Home Again from Sri Lanka

I am back in Penang and I now have a new favorite country.  What a wonderful trip I had and I hope that I can go back to Sri Lanka again soon.  There is still the Philippines, Myanmar and the east coast of Malaysia to explore.  Oh, the list goes on and on.
I stayed in Unawatuna as long as possible, leaving there at 2 in the afternoon by bus to Colombo.  In Colombo I changed buses thinking that the bus marked airport would take me there.  At this point I had about the  equivalent of $10 in rupees and I challenged myself not to exchange more money.  When the bus reached the final stop, we were at a big market and there was no airport in sight.  I was lucky to have sat next to a man on the bus who spoke English and he told me not to take a tuk tuk.  I could walk to the airport from where we were.  He even walked me to the airport entrance so I made it to the international airport with about $4 left.  I was glad not to have changed more money.  In the airport my dollars and credit card were welcome.
Usually when I fly I am on standby but the flights from Colombo all were full and I had purchased a confirmed seat on Tiger Air to Singapore leaving at midnight.  I got to Singapore at 6 AM and took a connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur.  I took another bus from KL to Butterworth, a ferry from Butterworth to Penang and Rapid Penang (a misnomer) bus from the ferry terminal to my apartment.
 Homecoming was bittersweet since a toilet in my place had sprung a leak and I had to go outside to turn on the water supply until I could get a plumber, and my friend Shah had made other plans  for the evening so I was disappointed not to see him.  I guess my homecoming was actually more bitter than sweet.  But now I have water restored and all is well with Shah so life is good again.

Here are a few images of Sri Lanka that I did not post earlier.  Enjoy.

Elephants on the way home from a hard day of entertaining tourists

Happy family

How incongruous to see cows on the beach, but it is a common sight here where cows are revered by the large Hindu population

Kandy Cigarette????

New friends from England whom I met first in Kandy and later in Unawatuna

Mister Ed

Giant bamboo

You may remember on December 26, 2004, the tsunami which hit Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.  All along the southwest coastline of Sri Lanka are small graveyards for the victims. Many of the graves are empty since the bodies were never recovered.  These are sad reminders of a horrible tragedy.