Serendipity and The Beautiful Island

Monikers given to Sri Lanka and Taiwan by Arab and Portugese traders respectively, and where we have spent the "travel" portion of our current trip in addition to time in KL and now back in Penang.

Sri Lanka is a crazy (there is actually a website called crazylanka) and fascinating place, and travel there is quite the adventure. It is not, however, somewhere that I would recommend that anyone other than the very-widely travelled put on their destination lists. Why? well in addition to being far, difficult to reach, and hassle-filled, I would most simply summarize it as "India-lite". The actual in-the-moment feel of being there is essentially the same as being in India (and quite the "traveller's rush" of an assault on the senses), however when I paused to reflect on objective details of my 20-yr-faded memories, be it for the poverty, crowdedness, culture oddities, craziness of history & politics, or grandeur of the architecture and monuments and other sights, magnitudes in Sri Lanka were consistently less, and therefore I'd suggest that most considering it go to India instead. No kids defecating, or families living, on the street (at all), pauses-often lengthy- between the onslaughts of touts and beggars, only 2 silly religions (tho smaller communities of equally silly Christians and Muslims are present), no Ghandi or Taj Mahal or Ganges funeral pyres.

Sri Lankan history and geography is essentially a 2000 year battle btw the majority Sinhalese (of north-Indian descent) Buddhists in the south and the minority Hindu Tamils (from adjacent south Indian state of Tamil Nadu) in the far north and east. From our perspective, I can't say we could tell the difference in either the people or feel of the areas, other than by the predominant temple-type. A friend recently mused that only in Myanmar could Buddhism be militant- well Sri Lankan history, with many SL monks viewing Sri Lanka as the "chosen land" of Buddhism- including recent- suggests otherwise- not all Buddhism is Richard Gere and the Dalai Lama. Buddhism began in India, and in part may have flourished among the masses as a reaction against the worst of pre-existing Hinduism: the caste system, whereby the lowest rung, the "untouchables", not only had no hope of acheiving nirvana in this life (or any soon believed-in future life), but were/(still illegally are?) so despicably institutionally discriminated against that an upper-rung Brahmin would need to undergo ritual purification if his path was crossed by even one's shadow. The religion was exported to Sri Lanka by the great Indian emperor Ashoka in 247BC and later faded from Hindu-resurgent India. Sri Lanka therefore seemingly justifiably considers itself to be the world's oldest Buddhist country, and has played a role in spreading the religion elsewhere in Asia and more recently worldwide. Later waves of invasion/ immigration brought Hindu population and empires based mostly in the north of the island and centuries of resulting conflict. Post-colonially conflict again started to flare when a nationalist Sinhalese president, on reconsidering some of his anti-Tamil policies, was assassinated by an unltra-nationalist Buddhist monk. (as an aside his wife, Mrs Bandaranaike, succeeded him, becoming the modern world's first female head of state, tho she too was quite unfair to her minorities). Soon the terrorist Tamil Tigers (who in addition to bombing prominent establishment sites, including the airport, killed off many moderate Tamil politicians, and therefore came to be viewed by even their own people as worse than the government- they also assassinated Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi and helped train Hamas) emerged and for many yrs controlled much of the northern part of the island in a civil war that ended only in 2009 when most of it's leaders were killed. Everyone we spoke with seems happy with this outcome, and earlier this year a new president, "Maithri", without ties to either of the 2 families that have corruptly and discriminatorily dominated post-colonial politics, was elected and has already followed thru on some of his election promises, such as lessening his own powers.

We started our trip by going directly by 3hr 110km "highway" taxi ride to the mid-island highland city of Kandy, the last pre-colonial capital, and home of the Temple of the Tooth [another victim of deadly Tamil Tiger bombings in the 90s] . Buddha's tooth was according to tradition saved from his funeral pyre and later given by emperor Ashoka to Sri Lanka, and is the country's most important national and religious symbol, paraded about on Tusker elephants [only 1 in 10 Asian male elephants have tusks vs all African males] during festivals. It is only rarely available for viewing, however is known to be several inches long, making the traditional story of its source rather unlikely (magical thinking is widespread in the history and modern practice of Buddhism, it is much more than just the somewhat admirable philosophy of life is suffering, trying to attain nirvana through the "middle path" and reincarnation. The man "Buddha" himself, prince Siddharta Gauthama probably did exist sometime around 500B.C.) The road was SL in a microcosm- crowded, winding, and slow, population-lined throughout, tons of bikes, motorcycles, and tuk-tuks (3-wheeled, 2-seat open taxis) "sharing" the road (no one, including our drivers, pay any attention to lanes- use of horns is constant throughout the country: "I'm on the wrong side and coming thru quickly, so you'd better move over") with diesel-belching trucks, a few cows (noticeably more in the Hindu north), and overcrowded "Lanka-Ashok-Leland built- buses {[not sure who Leland was!] that are actually the fastest things on the road driving down the middle as if they were Ferraris like Keanu Reeves in "Speed", can't forget the one that took a curve so quickly that it nearly tipped over onto our tuk-tuk later in the trip!}. By the time we arrived we felt as if we'd "done" Sri Lanka and could now go home! Incidentally, SL has the world's highest per capita snakebite death rate, and pre-trip (half-joking) anxieties centered on such (the only snakes we saw were in a charmer's basket), however, as in most of the world, it is the roads that actually present SL's greatest risk.

Could it get any worse? Our next stop was Anuradhapura, SL's ancient Buddhist capital for about a millenium, and 145km away. Had enough of the roads (tho they ended up being at least somewhat better in the flatter, less-crowded north) and expensive long-distance taxis, so decided to take the train (in part knowing that without at least one train ride couldn't really say we'd seen Sri Lanka). Tried to reserve 1st class tickets, but were told they were all sold out, and 2nd class couldn't be reserved and shouldn't be too bad. Booked an early am tuk-tuk to a small station 1/4 of the way so we wouldn't need to transfer lines and could catch the am "intercity" fast train. At the appropriate time a train rolled in- compartments didn't look too bad and was about to get on when someone told us it was the wrong one and ours was delayed ~45min. When it finally arrived each car looked like a similar scene out of our worst nightmares- no 1st class carriage in sight and full exit areas to each car with people pushing their way just to get on. We did the same- barely room to move- packed like a 'human sardine train' with both seated on floor and standing individuals and their luggage and not even room to enter the car proper. Ended bouncing on the metal grates btw 2 cars for a few min in stifling heat with no ventilation- at first tried to take my backpack off, but quickly put it back on realizing that the metal plates would soon rip it to shreds. Not a situation that I could handle for 2.5hrs. Decided that I would slowly push my way towards the back of the train where someone said 1st class was, literally struggling 20-30sec for each foot of territory with my daypack on front and backpk on back. JC felt she couldn't try as her packs were too heavy (I already carry some of her stuff). After about 20min made it thru 2 cars, however the doors to "1st class" (actually just a reservable seating-only shabby 2nd class car) were locked. Decided I would jump out at 1st stop and go around. Doors locked at near end- ran to far side- military-style-dressed train officer blocking way demanding my ticket- and telling me to go back to 2nd class after seeing it. As only white-skin on train decided it was time to play whatever cards I could in the seconds before train pulled out of station, told him I'd pay extra, that I couldn't go back, that I was sick (would have soon been true, a local seated on the floor where I had been did end up vomitting over someone else [Andy- do you remember my words on getting back to you the next morning on that Greek ferry?]) Finally, just as the train was about to leave he let me by. Indeed there were no seats, however the aisles and carriage ends were empty, so I sat happily on my backpack on the floor in relative comfort (next to a mom and screaming baby- for once I didn't care!). After a couple minutes the officer came over and explained to me that seats in this car were expensive costing 900 rupies if I insisted on staying. He was surprised when I responded no problem and I'd like to pay 1800R for two- that's $16.50 Cdn total! He, after some communication difficulties, agreed to let me run back and try to get my wife at the next infrequent very short stop. His colleague found one seat for her and they'd let me stand. However JC was stuffed near the entrance to the car proper when I'd left her, at least several people and close to a minute's pushing from the door- time was limited- I ran yelling out "Jiak Chin - China Girl!" She wasn't too happy about it afterwards but I figured it was the best way to quickly let everyone know she was being sought. We made it back in time and from that point on things were smooth. The officer kept telling me not to pay him yet until minutes before our stop. He didn't give me any sort of receipt and I suspect he may have been waiting to be sure that no periodic inspector arrived before taking any cash that he'd keep to himself. Regardless I gave him 2000R telling him 1800 for train and 200 for him (lots of petty cheating over cab fares/ haggling etc). Also gave other original officer 200R hidden in a handshake as we walked down the platform...

As a post-script to the episode later found out that we may have been literally cursed by the full moon- it was a poya day= full moon celebration/pilgrimage, and the ruins of Anuradhapura are a special place for such worship- we later ran into a couple who had taken a couple unreserved train rides in relative comfort. we had neither the opportunity nor the guts to try the train again!

Biked around the city-sized area of the ruins in the afternoon- they contain some of the world's tallest stupas. Over the next couple of days saw some other ruins, impressive Buddhist monastery cave sculptures and paintings at Dambulla (tho again nothing compared to Ajanta and Ellora in India), about 80-100 elephants at Minneriya Nat'l park's "the gathering", which, occuring lake-side late every dry season, is the world's largest concentration of elephants in a small area (also an equal number of jeeps surrounding them...what unfortunately made it worthwhile for us was seeing the aborted rampage vs ranger truck of a confused, as yet inadequately tranquilized elephant, whose leg was previously injured by a chain in a conflict with a villager and now infected- he made it to the bushes- don't know if they successfully found and treated him.), and the ruins of the mini-Ayers-rock-like rocktop citadel capital of Sigiriya (here the omnipresent outrageous entrance-fee discrimination against foreigners, often 20-1, peaked at 80x: 30USD vs 50rupees! When we first found out we almost passed on the site, however glad we didn't as it was impressive tho certainly very overpriced, as are all the other tourist sites in SL).

Next headed to the remote, excellent and very quiet beaches of the East Coast just north of Trincomalee for some much needed R&R. [Most tourists visiting SL are Europeans on package beach holidays at resorts on the southwest coast ~1hr from the capital of Colombo- they never see any of the real SL above (there is even a quiet manicured short toll western-style hwy). In addition to not being our style, it was the time of the Southwest monsoon (tho becoming less predictable from climate change, there is also a northeast monsoon in the "winter" months) prompting us to pass on this region.] Snorkelled with black-tipped reef sharks, saw crown-of-thorns starfish. This area was not only behind Tamil Tiger lines, but the part of SL hit by the tsunami which killed 40K in SL. Hard to find much evidence of either beyond a few wooden crosses and blown-out bldgs. Took a tenuously booked and then confirmed Sri Lankan Army outfit and airbase-run "helitours" flight to the northern Tamil capital of Jaffna (and then also back to Colombo)- in btw which looking at a random newspaper headline at the impressive colonial Jaffna public library found out that their license had expired!- but still preferred them over a long train ride! The Trinco airforce base has the worst body odour problem either of us have experienced! Not much special in Jaffna. Arrived safely at Colombo's local airport just in time for rush hour, and our most-harrowing tuk-tuk ride of the trip with a large-eared driver who from behind looked just-like Will Smith. Rush hour was not going to stop him as he repeatedly weaved into the oncoming lane missing its traffic by milliseconds/ millimetres and darting back over (at least towards) the median with the confidence of being in a Hollywood script! Arrived to our beautiful rented apt on the 15th flr (of 37) of one of the City's handful of skyscapers, with a great view opposite South Asia's soon-to-be-opened tallest tower (CN style), with swimming pool to match (but could still hear incessant honking below starting ~7am). Colombo is much more cosmopolitan than the rest of the country, lots of colonial features, most interesting being the seaside "Galle Face Green" with its moisture-laden wind-blown seafood stalls. Both of us came down with cases of the runs, tho probably from Jaffna...

Taiwan is comparatively a much more sedate, and better-known place so will keep comments shorter. The standard recent history of Taiwan claiming itself as the true capital of China following Chiang Kai-Shek and the Nationalists fleeing there from Mao's advancing communists is well known. Less known is that it was under Japanese control for 50yrs until 1945- this has left a noticeable feel to the place- it is somewhere btw Japan and the rest of Asia in terms of clean and obedient orderliness. same holds for silly rules- our hotels would only let me swim in their pools if I wore a bathing cap- no other country or hotel has ever required this (tho come to think of it I don't think any of our hotels in Japan itself came with a pool), attempts to show them that the hair on my chest was both more numerous and longer than that on my head made no difference (didn't try to mention intertriginous areas or the Becker's nevus [see recent NEJM images in clinical medicine] on my shoulder...). Showering before swimming, on the other hand, is optional. Taipei really is what you'd expect of a large, modern Asian city. Excellent underground rail network. Impressive views from Taipei 101, which for a time was the world's tallest bldg (now world's tallest "green" bldg). One unexpected highlight was the excellent network of dedicated bike trails throughout the country (esp the Tamsui suburb north of Taipei), we cycled 5/7d. The hardest thing about travelling in Taiwan is trying to avoid the hordes of mainland Chinese tour buses- you'd think that China had already made good on its longstanding threat of invasion. This was especially bad for us at the otherwise impressive Taroko Gorge. Apparently at the National Palace Museum they get so bad (poetic justice of a sort given that it contains 4000yrs of the best of China's antiquities "rescued" by Chiang from Mao's advance?) that we intentionally timed our visit to their dinnertime. China's rising economic might is unofficially giving it a rising say in Taiwan's politics without need for military action- as both claim to be "the real China", and the mainland is now in reality as capitalistic as the island one has to wonder what the future holds for Taiwanese de-facto independence (Taiwan actually does not officially consider itself to be an independent country, and altho the USA militarily defends their functional "independence", it stopped pretending Taipei was the capital of China following Nixon's and Kissinger's 1972 Beijing visit)...tho maybe one could claim that ideologically it is the capitalist, but not so democratic, Chiang that has actually already reconquered the mainland...

We also spent a fair amount of time back in Malaysia, including short car trips to Port Dickson, Seremban,and Sri Menanti, and a short hop over to the geologically impressive island group of Langkawi, [saw 2 troupes of elusive spectacled monkeys (worth an image search) for 1st time], in addition to the usual visiting and incomparable feasting in Penang and KL. . However, when it comes to fortunate chance discoveries of beautiful islands, I must admit that Asia falls short of British Columbia's coastal waters!

Until Next Time,

Stu