 

On the left is the main street of the village in Nosy Komba; I am at the center with a "tame" 6' boa constrictor - tame because he has been handled so much; on the right is one of the local ladies and her baby. I couldn't resit a picture and she said it was OK to take it.

We finally got to see, and experience, the Lemurs. One doesn’t merely see the Lemurs as if one is in a zoo. You are up close and personal. The Lemurs seem to know they are protected and have no compunctions about coming down to investigate a small piece of banana held in the palm of the hand. We met a few and fed a few and had great fun taking and posing for pictures. After walking through the Lemur reserve, we were introduced to some very large tortoises and a sort-of friendly boa constrictor. I had no problem with the snake, but Bonnie did not want to make friends…

A wander through the village, where just about every building and person had something for sale, got us back to the beach and a cold drink while waiting for everyone to gather and get back in the boat. The crafts ran the gamut from embroidery to hand-carved wooden animals, ships, and figurines. There was also a lot of spices, vanilla, and foodstuffs – mostly bananas for the Lemurs (here’s a piece of trivia for you: Madagascar has almost 200 species of bananas).

Bonnie and me and some of our new best friends.

 It was so hot and we were so tired that we just grabbed a quick lunch and crashed the rest of the day. Tomorrow we stop in Mahajanga. Mahajanga is on the “mainland” of Madagascar and we are looking forward to a slightly different experience.

Unfortunately, Mahajanga had been hit by a cyclone (Floridians call it a hurricane) earlier this year and the tenders had some issues finding a safe place to dock. Since we did not have a tour scheduled and since we were still a little wrung out for yesterday’s experience on Nosy Komba, we elected to stay aboard ship and call it a sea day. We later found out from some of our fellow passengers that we had made a wise decision. The temperature was above 90° most of the day and there was not a lot to see on shore if poverty was not your thing – and it isn’t ours. We want to contribute to the local economy and we want to be good travelers, but begging and abject poverty are simply too much to handle when it manifests itself in the children to the degree we saw in Madagascar.

So off we are going to South Africa and new adventures – including two more safaris.

Stay tuned.

Safari!

Safari is a Swahili word for “man who blunders around the bush and scares the animals…” no, really it means “journey” and what a journey we had! This will be a longer posting than usual, so fasten your seats belts and hang on!

Just saying the word Safari conjures up images of rolling savanna, herds of wild animals, hot, hot days with cool nights, seeing Kilimanjaro every time you look to the west or the south, and…I could go on and on and on…but I digress. We did see Kilimanjaro, but from afar – more about that later.

We arrived at Mombasa and we left Mombasa as soon as the ship docked. We were immediately taken to the airport for a charter plane hop to the Galdessa Camp located just north of the Kenya-Tanzania border in the Tsavo East Game Reserve, the largest in Africa. The plane was a twelve-seat, single-engine Cessna, plus pilot and co-pilot. Fortunately, there were only twelve of us, so no one had to be lashed to the fuselage… It was a quick, 40-minute flight at about 6500’ from Mombasa to Manyani, the local airport serving Tsavo East.

Getting on the plane in Mombasa at left; the dirt strip where we landed in Tsave Reserve; our chariot for three days (we need to remember pillows next time).

Actually, I am dignifying it by calling it an airport. It was a dirt strip in the middle of nowhere that the pilot had to make a pass over to assure there were no animals grazing. The landing was uneventful – actually, we have had commercial landings that were harder and bouncier than this little plane. Once we stopped and began to unload, we were able to see that the landing strip was indeed a grazing area for a lot of the local wildlife. The markers were quite evident – large piles of dung from various species, some of which appeared to be still steaming… We soon learned to identify the various herds by the size, color, shape, and composition of the dung. An education that I am sure will assist in my real world life…

Our first glimpse of the Galdessa Camp on the left; the main lodge center and right.

Clockwise from top left: On the way to our luxury accommodations; the bucket shower (this is only a simulation...)The main bedroom and observation deck from the river bank; a closeup of the main room. 

The first of our five game drives began immediately as we were on the ground at about 9:30 AM and were not expected at the camp until about 12:30 PM, so we would have about a three-hour game drive for our introduction to the area. After entering the Reserve, we were not on the road for more than ten minutes when we spotted our first game – a small herd of zebra. It was eerie. We stopped and snapped photos, and whispered among ourselves, and looked at them, and I swear that if they had had cameras, they would have been snapping at us as well. They just stood and looked at us and kept on grazing and twitching at flies. We were not more than about 50 yards away.

Then followed a small herd of elephants, impala, several pairs of Dik-Diks (small deer that mate for life and always are found in pairs), and several giraffe. Although a lot of the sightings were at some distance, many of the animals were less than 50 yards from the jeep.

Galdessa Camp is what you would call “glamping” rather than camping. Emphasis on the “gl” for glamour. Actually, that is a misnomer as well. There was no hot water, no electric plugs in the “tents,” and we immediately learned that rule number one was that we could not be outside either our tent or the main lodge without a “walker.” The walker’s job was to assure that we did no harm to any animal that might stray across our path, such as an elephant, hippo, or other local resident. OK, it was really the other way around. The camp is truly in the middle of the reserve’s grazing area and there are no fences or other artificial separations between us measly humans and the real landlords of the area. At night we found that several Masai warriors were added to the list of walkers. The regular walkers only carried flashlights and whistles. The Masai carried lances – large, heavy, iron lances which we were told they could thrust accurately as a distance of less than several feet. Each boy must take part in a lion hunt using only one of these lances as part of the rite of passage to manhood. We felt very safe with them.

Clockwise from top left: Our Ranger, Juma, our Guide, Rolem, and our Tracker, Kocha. Kocha is 83 years old and could ourwalk, outbend, and outdo all of us; our Masai night walker, Shikio, and our day walker, David; our driver/guide, Dixson and his "baby"; the boys waiting when we got back from a game drive or walkabout.

I won’t bore you with descriptions of the meals except to say that the food and service were on a par with any three- or four-star restaurant. We had a choice of entrees, and beer, wine, or bottled water.

After our brief check-in and indoctrination to the camp rules, we had time for a short nap and then we met again at the lodge to take our first evening game drive. The best game drives are either in the early morning or the early evening. That is when the animals come out to feed, water, and play since it is just too hot and oppressive during the middle of the day.

The evening drive gave us another opportunity to view more elephants, zebra, impala, baboons, water buck, crocs, a wild cat (sort of like an ocelot), and a very large turtle sunning on a log. We also got an excellent view of the Yatta Lava Flow, the longest continuous lave flow in the world at about 300 km long. The lave flow is a ridge running north to south at an average elevation of several hundred feet above the savannah plain and is unique geologically.

As we were heading back toward the lodge, our driver, Dixson, stopped and said “do you smell that?” Of course, we all quieted down and started sniffing the air thinking that perhaps there was yet another species of animal dung that we had not had an opportunity to include in our repertoire… He drove slowly around a sharp bend and went off-road for a few feet and stopped. There, spread before us was the lava flow, the setting sun, and a “sundowner” set up in the bush. The sundowner is a full bar, bar snacks, tables and chairs all set up on a gentle slope that afforded a view of the setting sun while contemplating the virtues of the local brew, or wine, or beer, or whiskey, or whatever suits one’s taste. WOW!

Our sundowner. What an experience!

Then back to the lodge for dinner and bed. Tomorrow would be an early start for the morning game drive: 5:30 AM wake-up call.

The first night in the tent proved to be interesting. Since there was only the main generator that went off after dinner and since each tent had only a small solar panel to generate the tent’s electricity, we couldn't read or play cards, so the only thing to do was to sleep. Easier said than done. It was pitch black. I mean PITCH BLACK. It was also noisy: hums, hisses, grunts, rumbles, snorts, splashes. And that was outside the tent. If one had to get up in the middle of the night to answer the call of nature, one had to use the provided flashlight to stumble around the tent and get to the bathroom. Fortunately, it was in the tent. However, it was only separated from the “jungle” outside by three walls of screening. Talk about freaking out…

The next morning we had a walking safari. That is, we loaded into the jeeps after coffee and were driven several kilometers up the road to the site of Lugard’s Falls. I believe Lugard was the explorer that discovered the place. The water in the river was low and we could walk out onto the rocks and explore the general area. We were first introduced to our guide, our tracker, and our Ranger. The guide was, of course, to guide the party along the way. The tracker was to look for tracks, “read the dung,” demonstrate making fire with his bare hands (and two sticks), and generally give us some jungle lore. The Ranger was a member of the Kenya Wildlife Service Ranger Corps. He was the only one armed with more than courage, a smile, and the knowledge that any one of us only had to run faster than any other one of us… He carried an AR-15 Rifle and about twenty extra clips. I am not sure if that meant that he was well-equipped to handle any herd of anything that might cause us stress or if he was just a bad shot with plenty of ammo. Fortunately, we never had to find out.

From left: a shot of Mt. Kilimanjaro - we didn't get there because it's about 75 miles away, but it sure is impressive; Kocha, the Tracker, making fire; a shot of the type of landscape we were walking and riding through.

The walk took over two hours over some pretty rough terrain. Definitely not for the faint of heart or the out-of-shape. Fortunately, I am in shape – round is definitely a shape.

About halfway through the walk, we were walking along the riverbank and came upon a herd of hippo bathing. There were about 20-25 of them and I couldn't help but notice that the Ranger had unslung his rifle and was carrying it at ready arms. The first rule of the walk was that you could get ahead of the guide or the Ranger, but you never, never get ahead of the tracker. Now we understood why. We were only about 30-40 feet from the hippo and they were curious about us. They did not appear to be aggressive, but the guide told us that they could sprint for short distances at up to 60 KPH.

After walking back up the hillside from the river, we found the jeeps waiting for us to take us back to the lodge for breakfast. As we drove back we again had an opportunity to see more animals and shortly before we got to the lodge, Dixson stopped and said he wanted to take as quick look at a trail branch for hyena that had been seen in the area. As soon as we went off-road, we discovered that breakfast was to be a “bush breakfast.” Just like the sundowner the prior evening, we had tables, chairs, a small buffet of juice and cereal and, off a little way in the trees, a field kitchen set up for eggs and omelets, bacon, and sausage.

The bush breakfast setup.

After breakfast, we stopped at the lodge for a quick pit stop and then another short game drive before lunch. After lunch, a nap. After nap another longer game drive to look for lions. Apparently, due to a dry spell, a lot of the larger animals had moved further away from the river to forage and find water. We had to drive an additional 40 KM to an area where Dixson had heard there were lion sightings. The drive was typical of what we had had with the addition of wild dogs, gazelles, hyenas, ostrich, and more elephants and giraffe. As we approached to general areas where lions had been spotted in prior days, we came on a large troop of really big baboons. One had a small baby on her back that Dixson believed to be about 2-3 months old.

We slowed after that and began looking for lions. We noticed that for the first time that there were jeeps from other lodges in the area as well – apparently, everyone got the word about the lions. Sure enough, about 15 or 20 minutes into the watch, Dixson whispered “look at that clump of grass between the large green bushes.” There is was – a lion head! Perhaps only another bunch of grass… No! A lion, but far away – probably about a 500-750 feet. How he spotted that is beyond us, but that is why they are the guides…

As a courtesy, he radioed one of the other jeeps about the location and they all converged on the area. Big mistake! One of them cowboyed his jeep off the road and into the grass to make the lion get up and run in hopes of getting better pictures. The lion did get up and did run and we found that there were two of them and we got some pix. The good news is that the lions did not appear to be too stressed and the jerk that went off-road got stuck (with six passengers aboard) and his buddy that went in to try to push him out also got stuck (with another six passengers). We left and they might still be stuck…

As we left the area to return to the lodge, Dixson explained that going off-road subjects the driver to a fine based on the number of passengers on board and the severity of the offense. The fines start at $300 USD per passenger. $300 might not seem like much to some of us, but multiply that by six passengers and possibly a surcharge based on where he was and that comes out to the better part of a year’s pay for the driver. It will probably cost him his job as well.

Once back at the lodge, we had dinner and to bed. Another early wake up as we were flying back out the next morning.

During the night, Bonnie had to get up and heard a snorting noise outside. She asked the Masai walker the next morning if there was a wild pig or some such last night and he said no, it was a hippo. He showed us the tracks just a few yards from the tent… Apparently, the hippos, baboons, hyenas, and other locals come up and wander through the camp at night on their way to feed in the grassy plain nearby. It was fortunate that we did not discover this little nugget of information until we were ready to leave…

After breakfast we drove back to Manyani airstrip, loaded on the Cessna, flew back to Mombasa. At the airport we were then loaded on a Five Forty Aviation commuter jet for the 40 minute flight to Zanzibar, Tanzania to meet the ship.

We took almost a thousand pictures during the three days and it took a lot of culling to come up with what I am going to post here. I saved all the animal pix for the end because it is easier to put them all here than to try to remember exactly what, where, and when we saw them.

Baboons. The baby is in the bottom two pictures.

Some of the exotic birds and a gecko-like lizard we encountered.

The Nile crocodile we stumbled on during our morning walkabout.

We saw two elephant herds, including the one with the baby on the bottom. The cows were very protective of the baby and surrounded it immediately as we drove up.

These are the famous Tsavo "red" elephants (with a baby). The red color is from the dust they cover themselves with to ward off parasites.

Gazelles. These are giraffe gazelles and not Thompson's gazelle that are commonly seen in zoos.

Do I even need to put a caption on these???

These were the hippos that we were about 30-40 feet away from. They look placid, but when they look right at you, it is enough to induce a puckering sensation ...

Hyenas. Very large and very scary. There were about a dozen in the pack.

These two male impala were "play" fighting as a way of establishing the pecking order in the herd.

Top two pix are impala and bottom two are water buck, a large antelope-like or deer-like like quadruped.

The lion we finally found. He really wanted to get away from the harassment of the other drivers.

Of course, the fellows with the colorful pajamas...zebra.

Well, we missed seeing much of Mombasa and we missed seeing much of Zanzibar, but we wouldn’t have traded it for anything!

I realize this post has been a long one and I appreciate your reading this far. We have a day at sea to recuperate, then a day in Mayotte followed by two days in Madagascar.

Stay tuned…

Victoria, Mahe (ma-HEY), Seychelles Islands off the coast of east Africa and quite close to Somalia…unbelievably gorgeous. We can understand why people pay big bucks to come here to chill out. We had a day here and if it was not so far to travel, we would not hesitate to return. The beaches are better than anything we saw in French Polynesia and even in Naples, FL… The people are beautiful and life is slow enough to appreciate what they have.

Our day started with a slow walk around the center of the capital city, Victoria – it was 95° at 10:00 AM when we started our walk and it didn't get any cooler all day. The interesting thing was that because of a light breeze, it didn't seem that warm.

A view back toward Victoria on our way to Beau Vallon beach. Our ship is at the dock in the harbor.

Silhouette Island as seen from Beau Vallon beach Silhouette lies due north of Mahe.

Our walk took us to the market, which was in full operation: produce; spices; fish; plants; clothing; you-name-it. We found that if there is a fish that is not easily recognizable as a tuna, a grouper, or some such common fish, then it is a “jack.” Most of the fish we asked about were, we were told with absolute sincerity, jacks, even though it was obvious that they were of wildly varying species. We did our requisite retail therapy – kitchen magnet time again.

Several shots around the market, from upper left: fish; more fish; even more fish; produce; spices; the egg man - he has to package them every time he makes a sale.

We then walked to a craft market and saw a lot of the genuine Seychelles products that were made locally in villages with names like Thailand, China, Vietnam, etc. There was one shop that did have some exquisite wooden and coconut jewelry made in Seychelles, but we didn't really want to shop for jeweler today.

After all that walking we decided to get a taxi and take a short tour around the island. The taxis are not metered and there was a sign posted by the Tourist Board listing the “typical” prices for typical journeys. Bargaining is not only expected, but appears to be a way of like here – except in the shops and restaurants. We found a driver who had very good English and bargained our way into an hour’s trip out to a beach and back. It turned out to be well over an hour and more than just a ride to the beach.

We began by going up the side of a mountain to get to the beach side of the island. The views were terrific and many of the homes and resorts were quite nice. We expected that they might be given the idea of cost that the ship’s travel consultant mentioned in his lecture. We would through several small “towns” along the way – really only a few small stores and an occasional school or church. We wound up at Beau Vallon beach on the northwest side of Mahe. I think that is where they take all those beach shots you see in the ads in travel magazines…wide, white sand, very low rolling surf, trees almost to the edge of the sand, several small islands on the horizon, a few small fluffy pure whiter clouds in the sky, people in as little as there law allows (some even less). What’s not to like??

Beau Vallon beach looking both ways

Bonnie and me at Beau Vallon and then at "the rocks." The rocks was where we saw the beautifully clear water up close.

Bonnie and George, with George's "baby." 

We had a short beach walk, took a few pictures, and returned to the Taxi. Our driver, George, asked us if we wanted to see a couple of things before we returned to the ship. Naturally, we said yes. So he took us on a different route to return to the city. We would along the coast and stopped again at another even more iconic beach with huge rocks and water that looked as if it had just come out of a tap, it was so clear. We then would through several picturesque villages and past a few large resorts. George then took us to see a new government housing project for poorer families. We were amazed at the quality of the dwellings, the cleanliness, and the amenities provided. Apparently, the government is well-liked and has been good to the people. This is not usual for many of these small island nations.

We then returned to the ship, paid George (including a healthy tip for the extras), went aboard, had lunch, checked the weather. The temperature was now 102°. OK, with that information it was time to stay aboard and catch up on correspondence.

We now have two sea days and then we wind up this leg of the trip in Mombasa, Kenya. We won’t see much of Mombasa. We will head immediately to the airport for our charter flight into the Kenyan outback for a three-day safari. Stay tuned…

We are in the Maldives today…sorry to say it was so ho-hum.

The Maldives are an independent nation of islands – many islands. A few are inhabited. The capital is Malé (mal-A) on the island of Malé – quaint… The Maldives are an Islamic-based society and we were told by the ship’s travel consultant that they are teetering on the verge of killing the golden goose by beginning a stricter enforcement of Sharia-type regulations: bikinis are frowned upon; absolutely no alcohol or pork products; etc. Most people go to the Maldives for the gorgeous waters, expensive hotels on private islands, and just to get away from it all. That is easy to do here. If you are not into sun, sand, and surf – with liberal applications of $$$$ - then the Maldives will not hold much for you.

Male is wall to wall buildings as you can see from the map above. It is the only one of the Maldive Islands to be so populated. About a third of the total population of the country lives here.

We are anchored offshore at Malé. The harbor is too small to permit us to dock alongside, so we have to tender in. Unfortunately, we are anchored near the other ship that is in today: the Costa Atlantica. Based on the number of tenders, the number of decks, and the number of people we found ashore with bright yellow “C” stickers on, we believe that the Costa ship carries about 2500-2700 guests as opposed to our 250 guests currently on board. As we viewed both our ship and the Costa from shore, they dwarfed us!

That's our ship peeking out from behind the Costa Atlantica.

The day was to have been a short submarine trip followed by a short walk around town to pick up a refrigerator magnet just to prove we have been here. The first inkling that the day would not go as planned was the Captain’s announcement at 8:00 AM (the time we were to have been anchored) that he was still awaiting the harbor pilot. When we did get to our anchorage, about an hour late, we tendered in to meet the shuttle boat that would take us to the submarine.

Yes, a submarine! We decided to take an underwater tour because we had heard so much about the beautiful Maldives waters teeming with tropical fish and clear as a bottle of gin. This is a vacation spot that people come to from around the world and pay big bucks to stay at exclusive island retreats. We saw none of that. What we saw was Malé, the capital stuffed with wall to wall buildings (much of it on reclaimed land) and tourists. The submarine ride was novel, but not unique.

The submarine ride was to last for about an hour and then we wanted to spend a few minutes looking around the town before tendering back to the ship. Because of our late start due to the harbor pilot thing, our two-hour tour took 4 ½ hours, most of it spent waiting for shuttle boats to and from the sub platform and waiting on the sub platform for the prior tour to return.

Waiting for our submarine...

Several shots of the sub. My underwater pix didn't turn out so well and I decided not to use any in this blog.

 While on the sub, we did see tropical fish, moray eels, and some corals, but we have both done enough SCUBA diving to know that what we saw was more coral rock than coral reef. Although we were down for about an hour, it was about as exciting as one of the old Disney “C” rides. Fun, but been there – done that.

After arriving back on the tender dock, it was hot and starting to sprinkle so we just got on the tender and made it back to the ship with barely enough time to grab a quick lunch.

OK, we’ve been to the Maldives and it was nice, but not a place I would run to return to.

We now have three days at sea before the Seychelles, so stay tuned…

We took a train trip today. Wait a minute…at train? I thought it was a cruise… Today’s outing involved a train and some elephants. Quite a combination, and now that I have your attention, let me explain.

As world cruisers, we have a few additional perks over and above what the “segment people” have. One of these was that night at the opera in Sydney that I told you about several weeks ago. Well, today was another. We were taken by train from Colombo, Sri Lanka, to the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage in the interior of the country. The train ride itself was one of the most interesting parts of the trip. If you have ever traveled by train then you know that just getting from the train station out of the city can tell you a lot about a city’s underbelly. Colombo is no different.

A city of over a million and the capital of Sri Lanka makes for some interesting sights. Right in the city center at the station, there were the usual large office and residential buildings, along with the standard motley collection of shops, stalls, food stands, and retail outlets. Once underway, however, it became clear that Sri Lanka has a long way to go to properly house and feed its people. Most of what we saw until we reached the countryside were tin-roofed shacks – almost all of which had either TV antennas or dish receivers attached and electricity. We can’t vouch for running water however. Unfortunately, due to the movement of the train, I couldn’t get any decent pictures. In any event, it was not a pretty picture.

 The train was very nice. It had air conditioning, clean toilets, and they served wholesome snacks along the way. This was in stark contrast to the trains we saw loading as we waited on the platform. They were open cars, very crowded, noisy, and frankly a little rank nasally. It turned out that the cruise line has chartered our train. Whew! The ride was just a bit bumpy, however, and we started and stopped quite few times – rather abruptly. After the first few of these jolts, our guide smilingly informed us that there was a “small derailment” up ahead that was causing the lurching, but “no worries” we are moving right along… We immediately thought of the line from the Most Wonderful Marigold Hotel where the retirees first see the run-down place and are told “no worries”…

Once we got out of the city and into the countryside and past the derailment – not us fortunately – we were happy for the experience. We had an opportunity to see a better slice of typical Sri Lankan rural life, including cattle, water buffalo, rice paddies, and only slightly more substantial housing. The Sri Lankan countryside is fairly flat until you get about 50-60 Km inland. Then it becomes foothills. Sri Lanka is not a volcanic island, but was part of Gondwanaland in geologic terms, so it does not have the lush forests and jagged peaks of many of the other islands we have visited. We saw mostly rice paddies, banana plantations (the island boasts 22 varieties of bananas), and other farms. There was very little else outside of the towns and cities. The major means of transportation are trains, tuk-tuks, motorbikes, bicycles, and by foot. Whole families can fit on one motorbike.

At Pinnawela we off-loaded from the train and were bussed to the Orphanage. This particular orphanage began with about six small elephants that had been orphaned in the wild and has grown to about 60 currently. They range from several-month old babies to full grown bulls and cows. We were a little disappointed that many of them were chained rather than simply allowed to graze in their pens. They also had a demonstration of bottle-feeding the babies, but the crowd was so great that we only saw it from the fringe. The mahouts were taking money from people for the privilege of holding the bottle. Money that we had no doubt remained in the pockets of the mahouts rather than going to the organization. The babies guzzled a half-gallon bottle in about 10-15 seconds! Sort of reminds me of some of my friends during my college days…

After a short time observing the elephants, we were led to a riverside restaurant for a sumptuous buffet lunch. The dishes on offer included a number of Sri Lanka specialties as well as Indian and a few western style. The Sri Lanka differed from the Indian in the degree of heat from the spices and chilies. If you are a fan of heat, you will love Sri Lankan cuisine. Fortunately, I am one and it was delicious!

As we were finishing lunch, the mahouts were bringing the elephants to the river for their daily baths. The first two or three had the leg chains and were tethered to rings in the riverbank rocks. We thought that would be it – as a sort of show for the diners – but then came about 20-30 more for a group bath. The entire bathing routine lasted about an hour and then the elephants were led back to the orphanage. We later found out that many of these animals are not able to be returned to the wild and wind up in zoos and private reserves. That strikes a sour note with us, but I will not go into the politics of it here. Suffice it to say that we were pleased with the opportunity to see these magnificent animals up closer than we might have otherwise, but were quite saddened to know that even the best intentions cannot always be met.

 

After lunch and a short round of retail therapy, we got back on the bus and returned to the train station for the return trip to Colombo. We had a treat in store for us as the return train was one of Sri Lanka’s preserved turn-of-the-century trains – the “Viceroy.” The exterior was typical wood and iron work and the interior was plusher than the modern train we came out on. The seats were more comfortable and there were individual tables for reading or water glasses, etc. The ride was also much smoother. Interesting!

Tomorrow we have a day at sea and at about noon we enter pirate waters. No joke!

A few days ago we received a sheet in the daily program giving us instructions and the Captain had a briefing to assure us that the cruise line has been plying these waters for many years and has had no incidents. Of course, the added naval escort and recently-acquired temporary armed guards aboard may have something to do with that… In any event, we will be sure to tell you if we run across any pirates.

Incidentally, I may not have told you our captain’s name. He is a long-time veteran cruise ship and cargo captain named Angelo P. Cosario. Corsario means “pirate” in Italian…

Stay tuned…

Hambantota, Sri Lanka is on the southern coast of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon and before that a Serendeb, is a teardrop-shaped island nation off the southeastern coast of India. The name Sri Lanka is Sinhalese for Pearl of the Ocean. As with a number of the Southeast Asian countries we have visited on this trip, Sri Lanka has little in the way of a middle class. People are either very poor or are rich enough to have a vehicle and a decent place to live. It can be very tough to be riding on a bus through some of these places and realizing that the cost of your ride represents almost a week’s  or a month’s pay for some of these folks – those who have jobs or shops..

The day in Hambantota was an easy one for Bonnie. She decided to make it a “sea day” and stayed aboard the ship to read, nap, and indulge in female sports (read: the on-board beauty salon). I took a ship’s tour to the sacred city of Kataragama (Cat-are-a-GAM-a).

Our first stop was at the Buddhist Kerilahera Temple. That roughly translates as the Milk Temple because it is painted bright white and can be seen for miles in the relatively flat countryside. It was originally built in about the 3^rd Century and has been destroyed and rebuilt a number of times. There are still traces of the original scattered throughout the current structure. We had to remover our shoes and hats to step into the temple grounds. It was almost 100º out and the stone and sand surfaces were very hot. Several people did not heed the warning to wear socks and had to immediately return to the bus. Fortunately, I am pretty good at following directions and wore wool socks, so I could get right up to the temple.

Our welcoming committee was a troop of black-faced Langur monkeys (and an occasional cow). Our guide is a Buddhist and he was very forthcoming about how he worships and how Buddhists are different from the other eastern religions. He believes that, as do most Buddhists, Buddhism is not so much a religion as a way of life.

After our visit to the Milk Temple we made our way to the Kataragama temple complex. What is so unusual about this particular complex is that it celebrates many religions and faiths. There are Buddhist and Hindu temples on the grounds, along with an Islamic mosque and a Catholic church! Kataragama was another site that began about the 2^nd or 3^rd century and was built and re-built and added to by various kings and conquerors over the years. The original temple of Kataragama honored Shanda, the Hindu god of war. With his six faces and 12 arms, he is believed to be a most benevolent god and is consulted at the onset of new ventures by the faithful. This site is particularly important to the Buddhists as well because it contains a tree that has been growing from a sapling from the Bohdi tree under which Buddha gained enlightenment and is believed to have been planted by the Buddha himself during a visit to Sri Lanka.

The Hindu temple at the Sacred City

The faithful taking a ritual bath in the river prior to entering the temple grounds. Believe it or not, there are crocs in these waters...

The Buddhist temple. Note the "Electric Buddha". We have seen these embellishments on many of the Buddhist temples that we have visited.

The sacred tree.

 All of this visiting took place in broiling sun with no shoes and no hats – but we were permitted to take pictures, flash and all… We then retired to the nearby Mandara Rosen Hotel for a delicious Indian buffet lunch. The buffet contained several of the usual rice and vegetable dishes one might expect from Indian cuisine, but we were also treated to several that were entirely new to me. For instance there was a shredded cabbage and pine nut concoction flavored with cardamom and saffron that had me going for seconds. There was a riata and a potato dish that were prepared slightly differently than I am used to and were simply wonderful. I had an opportunity to taste coconut sambal. If you know sambal, you know it is very spicy (Hot, Hot, hot!). However, combined with the coconut as a condiment, it lent a rather piquant flavor to all of the rice dishes. The coconut really tamed it without dumbing it down.

After lunch and a short nap in the lobby, we rolled into the bus and back to the ship. Tomorrow we are in Colombo and have a full day planned with a train ride to an elephant sanctuary. That should be very interesting.

 

Can you figure out which is the Men's Room and which is the Ladies' Room????

By now you know that I have been captivated by the children in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka is no exception. This little girl came running out to wave and say hello. She didn't understand English, but she did understand "camera."

Stay tuned…