December
2012.
“Do one thing everyday that
scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt.
CMB
– Colombo, Sri Lanka.
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| elephants and one pink elephant |
It
has been quite long since my first visit to Colombo. This time, I really had
nothing in mind to do. When I checked the crew list, I saw another Indonesian
crew operating this flight, Maya, and so I contacted her. We agreed that we’d
keep the flight. I asked her what would we do there? And she said that there is
this Elephant Orphanage that she would like to check it out. Great! That sounds
like a plan to me. A damn good one.
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| arrived! |
Once
we arrived at Colombo, it was in the middle of the night already. But we still
forced ourselves to dragged our feet to the concierge desk. We asked about the
transportation that we could book from the hotel to Kandy, the area where the
Elephant Orphanage is located. So we paid, right after we received our
allowance (it was at least 17.000 LKR, but we share, so it become 8500 LKR each
person) for a day car plus driver rental to Kandy. The car would be ready at 7
am the next morning and would take us to Kandy, which is 2 hours drive from our
hotel. Nice! That left us with only 4-5 hours to sleep before our trip started.
We even asked another crew to swap room with Maya, so that we could stay in the
adjacent rooms (we got the rooms across to each other, in the end).
4-5
hours later….
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| Pinnawala |
I
woke up, and just like an auto mode in sequence. Took a bath, brush my teeth,
dry my hair, dress up, put on make up, wear my socks and shoes, check my bag
and leave the room for the lobby. I met Maya just few moments after and head to
the concierge desk. The concierge introduce us to the driver, (which I forgot
the name), and off we go to the car. First thing to do in the car: fasten the
seat belt, it would be a bumpy ride. Second one: continue our beauty sleep, it
would be another 2 hours until we arrived. Ha-ha!
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| pet an ellie... |
It
was actually happened when I was half awake and half asleep. In a split moment,
I opened my eyes and I saw the our driver slip through between a bus and a big
truck. It was just like a racing car that if he did miscalculate the distance,
we would not be back in one piece. Anyway, since I was half conscious, I closed
my eyes again, too sleepy to wake up yet. When the driver wakes us up, we were
at the parking lot already. And we could see the placard that said Pinnawala
Elephant Orphanage. Yeaahh! Here we go!
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| the queue to bath |
Pinnawala
Elephant Orphanage is an orphanage, nursery and captive breeding ground for
wild Asian elephants located at Pinnawala village, Sri Lanka. Pinnawalla is
notable for having the largest herd of captive elephants in the world. The
orphanage was established to feed, nurse and house young elephants found
abandoned by their mothers. Young elephants sometimes fall into pits and
ravines in their quest for water during drought period. Other orphans have been
displaced from their wild habitat by development projects or have been found
abandoned before weaning, diseased or wounded. We did see a huge male elephant
with three legs as one of them lost to the bombing during the war.
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| first tunnel to Kandy |
Ah
I forgot! The admission fee to the orphanage was LKR 2000 per person. To
preserve and taking care of this orphanage, they offered us some attraction,
well, more to experience. We could feed the baby elephant by paying LKR 200,
feed an adult elephant by hand for LKR 200, bathe an elephant and ride it along
the river for LKR 2000, and also take as many pictures as we’d love to. The
problem is, you have to do it by yourself. Asking people to do you a favor,
even to take your picture by your own camera, need tips afterward. No money, no
gain here. Maya and I finally only took couples picture together and paid LKR
100 as a tip and the rest, we take turns to take each other pictures.
 |
| feed him or her? |
We
decided to feed an adult elephant. We paid LKR 200, which was actually the cost
of the fruits that we would feed them with. Maya and I share a tray for the two
of us. If you read my Thailand’s elephant feeding, this one is different. In
Thailand, I feet the elephants to its trunk, so the contact was just between my
hands and their trunks. This one is more “intimate”. We climb the stairs and
arrived at some kind of veranda. The elephant was there at the edge of the
veranda, waiting…by raising its trunk in order to give us access to its open
mouth. Yes! With the tongue and saliva. So I did go first, I was holding the
fruit on one hand and the other one to support its trunk (my arm length is
surely a problem there). After I finished half tray of the fruits, and after
loads of pictures Maya took for me, it was her turn to be captured in action.
It was fun and new experience to touch an elephant’s mouth. *I guess I could
fit in its mouth though!*
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| baby stone ellie |
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| bathe bathe... |
We
explore the ground of the orphanage. We saw many many many elephants running
free and play around. Until we heard the announcement that it was almost the
time for the elephant to go to bath. All the workers in the orphanage was
guiding all of the elephants to the bathing area, which is actually the river
nearby. Maya and I managed to find a spot to squeezed in as front row audiences
and we got a chance to see the elephants herding to the river. Along the street
to the river, some local souvenir shops opened and sell something related
either to Kandy or the elephant orphanage. The most interesting shop is this
one shop called DUNG paper. Its main item to sell is paper *obvious*, but what
made it special that it was made from elephant poops a.k.a feces a.k.a shit. We
checked them out, *out of our curiosity*, and found it really fun. It was look
like a recycled paper, but it got leaves and grass on some part *elephants eat
grass and leaves, right?*. We didn’t buy any, cause it gross to write on a
piece of shit *literally*.
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| lunch like a champion |
Afterward,
our tummy called for an emergency. Our driver drove us to a nice restaurant
where we could taste the best tea of Sri Lanka. We bought a set of meal for two
and it came out like a meal for a hundred. The service was just like in a fine
dining restaurant and the price was quite reasonable for such a nice place and
heavenly taste foods. We ate until we can’t take it anymore. (The rice was free
flow, though) We took our time playing around the restaurant, chit chatted
about the flights we’ve done and many other unimportant things *girls*. And we
were ready for the next destination.
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| "hard to spell, moreover to pronounce" temple |
Our
driver happened to be a good tour guide as well *he might be a good racer as
well*. He brought us to this Temple of the Sacred Tooth, Sridaladamaligawa. It
took me few attempts to pronounce it correctly. After paying the admission fee
for LKR 2000, we received the ticket, which is a package of cd-rom kind of
thing, we start tour around. The Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha is the most
venerated object of worship for Buddhists. Its present house, the Temple of the
Tooth Relic in Kandy, Sri Lanka is considered the foremost sacred place of
worship in the Buddhist world. It houses the Sacred Tooth Relic of The Buddha,
which believed to belong to Buddha himself. The tooth relic is kept in the
upper floor in the chamber called "Vadahitina
Maligawa"
The door ot this chamber is covered with gold silver and ivory. The tooth relic
is encased in seven gold caskets studded with precious stones. The outer casket
is studded by precious stones offered to the tooth relic by various rulers.
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| awkward pose |
We
were not allowed to take a picture with out back to the sacred place, we need
to face the sacred place as a courtesy and respect. We did a lot of awkward
angle to made the picture works and finally we tour the museum in the temple.
It was mainly the history of how the tooth finally rest in this temple and the
rulers that hand it over and over and over from generation to generation. After
we finished the temple, the driver asked us whether we would like to check
another place since we still got the time. He suggested two options: flower
garden or spice garden. Flower garden is something common to our ears, but
spice garden would be a nice bet. So we go for option no.2: to spice garden we
go.
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| my ticket!! |
There
were no admission fee to the spice garden and we immediately greeted by a man
to tour the garden. He explained to us that that spice garden was a non-profit
institution. It was just there to share about spices and its uses. Since we
came from Indonesia, we were actually can guess most of the spices there. It
was just like our study tour when we were in primary school. The difference is
that this man explained to us the usage of each spices, either for food or
medicine. It came to my mind that how great our God is, that he actually
created all disease, but he already provided us the cure. It was all depend on
us, how do we use all resources that we have been provided with. Amazing, huh?
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| detailed artwork |
We
bought some spices back and finally the trip ended. But the memory and the
knowledge we took home were even more valuable. By the next morning, we slept
until we woke up by ourselves, went down for the buffet breakfast, which
finally including lunch as well, and went back to our room to relax and prepare
for that night flight back via Bangkok. We don’t have this flight pattern
anymore in the following months, so now, whenever we got Colombo flight, we
don’t have a chance to do this kind of touring anymore. Lucky I got my chance.
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