put the lime in the coconut!

I'm in love! Sri Lanka is such a beautiful country, kind of reminds me of a mix of the everglades, key west, and south miami. I thought Nepal was great with all of the coconut trees, but Sri Lanka is heaven! I'm surrounded by mangoes, papaya, guava, banana, coconut. its wonderful. the food is delicious, I can't get enough of it! and I actually think I'm working up my tolerance for spicy food!

I was so nervous about coming to this country after there was a bomb blast in colombo only a couple days before we arrived. so glad we decided to come, and I haven't felt unsafe yet. there are army and police everywhere, and men with guns on every corner but you kind of get used to it. it was the same when I visited vietnam, so I think having seen that type of security before makes it much easier to adjust.

we've been traveling around Sri Lanka a good bit. spending a couple of days in colombo, visiting beautiful Kandy, going to a town called Matara on the south coast, now we are in Anaradpurtha (spelling is awful), and today we will head to another town a couple hours outside of colombo. Travel is interesting here, at least how long it takes to get places and how cheap it is. THe other day I took a nine hour train ride for $3.67 which is about what a gallon of gas would cost at home. It really blows my mind. What also blows my mind is that it takes 9 hours to get anywhere in Sri Lanka, which is such a small country. From North to South it is 430km and from East to West it is about 250km. South Carolina is 260 miles long and 200 miles wide (the same size). so can you imagine driving for nine hours in south carolina?

I'm impressed with this little country of Sri Lanka, I must admit. For such a small country they have a lot going on. The people are always saying we are so underdeveloped, but it really doesn't seem so at all. Two things that I wouldn't mind seeing here, though, are a trash collections service equaling less litter, and bob barker reminding people to spay and neuter their pets. there are so many wild dogs everywhere! well wild animals in general. yes there are cows on the beaches!! Another thing that dumbfounds me about this small country is that there is a civil war going on. To me it seems so far away, but its really only a couple of miles. When I think about its size compared to South Carolina, I just can't imagine being in Greenville and having a war going on in Columbia. Its hard to think how unsafe I would feel, but how it doesn't seem like a big deal here at all.

some more funny (to me anyways) stories from my trip:

We met this guy named Sam in Nepal and I was introducing myself to him, so I said "my name is Kelly." he replies, "nelly kelly, okay I can remember. you know Nelly the rapper, hes number one on the US charts." I was like yea...circa 1999.

Anybody that traveled to Vietnam or China with me can especially appreciate this but I think everybody will get a good laugh. Before departing Nepal we spent one night in Kathmandu. Ratna was trying to help us find a hotel in Kathmandu and Malte nonchalantly comes in the room saying, "kelly, we are staying at the hilton and it only costs 350 ruppees (like 5 dollars)!" you can only imagine how big my eyes and my smile were. visions of comfy beds and fans, and hot showers with water pressure, room service, good breakfasts, etc running through my head. those thoughts sustained me on the long long trip to the big city. when we arrived in Kathmandu the hotel was supposed to pick us up. so malte and I are standing on the side of the road guessing what kind of car the hilton would drive. finally some man comes to pick us up by foot. a little strange for the hilton I thought, but still excited. we finally arrive at the hilton GUEST HOUSE! you can only imagine how disappointed we were. It wasn't so bad, but after expecting a five star hotel it wasn't good. it didn't matter anyways because I spent the whole night on the toilet.

I thought that "how many colors does your country have?" was a funny question, but someone asked me the other day what my blood type was. apparently thats a really big deal here. before you get married you are supposed to check to see if your blood types are compatible. I'm O+, anyone interested?

When we were in Matara I stayed with this incredible family!! But one night we were sitting on the porch talking and Sisitha (the man of the house) asked me my last name. I said byers and then he shouts "BIOGAS?!" Everyone knows how tickled I get over the little things, so you can guess that I laughed for a good twenty minutes about that one.