spring fling

Living in beautiful Oman has it's pluses and minuses.

One minus is NO fall or NO spring.... (ok - there's not really a winter either but we like to pretend.....)

One plus - we are able to travel to spring or fall :)

It's May 1 and it's HOT - summer began for us back in March so it was very lovely to escape and head to europe for the first time (for me and the boys - DH has been there before).

Technically, you could say we had a spring fling.... for 9 days :)

For example, below is a trip, last weekend to beachy keen spot - it's summer - it's hot and not very green but at least we have blue and turquoise water for relief and occasional ocean breeze (not a cool breeze bit a breeze none the less).

Below is a picture of spring like weather that we were all craving.... GREEN fields, rainy weather, cool breezes, fresh non air conditioned air :)

Can not really complain about either one of these spots. Just lucky to have been there and done it together with mi familia. It's amazing to watch the boys grow in ways I never really thought. Showing them the world, at least parts of the world, we might have never gotten the chance to see, if we didn't live here. It has been life changing and character forming for them. Seeing giant buddhas in jungly mountains, visiting mosques, temples and churches and learning about new cultures, touring castles and forts. It's pretty cool stuff for a 8 and 6 year old.

Check out this rainy day..... it was cold too! (ahhhhh)

Something I didn't really think I would miss, too much with our move to middle east, was pork. Living in a muslim country, pork is not allowed. Fortunately, here in Muscat a very westernized society, pork is available, it just doesn't always look as appetizing as this - or taste as good either and you pay a 400% tax on the product, so literally, if you want pork hot-dogs be prepared to shell out $15 us dollars. Here's to the old expression "while in rome do as the romans do" - boy did we PIG out..... a little too much for me - I can only hope on our summer trip home, I remember to eat pork in moderation. Fortunately, Espana is FAMOUS for their pork, the iberian pig, they raise, cook and cure it quite lovely. Unfortunately, I took advantage of the "availability" of this little piggy at one too many meals..... Now, I am paying the price in my waist line..... When we got home I think I ate vegetables for a whole week straight.

Funny how after talking with friends who traveled for spring break - they all said the same thing... "we ate pork non stop"..... :)

Amigos, just a little "taste" of our pork induced trip to Espana. I will be back soon with a couple more shots and a couple more stories...... Until then -

Take good care,

xo- amt

interior of sri lanka

Sadly - I am neglecting my bloglandia - I have not posted to "nest happs" regularly in any way shape or form - I have very little checked up on all my fav blogs :( Do I miss them? absolutely!!! It's 2 parts - my time on the computer is limited - and the MAJOR part is our internet connection. It's HORRIBLE (the internet connection) since I have had a taste of high speed internet.... I find it hard to wait - and wait for my pictures to upload - or to download images and cookies from other friend's sites - it's just painful and I usually get frustrated spending 2 hours trying to make a blog post (sorry of my lack of patience) maybe I need to become more selective with pictures? limit my photos to 2 photos per post?? and go straight to the blogging.... maybe I have been looking at it wrong? I really need to write more anyhow - I might have to have adjust resolutions this year... Anna from Chameleonia - make a change and adjustment to your new surrounding.... The term ---Anna from Chameleonia--- is an inside joke. Since we have moved and been fortunate and BLESSED beyond words to be able to see these new places in the world - I found that with my skin/hair coloring - I am easily mistaken for an arab - an indian (from india) - a sri lankan - a turkish dervish dancer :) , a flamenco dancer (hahah) so I decided I need to turn in my US passport and ask for a passport from the land of Chameleonia - because I clearly must be a chameleon..... Clearly :)

....where I left off.... interior of sri lanka.....
To journey from the coast to maybe 250-300 kilometers.... seems like maybe 2 1/2 -3 hours .... not in sri lanka. It seems that the whole country runs off a two lane road - paved in some areas - not so paved in other areas.... you are competing with cars, tut-tut taxis, bicyclist, motor bikes with families of 4, elephants, cows, pedestrians, buses packed with sri lankians and that's just one side of the road.. the other side is the SAME story.... sometimes if you get stuck behind some one slow - then you have to play chicken with the other drivers - head on... it's scary to say the least - fortunately I did NOT have the privilege of driving in sri lanka. I mostly just prayed in the back seat for safe travels :) I did enjoy the views.... there is soooo much to see - so much agriculture - so many mountains - so many Buddhist outcrops - so many churches and temples - it's a lot of newness to take in.

Our 3 hour drive was a 7 hour drive..... ouch.... but when we arrived - it was amazing. The hotel we stayed at was built into the side of a mountain - a beauty meant to be one with nature. It was really an amazing hotel - giant boulders in the lobby, a forest outside the door and right in the shower(yes - there are glass windows separating us from nature and hotel rooms).

lobby of hotel

view from outside of the lobby

walking to our hotel room

---- I had to steal these from the www to show you the amazing feat of this world renowned Green Buildings....

these are hotel rooms

this is the view of the resturant - check out the living roof! One morning I had to escape my whinny kids at the breakfast table and just look out to the sky - I saw at least 10 bald eagles in like 5 minutes!!!

In order to reach the hotel, we had to first travel to the coastal foothills.... massed with tea plantations, pepper plantations, rubber trees!!

tea plantation - did you know black pekoe is Ceylon tea.... Ceylon is one of the former names of Sri Lanka - it's the birth place of tea!!

Pepper

rubber tree forest.......

Once we reached the "forest", we were climbing deep into the central mountains of Sri Lanka. We stopped at an Elephant refuge in Pinnawela, Buddhist sanctuaries (around every corner), lakes, rivers.

the boys and elephants!!!

we were standing 5 feet from this ANGRY momma elephant..... (yikes!) She rammed her baby down for doing something wrong - i was not watching what the baby did wrong - but I sure heard her charging forward and the baby making a big fuss.....

after a few minutes - she decided her baby needed some love :)

One day we ventured from the hotel to an ancient civilization called Polonuwara. The ruins here dated back to BC!! They are mostly buddhist temples and ancient castles.

I found this particular stop to be fascinating. Ancient Buddhist carved into the side of this mountain..... when they heard of the dutch invasion they decided they would bury it, to be hidden and safe from destruction..... It was recently discovered by the British in late 1800 and then dug out and declared a world heritage site in the mid 1900's.

acient ruins from a castle dating back to 5 AD

the LARGEST stupa in ALL of Sri Lanka - stupa is a buddhist temple - the Buddhist usually put RELICS from buddha or his disciples inside the center of the stupa - but no one can ever see or touch them.

more ruins

jungle lands......

Nearing the end of our adventure in Sri Lanka, we were able to visit Sigiriya. It was an absolutely breathtaking site. It is a giant boulder..... in the middle of a jungle - had to wiki it for you.... Sigiriya (Lion's rock),(Sinhalese - සීගිරිය)(tamil=சிகிரியா) is an ancient rock fortress and palace ruin situated in the central Matale District of Sri Lanka, surrounded by the remains of an extensive network of gardens, reservoirs, and other structures. A popular tourist destination, Sigiriya is also renowned for its ancient paintings (frescos),^[1] which are reminiscent of the Ajanta Caves of India. It is one of the seven World Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka.^[2][3]

Sigiriya may have been inhabited through prehistoric times. It was used as a rock-shelter mountain monastery from

about the 5th century BC, with caves prepared and donated by devotees to the Buddhist Sangha. According to the chronicles as Mahavamsa the entire complex was built by King Kashyapa (AD 477 – 495), and after the king's death, it was used as a Buddhist monastery until 14th century.

here is the rock - we climbed it in the pouring rain and very few of my pictures turned out....

the lion's gate to the castle

graffiti

On our last day we left Kandlama via Kandy back to Columbo. We saw some more breathtaking scenery though out the entire drive. We stopped in Kandy at the TEMPLE OF THE TOOTH. Literally, it houses Buddha's tooth, carried to Sri Lanka in one of the ancient Queen's hair. It was a beautiful place - serene and peaceful. it is said for the most strict of Buddhist that they should make a pilgrimage here at least once in their life. Kandy was a beautiful town nesteld in a valley completely surrounded by jungly mountains.

city view of Kandy

wiki definition - The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a Buddhist temple in the city of Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is located in the royal palace complex which houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country. Kandy was the last capital of the Sinhalese kings and is a UNESCO world heritage site partly due to the temple.

Monks of the two chapters of Malwatte and Asgiriya conduct daily worship in the inner chamber of the temple. Rituals are performed three times daily: at dawn, at noon and in the evening. On Wednesdays there is a symbolic bathing of the Sacred Relic with an herbal preparation made from scented water and fragrant flowers, called Nanumura Mangallaya. This holy water is believed to contain healing powers and is distributed among those present.

The temple sustained damage from bombings at various times but was fully restored each time.

Temple of the Tooth

flower offerings to the "tooth"

a similar tradition of "lighting a flame" as catholics have... only buddhist style

One random stop we made was to see the largest hindu temple in all of Sri Lanka..... I can say I know ZERO about hinduism so I am not qualified enough to comment on anything about this culture. I have had the pleasure of meeting many hindu people while living here in Oman. And I did discover on this trip that Buddhism is actually a religion that broke off from Hinduism. Similar to Christianity is to Catholicism. It's fascinating to learn something new on these trips that we have been BLESSED to take.

Well friends, that about sums up our adventure to Sri Lanka. I am sorry I have been away so long. I am going to have overhaul my idea on what it means to be a blogger..... In the time that I let pass so quickly, we happened continue our adventure spree...... this time the adventure was altogether different but equally as breathtaking as Sri Lanka, so stayed to tuned..... (hint - my first trip to Europe)

All my love,

AMT

coastal sri lanka

Friends - if you are still even out there.... I have had a series of unfortunate events that has not allowed me to post or keep up with my blog. The events have not really been unfortunate..... just everyday LIFE events that keep getting thrown my way and it keeps me busy just juggling ..... balancing .. coming up for air... sorry I am finding it difficult to make time to keep up with my blogging responsibilities.... like blogging about the serendipitous life of the singhalese people......

OK - think back to december..... we landed in a green wonderland, humid and warm green wonderland. Honestly, I was in culture shock..... People, cars, elephants, families of 4 or more on a motorbike, tut tuts, chop-ters, cows, buses, semis, chaos....... a 2 lane highway for an entire country..... craziness... everyone competing for a lane...! Our first half of our trip was spent at the southern west coast of sri lanka. Ahungalla, a 2 hour drive from the airport in Columbo. 2hours for me to ohhhh and ahhhh at all the lush greenery, to see people going about their day to day lives, to see a mosque across the street from a Buddhist temple that was right next to a Methodist Church that was directly behind a Hindi temple. WOW! Men (old men) dressed in skirts with no shirts ( a shock coming from the Middle East) I am only used to seeing people fully clothed.......lol - People mingling about.... selling fruit or goods they have made to make a day's living to put put food on their table. I was in awe. I had never really seen anything like it. You know when you buy that $40 dollar shirt at the GAP.... then when you come home you become disgruntle because it was made in Sri Lanka or Bangladesh ... and you paid top dollar for that.... when you know the material and the cost was a very small fraction of the cost to make that $40 shirt.... well I was looking specifically for these kinds of places..... factories - sweat shops.... not buy something but see for myself the conditions the people have to go through to just make ends meet. I felt like it would help me to put more of a connection to the types of places that the majority of cheap labour comes from. After all, I am curious but mostly I am sincerely interested in learning about the culture of new places. I was surprised to see many open aired rooms that were above a restaurant or small shop.. that had a seamster (not a seamstress) at the window making something.... I never did locate the sweat shops (they were probably deeply hidden in the capital city... where we spent very little time...... The people were good, good people, honest and hard working. What it boiled down to is they see us tourist, and automatically thing we have sooo much more than them.... and well as Americans or Europeans - we really do have so much more than them. We have electricity in our houses - we have working toilets in our houses. Real working roofs and wood or carpeted floors. We have cars and cells phones, clothes and shoes, computers and gadgets...... Most of the sri lankans don't have such luxuries.... Most sri lankans, if they can't make ends meet in sri lanka, they expatriate themselves and work in rich countries (middle east, mainly) as maids or gardeners - they make more money out of their own country and when they send money back home..... it's not just for their wife or children, it's usually for their parents, their wife, children and their children's children...... It was eye opening experience for me to think about just how lucky I am, and I feel dually blessed to have shown my children that there is more to life than wanting the latest DS game. Thankfully the kids were able to see just how lucky they are. That right there made the trip a truly special experience.

Culture.... are you ready? The sri lankans from my impression are a little superstitious or just very into traditions and idols..... Above is a cobra in the hotel, we stayed at.... he is a signature symbol that can protect one from evil... The peacock brings good luck. The elephant brings good memory. No matter what religions the locals were hindi - christian - Buddhist - muslim they all revered these animals(symbols). They adorn their homes (huts), vehicles and clothing - stores and temples..... the images of these symbols are everywhere.

(above) on a short stroll of the beaten path we found this abandoned temple. It was ruined in the 2004 tsunami (dec 26, 2004) Temples are everywhere.... Buddhist and hindi don't really have church times...... they just go find a temple whenever they are in need of prayer.

One really cool experience we did for the first time was have dinner on the beach. Here is my mom, who we drug along with us, to a place she never thought she would visit.

One sri lankan experience, I will never be able to fully express the beauty and awesomeness of this event. I felt as if I should have been watching a National Geographic program.... I never in my life would think I could actually experience something so amazing.

On the eve of the winter solstice, buddhist people celebrate the full moon,the Unduvap Poya. We heard about it by accident, a serendipitous experience, to say the least!!! :) We took a tut tut into town (Bengalla) at 9pm because the poya would start at 9:30pm. Or so we thought..... In true sri lankan fashion, things happen when they are ready to happen. So we stood - we waited and waited - my hotel bed sounded more comfortable by the minute...... we waited some more.... we people watch that was pretty fun, but honestly we were tired of standing - 2.5 hours later...... when finally we heard some drumming.... in the distance.... we waited.... a little longer.... drumming a little closer.... and finally firecrackers??

No boys, young boys, cracking a whip - hitting the cement ground making a popping sound....

male and female dancers,

pole twining

drummers,

dancing elephants

flame spinning

peacocks

monkeys

AMAZING!..... a age long tradition of welcoming the full moon. It was a pretty awesome experience, well worthy of the wait. If you are ever planning a trip to sri lanka, try to plan it around the full moon. They have these poyas every month, but around the winter, summer, spring, fall times.... they REALLY go all out. The following day, all the buddhist took a day off of work and dressed in pure white and made small processions to their local temples bringing many offerings and blessings to their Buddha. It was pretty cool to see.

On the south west coast, we spent three days taking in the green beauty, we took a river safari (felt like we were straight out of vietnam) we watched the sunset every night, we ate a little too much (that's what vacations are for correct?) None of it properly prepared us for the beauty of the interior of Sri Lanka....(imagine it's even more green in the jungle!!) The journey was intrepid for sure.... although it, too, was worth it to see some amazing, amazing ruins from 2 bc and beyond....... and we got lots of rain... lots of glorious rain......

I will post soon, regarding the mountain journey, soon, I hope... or as I am learning here in arabic...... inshalla (god willing)

ayubowan,

amt

remember my name

Sri Lanka...... I am copying this verbatim from one of our travel guide books - I found it so fascinating and well written - I thought I would share it with you.....

Source: Insight guides - Sri Lanka

___________

Remember my Name

Sri Lanka's many name changes

over the centuries are a

reflection of it's fascinating history

The Island currently going by the name of Sri Lanka has had a string of other identities and has been know under a range of nicknames and pseudonyms. To Prince Vijaya and the founding fathers it was, in their Sanskritic language "Tambapanni" after copper colored beach on which they landed. In the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius, a sea captain working for Annius Plocamus a tax collector in the Red Sea, suffered the misfortune of catching a monsoon that swept his boat off course and dumped him on the island 15 days later. For him, and other Roman /Greek caller, Tambapanni was too much of a mouthful thus it became "Taprobane" The geographer Ptolemy rang a slight change by showing it as Taprobanam on his famous 2nd century AD map.

Arab traders could have told Annus Plocamus's captain that if he waited a while a different monsoon would blow him back to Arabia or East Africa. they relied on these winds to go back and for the to the island they knew as "SERENDIB". This name is a corruption of the Sanskrit Sinhaladvipa. Cosomas Indicopleustes(byzantine author) twisted the Arabic into "Sieslediba" but the 18th century English novelist Horace Walpole stuck to the original for his fairy tale "The 3 Princes of Serendib" and used it to coin "serendipity" meaning happy discovery by accident!!! (anna speaking: who would have ever known that's where that phase came from!!) another variant Sirinduil, as yet awaits a neologist to dive definition to "sirinuility".

Edward Barbosa, a Portuguese captain who visited in 1515, tried to persuade his countrymen to adopt Tennaserim, which in some ancient Indian language meant "land of delights" but htye had already settled on CELAO, which had started as the Chinese Si-Lan and thanks to medival Europeans like Marco Polo, became SEYLAN. The dutch worked out their own derivation to produce Zeilan; the English compromise was CEYLON. (anna speaking...think tea...)

Through all of this, the Sinhalese had long ago decided it was LANKA, and it officially changed to SRI LANKA in 1972 (the prefix means "holy" or "beautiful") The words Prajathanthrika Samajavadi Janarajayi (Democratic Socialist Republic) were tacked in in 1978. The trick with these tongue twisters is to try and pronounce everything, but the complications of long and short vowels and aspirated and retroflex constants, will help you trip up. Your mispronunciation will no doubt be forgiven; Sri Lankans are used to people getting their name wrong.

_______

Did you count how many names the name changed??? 14!!! Holy Crow! That about sums up my entire time in Sri Lanka....(I only speak for myself - I was awe struck - in both good and bad ways) I was in serious culture shock the day we landed - but I grew accustomed by the time we left to the everyday goings on... and I was... yes... I was mistaken for a Sri Lankan several times on the trip. (go figure) The whole experience helped me to appreciate the country and the people, in addition too, everything Sri Lanka has been through and the current state of development. It was a fascinating place to visit, not sure I would recommend it as a Travel destination to just anyone. You need to be a certain type of person to take in it's beauty and culture and one needs to have lots and lots of time to try an figure out to navigate about the country, if your travel desires more than just one or two places to see there. There is much to see in Sri Lanka, we only touched the tip of the iceberg - or jungle... We did cover ground and it was not an easy feat... below is an example of the typical road.....

a place that looks like somewhere you want to go ....might be 2 hours away (on the map) but it is really 8 hours away.... (on this road)

because this could be the typical traffic jam......

You just never know what can happen. I will be back with several post about the places we visited....

for now.....

Ayubowan (long life in sinhalese - the language of Sri Lankans)

amt

every now and again you just gotta say huh?

Time off from school and work...... they don't always coincide.... so when they do.... we try to leave dodge....

Seeing as we already live half way around the world... we are taking advantage of traveling to places we NEVER would have given a second thought, if we were living in the US.

Sri Lanka falls under that category...... Not many people you know can say they took a trip there..... Not many people understood why we even considered it...... It was a pretty amazing place. It's lush, it's green, it's exotic, it is 3rd world, it has some drawbacks, but fortunately we lived to blog about.... so soon I will share those pictures with you soon....

for now... I have to share this wacky, weird picture...... The night before we left..... (it was the eve of Christmas eve) We found this strange guy wondering the halls of our hotel.... Never saw a Santa such as he..... Never saw a tree quite so lovely :) This picture is destined to be a Tremblay Christmas Classic. Maybe we can find a better Santa next year? If that is the case, I imagine we will have to head to Europe, because nothing, I mean, nothing says Christmas like Sri Lanka.

Happy New Year!

amt

planes, trains, boats, subways and taksi!!

A long overdue post about our trip to Istanbul. I wanted to share some of the highlights (which were plentiful)with you in a mostly pictorial post. Istanbul is a beautiful, urban, friendly, historical place to visit, high on my list of recommendations. The majority of Istanbuli's are muslim, which we are very used to, so - no culture shock for us.

We arrived mid-day in the heart of the European side of Istanbul, right smack dap in middle of palaces, mosques, the old city wall, parks filled with brown, red and orange leaves falling down in the cool crisp breeze..... (ahhhhh heavenly!!!) People hustling around from place to place, and the city was packed with tourist as well, so we did not feel the least bit out of place. We made a quick walk around our neighborhood, scoping out what it was we wanted to hit the next morning and made it back to this amazing place (the blue mosque) all lit up in it's glory.

The souvenir shops were screaming at me..... "please come buy me".... are these not gorgeous? These lanterns were everywhere..... restaurants, hotels, streets, homes, stores.......

sadly, I could only fit one into my suitcase.......

FALL was in the air...... five glorious days of fall!!!!

Turkish people were very very patriotic. (so are Omani's but that's beside the point).

Byzantine meets 21st century......I cut, copied and pasted an overview of wikipedia's take on Istanbul, which makes it such a fascinating place to visit........ Istanbul historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople is the largest city in Turkey and 5th largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.8 million, also making it the second largest metropolitan area in Europe by population, and the largest metropolitan city proper. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural, economic, and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province.[8] It is located on the Bosphorus Strait and encompasses the natural harbour known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country. It extends both on the European and on the Asian sides of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world that is situated on two continents. During its long history, Istanbul had previously served as the capital of the Roman Empire (330–c.395), Byzantine Empire (c.395–1204 & 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). Thereafter, the new Republic of Turkey, moved their capital to Ankara during the Turkish War of Independence.

the subway system..... a first for the boys!!

The New Mosque - the largest mosque in all of Turkey.

beautiful arabic stained glassed windows inside the New Mosque.

Light fixtures inside the New Mosque.

Fish market on the Bosphorus, this is the asian side of the Istanbul.

running up a tunnel staircase system inside the Aya Sophia.

A charming example of the streets throughout the city. Cobblestone, picturesque, inviting me to take both paths.... choices, choices......

beautiful city scene from the Bosphorus boat trip - The Asia Side.

A fine example of a European style window box with my FAVORITE Dean Family flower.

Old, Old, Old city wall around Istanbul. (sorry about my lack of knowledge of time periods..... explains why I am not a history major.... just trust me it's old!!)

the infamous Bosphorus Bridge to take you from one continent to the next.

beautiful turkish calligraphy........ He crafted a picture for me in less than 10 minutes.... It's says Istanbul with mosques, palaces, birds.. and so on. I was thoughly impressed.

The end of the road as they say....... It was a charming and fascinating place to visit. I would definitely go again ..... and again and again.

Sorry it took so long to get these to you. My December was very busy.

Love to you and yours, hope your holly-days were bright, cheery and filled with peace, love and happiness,

I leave you with this funny you-tube about Istanbul........ (my friend Guinievere shared it with me...)

xo,

amt