Sigiriya Rock Fortress Tops List of “Hanging Monasteries”

October 4th, 2007 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Last year, I spent my 33rd birthday climbing Sigiriya, an ancient rock-top fortress in Sri Lanka’s cultural triangle. Yesterday, Sigiriya popped up on this fascinating post called “Hanging Monasteries of the World” with a few other remarkable cliff-top sites.

My birthday began with a trailhead call to my mobile phone from Sabah, our host, cook, and housemate in Nuwara Eliya. A cheer rang in his voice: “Many happy returns, sir!” sent me upward with a smile. The soaring, flat-topped mesa upon which Prince Kasyapa built this acclaimed fifth-century compound, has been called the Eighth Wonder of the World for its engineering and utter audacity. Evidence suggests he used it more as a pleasure palace than military post, though — the royal swimming pool, wide thrones, and saucy cave frescoes are cited as proof.

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Sri Lanka Volunteer’s Blog

April 18th, 2007 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

Meet Doug. Doug is an Engineer and Humanitarian Aid Worker from San Francisco who is stationed in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. Doug is helping to build schools while avoiding land mines and dealing with poisonous snakes in his toilet. Doug and my brother met at Burning Man a few years back, and he and I tried to get together when I was in Sri Lanka last year, but it didn’t work out. Although some of the world’s most beautiful beaches are reportedly just up the coast from Trincomalee, it was too far from our post in Nuwara Eliya and we ended up opting for Hikkaduwa for our one beach vacation. In any case, here’s his blog for your enjoyment.

Leaving Sri Lanka: Down the Mountain and Across the Sea

May 2nd, 2006 | By Joshua | No Comments »

I could also call this episode “So Long and Thanks for all the Dahl: Part 2,” (a la our departure from India) but I’ve written enough praise about Sabah’s cooking. I could describe to you the goodbyes and gift-giving of our last week in Nuwara Eliya, but I’m tired of farewell, inured. I don’t think describing our final day crunch-time in the PALM office or our last-minute preparations for Africa would be very exciting either, though some mention of Harinee’s delivery is due, a healthy girl who the astrologers name “Dimanti Thisarie.”
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PALM Foundation Websites Launch!

May 1st, 2006 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

Part of my AJWS volunteer assignment at PALM Foundation was designing a new website, writing the content, taking the photographs, and gettin’ it up (online, that is). Then I had to train someone in the office to manage the site, although I’ll probably be the de facto webmaster-at-large for a while, since this most crucial component of any sustainable assignment was also the most difficult. It all happened down to the wire, with a mad rush toward the end of my two months, but it happened.

I invite you to visit palmsrilanka.org, the official site of the organization, and palmguesthouse.com, home of PALM’s foray into Nuwara Eliya tourism, and a glimpse at the little house in the hills where Tay and I have lived since early March.
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Map: Sri Lanka, laying down

April 26th, 2006 | By Joshua | No Comments »

My flat map of Sri Lanka denies the island its normal north-is-up “teardrop” romance, but laying it on its side, it looks like big-headed whale, don’t you think? Colombo the eye, rail tracks the teeth. . .a blunt-headed giant of the sea, swimming south while casually dumping on India. Maybe? Maybe not.
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Back to War? Good time to leave Sri Lanka…

April 25th, 2006 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

From the BBC: “The Sri Lankan military says it has begun an aerial assault on rebel positions in north-eastern Sri Lanka, telling the BBC it could not stand by after the attack on its headquarters.”

We are nowhere near the violence, not to worry.
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Colombo Bomb Blast: We are okay

April 25th, 2006 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

Violence in the East has been on the rise in recent week, at the hands of Tamil Tiger terrorists, and today, the first attack in the capital since 2004 does not fare well for the ongoing peace talks.
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Back to Nuwara Eliya: Earth Day in Hill Country

April 23rd, 2006 | By Joshua | No Comments »

It’s raining in Nuwara Eliya, most evenings and nights; bone-chilling, pre-monsoon stretches of wet that an expat friends compares to Scotland. After pleasant, light-filled mornings, storm clouds gather in the afternoons, but different from the breezy, faraway storms of March. Sri Lanka’s April showers are vast, gray things that filter the ridge lines into gray-green panoramas, one behind the other.
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The Walls of Galle

April 18th, 2006 | By Joshua | No Comments »

We venture down the coast to the Galle Fort on Tamil and Sinhalese New Year’s day, though with the full moon Poya, the Holy Prophet’s birthday, the coming of Easter, etc., we are quite confused about just what is being celebrated and by whom.
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Hikkaduwa Beach Break

April 15th, 2006 | By Joshua | 3 Comments »

When our Nuwara Eliya landlady (who is also our boss) informed us (very nicely) that she was kicking us out of the Toppass Guesthouse during Sri Lankan New Years so that she could quintuple our room rate, we had no objection. A forced 10-day vacation? Not a problem; we head for the beach.
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