All types of transport

We're finally off on our honeymoon! After 6 months of marriage, with Meir's Passover break we figured this is the best time to go.

Choosing where to go was it's own complication. My dream was Madagascar, but after researching it seemed April wasn't the best month for that. After a few other ideas that also weren't great in April (most of them due to monsoons), we took a new approach. Where are the best places to honeymoon in APRIL. Start with the month, and find a relevant location.

I really wanted to go to the Maldives, but Meir was unsure about it, so we started looking into Japan. April in Japan means cherry blossoms. Perfect for a honeymoon.  I was still leaning toward the Maldives but we started researching Japan nonetheless.
With craziness at work, visits from our mothers and more, we were pretty slow with the planning. As we started looking into flights we realized they were more than we anticipated.  Despite watching for a few weeks they didn't go down, so we switched directions.

With about a month left before we were hoping to leave I convinced Meir about the Maldives, but we're not surfers so spending 2.5 weeks there didn't sound good to us. We took out a map to check what was nearby and found Sri Lanka.  After only a quick search we realized it was perfect for us:  hiking, cities, waterfalls, forests, ruins etc.  We found flights and booked.

Then life got in the way and finally about 2 weeks before leaving we did a bit more research, booked hotels (more like homestays and airbnbs) and made a tentative itinerary.

When it came to packing, we really weren't sure what to expect so we did our best. So far we seem to have done well.

So we boarded the plane and were off!
Elal was not our top choice, but being that there are many countries we can't fly through as Israelis, it ended up our only option. Turns out we were correct about not wanting to fly them.  The leg room was minimal and my TV didn't work. It took 2 hours and 4 complaints before a flight attendant brought me an iPad to replace it. Anyway the movie choices were lacking and very few.  But the food was fine and we made it to Mumbai.

Unfortunately our layover was 9 hours long overnight.  When we landed we figured we'd wander around, but fun fact, they keep you in this room and don't let you go to the terminals right away if your layover is long.  We got stuck in this room for 3.5 hours, luckily with lounge chairs but nowhere to charge a phone (which Elal also didn't have so our phones were almost dead).  We had enough power to watch a show we'd downloaded from Netflix (thank goodness to advanced planning). We also discovered that Jet Airlines seems to be going bankrupt, as we met a bunch of people who'd been stuck in this purgatory room for over 36 hours since their flights were cancelled. 

We finally got through, went through security (which separated men and women) and into the airport. Wow, the food was good, there were interesting shops, tons of places to charge, and it was a pleasant mix of not too dark to be creepy but not too bright since it was the middle of the night.
We got some idli (my favorite and the same as it tastes in the Indian restaurants in Edison, NJ) and chai (not as sweet as in the U.S) and then were off.

Sri Lanka airlines was pretty good for a short flight. Still got food (which was delicious) and thankfully managed to sleep a bit.

Landing was an adventure. They said we were landing and I still didn't see land anywhere (we flew over a few islands though, maybe the Maldives?). I finally saw land just as we landed but it was too dark to get any idea of what or where we were.
We got off the plane, quickly went through passport control (hint: they give out a form on the plane you need to fill out. If you sleep through it, as we did, go to a counter to fill it out before waiting in line - we didn't do that and it slightly but not too badly complicated things - also, we had gotten our visas online in advance)

We got our luggage quickly and went to an information counter to find the train to Kandy, our first destination. He told us the train was from Colombo, which was an hour bus ride away, and then would take 4 hours. Alternatively, he told us we could get a car to take us, for $60, that would take 3 hours.  We, being cheap, didn't like that idea, but we'd met two other Israeli girls who also wanted to get to Kandy so we asked if they wanted to split it and we all hopped in. Our first step outside was a shock to our systems. It was so hot and humid.

And the adventure began.
We probably left around 6:15 am from the airport. We loaded our luggage, got in the van, and immediately some guy tried asking for money. We didn't get why but Meir said apparently he popped over and loaded the last of our suitcases into the van in order to then get a tip. Thankfully our driver locked the doors so he'd leave us alone, but he stood outside the van for a while looking at us (traffic was nuts so it took a while to pull away).

We left and finally got to see the country!
Roads themselves aren't bad.  They're paved pretty well, but a lot are pretty thin and rules are iffy. There are so many cars, buses, tuk tuks and mopeds. The tuk tuks are slow and you have to go around them, but in traffic since they're small they go around everyone else. The buses aren't bad but obviously have stops when you have to go around them too and they don't pull over far. We had a lot of close calls with oncoming traffic between us and them going around other cars.

We went through cities and countryside.  There were people walking along the sides of the roads holding umbrellas to keep off the sun, tons of dogs, construction being held up by bamboo sticks. Between cities were swampy areas with herons and sometimes a few cows.

Our driver offered to take us to see elephants, stop for breakfast, and go to a tea plantation, but we really just wanted to get to Kandy and go from there.  He did stop to pick something up for himself but that's all.  We all slept a while and woke up and we still weren't there.  We took a few detours to avoid traffic and saw a few trains. We also saw people walking on the train tracks.
When we finally got into Kandy traffic only got worse, and the streets were crazy crowded with people! Everything looked like markets.

When we got to the end location of the GPS, though, there was nothing there. We took out the paper we printed with our reservation, and didn't find an address or phone number, so we borrowed a phone with data and looked it up. Turns out the address in Google Maps is incorrect, so we kept going further from the city center (thank goodness) and around the lake which is beautiful.  We dropped off the other two girls who wanted to find a place around there, and continued to where we were staying. We made a few wrong turns, asked for directions and called but finally made it to Lodge Inn!(it took 5 hours in the end)

It's super cute and the owner is so friendly. We put our stuff down, changed, and went out (with some advice and directions from our hostess). We found a tuk tuk (Meir's first time) to take us to the bus station, and got on a public bus. It was crowded so we stood. They have two doors, both of which stay open the whole ride so people can hop on and off without stopping for long.  The person taking the money was supposed to tell us when to get off, but Meir kept thinking he was saying the next stop and then he'd say to wait.

He finally told us to get out and we made it to the Botanical Gardens! While there we decided we might prefer zoos to gardens, but we ended up seeing monkeys! And some pretty cool trees and flowers. We got ice cream too since it was so hot, and heard a few things that sounded like gun shots and totally freaked us out.

We went to the bathroom at a perfect time, just as it started to rain! It was pretty quick and then we decided to head out. We got in a tuk tuk that took us to the traditional dance show! We got there 45 minutes early and learned we could reserve seats, so we did that and went for a short walk before coming back to watch.

It may not have been our brightest plan to go to an evening show our first night in Sri Lanka. Parts of it were really cool but we were so exhausted after such long travels and barely any sleep.

We barely made it through the show and walked back. It was only 6 pm, but shabbat started, we prayed, ate (we'd packed food from home), showered and were asleep by 8.