Loie in a traditional Sinhala dance

The kindergarteners performed a traditional Sinhala dance for the school's Founder's Day.

 

Some photos from Jen and Tom's visit

Jennifer Mann and Tom Fritsche are great photographers. Here are some of my favorites from their visit to Sri Lanka.

 



 

Kollupitya Market

Here's the fish monger at the rickety market in the center of Colombo:
 

 

Peradeniya Botanic Gardens

These gardens near Kandy are amazing. You walk through super-manicured gardens and then you go through cool, wild patches of trees and ferns. There were a few palms that must have had 1000 bats hanging in them (they have huge fruit bats here, the size of small monkeys). We saw a bunch of toque macaque monkeys (known as රිළවා in Sinhala, they're endemic to Sri Lanka and endangered). Loie loved them.

It seems like the gardens are a popular place for weddings. This is my chance to show you the traditional wedding outfits in Sri Lanka:



This guy asked whether he could take a photo of his wife with the kids and then he jumped in for a photo too. As he walked away he said "America is the best country! Barack Obama!"



Giant Java Fig Tree

Giant Java Fig at the center of the garden

They love this guy here!

Beautiful

Orchid House at the Peradeniya Botanic Gardens. I love the architecture.

Wadduwa Beach

We took Jenny and Tom to Mimi's beach house in Wadduwa. The house is beautiful, the food was delish, and the beach was treacherous. It rained a lot so we played Clue and Monopoly. Here are some pics from Wadduwa that Jen took. She has an amazing camera and serious talent for photos. I think she should do an internship with Stevie Mann when she's off the cruise.


Mimi's pool.

Wadduwa Beach.

Kandy, tea country

We went to Kandy in the hills. Some of the roads were San-Fran steep.

We visited the Temple of the Buddha's Tooth, the prize of Kandy. Apparently Sri Lankan Buddhists believe that you have to visit the tooth temple once before you die -- for good karma. The funny thing is when you get to the temple you realize that you won't actually see the Buddha's tooth. You'll see a box with six other boxes inside it (the caskets) and the tooth (you're told) is somewhere inside. You'll have 15 seconds inside the room. We went on a Poya Day (Buddhist celebration for the full moon) so the place was PACKED -- tons of people filing up and down rickety old wooden stairs deep inside a temple. Oh, and there are candles everywhere.

We had dinner at a hotel nearby -- the buffet for four people was $14. Check out the spelling of chocolate eclair on the dessert cart. And check out the Kandyan dancers.