ToewsTravels – Page 29 – every country or bust!

family medicine – in circassia!

i did my six week family medicine clerkship with five good friends in galilee, northern israel. we lived in an apartment on the ha-emek hospital compound in the town of afula in central galilee, and each of us took buses each day to different places to work with different primary care physicians. afula is the largest town in israel’s jezreel valley, and is just down the road from megiddo, posited by some as the place where the world will end. it is also in the shadow of mount tabor, believed to be the site of Christ’s tranfiguration. i got really lucky, as i was placed with a friendly doctor who loved to teach in a very unique town called kfar kama, one of just two circassian towns in israel. the circassians are an ethnicity who originated in the north caucasus — what is now russia around the area of sochi. coincidentally the winter olympics occurred in sochi during the time i was working in kfar kama. these people lost the circassian war to russia in the 1700s, and some small numbers were resettled by the ottoman empire in what is now northern israel. they were warriors back in their homeland, but settled into an agricultural lifestyle in the middle east. they have held on to their religion, sunni islam, and retained their unique culture and language, called adyghe. they also speak hebrew, arabic, and more english than average, which was another reason i was happy to be there. there are only about 4000 circassians in israel, split between two towns. they marry only other circassians. the men serve in the israeli military at the will of their elders; women cover their heads, wear ornate dresses and basically control the place. the women are seriously empowered, and many are highly educated. the teenagers still get acne and the elderly still get hypertension.

circassian society is rather insular, so being in a family medicine clinic provided a remarkable glimpse into their culture which otherwise might never have been possible. there is only one clinic in the town, and just two physicians, each of whom has been working with the community for years and knows everyone in town. on one occasion we learned that an elderly man had unfortunately passed away, so we left the clinic and walked down to his house, which is an unspoken obligation of the clinic staff. half the town was sitting in the home mourning, men in one room and women in another; kids playing outside. the mourning period lasts for three days. they passed around cookies and strong coffee and i was the only one who took any. oops.

my preceptor also staffed another clinic in a small moshav, which is similar to a kibbutz (both are small, communal zionist agricultural communities. kibbutzim are completely communal – i.e. truly communist, while in a moshav each family takes care of their own finances). the moshav was called ha’zorim, and was in a valley just southwest of tiberias. it was started by holocaust survivors, a group which still make up the majority of its population. we would typically go there later in the evening for a couple hours, and a really nice nurse would prepare biscuits and hot tea without fail. i’d do blood draws while the family doc caught up on local gossip in the vernacular.

one evening we rented a car for my friend mayuri’s birthday, and drove up a mount carmel overlooking haifa, where there is a string of druze towns. the druze are an insular pseudo-islamic ethnicity and religion. we got countless plates of salad and wandered the freezing streets. it actually gets quite cold in corners of the middle east during the right time of year. another evening we took the bus up another big hill in the other direction to the arab city of nazareth, where we ate at the oldest and most expensive restaurant in town, and sampled some coffee which has been constantly brewing for the last 70 years! we then realized that we’d missed the last bus back, so spent half the night in the only establishment that was open – a dry shisha-sports-bar, trying to figure out how to get home on our budget. family medicine – fewer dull moments than you’d expect!

on christian zionism

after finishing at the hospital in tel aviv one sunday afternoon i decided to take the bus up to jerusalem to check out the 5pm service at king of kings church in the heart of jerusalem. this church is the largest english speaking american-style evangelical church in israel, and is well known as the standard-bearer of evangelical christian zionism here. every week there are groups of american christian tourists visiting the church, “in the land” to “stand with israel.” a huge, plush auditorium in the basement of a shopping center and great audio-visual set-up. they have the contemporary evangelical consumer worship experience nailed – i quite enjoyed that part of it! great people, and they really do love Jesus which i believe is ultimately what is most important. as soon as the worship time ended however, politics came up and things inevitably started going downhill. the pastor couldn’t seem to help himself from raving about canadian prime minister stephen harper and how he is one of the only remaining world leaders defending israel, and how G-d is going to bless canada for standing for israel. ugh. he also raved about their prayer tower on the 14th floor where one can go and look out over ramallah (in the palestinian west bank) and pray that the “land would not be divided.” this church also regularly hosts conferences where church groups flown in from america listen to wacked-out end-times doomsday fiction authors like joel rosenburg float his weird eschatological fantasies about the impending destruction of the world as obvious “fulfillment of biblical prophecy.” if you can’t tell i’m a little skeptical of the scene.

don’t get me wrong, these are great people and i do believe that the vast majority are truly seeking to follow G-d. for most eschatology isn’t their exclusive spiritual focus. but it breaks my heart when christians in israel and who support israel preoccupy themselves with hypothetical future scenarios, while ignoring – or indeed more commonly extolling – the grave injustices that the government of israel flagrantly promotes – ie. the never-ending occupation of the palestinian territories and the refusal of many of the most basic human rights to the palestinians. i wouldn’t want to assume anything about anyone else’s Jesus, but the Jesus i follow is all about peace and loving our neighbors. He told us to love our enemies, not wall them in. i’ll even go out on a limb and say that the Jesus i follow, if he came to the middle east right now instead of 2000 years ago, might just identify as more palestinian than israeli. not to say that there is no significance in the fact that Jesus was a jew. but i believe that God intentionally made his appearance on earth as an underdog, and as part of a group of people living under occupation. also a fact that over 90% of the local christians here are arab palestinians, so we should really get some solidarity going.

to round out my quintessential middle-american-in-israel day, i cracked open a budweiser on the bus home and listened to some lady antebellum. one day was enough for me of this sub-culture; too bad it is not going away anytime soon.

this is who is harmed by christian zionism

neurology… in suburbia, tel aviv

my neurology clerkship was at assaf harofe hospital, in the south tel aviv suburb of zeriffin. five of us got to commute every day from beer sheva, and it was a long one. one hour on a train each way, along with a 30 minute taxi ride with an angry chain smoker that usually had to be waited for. oh well, it was just two weeks, and it was the only clerkship of the year that didn’t involve an exam at the end, so it was a nice change. there were israeli students from tel aviv university who were there with us as well so that was fun. the hospital compound was a former british military base. it is a huge campus of a hospital. and the cafeteria food was unparalleled!

a few days i made a detour through jerusalem part of my commute. even ran into some old friends there which was great!

one day as we were leaving the hospital someone yelled out that they had found an abandoned box at the bus stop, which everyone immediately suspected might be a bomb. very quickly the highway was shut down and a robot was called in, as is standard in israel. everyone stood back a couple hundred meters. a non-descriptly dressed guy drove up in an unmarked car and casually loaded the machine gun on top of the robot with ammunition. the robot then made its way over to the item of interest – probably just a package someone had forgotten at the bus stop. a protective cover unfolded over the suspicious item, and the robot shot it to hell. everyone cheered. nothing exploded. we then went on with our commute.

christmas in bethlehem

thanks to much prodding from the class above us, we got christmas day 2013 off! christmas eve was spent at our hospital in bnei brak/tel aviv working – just another regular day in israel. as evening wore on we dropped the hint to our tutor that it was christmas eve – and she was all like “omg i totally didn’t even realize that – go!!” so we did, hopping on a bus to jerusalem and then another to bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ! the main border crossing into the west bank was closed due to “security concerns”, so we had to take the long way around, making what should have been a 20 minute drive into a 3 hour one. by the time we finally arrived at about 9 pm the party was in full swing! bethlehem is obviously a huge destination for christians from palestine and around the world this time of year, and there was a while lineup of ethnically varied choirs singing familiar carols in manger square, including my favorite, a composition of cute toddlers from south korea. we met up with about 20 of my classmates and had a nice feast of chicken burgers and beer in the restaurant on manger square. the funding for bethlehem’s holiday festivities comes mostly compliments of the us agency for international development. this year palestinian activists constructed a poignant christmas tree from spent tear gas grenades and barbed wire – it is truly sad that the birthplace of Christ remains under military occupation 2000-some years later, an sadder still that this occupation is endorsed and indeed propagated by so many christians in america. midnight mass occurred in the church of the nativity – prominent guests included the president of the palestinian authority mahmoud abbas and the european union’s foreign minister, whose motorcades of black swerving suvs almost ran us over as they arrived. some of us got tickets to go in but the rest of us watched on a big screen from outside. a group of us stayed in the home of a local who we had never met – lined up through some guy my friend andrew spent the whole day traipsing around the west bank trying to track down. turned out pretty well! christmas morning we grabbed some falafel for breakfast and payed a visit to bethlehem’s infamous “stars and bucks coffee”. we then went for a long walk through the aida refugee camp, which is circumscribed by the separation barrier, upon which is a plethora of fascinating art, including a selection of works by banksy. my favorite art on the wall is a large all-caps “love wins”, which is apt for christmas and any time of the year. thank you Jesus for freedom in all its forms, and viva palestine!

the separation wall, bethlehem, palestine

pediatrics …in haredi-land!

my pediatrics clerkship was amazing! four of us spent six weeks at mayenai hayeshua hospital in bnei brak, a suburb east of tel aviv that is populated completely by haredi jews, or the “ultra-orthodox.” bnei brak is one of the poorest and most densely populated cities in israel.

these are the old-school jews of your imagination, who wear black suits and hats and side curls and follow their rabbi’s suggestions to the letter. the haredi population is growing exponentially in israel, and it is a society that in many ways is at odds with the more secular jewish majority. for example, the vast majority of haredi men do not work, rather spending their days studying the torah (old testament) and praying in yeshivas (roughly the jewish equivalent of a seminary). the government subsidizes this life-long education, a significant drain on the national economy which is despised by many secular israelis. the government also financially subsidizes having children in israel, with each family receiving a monthly check for each child. thus, 10 – 15 or more children per family is the norm in bnei brak, in large part because having a large quantity of children is the only way most families can afford to subsist. many israelis are also frustrated that the haredi are not required to serve in the military as other israeli jews are – an issue so charged that it was essentially the storyline of the last israeli national election. many secular israelis stereotype the haredi as being stuck in the past, exemplified by recent high profile altercations such as a haredi man spitting on a teenage girl because he thought her skirt was too short and haredi bus lines that make women sit in the back of the bus. because the haredi population has become so large and is constantly increasing, their political parties have firmly entrenched themselves as kingmakers who “punch above their weight” in israel’s political system of proportional representation. that is why the subsidies continue, allowing for the continued expansion of a population whose lifestyle would not be viable without the financial support of the government.

anyway, for the most part these big societal issues weren’t relevant when we were taking care of the children. i love children so much! one day each week we were in the neonatal department. the hospital has 1200 births per month, the second busiest in israel after soroka hospital in beer sheva. in the cribs of the haredi babies, instead of cartoon animals or colorful shapes, there are pictures of frowning elderly rabbis. what a world to be born into! and what fun to do newborn baby checks! palpate, palpate… is that a testicle?… urine fountain! fun time! snuggle time when its over!

mayenai hayeshua is the only hospital in israel built specifically to serve the haredi population. there is a hospital rabbi who calls most of the shots. it is a kosher zone, no outside food may be brought unto the premises. this was especially fun during the first week of the clerkship when we were living in the hospital as they hadn’t found us an apartment yet. the hospital cafeteria is of course kosher, as is every hospital cafeteria in israel. this one though is also gender segregated – i wasn’t allowed to sit with my female classmates at lunch. we got to chat with the hospital rabbi and he was a really interesting guy. he is a lot more liberal than many other rabbis in the community on a lot of issues. i would have loved to discuss ethics with him for hours, at least before he started talking about jewish-arab relations. he spends a lot of his time convincing people to have procedures done that they are waiting for a rabbi’s permission for. a simple thing like draining an abscess is an ethical question that must be deferred to a rabbi for some people. some rabbis are wackjobs, recommending against lifesaving treatment. there is one rabbi that many consider the authority when it comes to medical issues. he promises to have a response to your question for free within 15 minutes, and is always available. he has considerable financial resources at his disposal, and has been known to fly people halfway around the world for organ transplants at his expense on the spur of the moment, which only adds to his mythical miracle-worker reputation.

if there is a man in the elevator when a women gets on, he often will turn and stand with his face in the corner. all of the women wear head coverings – wigs count. there are as many wig stores as there are bakeries. some sects in bnei brak speak yiddish. some of the children are so sheltered that they only speak yiddish – not even hebrew. that’s like growing up speaking exclusively latin in inner city america – a) how does that happen? and b) how is the child going to survive? no family has any chronic diseases – when you ask them that is. they actually have quite a few. but because marriages are arranged, no one wants to ever admit to any diseases in the family, as that may harm their children’s potential to get the best marriage match. nowadays genetic testing is done before marriage matches are made to minimize the prevalence of certain genetic diseases that had unfortunately become increasing common in certain jewish populations. this approach has worked quite well in decreasing the prevalence of these diseases!

our attending physician was excellent. she was from california and had a bit of a hippie vibe going on. we got to go to clinics out in the community a few days. we lived about a 45 minute bus ride away in the secular city of petach tikva, a world away from bnei brak. petach tikva is often considered israel’s most boring city. but i thought it was great – there was an epic shopping mall and an ethiopian disco-bar/restaurant that we visited on a regular basis. it was great being in the suburbs of a big city like tel aviv where it is possible to get around on shabbat (saturday). this isn’t possible in beer sheva. a few of us visited the tel aviv art museum one day – it was really impressive actually with some excellent photography exhibits and warhol, van gogh, picasso, etc. we patronized the local microbrewery, jems. it was freezing for a lot of the time. i mean it was literally below freezing, which never happens in tel aviv where heaters are unknown. most of the levant got snow – it even snowed in cairo for the first time in 100 something years!

my favorite were nights in the pediatric emergency department. after countless attempts, my first successful intravenous line insertion on a baby was a happy time! best clerkship ever!!

west bank mobile clinic

one saturday during my pediatrics clerkship i was able to go into the west bank on a mobile clinic day with physicians for human rights – israel (phr-i). phr-i is an ngo that sends volunteer israeli physicians to do clinics in the west bank, has a free clinic in tel aviv for migrants without healthcare coverage, and sends physicians to check on prisoners – especially palestinian political prisoners – in israeli prisons. their overall goal is to see the israeli occupation of the palestinian territories end, a goal which i wholeheartedly support. the reality is that human rights violations and unacceptable disparity in access to basic healthcare will always exist in palestine as long as there is a military occupation. many accuse the group of political action under the guise of medical assistance, but many others realize that the fight for basic human rights for all is far more important than which geopolitical side you happen to be supporting. the occupation is bad for palestinian’s health – therefore as physicians we have an obligation to try to end it, end of story. politics and human rights are not mutually exclusive in this part of the world. many of the volunteer physicians go to the clinics in the west bank not because the palestinians particularly need a free clinic, but out of solidarity. they feel that the occupation is a disgrace and is ruining people’s lives, and they want as many palestinians as possible to know that there are israelis who also want it to end. they want to see the palestinian’s faces, and they want palestinians to see their faces. they want to humanize the conflict. they want to do something.

i am picked up in downtown tel aviv on a rainy saturday morning by a spunky elderly woman driving a rusted out volkswagon golf. though she is not a healthcare professional, she volunteers every saturday at the clinic, which is in a different town in the west bank each week. promptly, the car stalls, and won’t start. she starts freaking out, and we try getting the car to start for about 45 minutes to no avail. i say a little prayer and the car starts! i’m not going to claim it was a miracle, but i have no doubt that God is happy that these clinics are happening. then, it was off to the border, where we meet up with a group of about 20 physicians and take a minibus into the west bank.

while i go to the palestinian controlled areas (area a) of the west bank all the time, it is technically illegal for israelis. when they do enter as groups, it is almost always under the “protection” of the army. of course, phr-i refuses such “protection” (it would likely never be provided in the first place), as it is precisely what they view as the problem. israelis in area a are well received without a military escort – having one would indeed likely make things more dangerous. it is interesting to chat with the physicians about what other israelis, including their own families, think of their volunteering in the west bank. one doctor goes to the clinics in defiance of his wife’s wishes. she also wants the occupation to end but is legitimately scared for his life. like almost all israelis, she has never been to area a. the doctor rants about the ignorance of most israelis who, if they think about the west bank at all, think of it as a hell-hole that the army needs to control. these are typical israelis in tel aviv, not the settlers. we don’t even need to talk about the settlers. we talk politics, and we agree. this is the first time i’ve ever agreed with an israeli about politics. we start talking about traveling, and i tell him about my trip to lebanon. i’ve never talked to an israeli about lebanon before. he loves it. he would love to go to lebanon if he could.

we go to the town of attil north of tulkarm. we arrive and the town mayor gives a big speech as the group of doctors from israel sit shivering, drinking cardamom-laced arabic coffee beneath a giant photo of yasser arafat. it is honestly beautiful. these two groups of people are supposed to hate each other. no israeli in their right mind likes yasser arafat. but when we choose to swallow our pride, the hate dissipates, and we find ourselves welcomed. hate is often for policies, not people. phr-i is welcomed with open arms by the leadership of every palestinian town they have ever gone to. i spend the day mostly looking into children’s ears with a pediatrician.

the executive director of phr-i, a bro named ran cohen, comes along to hang out at the clinic that day. really cool guy. big white-man afro. gives me numerous high fives. he is at the forefront – indeed phr-i is in many ways the vangaurd – of the “leftist” human rights movement in israel. you know there is something wrong with the perspective of most of society if the fact that you support human rights automatically makes you a “leftist.” the israeli knesset (parliament) is trying to pass a law that would ban ngo’s that are anti-nationalist. this is widely perceived to be an attack on ngo’s that oppose the occupation. ran cohen is the real patriot, fighting for what is right whatever the government legislates. remember, all these israeli physicians are breaking the law just by coming to these clinics in area a. i love it! i give him another high five, just because i can. he’s quoted in news publications all the time. his girlfriend is cool too. she directs documentaries.

at the checkpoint on the way out of the west bank, our minibus is stopped and the young israeli soldier asks the one muslim woman on the bus with a higab to step outside the bus for further questions. this woman is a speech pathologist who lives in israel and was translating for the physicians. racial profiling happens all the time, and one typically just begins to acquiesce to it. but not on this minibus. ran cohen announces that if they need to question the woman in the higab further, they’ll need to question all of us. we all get off the bus. ran has a good long talk with the soldier. it is inspiring to see israelis who care about these issues. in israel, these are my people.

a weekend in poland!

i chanced upon some unbelievably cheap airline tickets, so one weekend in november i went to poland! i flew into katowice, and promptly took a bus to krakow. it is a really beautiful and historically rich city! i was there for only one full day, so i just wandered around. lots of old churches, and a famous christmas market that was being set up but unfortunately wasn’t open yet. i tagged along with a tour group through the corridors of the ancient wawel castle, where there are nice views over krakow. went to kazimerz, the famous historical jewish quarter, and visited the great synagogue of krakow. krakow was one of the biggest centers of judaism in europe and indeed the world prior to world war two. unfortunately a ghetto was created for jews there during the war, and about 300 000 lost their lives there. auschwitz concentration camp is also nearby, but as it takes the better part of a day to get to and visit, i didn’t make it there this time. every jewish high school student in israel makes a trip to krakow and auschwitz to learn first-hand about the holocaust. on that topic, i also visited a new museum on the site of oscar schindler’s factory. he was a man who saved over 1000 jews during the war by employing them undercover in his factory – the famous film schindler’s list tells the story. excellent museum. right beside it is the kocak, or the museum of modern art in krakow, which i also patronized as admission is only two dollars. and i would be remiss not to mention that krakow has at least two amazing shopping malls, where i giddily and frequently purchased starbucks coffee. it was an excellent weekend!

internal medicine in ashkelon

this was our first clinical clerkship of the year. we did a large number of blood draws each morning. i spent some good time in the emergency department, especially toward the end when i made some orthopedic resident friends who took care of all the little lacerations. every day for ten weeks, four great ladies and i got to commute one hour each way from beer sheva to ashkelon in a school provided shuttle. every day we would drive by the erez crossing into gaza (and i’d wish i could go in), and through the town of sderot which is famous for being the town in israel always hit by hamas rockets (so it is where all the american politicians go for photo opportunities if they want to be known as the israel-loving type). ashkelon is also just a few kilometers from gaza, and barzilai hospital where we were at is having a new rocket-proof wing built. i guess evacuating the emergency department every five minutes during the gaza wars was hampering some people’s style.

thankfully, i found a bro in the hospital who offered me a room in his apartment for a few weeks so i didn’t have to commute as much. later i was able to sleep in a hospital provided room. evening runs along the beach followed by swims in the mediterranean sea were excellent, and ashkelon has a few remnants of its history as a philistine and later muslim city. overall though, nowadays ashkelon isn’t really considered a desirable place to live for many. it has a lower cost of living than many other cities in israel, so there are huge numbers of immigrants, especially from the former soviet union. indeed, all the elderly patients on our ward spoke russian, usually exclusively. at times it was difficult to find a patient on the ward who even spoke hebrew. interestingly – because any jew can move to israel and receive free health care from the state, there are stories of elderly russians who don’t even really want to be in israel moving here in their old age, after being diagnosed with a chronic disease, for example. not the majority of course, but it happens.

the highlight of the clerkship occurred one day in the gastroenterology suite. as the gastroenterologist was pulling the colonoscopy probe out of the patient’s anus, we heard a loud rumble and before we knew it a projectile splattering of moist diarrhea coated everything in the room. as we and gastroenterologist wiped it out of our eyes, we shared a good laugh. medicine is fun!

sri lanka 2013 – getting there and back

i went to the beautiful island of sri lanka over the jewish sukkot holiday in october! the journey there and back was half the fun. it was only financially feasible (dirt cheap, actually!) to fly out of amman, jordan. strangely, the cheapest way to get to amman from beer sheva is to take a four hour bus all the way to the extreme southern tip of israel to cross the border from eilat, israel to aqaba, jordan, and then take another bus five hours north to amman. in eilat i stayed with some of my classmates who were doing their internal medicine clerkship there. thanks to mayuri for letting me sleep in her bed while she was gone! i really wanted to do my internal medicine clerkship in eilat as well but alas the spots were limited and luck wasn’t on my side this time. a frustrating thing about this border crossing is that there is a monopolistic taxi mafia on the jordanian side. even though the city of aqaba is just a few kilometers away, they collaborate with the military to prevent anyone from walking. they charge exorbitantly for the short trip into aqaba and physically accost you when you try to arrange with others to share a cab. the bus from aqaba to amman on jett, the national bus company of jordan, is very pleasant however – there is even a stewardess who makes fresh arabic coffee and sandwiches for passengers on request! in amman i had a few hours to kill, so i smoked way too much shisha and chanced upon a huge brand new beautiful shopping mall called the galleria that had just opened!

after a late night flight to dubai, i slept on the airport floor in terminal 2 (an antiquated terminal for low cost airlines only), and found an excellent breakfast place across the street from the terminal – foul (arab bean paste) with pita and pickles for $1! i then took the metro south to the dubai marina, which is a huge new development that i hadn’t been to yet. there is an excellent mall there, and a new epically tall building that is shaped like a spiral, ostensibly defying the laws of physics! then i took a monorail out onto one of dubai’s massive man-made island paradises called the palm – from space it looks like a palm tree jutting into the gulf of arabia. at the tip of this palm tree is an opulent hotel called the atlantis. after numerous unsuccessful tries, i was able to find my way into the guests-only area through a back entrance. inside the hotel is the largest aquarium tank in the world, which when it was first unveiled contained a whale shark, the largest fish ever to be held in captivity. there is one of the nicest water parks in the world there as well, but unfortunately it is grossly overpriced so i was not able to avail myself of its awesomeness. finished the day at the dubai mall – the largest in the world! the newest proliferating coffee chain in the gulf region is canada’s own tim hortons! there are about four outlets in the dubai mall, which i patronized about as many times! on my way back from sri lanka i again went to the dubai mall and spent an entire day there, because how could anyone ever get enough! kobe bryant was also visiting the mall that day with his entourage as publicity for its huge nike store.

coming back through jordan i spent a few late night hours discussing islam and christianity with a proselytizing muslim gentleman on the streets of amman. the following day i was able to cross from jordan into israel at the allenby border crossing – the most direct crossing between amman and jerusalem, saving an entire day of buses. interestingly, the reason tourists can cross from jordan to the israeli-occupied west bank but not the other way around (at least without a jordanian visa issued in advance) is that jordan officially still considers the west bank to be part of jordan (as it was before 1967), so will not issue visas at the border because in their view it is not a border. there is also another border crossing between northern israel and jordan – but it is in the middle of nowhere and public transportation is lacking, necessitating expensive taxis. the allenby border crossing is the only crossing that most palestinian residents of the west bank may use – and it is understaffed – so it is insanely overcrowded. it can take hours to push through the throngs of hundreds of palestinians trying to push their way to one or two open windows. there were some elderly women who were quite literally being crushed. more than one palestinian shared with me during the push-fest that they believe israel deliberately understaffs the terminal so as to make the crossing less than easy. then come the israeli interrogations, which in my experience are more intense there than elsewhere. always an enjoyable “welcome home” to be interrogated like you are a criminal.

sri lanka 2013: part two – the hill country

continued from the previous post – sri lanka 2013: part one

i then headed inland, up into sri lanka’s hill country! on the way, near wellawaya, a little detour was made to see sri lanka’s largest standing buddha. it was carved into a mountain and could best be described as underwhelming. the journey to find it, however, was excellent – lots of coconut consumption and getting lost and a really serene lake where i splashed around with some local kids. and got a gnarly sunburn. sri lanka is the world’s premier producer of tea, and it all happens up in the hills in the center of the country, which are actually more like mountains. it is actually quite cold up there. the roads become very tortuous and are perfect for scooting. there are many waterfalls. i went to the third largest waterfall in the country called dunhinda – which ended up being at least an hour’s hike and a dozen close-up monkey sightings off the road. i left my backpack with some random guy and thankfully he still had it when i got back!

i spent a night at the “beuty view mountain inn” in the tourist hill town of ella. there was a little girl who served the food there who was super cute. best rice and curry of the trip. people come to ella to get away from the heat and to avail of the local delicacy – buffalo curds, and indulge in ayurvedic spa treatments. i passed on the spa treatments as i heard that sometimes they just pour heated recycled canola oil over you and rub it into your skin and people get crazy acne afterwards. in ella i also ran up a mountain called little adam’s peak where there were excellent views down a valley all the way to the ocean. ella is surrounded by expansive tea plantations. i went on a tour of a tea factory and learned a lot about the process of fermenting and drying the tea. even got to taste all the varieties afterward – all the same leaves, just picked at different times and processed in different ways. it seemed like i might have been the first tourist to visit the factory in weeks. on the topic of tea, the guy giving me the tour told me all about sir thomas lipton of lipton tea fame. he had a chain of grocery stores in england, and was tired of dealing with money-grubbing middle men for his tea. so he decided to source it straight from ceylon – he even moved to sri lanka. he started plantations with the imported cheap labor of tamils from south india, a practice which continues to this day as picking tea is not financially lucrative enough for the locals.

the scooting continued through some picturesque muslim majority mountain villages to the highest town in sri lanka, nuwara eliya. it was extremely cold scooting, as it was beginning to get dark and i had not brought any coat or even pants on the trip! the temperature remains in the low-teens celcius throughout the year, and the town is perpetually smothered in cold fog. nuwara eliya is sri lanka’s tea capital – the best tea is generally grown at the highest altitudes. the only other thing that grows there are root vegetables like potatoes and carrots. it is also known as sri lanka’s “little england,” as there are numerous victorian mansions and the climate is rainy and overcast – just like england. the next 150 km were all downhill switchbacks – in the dark – and cold – which was exhilarating. at one point a bug flew into my eye and aggravated it to such an extent that i drove the rest of the way using just the other eye. and maybe it was the cold or the lack of traffic but i found myself accidentally driving on the right side of the road a few times – that’s the wrong side of the road in sri lanka. i was glad to finally make it to kandy.

kandy is the holiest buddhist city in sri lanka, and a former capital of the country. it is supposed to be alcohol free to keep it pure, and every year they have a huge party/parade with hundreds of elephants that walk through the streets on red carpets – the country’s greatest spectacle. if the cow is india’s favorite animal, for sri lanka it is the elephant. one particular kandyan elephant has even become something of a national icon. kandy is centered around a lake, on which is a temple said to contain one of buddha’s teeth. the temple of the buddha’s tooth relic draws buddhists from around the world. people bring flowers to place before the shrine inside the temple. of course i also had to check out sri lanka’s largest shopping mall which is in kandy – lets just say there are good reasons that no one visits sri lanka for its malls. as was expected at some point, i became physically ill in kandy, so everything became a bit of a blur toward the end. i did go the national botanical garden, however, where, in addition to a long nap induced by dehydration, headache and fever, i saw some really beautiful orchid varieties and a very large fig tree. also saw a traditional kandyan dance spectacle for a couple dollars that ended with fire throwing and barefoot coal walking. the original ancient inhabitants of sri lanka, the veddah people, still live in an isolated mountainous region east of kandy. if i had a few more days i would have loved to go find some of them. they still speak their own language and there are only a few thousand remaining.

temple of the sacred tooth relic, kandy, sri lanka

on my final day in sri lanka i drove the four hours west back to the airport, stopping at an elephant orphanage along the way for another nap, and to hang out with lots of elephants! watched them bathing in a river and got to pet them, including two of the most adorable hairy little baby elephants you’ve ever seen! these things were so small and fresh from their mother’s oven that their skin was still soft! you could even feed them with a bottle for a mere two dollars.

sri lanka is probably the coolest country ever and everyone should go there. it has the otherwordly charm of india but without the incessant touts. english is widely understood and travel distances are relatively short. even the cops are friendly, some of them even remembered me from when i had driven by the previous day! paradise on earth i tell you!