Śrī Pada or Adam's Peak, Most Sacred Mountain

Footprints seem to mark the beginning of life for humans. When our kids were born, one of the first things we did was to dip their little feet in ink and imprint them. This was their ‘official’ beginning. In Sri Lanka the birth of the main religions also came to life with a footprint – a sacred footprint. However instead of being imprinted on paper, it’s imprinted on the top of a steep peak 7,295 feet above sea level. If you want to see this footprint, you have to give your own feet a workout.

At the top of Adam’s Peak (referred to as Sri Pada in Sri Lanka) is a huge ‘footprint’, claimed by Muslims to belong to Adam, who stood there after being thrown out of Garden of Eden. However things can't be quite that simple. Same footprint is believed by Buddhists to be the mark of Buddha, Hindus hold the print to have been made by Lord Shiva, and Christians claim it is the footprint of St. Thomas. We did not venture to guess who is correct, but we did know that the footprint continues to draw pilgrims from all religions to the top of the peak for over one thousand years.

We decided to join that pilgrimage, less for religious reasons, and mainly for adventurous reasons. The climb to the top is a mere 5,000 stairs; and it is best done in the middle of the night so that you arrive at the top at sunrise privy to spectacular views.

After a bumpy three-hour drive we arrived at our guest house in Dalhousie. It looked like something out of the 19th century, even though we have been told it was only four years old. After I engaged with the owner in a heated discussion about communism over Arak (the traditional coconut alcoholic drink in Sri Lanka) and beers, we finally went to sleep.

At 2:15AM everybody was up and ready to start hiking, following a meandering string of what I’d normally call “street lights,” only no vehicle could drive here. The lamps illuminate a zigzagging path. High above at the top, a glaring yellow floodlight marks the finish. There, we hoped to catch the sunrise and an eerie natural phenomenon, in which, on mornings when nature cooperates, the mountain’s shadow floats upon the clouds for the first few minutes of the day.

The first hour of our hike was easy – a concrete path, a mild incline with a single step up every ten to twenty feet. When I did the math, the easy part made me nervous. A one-kilometer altitude gain on seven kilometers of trail meant an average grade of 14 percent. If the first part was not steep, the later part was going to be killer.

And now, the killer part is beginning. The stairs have tightened together – concrete in some spots, stone in others. Some steps are missing, necessitating awkward lurches. Teahouses were peddling hot drinks and fresh-baked samosas. Buddhist monks in thin, orange robes greeted us at shrines.

There’s a distinct difference between those of us going up and those coming down. The uphill climbers are foreign tourists. The Sri Lankans, the pilgrims, are here for something bigger than a sunrise. So the pilgrims have trudged to the top at saner hours. They’re on their way down now.

The higher we climbed, the steeper and more ragged the path became. Some steps were higher than our knees. Adrenaline was waning.
“How far is the summit?” we started asking.

“Fifteen minutes!" came the answer every single time.
We were suddenly exposed. The wind unleashed a chilling assault. After sweating all the way up, now, we’re 7,000 feet above sea level and it felt so cold. We dug in the backpacks for more layers.

“The sun’s about to rise,” We began chugging and yanking the guard rails to propel ourselves.

We reached the top, the grounds of a Buddhist monastery. A sign instructed us to remove our shoes. The sky started to ignite. Psychedelic pink. Hundreds of climbers – pilgrims and tourists – jostled for views.

We found a nice spot and we’re elevated above the masses. Once the sky lightened, dozens of mountain ridges appeared below us, poking up through puffy white clouds to form an infinite, mystical view. Inside the monastery, monks began chanting guttural prayers, accompanied by drums, cymbals, and nasal-sounding flutes. The wind is battering eardrums. The monks emerged, and continued their chanting in a procession around the monastery. We didnt understand, but that didn’t matter. Whatever bigger power exist in the universe, we're feeling about as close to it as we ever have.

And then, the “eerie phenomenon” happened. Relegated to the back of the monastery at sunrise, we now had a front-row view of Sri Pada’s shadow – a massive black pyramid hovering in the sky like an otherworldly ghost city.

Of course, there is one more thing we still need to do. What goes up must come down. We have another 5,500 steps ahead of us.

The Cave Temples of Dambulla

From Sigiriya, we found our way to Dambulla, a busy town close to the Rock. Constructed in the 1st century BC, the cave temple complex is another UNESCO World Heritage Site.

After buying tickets and going around the massive golden Buddha, we found a crowd of monkey gourging on the flowers people brought as offerings. Vlad could not have been happier. He almost got bit by one when he did not release a flower soon enough.

After a steep climb in the forest (with monkeys along the way) we found again incredible stretching all the way to the Lion Rock.

The temple complex has five caves of varying sizes. The caves are shallow, but filled with ancient sculpture and artwork. Hundreds and hundreds of Buddha statues and a mind-blowing collection of murals that cover everything.

The site had been used for shelter long before Sinhalese King Vattagamini Abhaya found refuge here. After having been driven from Anuradhapura by an Indian invasion, he lived in the caves for fifteen years, nursing his wounds and building an army. He returned to the capital and drove out the foreigners. In celebration, he built Dambulla’s Cave Temple at the place of his refuge.
It’s an awesome feeling to be in a dark mountain temple, which looks much as it did over 2200 years ago when a victorious Sinhalese King was celebrating the recovery of his kingdom.

Climbing Sigiriya Rock – The Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World

After a restless night (we needed to be aware of the monkeys) we got up early to be at Sigiriya rock before the heat arrived. We grabbed some breakfast and headed to the Rock! The climb ahead was going to be tough, but we needed this to get ready for the Adams Peak later.

The story of the Rock is fascinating! Prince Kassapa knew his half-brother Moggallana was going to inherit his father's throne. Not willing to accept this,  in 473 AD he murdered his father by burying him alive and took over the kingdom. Prince Moggallan fled to India, leaving the Kingdom of in the hands of Kassapa. Kassapa lived in fear of his brother’s and decided to move his royal city to a safer. He found the place on the top of Sigiriya Rock. Construction lasted seven years. Stairs were cut into the rock, and materials required for his palace were brought up piece by piece. In front of the rock, a breathtaking pleasure garden was installed. Moggallan returned in 491, and somehow managed to get Kassapa to come down from the rock and lead his men into battle. When Kassapa’s elephant reached unsteady earth, it began to back up. The King’s men assumed that he had lost his nerve and retreated for the safety of the rock, leaving Kassapa alone. Seeing that his fate was sealed, Kassapa killed himself with his sword.

Nature’s awesome beauty and the ingenuity of mankind come together majestically at Sigiriya Rock. A massive 320-meter granite stone set incomprehensibly in the jungle, the “Lion Rock” was attracting admiration long before King Kassapa built his castle on top of it, and continues dropping jaws today.

Sigiriya is one of the top touristic sight in all Sri Lanka, and for good reason. A visit to Sigiriya is unforgettable. And Sri Lanka knows that and charges $30 per foreigner head to enter the site. The locals only pay $0.40. I almost wanted to go back in outrage but swallowed my pride and bought the tickets. I’m glad we did.

After entering the grounds, we were greeted by a marvelously restored 5th century pleasure gardensa. First, a Water Garden with an expansive and complicated set of pools and ponds, and further ahead the King’s Boulder Garden. Here, we saw the Cobra-Hooded Cave. Before Kassapa’s arrival, Buddhist monks had considered Sigiriya a sacred place, and built temples around the base of the rock.

We started our ascent well before the sun was at full strength. This was a wise; we avoided both heat and crowds.

Midway up, we encountered the Mirror Wall and the Hall of Maidens. The rock at the Mirror Wall had been polished smooth and flat and coated with a shiny plaster, so that the King could admire his reflection during his ascent. Today luster is gone and it looks like a stone wall. The fresco gallery, found just above the Mirror Wall is just impressive. The Damsels of Sigiriya are some of the most famous ancient paintings in the world, and they very well conserved.

After the Mirror Wall and damsel gallery, we emerged at a large terrace. We were exhausted and stunned to see that we had only completed about half our journey. Before us, two immense lion paws carved out of the rock indicated the beginning of the ascent’s second half. Under the pretense of admiring the lion, we took take a break before climbing up to the summit.

A massive, 60-foot lion was chiseled out of the rock. The steps which continued up to the royal palace started at the lion’s feet, wrapped around his body and eventually entered his mouth. Today, all that remain are the paws, but they give a good idea of the statue’s scale. It’s hard to appreciate how impressive it must have been 1500 years ago. It would be impressive now.

The final flight of stairs, hugging tightly to the stone wall, is not for those who suffer from vertigo. If we, on these steps of modern steel, were so close to throwing up, how terrifying must they have been during the time of Kassapa?

Once we gained the summit the ascent made perfect sense, as the view is unobstructed for miles around. From the top of Sigiriya, you truly feel at the top of the world. The palace is presently nothing but rubble, but you can easily imagine it must have been an amazing building. You can smell history, and the panoramas over the jungle and gardens below couldn’t be better. The descent promises to be no less dizzying.

We start our descent and at the lion's paws make friends with a bunch of monkeys. Kids get the photo op for a new Facebook cover.

Down at the entrance it's already very crowded. It was good to get up early. Back at the hotel, we take a shower and hit the road.

TIB (This Is Bangladesh)!!!

There are only two rules for us, the ‘Bideshis’ (foreigners) here in the ‘Desh’: 

Rule number 1) This is Bangladesh (T.I.B.)

Rule number 2) When in doubt reffer to rule number 1

When we witness something out of our comfort zone or something that really does not make sense, we simply refer back to rule number one. This rule just covers and explains it all.
The traffic, the smells, the rain, the blackouts, and the unpredictability - we take it all in. It is all part of the experience. And this is what makes Dhaka, Dhaka! 

Dude, who poisoned my food?

Adulteration of food with toxic chemicals has reached an epic proportions in Bangladesh. It has been called the ‘silent killer’.

It is almost impossible to find a sector which is free of adulteration. From raw vegetable and fruits to milk and milk products to fish, meat and processed food–every food item is contaminated. Every day I read in the newspapers about a newer method of adulterating foods. Carbide, formalin, textile colours, artificial sweeteners, DDT, urea etc. are used rampantly.

Chemical agents like calcium carbide are randomly being used for ripening different kinds of fruits like banana, mango, papaya, tomato and pineapple and also to keep them fresh.

Most of the red chilli powder used in the market is adulterated - in most cases the spices are mixed with brick dust. Fine sawdust is also often mixed with cumin and other ground spices. Honey is also frequently adulterated, as sugar syrup is often mixed with honey to enhance the sweetness.

Pure butter oil and ghee are also very rare in the market as dishonest traders use a host of ingredients such as animal fat, palm oil, potato mash, and vegetable oil to produce fake butter oil. They even mix soap ingredients like steirian oil with ghee, to increase the proportions.

Condensed milk produced by Bangladeshi manufacturers contains little or no milk and is in fact condensed vegetable fat. Sweetmeat makers unaware of existence of food colouring use only
industrial dyes in their products. Dough makers put sulphuric acid in hot milk to make it thicken quickly.

The chemical fertiliser urea is used in the rice to make it whiter and formaldehyde (used to preserve dead-bodies) is used in fish, meats and fruits to keep them fresh-looking.

In the long run, these chemicals in food adversely affect vital organs such as the liver and kidney resulting in organ failure and/or cancer and thus, untimely loss of life.

Ironically, people are aware of the hazards of taking foods adulterated with toxic chemicals, but this knowledge is not translated into practice. They are still buying and consuming these adulterated foods because of several factors: absence or unavailability of non-adulterated food, appearance, costs, cultural factors, food habits etc.Occasionally, the authorities will be suddenly in an active mode, and conduct mobile courts to penalize sellers/producers for selling contaminated products/foods. Then, there will be a lull for a few days and after few weeks, business becomes as usual.

The strategy that I came up with is simple, yet far from being bulletproof:

If the flies do not like it, then I won't like it either. If I do not see anything being attracted by the "fresh" meat/fruit/vegetable, there is probably a reason for it.

Our life saver water distiller

Best thing in our new home happens to be our water distiller.

Because Bangladesh happens to be a country with poor civil water quality, we were issued a water distiller that purifies the water you need to drink, brush our teeth, and so on. Our helpful embassy staff also provided us with a water dispenser that has a hot and cold tap.

Our "stiller" gives us the best water we tried so far here. There is a caveat, especially for us who have children: the distiller removes all the impurities, including the fluoride which in the States is added to our water to strengthen the teeth. Therefore, the kids must use fluoride toothpastes.That is a small price to pay then having arsenic in your water, which is the other bad news we got in Bangladesh.The leading cause of death in this country is arsenic poisoning from ground water contamination. So we got to love our "stiller" and are very grateful for it!