Lunar Eclipse

We had a great view of this weekend's Lunar Eclipse, the longest in a century, from Sri Lanka's South Coast. Click here for photos of the eclipse and our weekend at the beach. The photo album also includes a few photos from daily life in Colombo. 

As for our beach weekend, the boys enjoyed some surfing in Weligama, and we finally timed the tides in a way that allowed us to wade out and enjoy a lovely sunset from an island just off Mirissa Beach. The photo below is a view of Mirissa Beach, taken from the top of the island. 

We're posting more photos from our time in Sri Lanka regularly via Instagram @saltwatersandsun and @jubileepdx.

Elephants, Monkeys, Monitors and More...

We took the train to Sri Lanka's Hill Country this weekend, exploring both Kandy and Pinnawala. It was a weekend of eclectic exploration, wildlife watching and adventures in transportation, as the following photos albums will attest. 

• Click here for photos from around Kandy. 
• Click here for (mostly) elephant photos. 

Kandy is a picturesque town in central Sri Lanka, with a lovely lake at its center, refreshingly cooler temperatures, and Sri Lanka's most famous Buddhist temple, the Temple of the Tooth. A walk around the lake is great way to spot monitor lizards, birds and monkeys. While exploring Kandy's hillside following tea at the artists' retreat Helga's Folly, we encountered a surprising number of random cows, as well. 

The train to Kandy was an experience in itself, as was our trip to Pinnawala by TukTuk. There was a problem on the tracks that required our train into Kandy to stop operations one station - and about 17km - ahead of our destination. This unexpected turn of events required some creative problem solving in the form of two TukTuk drivers willing to take us into Kandy. The traffic going into the city was nothing short of crazy. TukTuks also carried us the 40km to and from Pinnawala to see the elephants from the Pinanwala Elephant Orphanage take their daily baths. Good thing Kandy is a fairly walkable community, because we were Tukered out from TukTuk rides after the Pinnawala trip. 

Watching the elephants play in the water was amazing. They bathe for about 2 hours each morning, traveling to/from the river through a crowded shopping area. The male elephants wear chains for safety, but the daily procession is basically 5 smallish Sri Lankan guys with sticks shepherding a couple of dozen sizable elephants through a crowd of 500+ locals, vendors and tourists. Somehow everyone manages to behave, with the help of a couple of tourist police. 

Topping our time with the elephants was a high bar, but the unexpected surprise of being serenaded by a Sri Lankan mariachi band singing John Denver's Take Me Home Country Road while enjoying a drink at the Queen's Hotel was a pretty good ending to a great trip. 

Kudos to our wonderful host, Kalum, at Anna Shanthi Villas for helping us with our transportation needs, recommending the Kandy Garden Cafe for great kottu, and generally making sure we had a lovely stay. 

Weligama Beach Weekend

While walking along Weligama Beach this weekend, we saw an opportunity to recreate the Lonely Planet cover photo for their 2018 Sri Lanka travel guide. Jake did his best to appear monk-like. 

Click here for photos from Thursday evening's sunset along Colombo's Galle Face Green and our weekend in Weligama, along Sri Lanka's south coast. Among the weekend's accomplishments, Emily learned to surf. 

We stayed at one of Pat's favorite establishments, the Neo Bay Hotel, where the amenities include breakfast, assorted pets and monkeys.

Getting to know Colombo

Click here for photos from some early exploration around Colombo, including a visit to the Gangaramaya Buddhist Temple. We also stopped by the rooftop bar of the Movenpick Hotel, where you can get great views of Colombo's western coastline, including the controversial Port City Colombo which China is developing.

Colombo is the largest city in Sri Lanka, with a population of about 800,000.  It has a strong Dutch influence, given that Sri Lanka was colonized by the Dutch in 1658 at a time when the country was known as Ceylon. 

70% of Sri Lankans are Buddhist. There are some 6,000 Buddhist monasteries in Sri Lanka, and more than 15,000 monks make up the country's total population of 21 million.  

Some things we've learned about Buddha so far:

• Every pose has a unique meaning. The sitting position shown in the photo above is Buddha's virasana (heroic) posture. If the soles of both feet were turned upward, it would be the lotus position. 

• Buddha's hand gestures are known as mudras. There are 6 unique gestures. In the photo above, the hands are in a meditative position, reflecting mental concentration. If one of the hands were raised, that would be Buddha's teaching gesture. 

Family Reunion

Click here for photos from our travel to Sri Lanka, via San Francisco and Singapore. The trip included about 24 hours of flight time and 10 hours of layovers, enough to spend an afternoon in San Francisco and to explore the butterfly garden in Singapore's airport. We flew right over Saturday, but caught Sunday's sunrise from Singapore. 

Once we arrived in Colombo, we took a trip quick to the beach at nearby Mt. Lavinia so the twins could enjoy the Indian Ocean and get a sense of the area. Drew made everyone a lovely dinner which most of us managed to stay up for. Good thing the sun sets earlier here. We wouldn't have lasted otherwise. It's been a long travel weekend, but a great family reunion.

Italian Holiday - Venice/Milan

Pat and Drew combined a Sri Lankan Poya Day* with the 4th of July holiday to accomplish a week long visit to Italy, with stops in Venice and Milan. Click here for a few photos from their travels. More can be found on Instagram @ saltwatersandsun. 

*Every full moon (usually one a month) is a public holiday in Sri Lanka. Each of the full moons have its own name, and they are days to commemorate key events in Buddhism. These full moon days are known as Poya.

Happy 4th of July - 2018

Click here for highlights from the 2018 Portland BluesFest 4th of July Fireworks Show on the Willamette. It was a particularly good one. Even though we were land-based this year, we had a great view from River Place Marina.