Thursday, February 21, 2013

Recovery in Kandy, Sri Lanka


JANUARY 7, 2013

Still feel like hell.  Now off of anti-biotics.  My cold symptoms have lessened, though my body is now a mess.  Clearly lacking the energy to heal from my back to back hikes, my calves are so bad I’m walking like Ozzy Ozborn on a good methadone bender.  My back and spine are in knots.  I hurt so bad I can’t even think about yoga right now.

Plan A was to head east to the “hippie haven” beaches on east coast of the country but I’m already running out of time thanks to my illness and airfare messes.  Instead, I head north through the central highland.  My thoughts are that a beach is a beach and I’ve seen my fair share.  I will go check out the temples.  My first stop north was the town of Kandy. 

In Kandy I got a taste of more local culture.  My in-room yoga practice was disrupted by very very loud drumming.  So loud, I couldn’t even pretend to keep my mind calm.  I had to investigate and was treated to a Kandian drumming and dancing event.

The next day I would visit a batik factory when they apply wax to cloth and dip the cloth in dye in successive steps to make wonderful clothing and tapestries.  My interest in clothing in negligible, though I wanted to buy about a dozen different things in the show room.

After that it was on to a wood carving factory.  The end results were amazing, though the production floor looked a bit like a sweatshop to me.  No one was smiling and the conditions didn’t look so stellar.

The real treat was a tour of an Ayurvedic garden, given by a med student.  I learned about all sorts of natural healing remedies.  At one point he showed me a mixture of ordinary products – I forget what exactly, but it was like asparagus, turmeric, and avocado – he claimed was a natural hair remove.  I’m all for Ayurveda, but I didn’t believe this stuff worked.  Now I have a bald spot on my arm to remind me that I lost that bet. 

Note that my iPhone was stolen around this time, so you don’t get to see any of the pictures of the garden or the batiks. 

No comments:

Post a Comment