It's like hitting a solid wall of humidity
Trip Start
Feb 20, 2002
1
2
26
Trip End
Nov 18, 2002
Colombo,
Sri Lanka
Saturday, February 23, 2002
"yep" I replied shuffling through my papers.
As she flipped through my travel documents, noticing all of my visas, she snarled, "How long have you been planning this?"
"about 2 years" I answered.
She didn't seem impressed.
More troubling was that she, the unsmiling Air Canada ticket agent, was hardly in a good mood. The Levesque charm wasn't going to squeeze a first class upgrade from this one. Damn...
As I walked away with my tickets in hand and my backpack checked in for a long flight to Sri lanka, I turned to catch her crack a tiny smile, wink and say "bring back alot of memories".
" I will... I will..."
And that was that, adrenaline pumping, heading for my gate, those words stuck to me, as I thought of how I would be, what I will have seen and done when I would return to the same airport in Montreal on my way home, after 9 months of travelling.
Like all other trips, when they start, I always find myself thinking "only 3 more weeks then back to work", and like clockwork, sitting in the airport, I found myself thinking the same thing, but this time it was different. "9 months Luc!", "What the hell were you thinking!". The deep feeling in my gut telling me that I should be at work, wouldn't disappear until I had read my Lonely Planet Sri Lanka Guide book cover to cover... Now it was starting, that feeling deep down that makes us all want to explore this great planet was taking over.
1) The proverbial before picture
-- Jet Lag, Amplified
"Three days of flights, no big deal", but when the 3 days are each spent in a different timezone, it gets pretty painful. "Is it daytime", "Am or PM?", "Am I hungry?". Montreal, London, Jordan, Colombo, Sri Lanka and finally Sleep... Sleep... Sleep.
Luckily I managed to make the best of my London stop over by escaping the airport and scurrying around Westminster Abbey, London tower and Big Ben. Great sites but cold and gray weather... get me to the beach!
On the flight from Amman to Colombo, I stayed up all night talking with Wajira, a native Sri lankan coconut farmer and entrepener returning from seeing his wife in London. Wajira, and I spoke for hours and hours through the final segment of my flights, until we finally parted ways in Colombo, Wajira promising to show me around Sri Lanka, and his coconut plantation, once his affairs were settled. An offer I quickly jumped on.
And now I am in Galle, Sri Lanka. In an old dutch fort which surrounds this walled city on the western Sri Lankan Coast. The hotel owner picked me up and drove me through the chaotic streets of Colombo, passed cows and goats all seemingly at ease roaming the streets amidst unimaginable havoc, to his hotel here, the Light House Lodge.
It's hot here, I'm wiping large beads of dripping sweat from my forehead as I type this entry on my Palm by candle light. The power is eerily shutdown every night in Sri Lanka around 7pm for 2 hours I'm told. Candles are the only way to see your way around the hotel, in which, tonight, I am the only guest.
Before retreating to the guest house for a home cooked meal of spicy curry and rice which Uma promised to make for me, I strolled along the ramparts. The outsidel decaying walls of the old dutch fort provide a view of one of the nicest sunsets I've ever seen. The sun, glowing like a fiery redish pink fireball, decended slowly over the Indian Ocean tonight. A fitting farewell to reality.
--
I had originally thought that I would be writing one entry per country but seeing as I'm travelling alone and have plenty of extra time to myself, there may be quite a few more ( fair warning! You may be hearing quite a bit from me :) )
Before a bead of sweat short circuits this keyboard, and the candles burn out, I'll end this entry by saying, "It's hot, sticky, dark and muggy but I wouldn't trade it for the world right now".
Luc.
![[06] Island temple](http://images.travelpod.com/users/el_condor/thumbnail.asia_2005.1143129300.picture_005.jpg)
