Colombo, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Day 7 Today we headed down out of the cool mountains (I actually had to wear my long sleeve shirt in the evenings) and back to the sweltering low lands, which means a lot of hours on the bus (like all day long). We made a quick stop at a Hindu temple because we haven’t visited one of those yet. Not much to say about it except those tile floors were really cold on my bare feet. We also stopped for a photo op at Ravana Falls, one of the widest water falls in Sri Lanka, which isn’t very wide. Maybe it gets wider during monsoon season? I don’t know. It’s pretty, but wide is not the adjective that comes to mind when I look at it. It’s great for selfies except all the dang people clambering around on the rocks and swimming in the little pools at the base. I hate it when people get in my pictures! Of course if we had more time there, I probably would have been clambering around on the rocks too, but that’s beside the point. (Insert my mother saying here, “Girls! Thats just not safe!”)And everyone wants thetwinsontour in their photos. In the afternoon we visited a Buddhist monk school, so we got to talk to all of the boys there, and take selfies. They didn’t speak much English, but the word selfie is universal. SomTuee of them really liked to get their picture taken. Of course, most of the boys still weren’t back from the New Years vacation, so it wasn’t as crowded as normal. The youngest students there were 7 and they went up in age to 20. While they are studying there, they are learning to become Buddhist monks along with their regular school subjects. They wear the Buddhist monk orange robes and have shaved heads. Some of their robes are different shades of orange, but that doesn’t indicate any ranking or age. The Buddha just said that their clothing should be the color of dead leaves. I don’t know why it is the color of dead leaves and not the color of live leaves. But who am I to question the teachings of the Buddha? Out of respect for monks, you should never touch them. Our tour group gave each kid a notebook and an ink pen. When giving them something, you should hand it to them with both hands to show that it is given willingly. I handed several of them their gifts. They were so excited. For one notebook and one ink pen. Very humbling. It really makes you appreciate everything that we take for granted. That’s about all I can remember from day 7 because of course I am writing this several days later. Love, thetwinsontour