Ironman Sri Lanka

So for those of you who follow my Tweets, you will know that the last month I had been quite tied up with Ironman Sri Lanka. Here is an article that I wrote for the Sunday Times (Education Times) that summarizes my experience:

A week ago today, an amazing event took place in Colombo that changed the face of volunteering and sport in Sri Lanka. The inaugural Ironman Sri Lanka 70.3 and 5150 took place on 19^th February, 2012 with Galle Face Green as the centerpiece of the event. Two triathlon races of different distances took place at the same time with the first swim start at 6:30am. The pier and the path on the seawall of Galle Face Green was packed with local and foreign spectators early on to watch the swim and cheer on local and foreign athletes alike. As the swimmers transitioned to the cycle portion of the race, then from the cycle to the run, spectators dispersed to other areas of the course while others carried on with their day like any other day. However, one thing stayed constant: the volunteers of Ironman Sri Lanka.

Having been a volunteer manager for more than four years and a volunteer for many more, I can say with confidence that the volunteers I worked with during Ironman Sri Lanka were some of the most enthusiastic, dedicated, and hard working I have encountered. The willingness to help anywhere and at anytime was key to the event as our needs changed from one area to another. The generosity and flexibility of the volunteers was unparalleled. With staff from Australia, Malaysia, USA, and Canada running the event – all said they have rarely worked with such easy going volunteers. On top of that, many athletes from the 35 nations that participated echoed the same sentiments.

The success of the event can easily be attributed to the cooperation and teamwork exhibited by the volunteers at this event. Many started off as strangers at the beginning of the day and then ended the day as a single team. From the start where we had lifeguards in the water and volunteers lining the route to the transition to the finish line where volunteers collected all the timing tags and ensured athletes rehydrated, the volunteers communicated where they needed help with each other and with event staff. Many volunteers had the opportunity to learn some new skills and of course, learn more about the sport of triathlon!

Our goal was to make this event a memorable one for the participants. According to all the staff, the volunteers exceeded expectations and extended the memorable experience to everyone – including spectators, supporters, and family members . The generosity and hospitality that Sri Lankans are known for shined bright during this event. All Ironman Sri Lanka volunteers can be proud that they were described as incredible, amazing, friendly, helpful, cheerful, and nice. What a fantastic way to represent your country and be ambassadors for this event.

The Education Times club had a strong presence sending out about 80 volunteers for the event. Additionally, we had strong representation from the Rotoract Club of Colombo Fort, University of Colombo Senior Oarsmen Club, Hearts and Hands of Humanity, and Rainbow Aquatics Club.  Thank you to these organisations for recruiting and bringing your groups out to participate!

A big thank you goes out to all the volunteers for working tirelessly to make this event a success. Also, thank you for all the feedback you have provided to us to help us make next year an even better event. The next Ironman Sri Lanka is set to take place February 2013. Keep checking into www.ironmansrilanka.com for the latest news about the event. We hope to see all of you and more out again next year!  

Some photos can be found here: 

http://www.finisherpix.com/photo-browser.html?&pcevent=0264

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150807839299251.516471.50178609250&type=3

"I feel like I'm in a reality show"

The title of this blog was muttered many a times last weekend. Just wanted to summarize the out of this world and sometimes funny and sometimes shocking moments we had on our trip down to the Carlton Super Sports Festival in Tissamaharama last weekend. Felt like we were on a leg of the Amazing Race. =P

Background: Heading to the triathlon portion of the Carlton Super Sports weekend to promote Ironman Sri Lanka. S and A from HFP Racing who are the foreign organisers of Ironman Sri Lanka are planning to compete in this local triathlon. I, was planning to do results for the triathlon.

12pm: Meeting in Colombo with the Tourism Board ... leads to a meeting with the Ministry of Defense at 1pm. After our meeting with the Tourism Board, we roll up to the security outside the Ministry of Defense with 6 people in a 5 pax car. The car is too weighed down to get up on the ramp of the entrance. Security waves us to the alternate entrance. We get in. Cell phones confiscated. Metal detector. Pat down. We're through. Set back our departure time by one hour.

2pm: Meeting done and back at the Taj hotel. Super hungry. Lunch. The guys speed pack.

3pm: We're off for one more pick up.

4pm: Finally on our way through Kotte. Super congested. Reach the Southern Expressway at about 4:30pm.

5:15pm: 2/3 down the way car breaks down. Something smells over heated. We hang out on the side of the highway waving to passersby and have a good chuckle. Pile back into the car - go the rest of the way in 2nd gear and travelling on the shoulder.

5:45pm: Reach the toll booth at the Galle (Pinnaduwa) exit ... the stop causes the car to essentially stop running. The gear box won't catch. We pull over. Call for a tow. B breaks out her hula hoop - we hula a bit, do some kung fu moves, eat some mandarin oranges, ride a local bike and wave to more locals.

6:45pm: Tow from Galle arrives. This little truck is attached to the car with a tether that looks like "a bunch of bedsheets tied together". Away we go on a 5km tow to Galle at about 30km/h.

7:15pm: We reach Galle. Pulling into the repair shop, a scooter fails to see the tether between the car and truck and runs right into it. Thank goodness it was at the wheel and didn't clothesline the rider. Rider is shaken, but okay. They start to look at the car. We look to food. Into a local restaurant we go - two Lion Strong beers make things better for most of us. Awesome fried rice. Yum! Call the triathlon organizers saying I might not make it to Tissa. Summary? I have to make it for the end of the event not because they need my skills, but they need my computer to actually do the results. Contemplate transport and accommodation options.

9:00pm: Van hired to drive us to Tissa.

10:00pm: We depart for Tissa. Call guy we're supposed to borrow bikes from for S & A's participation in the triathlon. No answer.

12:00am: Try calling for bikes again, no answer.

2:30am: Finally arrive at Yala Heights in Tissamaharama. Unload. Sleep.

6:00am: Wake. Breakfast.

7:30am: Call for bikes again - phone is off. Advised to go physically and pick up bikes anyways. Try to relay that to our jeep driver.

8:20am: Arrive at race site. Didn't stop at bike pick up - driver didn't understand us. Lost cause!

8:30am: Scheduled race start. Doesn't happen. More time to find bikes!

9:00am: B secures two bikes from passersby for S & A. One is a rusty single speed purple cruiser. Second is a rusty single speed plain 'ol bike!

9:30am: Tri starts. S & A shockingly are not in the lead out of the water. We later find out many people "walked" the swim. S tries to go on the "regular"bike but has difficulties with the bike seat. Friendly local offers his nice mountain bike for S to race on and off S goes. Amazing. A completes cycle portion on cruiser bike! Could really have used some WD40. S is finished the run course at this point. Goes back out on the run course with A.

11:30am: I'm doing results. Race is over. B gives 1000LKR ($10) to guy we borrowed purple bike from. He beams like there's no tomorrow. Trying to coordinate meeting with CSN, the organisers of the Super Sports weekend, who would eventually become a sponsor of Ironman Sri Lanka. Would have done promotions but left promotion materials back in the car. Find out that person we want to meet with never came down for the event weekend is back in Colombo. Time to arrange transport back to Colombo.

3:00pm: Multiple phone calls later, transport finally arrives arranged through the amazing My Village Guesthouse that Chad and I stayed in back in November. Love these guys. Our other alternative was through a different connection in Galle - 3.5 hours away (yes, they would have come to pick us up all they way from Galle just to drive us back to Colombo. crazy).

10:00pm: Finally back in Colombo.

Not a typical weekend, for sure. 

Maldives - Male and Maafushi

Again, delayed in true Sri Lankan fashion. A cab we called for to pick us up at 4am to take us to the airport didn't find us until 4:30am. Anyways, we get to the airport, checked in, then after a short wait our flight was off to the Maldives!

About an hour later we could see below us the beautiful atolls and islands that makes up this incredibly beautiful nation. Being handed a landing card also provided us with some interesting facts. For example, did you know that materials deemed contrary to Islam, including "idols for worship" and "bibles" are illegal? Before arriving I had no idea the country was 100% Islamic.

The local ferry fully equipped with couch up front - probably just someone
shipping it from Male to Maafushi. 

We landed in Male on Saturday morning and it was an Islamic holiday so not much was open. We walked around trying to find some traditional Maldivian breakfast, but as it is often like in Sri Lanka, these local shops were filled with men and I just wasn't comfortable enough to walk in, even with Chad by my side. I think it's mostly because tourists to the Maldives don't see much of Male or local life as they only go through the airport to their waiting resort transfer. We eventually found a more Western cafe that served a Maldivian breakfast. We had about 4 hours to kill so we walked around some more after breakfast, found a supermarket, bought some food I hadn't in forever (i.e. Grass Jelly Drink!) and went to the city beach to snack a bit. After sometime, our guesthouse owner helped us find the local ferry and we were on our 1.5 hour boat ride to Maafushi!

Weather didn't look too great, but we were hopeful. On our way to Maafushi it started to rain a bit. We passed by numerous giant resorts and were anxious to see what our accommodations would look like for the next 5 nights. We arrived to gorgeous green and turquoise waters and a gentleman with a wheelbarrow waiting to walk us to our guesthouse. A short 300m walk later, we arrived at the White Shell Beach Inn that was well, right on the beach!

The gorgeous view - every day! 

The beach itself was small but where the locals frequent for a "sea bath" - Sri Lankan and Maldivian talk for a dip/swim in the ocean. It was GORGEOUS ... every morning we woke up and had breakfast with a view of the gleaming turquoise waters and bright white sand.

Some of the garbage strewn about and washes up ashore
on Maafushi.

We took our first day easy and met up with a local Council Member/Couchsurfer host, Ibrahim (thanks Habib for the connection!) who chatted with us and told us about the island, politics, culture, and environmental issues plaguing his country. As beautiful as the beach we stayed at was, not far from it and also on the other side of the island were piles of garbage strewn everywhere. The locals have not yet learned how to respect their land and the ocean, despite the fact their economy depends highly on both. After a slooow morning and afternoon just hanging out, we went on a night fishing trip with a Singaporean couple that arrived in the afternoon. We had a great night catching loads of fish while floating peacefully in the dark near a reef. We returned to the guesthouse with our catch where we got to pick the fish we wanted to eat and the guesthouse bbq'd it for us. YUM!

Relaxing at Biyadhoo!

Day two took us to Biyadhoo Island Resort where we could freely drink and sun tan in bikinis. Yes, those are also restrictions in this Islamic country. Being ultra-conservative, alcohol is illegal except on resort islands along with women wearing bikinis. Women in the Maldives go for a swim usually covered head to toe and if not, with pants/capris and a t-shirt on. We asked our guesthouse to pack us a breakfast which we had on the beach and then had lunch in the bar at the resort. I spent most of the day chasing fish in the water - best snorkelling I've had so far. Lots of coral (not multi-coloured everywhere though like they show in the tour guides) but plenty of fish and other sea life including a Moray eel. It was great!

The giant fish. See sunglasses for scale.

Day three was mellow day where we hung around the guesthouse until late afternoon where we went on a snorkelling excursion. The snorkelling was alright ... nothing we hadn't seen until we saw a manta ray! It was just chilling in the sand. Along the way, what did irk me was the family, who were weak swimmers, were taken on this excursion. The currents were moderate and they struggled the whole time even with life vests. They didn't use flippers and they probably should have. Not sure it would have made a difference, but my heart broke a little when the mother and father stood on coral, then broke some coral when the father kicked off again go get back to the boat. We never made it - the boat had to come to us. Props to the Maldivian snorkelling guide! He was practically dragging the family of three. We followed this up with more night fishing. It would have been peaceful except the little one of that family of three was a little terror - as he was through the entire stay. That aside, it was a quiet night without many bites, but it was this night that Chad caught the biggest fish of the trip!

Day four was another fairly slow start. I had been set on doing some squid/octopus catching so the guesthouse arranged for a couple locals to come guide us along the reef just off the shore of Maafushi. We were out there for about an hour and thought we were going to go back empty handed. However, at the very end when we were nearing our starting point, one of the guys did spear and catch an octopus. We were going to eat it for lunch but the poor time management of the guesthouse and kitchen ran the octopus excursion into our dolphin watching excursion. We asked them to save it for our dinner so that we and the Singaporean couple could take it to Ibrahim's for dinner that night. And quickly we were off again! On our first and third day we were able to spot dolphins from our guesthouse so the chances of spotting them by boat seemed like a shoe-in. Sadly, we scoured the waters around North Male Atoll for probably an hour with no luck. Our captain figured he needed to turn this excursion into something somewhat exciting so we did more night fishing! A few more bites than the night before (but nothing like the first night) and before we knew it we had dinner for the evening and headed back in.

Picnic Island. 

Day five was our final day and the day we were heading back to Male. We were going to take an early morning ferry, but was offered to share a speedboat transfer with the Singaporean couple later that day. It made a lot of sense since it would let us enjoy the day at Picnic Island before we went back to Male late afternoon. What a brilliant decision. Had a fantastic day on the almost deserted island with the occasional boat stopping over. This island truly was set up for for picnics. There were plenty of picnic tables and loungers for people to spend the day there. There was a stranded ship that looked like it had been there for quite some time about 300m off shore (Chad walked to it, I didn't). The waters were gorgeously clear and there was a sandbank at one end of the island. Bliss! When the boat came back to pick us up to go to Male we were certainly sad to go!

Male wasn't so bad. Many people say it's just a really busy city with nothing much to it. Yes, in some respects it is that, but I quite enjoyed their fruit market and seeing the mosque and Islamic Centre at night. Also to top it off, we booked at Sala Boutique Hotel which was an amazing place that was totally worth the splurge. Thomas, the owner, was such a hands on manager who looked after every detail to ensure our stay was perfect - even though we were only there for one night. He certainly knows the value of a happy guest! We had dinner there that night in his Thai restaurant where all the ingredients are flown in from Thailand each week (sorry my carbon footprint was not small that meal). That may have very well been the best Thai meal I've ever had. Then for breakfast it was German with ... you guessed it; ingredients flown in from Germany each week. He had bread that was homemade and baked in house - the best bread I'd had since leaving Vancouver! Chad was raving about the yogurt ... so good that I broke my lactose ban and had some. Agreed - so good I would replace ice cream with it.

After that wonderful breakfast we explored Male a little more before going to the airport late morning to catch the flight back to Colombo. I really didn't want to go! Now our mission is to find somewhere just as nice in the Caribbean which is just a little easier to get to!

Chad then had two more days in Colombo. I was really happy that he got to see and hang out with some of my friends here when one of them hosted a little get together at her place. We got to have some what of a "normal" routine where we actually cooked some meals and Chad got some homework done (he's finishing his CMA). It was a sad goodbye at the end of the weekend, but also optimistic knowing the larger half of my placement was over and that we would be able to spend time together in person again in less than 6 months.

You can see the Facebook album here.

And that my friends, is the end of Denise and Chad's Excellent Adventure. I'm certain we'll have many more adventures to come, and I promise not to take so long to blog about them!

Victoria Golf and Country Resort and Kandy

Our train ride to Kandy was nice - we rode in the first class observation saloon. It was a bit bumpy ... more than usual which makes me think it's because it's the last car on the train. We got into Kandy in the early evening, had some trouble finding a place for to leave our bags while we went to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. We wanted to leave it at a hotel thinking it would be safer, but we ended up leaving it with the bag drop at the front of the temple. That posed no issues so away we went!

Having visited twice before, I wasn't particularly motivated to come again. However, coming to see evening Puja definitely had a different feel. We were also lucky that it was a Poya day the next day so the moon was pretty much full which made the setting even more spectacular. On this particular night, there was a group of mostly elderly men and women who looked like they were from Thailand or Japan. Amazing to think that people travel just to come see the Temple (or make it the highlight of their journey).

After Puja I tried to call for a meter cab but with no luck. We eventually settled with taking a tuk tuk ... all the way to Victoria Golf and Country Resort. It was a LONG and DARK ride in that tuk tuk ... and the driver had no idea where he was going. For quite some time it just seemed like we were going nowhere! In the end we got there safely, but weren't exactly greeted warmly by the staff. I guess they had expected us earlier, but the didn't indicate that we needed to be there by a certain time for dinner. When we checked in, they initially told us dinner was over. Fortunately, the Chef agreed to cook some dinner for us. It's so Sri Lankan to not follow up on things and just kinda wait and let things be. A tip for their customer service would be to call the guest (you did take my number for a reason, no?) you are expecting if they haven't turned up by an expected time. I would have come earlier had I known!

Victoria Reservoir that borders one side of the course.

Anyhow, early the next morning we had a tee time booked for 6:30am. We were told to meet our caddies and ball boy at 6:15am. Again in true Sri Lankan fashion, they were late (the caddie master forgot we had a tee time, geez!) so didn't tee off until about 7am.

Putting while our two caddies look on. 

Yup. We each had a caddie and then shared a ball boy. Pretty amazing. Actually, it's required by the course. Having a caddie remind me of the things to focus on for each shot really helped. Maybe it's because it is warm here, but I didn't try to muscle the ball as I would usually back home and as a result, got my shots a lot straighter than I usually would. Despite the help from the caddies and ball boy, we were slow ... about 4 people played through us. We finished our round in about 4 hours and they say that average people play an hour faster. It's a pretty blistering pace! After that we had brunch then a nice dip in their infinity pool before just relaxing for the rest of the day.

The next day we headed back down to Kandy so we could catch our train at 3pm. I originally had some pretty ambitious plans to go see either the botanical gardens or the tea museum, but ended up a bit tight on time. We ended up wandering a bit through town and finding a nice place to sit (and so that Chad could do some work). We went to check out the Mlsena tea store and sat down for a nice cup of iced tea there away from the hustle and bustle of Kandy. After that we decided to settle at White House Restaurant where they conveniently had free Wi-Fi. We had to leave for a little while as they had to close for noon prayers (as they are Islamic) so we tried to find another place to hang out. We tried to find a place listed in the Lonely Planet, but it was no where to be found. We turned and started to head back to a place we had passed by. On the way, we were "befriended" by a local who in the beginning, seemed great to talk to. But, things got a little suspicious. I posted about this experience in a few places to warn others so I will copy and paste it here:

" A man on the street struck up a conversation and then suggested we go to have tea at a local tea shop. We were heading to the same shop anyhow so we went with it. We had a few short eats and some tea while he explained how his family owned a plantation and offered to ship 5kg of tea to my boyfriend as he has connections for shipping (he's a Port Master?) He stated shipping would only cost 220 LKR (or something really low). He talked about his family, how his daughter is married to a foreigner overseas, and how his son was about to go abroad to work in a hotel. To try and prove he was credible he showed us his son's visa. He also said if we were staying in Kandy longer he'd invite us to his house for lunch. He consistently returned to the point that shipping the tea to us would be no big deal and would always mention the cost.

Slowly things started to not add up. He was motioning the 5kg box of tea with his hand and the size he motioned was too small. Initially it sounded like he was going to ship for free then he straight up asked for the 220 rupees as we wrapped up with tea time. We declined saying we were uncomfortable with giving the money upfront, but happy to provide it once we received the tea. In our minds, we were thinking "220 LKR for a 5kg box? Too good to be true." I started to get the feeling this guy was a scam as when the bill came, he made no motion to pay or split the bill.

I have a sneaking suspicion this man does it regularly ... "befriending" travellers and seemingly appear generous and helpful with all his information, and then end up getting his tea and short eats paid for with a extra few hundred rupees. Chances are most travellers would be happy to pay someone so "friendly". His tone changed pretty quickly though when we backtracked on the tea and said we didn't feel comfortable giving him the money for shipping. I know it's not a lot, but it's the principle of the matter. Tea time quickly ended after that and he left just as quickly.

Anyhow, if you come across a man like this, it's your choice what you do. If you do/did give him money and you do end up with a 5kg box of tea back home, please let us know here that this man is not a scammer."

I got a few messages back from the forums I posted in confirming that this scheme is known to happen. I even got a message saying that the parents of someone living here who met this man, or someone selling a similar story, were still waiting for their tea! So people, beware!

Kandy does not have a nice reputation in my books anymore. After that incident we had the pleasure of dealing with a very persistent tout for a guesthouse. As Chad was taking photos around the lake, he repeatedly asked "Guesthouse? Guesthouse? I know one. Cheap." etc, etc. Anyhow, after many attempts at asking him to leave, telling him we didn't need a place, and having him talk to my hand, I said "GO AWAY". He then had the nerve to scold me about how rude it was of me to ask him to go away! We bickered a bit as I wasted my breath trying to reason with him that what he was doing warranted that reaction from me and explained it's people like him that give this country a bad reputation. Eventually we just had to walk away and ignore him even though I was fuming! Anyways, Kandy is now one of my least favourite places because of people like the ones I just mentioned. Such a shame.

So after all that, we were finally on our way back to Colombo where we had less than 12 hours before were to go on our way to the airport to catch our flight to ..... THE MALDIVES!

BTW, sorry for the long delay in between posts! Since getting back I've pretty busy and also trying to get Christmas all figured out. I've also resurrected my Twitter - you can see my latest Tweets on the right hand side of this page. Please follow if you have an account and I will do the same! 

Nuwara Eliya and Horton's Plains/World's End

Nuwara Eliya was a long, bumpy, windy, and squishy 5 hour bus ride from the junction by Tissamaharama. We made the mistake of sitting at the back of the bus (they were the only two seats together that were still available). With about an hour left in our ride we finally got seats near the front which was SO MUCH BETTER! I would recommend to anyone to sit separately near the front of the bus than to sit together at the back of the bus if you had to make the choice! Regardless, the seats anywhere on a bus is made for tiny skinny Sri Lankans. Chad definitely did not fit in these seats (and those who know him also know he is not that big).

Morning view from King Fern Bungalow

We arrived at the Nuwara Eliya bus station and was promptly greeted by Wasantha, the manager of the King Fern Bungalow (not to be confused with King Fern Cottage, owned by his brother Nishantha). Up one of the hills we went to the guesthouse perched high on one of the surrounding hills with a gorgeous view of town centre. We checked into our room on the second floor which had a beautiful view off the balcony. We were eager to explore the town so Wasantha quickly drew up a little map that showed us the path to walk down to town (about 7 minutes) and we were on our way! We passed by a few kids playing cricket, saw the Cargills Food City that still had all their old colonial signage, had some short eats at a local vegetarian restaurant (best vada ever!), walked through the public golf course, and enjoyed the cool weather that was so familiar to us. The air was cool and crisp and a bit damp. Loved it! We had another amazing Sri Lankan meal, this time, prepared by Wasantha's wife, Chithra, and her helpers.

Dawn with Adam's Peak in the background.

The next morning we shared a van with three others to Horton's Plains for a 10km, relatively flat hike with some pretty uneven and muddy terrain though. We departed just before 5:30am with breakfasts packed for us and reached the park at about 7:30am after another very slow and bumpy ride. Along the way we spotted the silhouette of Adam's Peak along the road as the day broke.



We got out of the van to pay our entrance fees (again, expats with a residence visa have a much cheaper rate at 60 LKR compared to the 2500 LKR for foreigners) and was hit with cold! It was foggy and damp with temps probably hovering around 10 degrees. Not that cold, but certainly a big difference from the 30+ we were in down in Yala. We quickly hopped back into the van and drove to the parking lot which was our starting point.

World's End

It wasn't long until we were pretty warm while moving along the trail and the sun was breaking through the fog. It was a leisurely walk as we occasionally stopped at the informational signs to read about the flora and fauna of the plains. Within 45 minutes we had reached Mini World's End which was beautiful. After a brief stop and a few clicks of the camera we continued to what we really came for, World's End. That was probably roughly another 30 mins on so we were there by 9:15am. It was perfect timing as we took our time snapping shots and taking in the view. We sat down for breakfast as we watched the clouds and mist roll in over the view at around 10:00am. So peaceful.

The hike back to the car seemed much longer. On the way back was the beautiful Baker's Falls. We also stopped on the plains by the river to have a snack ... I didn't want to leave! I would have loved to set up a tent there and just stay there for awhile. It reminded me of home with "real" grass (i.e. grass like home and not Sri Lankan grass) with pine trees and rhododendrons all over along with the fresh air and clear visibility. Would love to go back one day and just spend the day in the park.



We got dropped off in town on the way back so we could have lunch then head down to the Mackwoods Labookellie Tea Factory.  The tour was lacklustre. When we first arrived we were told it would only be 5 minutes until the next tour. Then it was 15 minutes. Then 40 minutes later after being rather exasperated, we finally got a tour of the tea factory. The tour guide herself was real nice, but the cashier behind the counter of the tea room was rather cranky and had  a poor attitude tossing boxes of tea that customers were purchasing nonchalantly and pretty much throwing change back at them.

Anyhow, after that we headed back to our guesthouse where we had our 2nd lovely meal with Wasantha and Chithra along with our fellow adventurers.

Tea plantations near King Fern Bungalow. 

The next morning we woke and got ready for a stroll through some tea plantations Wasantha would take us on. What an amazing walk. Sunny morning, greenery all around, and Wasantha guiding us while answering all our questions about tea. He also found a tea picker who was nice enough to let us take photos with her and pick some tea. She was young and very genuinely nice, unlike the older tea pickers who actually beckon you to take photos with them so they can force you to pay them for that opportunity. We tipped this wonderful woman afterwards, anyways. I hope though, that through the years she doesn't become like the older women. After our walk, we had breakfast, then we were off to the train station to catch the train to Kandy! 

Kataragama and Yala National Park

A brief stop in Matara.

No time machines in this excellent adventure, but lots of good times were had! In Part 1 of our adventure, we started off in a rather cramped A/C bus in Colombo heading to to Galle. A brief pit stop in Galle to use the bathrooms and stretch our legs we quickly continued to Matara, this time on a regular non A/C bus. We briefly stopped in Matara for lunch before getting a bus to Tissamaharama, where our accommodations would be for the next two days. Travelling along the coast rather than going inland rewarded us with some amazing views of the coast!

In the garden of My Village Guesthouse.

We booked at My Village Guesthouse which turned out to be one of the best guesthouses I've stayed at so far. Sujith, the owner and his friend Alae, who was down from Colombo helping him were amazing hosts. We wanted to get to Kataragama for the evening puja (about 7pm) pretty quick so they helped us organise a tuk tuk for 1200LKR. No hassles, no problems!


Puja at Kataragama was interesting and different. Unfortunately, it was raining so we spent quite some time just standing under cover. I was later told that the Puja at Kataragama is mostly attended by Hindus and Tamils which have different traditions than the Sinhalese (as witnessed at Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic/Sri Dalada Maligawa). We saw one lady who was twirling head of long hair around (similar to headbanging) to the chiming of the bell at the temple, like she was possessed by some sort of spirit. Then there were a couple of different groups with drums, flutes, dance, and chants that paraded through the grounds touching and worshipping in particular ways. The one thing that I wanted to see was people smashing coconuts. So there are these two, giant tiles I suppose, in the ground on which people wish upon their coconut. This said coconut is sometimes on fire. When the wish is completed, the wisher smashes the coconut into the ground. If it breaks, it's good luck. If it doesn't, well, I guess what you wished for doesn't come true!

We got back to My Village to an amazing Sri Lankan dinner consisting of the proteins of our choice (chicken and fish) accompanied by 6 other side dishes! We were stuffed at the end and still couldn't finish. We got our full day safari organised for the next day (8000 LKR for the jeep and driver/guide + entrance fees). A note to expats with residence visas - try to get your driver to get you the local entry fee. It's something like 150 LKR as opposed to 2500 LKR! Photo is on my iPhone... will upload when I remember!

Entry Gate to Yala.

The next morning we were up at 4:30am with a tea ready for us. Alae and Sujith had been up preparing and packing our breakfast and lunch which we would eat in the park. Just after 5:00am we departed with our awesome driver who passed a bunch of jeeps on the way to the park to get us as close to the front of the pack as he could. We were in the park by 6:30am in time for the sunrise and immediately started to spot animals! We broke for breakfast at around 9:30am at a stopping point on the beach in the park. Most half day safaris leave the park by 10:00am leaving the park to just those on the full day safaris (which was just a handful) so when we drove around for another hour and a bit it was much more peaceful, allowing us to observe the leopard we spotted for quite some time!

We stopped by the river for lunch for a couple hours before starting the afternoon portion of the safari. Again a bonus was being able to start before all the afternoon half-day jeeps arrived. During this period we had some amazing close encounters with a few elephants where they were just a foot from the jeep while walking by. Just amazing. Also these elephants were such a contrast to the elephants in chians at Pinnewala, which I really don't like.

It started to rain, then pour at around 3:00pm. However, we weren't quite done yet! The jeep drivers have a bit of a network so if they spot a really cool animal they call each other. So at this point, there was word a sloth bear was spotted so we were rushed to that position where about 10 other jeeps were already. However, our driver, being patient, predicted that the sloth bear would exit the brush a little farther back and backed us up away from the other Jeeps. Eventually he moved a bit forward again but he was spot on! We got the closest sighting of the bear as it walked right past our jeep!

On our way back it was a bit of a slow trip on the wet rainy roads following or passing the local motorbikes/scooters/tractors. We waved to many of these locals and got some great smiles. One local man and his family on a scooter even tried to have a conversation with us while driving along! We arrived back at My Village for another amazing dinner after a nice shower. After dinner, Sujith asked us to help him place his guesthouse on Google Maps. This came up because when I booked his guesthouse I asked him to point out where he was located on Google Maps. Anyhow, it wasn't a really easy task as Tissamaharama ends up being Trincomalee on Google Maps but we figured it out eventually (we put Hambantota which allowed us to tag his guesthouse in Tissa). Sujith was so appreciative and we were so happy we could help!

The next day we were a bit sad to leave, but after a relaxing breakfast in the garden we said our goodbyes as the tuk tuk they arranged for us pulled away to drive us to the junction where we needed to catch our bus to Nuwara Eliya!

For more photos, go to my Facebook album.

South Asian Beach Games 2011 - Hambantota

Ok, I have to warn some people that my observations in this post are quite frank. I don't mention any names, but if you read this and you recognize yourself being criticized in here, I make no apologies. I would be happy to talk to you about how we could improve upon the work that was done and I'd be happy to hear any reasonable feedback you may have on my work. Please e-mail me or call me at the NOC if you need to reach me. I know change is not immediate and that I probably have ruffled a few feathers trying to set some change into motion. I know that people here can be stubborn and some think that of me as well. I can only hope that change for the better will eventually take place - even if it's not a conscious decision because of lessons learned.

I also felt the need to wait to post this until the decision was made on where the 2018 Commonwealth Games were being held as Hambantota was a bid city, so there was no chance that people could say I influenced a negative outcome on the bid process (although Canada has now been blamed). Congratulations to the Gold Coast!


An opportunity that came up unexpectedly was one that involved work with the South Asian Beach Games (SABG). When I had returned from CYG and midterm, I was disappointed to see the staff hard at work on SABG. Prior to leaving, I had checked, and double checked with them that they didn’t want to use Zeus for SABG Accreditation, which they didn’t need but as we addressed that they promised that they would not be involved with any SABG work as the Games Secretariat had it under control.


It wasn’t out of choice that they had to do work for SABG as the Games Secretariat eventually needed the help of the NOC. Seeing the disorganization and fresh out of my experience with coordinating results at the CYG using Zeus, I inquired about results management for SABG. The reaction was an "uhhhhhh..." so I offered that I would look into the possibility of managing Sri Lanka's results on Zeus. That quickly turned in to managing the results for all of SABG, but instead of Zeus it was done on Excel. (Long story short, there are non-Commonwealth countries that are a part of SABG whereas Zeus is currently geared towards Commonwealth countries ... soon to change!) 


The two weeks leading up to the games were intense. The office staff worked through the weekend and stayed as late as 1am at the office only having to take up to two hours to get home and then get back on transit by 7am to get back to the office the next day. By the time the games started I was seriously worried about their health as they were running on empty especially since they were not eating meals regularly. Perhaps they are used to it as Sri Lankans eat breakfast early, then lunch around 1pm, then dinner isn't until well after 8 or 9pm! For me it was really a struggle as most of you know I snack all day long. I eventually was attached to a bag of food, but not food that I am used to eating as the only fresh food I could really carry was bananas. So during this week of prep and then at the games, dinner often wasn't until 10:30pm when we were back at our accommodation and for me that is WAY off my schedule and goes against my rule of eating before I sleep. But, if I didn't, I would have been nutritionally starving my body and that's not good either! 


Ok, so back to the disorganisation... it comes from the Games Secretariat being a bit old fashioned wanting to plan everything from beginning to end without help. They didn't realise they were a bit out of touch, I think, with how games procedures have evolved and the intricacies with planning such an event. For example, accreditation applications and the accreditation forms were done on paper ... with carbon copy paper to make multiple copies. THEN, these forms had to be entered by hand into the online "accreditation system" which wasn't completed on time for the teams to do themselves so the NOC staff and a team of volunteers had to enter them all. I had put "accreditation system" in quotations because it hardly qualified as one. It was an online form with fields to fill in which then filled in the accreditation card template. No reports could be run and the system was extremely slow. There all sorts of glitches and it was poorly developed. These cards then had to be printed off one by one through the system and we only had an inkjet printer to do it. Then, because the alignment of how the cards were printed was poor, each one had to be cut out of a piece of 8x11 paper by hand and then glued together because the print out was single sided. Then, these were stuffed by hand into a plastic pouch. Oi! 


Then there was the volunteer management. There was no volunteer manual. Sure, the volunteers received a training session, but a lot of those volunteers could not make the training session. As a volunteer I would have been frustrated as I would have had such a vague idea of what my role was, what the rules were, and who my resources were that I would not have felt empowered. However, these amazing volunteers pulled it off by coming together as a team. I could see some of the committee members being really frustrated with all the questions they were getting from the volunteers as they tried to solve problems ... but that is a result of not having proper procedures and communication protocols in place. 


One of my biggest frustrations was having to deal with the demands of the media here. They just didn't understand that sometimes, they had to wait for the information as we were working with limited resources. Many wanted paper print outs which was just not possible with the tools we had. I had to insist that the best way for them to receive updates was via e-mail. Unfortunately a few of them failed to understand the pace at which we could work at and what we had to work with which brought out the ugly side in me. I am not proud of it. I'm not sorry for it. But instead, I am disappointed in myself for not keeping my cool. What was really frustrating to hear was that the members in the media centre were not helping each other out. I don't know if it's common - I do know that agencies compete against each other to be the best. But really? Results are public knowledge and I'm sure passing a score over to a fellow member of the media isn't going to hurt your career.

Well, how about some positives? The venues were fantastic. The crowd in Hambantota was through the roof (literally). The matches were free to watch, as were the nightly concerts and as a result, the venues would be filled to the rafters with spectators. It was so so SO awesome to see a sporting event bring the community together to enjoy sport. I could tell that some spectators weren't familiar with the rules of the sports, but were having a blast anyhow!

And then there were the athletes. For many of them, this was their first ever international competition. For others, they were veterans. What was great was to see the cooperation of the veteran nations in some of the sports teach the newbies in some of the sports. For example, it was the first international competition for at least two of the teams participating in Beach Handball and the progress these teams made through the few days of competition were remarkable. The learning and adaptation that was going on was the spirit of sport visible for all to see. Loved it!

Personally, this was a huge learning and personal development experience. As I've been learning how to manage my stress and my tolerance level for uncomfortable situations, the ones I encountered at SABG were more challenging than most I've ever had to deal with. It pushed me to new limits and it really made me again, thankful for the training that has been provided to the CSOs by CGC and CGF. I struggle day to day with the cultural norms here and they were magnified tenfold at the games. It's so cliche, but it's so true when they say "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."