Author: taprobane@me.com

Sri Lanka Trip – Day 2

By Svara Jayasinghe

At Bandaranaike International Airport with our mom’s cousin! (Image by the Jayasinghe Family)

We arrived at the Bandaranaike International airport near Colombo, Sri Lanka, at 4:00 A.M. We got off the plane, and met our mom’s cousin (our uncle, sort of) who holds a high position in the police force. They were our “escorts” which meant we would get to skip the lines. After we had met, we headed onto security. Security checked our passports and visa’s but stumbled upon a mistake. They had gotten my birth date wrong. The police escorted my dad to immigration to get the problem fixed.

At the Bandaranaike International Airport with our mom’s other cousins! (Image by the Jayasinghe Family)

Our next stop was getting our check-in luggage. We went downstairs and waited near the conveyor belt for our luggage. Once we had collected our suitcases, we went over to a money exchange store and exchanged some of our U.S. dollars into Sri Lankan rupees. We were almost out of the airport, when we had to meet two more of our mom’s cousins. We all had a quick greeting, then went outside. There was a police jeep and a car that would be taking us to our hotel. We loaded our things into the jeep, then got inside the car. It was about a half hour drive to the hotel, and we got to experience Sri Lankan driving.

At first, on the road leaving the airport, the driving was what we were used to. However, as soon as we got off of the highway, we were exposed to the terror of driving in Sri Lanka. Cars didn’t stay inside the lanes, they just drove anywhere they wanted to! Sometimes they even went over the lane with one half of the car in one lane, and the other half in another lane! It was crazy! People honked and went between cars with only one inch between each other. But the mind blowing thing was that we didn’t see any car crashes! All that people are focused about is getting to the place they need to go and not crashing. It works out in its own way.

Cinnamon Grand Colombo! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

When we arrived at our hotel, which was the Cinnamon Grand, we got out of the car and unloaded our luggage. We said goodbye and went inside the hotel to check-in. The lobby was amazing! It was very beautiful and modern. Once we had checked in, one of the employees showed us to our room. We got into the elevator, and went up to level 5. On the way, an employee told us what level breakfast was on and that breakfast was from 6:00 A.M.-10:00 A.M. When we got to our room, we quickly explored it and found out that it was amazing! We had two adjoining rooms, one for our parents, and one for us. In our parent’s room, there was one king bed, and in our room there were two queen beds, one for Kiran and one for Simran. I would be sleeping on a rollaway bed, which I was fine with. We were all so tired, that we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer. We slept for a few hours and then woke up at around 7:00 A.M. Since we had been on a plane for 7 hours from Seoul, South Korea, and since then we hadn’t taken a shower, we decided to freshen up a little bit. We brushed our teeth, took a shower, and brushed our hair. After that, we lounged a little more, then got ready to go to breakfast.

Breakfast at the Cinnamon Grand! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

We arrived at breakfast and told a staff member our room number so they could put our bill on our room. We then took a long look at the breakfast buffet. The food line stretched from one side of the room to almost the other side of the room, and boy, was that room big! We grabbed plates and served ourselves food. I ate the usual: scrambled eggs, sausage, and baked beans. I sat down at our table and my dad reminded me that since we were in Sri Lanka, we had to eat some Sri Lankan food. I then served myself some egg hoppers, string hoppers, and a Sri Lankan candy called juggery.

After we were done eating our delicious breakfast, we went back upstairs to our room and rested for another half an hour. When we were done resting we got ready to visit a couple of relatives houses. Our first stop was our grandma’s younger sister on our mom’s side, (our mom’s aunt). We stopped there for about half an hour and talked. When it was time to head off to the next house, we got into the van and drove off. Our next stop was our grandma’s younger sister on our dad’s side, (our dad’s aunt). At their house we met our dad’s aunt and uncle, our dad’s cousin, and our dad’s cousins son, (our second cousin on our dad’s side). We ended up staying there about forty to fifty minutes and in that time we gave presents, talked, and played with our second cousin, (Vihas). When it was time to go, we took our dad’s aunt’s family with us, to our next stop, which, was our grandparents house on our dad’s side. When we had all somehow managed to fit in the van, we drove off towards our next destination.

When we got to our grandparents house, we all piled out of the car and greeted our grandpa and said “hi” to our grandma, who has Alzheimer’s disease. We sat and talked and ended up staying for lunch. After some time had passed, my dad’s aunt’s family left. We hung around for a little longer, talking. When it was time to go we got back into the van and drove back to the hotel, where we rested for another hour. After we were done resting, we freshened up for a little bit, then headed down to the lobby where we met our mom’s cousins (the same ones that we had met earlier at the airport). They had brought Akenya, who is another one of our second cousins except on our mom’s side. We sat down, got drinks, and talked. It would have been a fun time if we hadn’t been so tired. Since we were exhausted from the plane ride, it would take a long time to get fully rested, and we accidentally started falling asleep in our chairs!

After about forty minutes, my mom’s cousins left and we went to dinner with our grandparents, to a restaurant called Chutney’s, located inside of the Cinnamon Grand Hotel. By then the three of us were so exhausted that we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer and started falling asleep in our chairs for a long period of time. After some time, my dad took us back upstairs to our room so that we could sleep. He went back downstairs to finish dinner with our grandfather, and we slept peacefully. We got in bed, and we were all asleep as soon as the lights went off.

To see the previous day of our trip, click here.

To see the next day of our trip, click here.

Sri Lanka Trip – Day 1

by Simran Jayasinghe

Today we are embarking on the wonderful trip to the beautiful island of Sri Lanka! Or at least this is what we told ourselves before we hopped onto our plane, for the next 22 hours. It was the 18th of December, and we were just about out the door and ready to go international!

At the Los Angeles International Airport!
(Image by the Jayasinghe Family)

We woke up early that Tuesday morning, excited and ready to take the long journey to Sri Lanka. Kiran, Svara and I were jazzed up and excited, but our parents, having taken this flight before, advised us wisely that it was no party. Even with what they told us, we didn’t take them seriously and continued to be jumping beans. Boy, were we mistaken. We drove to the Los Angeles International Airport which took about two hours. When we arrived at the airport, we were still excited and not especially exhausted by the long drive we had just endured. We said goodbye to our grandparents, who had accompanied us to the airport. Everyone said their goodbyes and we walked to our terminal.

We would be flying on Korean Airlines for the first time. The airline had good reviews, but we did not know what to expect. None of the airlines that we usually fly on have flights to Sri Lanka, and Kiran, Svara and I had never been on an international flight except for when we were two. When we got to the baggage check-in desk, we were told that there was a problem on Dad’s ticket! He was actually put in a different flight. We ended up standing there for a long time waiting for the airline to correct the mistake.

While we were waiting, we had plenty of time to check out the screens behind the check-in desk. These featured a video of the first-class seats. Our dad had told us that we would be flying on the biggest passenger plane there is. Nicknamed the ‘whale’, our plane had two decks of passengers and could seat 500 people. Passengers flying premium or flying first class would sit on the upper deck. Those passengers would get private cubicles with remote control walls, and seats that converted into beds. Our dad took the liberty of reminding us that those seats would be where mom and dad were sitting if they did not have kids! After a short wait, the problem with the tickets got fixed and we checked in our baggage. Whenever we travel on a plane, we always have weight problems with the suitcases that belong to our parents. Especially this trip, we had to take a suitcase with just presents for our relatives. When we weighed our bags, a couple suitcases were overweight, but the person who was helping us said she would let them slide and sent us on our way.

We now hurried to the security checkpoint. We put our things on the conveyor belt and made sure all liquids and electronics were out of our bags. Afterwards, we went through the hectic process of putting everything back into the carry-on bags and making sure everything was still in our bags and checked that we did not lose anything. Then we hurried to the gate. Our mom poked around in some of the shops on the way to the gate. Somewhere along the way we realized that we had not had breakfast and we grabbed a bite to eat from a cafe on the way to the gate.

We made it with about ten minutes to spare. Soon, the premier passengers started boarding. A couple minutes after they boarded the top deck, or first class passengers, they started the line for us to board. We found our seats and realized that we had been given the bassinet seats. This meant that there were no people in front of the three of our seats. This was devastating information. Our seats meant that we could not keep our carry-ons by our feet. This was far from ideal, as we had packed our carry-ons as our survival packs with all the books and electronics that would have helped us survive the horrendously long flight. After settling in to our seats and figuring out how things would work, we buckled up and got ready to fly. We took off around 11:30, and soon after we were served our first meal about two hours into the flight. This would be lunch. After that our dad took our carry-ons down from the overhead bins, where the flight attendants had stored them, and we got out our electronics. I plugged in my phone and listened to some music to drown out everything else. Over the next few hours, I read some iBooks that I had downloaded, listened to music, and attempted to watch a movie. None of the movie selections that they provided were entertaining, and most of them were not age-appropriate, so I didn’t end up watching any movies on the flight. Kiran, Svara, and I got to experience the deliciousness that is airplane food, for the first time. They almost always had beef, chicken, and fish options. Sometimes there was a Korean rice dish option, but we usually stuck to what we knew. The last thing any of us wanted, was a stomach upset. After what seemed like more than ten hours, we were all miserable, and I turned around to ask our parents in the seats behind us, how much time we had left. They looked at each other and told us that we had a staggering nine hours left! It had only been four hours and we were dead.

At the Incheon Airport in Korea! Getting ready for our next flight. (Image by the Jayasinghe Family)

By the time we finally touched down at the Incheon Airport in Seoul, South Korea, we were all miserable. Sleeping on planes has never come easily to me or my sisters, and we did not sleep at all on the whole flight. We had a five hour layover in Korea, and all we wanted to do was to sleep. Incheon Airport has a Transit Hotel, where you could get a room for as little as six hours. Our dad payed for a hotel room and we all traipsed in. We dropped our bags and we were out! We slept for a couple hours and then we got ready to leave. It never feels good if you have to stay in the same, sweaty clothes for long periods of time, so we took a shower and changed into fresh clothes. We then proceeded to the nearest Starbucks like zombies. We were surprised at how different the Starbucks was! After a double chocolate creme frappuccino, I was still not ready to have seven more hours on a plane. But the universe never listens to what I want, so we boarded our flight to Sri Lanka!

We had better seating this time, and none of us had to have the exit row seats. Somehow this flight was more miserable than the thirteen hour flight. Knowing that this was the second flight was more grueling. This flight was also during nighttime so that was horrible. Since I couldn’t sleep, I put on my headphones, played some music, closed my eyes, and pretended that I was asleep. For some reason, my internal clock was very messed up. Since there was no WiFi on the plane, I did not know what time it was because my phone was still on California time. My thought process was more like, “Oh, there’s the food cart. I wonder which meal this is supposed to be.” The flight felt like way more than seven hours. Trying to pass the time was like looking at the clock every time one minute went by. Dehydration was my problem. I did not have a water bottle with me as we could not take outside water bottles on the plane. I would have thrown up if not for the countless little cups of water I asked for from the flight attendant. Slowly, the hours went by and by the end, I could not stand to look at the inside of another plane.

At the Bandaranaike International Airport with our mom’s cousin! (Image by the Jayasinghe Family)

We landed at Bandaranaike International Airport, at 4:00 am. The airport was about 40 minutes from Columbo. Kiran, Svara, and I were very tired, but excited that we were finally off of the plane and on solid ground. We were looking forward to the hotel and the rest of our trip. Our journey had come to an end.

To see the post on the next day of our trip, click here.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – A Book Review

by Svara Jayasinghe

Where The Mountain Meets The Moon, by Grace Lin, is the story of a young girl called Minli. Minli is an only child, and lives in a small house in a small village next to Fruitless Mountain. Fruitless Mountain is called Fruitless mountain,  because instead of being lush, green, and full of fruit, it is dry, brown, and fruitless. Minli’s family is extremely poor and Minli’s mother is discontent and always complains about how poor they are.

During dinner Minli loved to hear stories from her father. One of the stories were about The Old Man Of The Moon. The Old Man Of The Moon lives on Never-Ending Mountain. The Old Man Of The Moon is the guardian of The Book Of Fortune. Since he is the guardian of the book, he is the only one in the world, who can read The Book Of Fortune. You can ask The Old Man Of The Moon any question in the world and he can tell you the answer.

Minli see’s how discontent her mother is with her family’s financial situations, and decides to find Never-Ending Mountain and ask the Old Man Of The Moon how to change her family’s fortune.  One day, while Minli is supposed to be making dinner Minli packs up her things and starts her long trip.

Read the book to follow Minli’s story! This book blends traditional tales within the story. I really liked how the author introduced characters. I really liked the dragon. I would recommend this book if you are looking for an interesting novel.

 

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind – A Book Review

by Simran Jayasinghe

William Kamkwamba lives in a starving, dry, village in Malawi. Crops fail, food runs out, and electricity is sparse. His family is struggling, unable to adequately provide for 9 people. William and his family have to make sacrifices in order to live.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba

His family go down to having one meal a day, and then down to four handfuls of food a day. William is unable to go on with his schooling due to the fact that his family doesn’t have enough money to pay his school fees.  This is a real let down for William. He loves learning, but suddenly, he can’t. He worries that he won’t be able to be anything other than a poor farmer if he can’t get an education. This is important to him because his biggest fear is being stuck working fields like his father. William and his friend go to the library constantly, learning about different concepts through books. One day, William learns about converting kinetic energy in to electricity and is immediately drawn to the idea of making a windmill. William and his friends work together, collecting scrap metal and other odds and ends to make his windmill. He doesn’t give up, even when everyone he knows says he is crazy to try. Read the book to find out more about his story!

This book is a true story. The main character, and author, went on to study at Regents Language Institute in Cambridge UK, and got accepted to Dartmouth college (from which he graduated in 2014), gave a TED talk appearance, and, eventually, became the author of this book. Even though this is a challenging book, I really enjoyed it. Fiction books are usually what I read more, but I really enjoyed this book even though it was nonfiction. I thought it was interesting to follow the author’s story and I really recommend checking this book out if you get the chance!

The Life of Pi – A Book Review

By Kiran Jayasinghe

The Life of Pi takes us through a young boy’s thoughts as he becomes stranded on the ocean. It’s centered around a boy named Piscine Patel. Piscine (also known as Pi) is intrigued by religion and God and disturbed by his father’s way of taking care of his animals. Pi’s father decides to sell their belongings and move his family to America for a fresh start. Traveling in a Japanese cargo ship alongside several cargo animals, Pi enjoys his first time on a cargo ship, let alone any vessel capable of floating on water.

During the journey, however, Pi’s excitement is drowned as the cargo ship takes on water. The cause is unknown, but the ship sinks,  and Pi is thrown overboard by the crew onto a lifeboat. Pi must leave behind his family, instead accompanied by a hyena, zebra, and a tiger. The story follows Pi for 227 days on the ocean, as he survives with limited food and water. Pi goes blind from the sun, tames a tiger, experiences delirium, meets another stranded sailor, and kills a living animal – a fish – for the first time. As Pi continues to face hardships on the sea, he turns to religion as a source of stability. Pi prays to God to keep himself from going mad, as Pi starts losing hope in finding land.

This work of fiction is definitely worth reading! I was surprised at how unusually normal Pi was, and yet how surreal and impossible the books contents really were. I would rate it a 10/10 because of it’s funny but hopelessly depressing journey. The storyline explores Pi’s mental stability and shows us a hilarious version of events through Pi’s mind.

New England Trip 2018 – Day 10

On the last day of our trip, we woke up at 9:00 for breakfast. Fruit, soda, omelets, eggs, bacon, sausage, and more, awaited us on the buffet counters. We ate and watched the TV, then packed everything into bags, then took them down to the lobby for our final check out.

We decided to keep our bags at the hotel while we took an Uber to Seaport, which is a newer part of Boston. We looked around and found that we could take an Uber to see the U.S.S Constitution, the oldest commissioned US warship.

At the USS Constitution!

On the top deck of the USS Constitution

We spent hours in the museum and exploring the actual ship – which was awesome. After that, we picked up our bags from the hotel and took a shuttle to the airport. At the airport we said our final goodbyes to Boston, waited for an hour, then boarded the plane.

The plane ride was our last few hours of our trip, and chose to spend it watching movies. I watched Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children, and also Doctor Strange. We ate Pick Me Up boxes and drank ginger ale (again). When we landed, we claimed our baggage, took a shuttle to WallyPark, and then, drove home.

New England Trip 2018 – Day 9

by Simran Jayasinghe

We woke up at the Marriott at Copley Place, and packed up our stuff. We checked out of the hotel, but had them hold our bags. Then, we walked our mother to the library. She wisely chose to stay at the cool, air-conditioned library, while Dad, Kiran, Svara, and I walked 2 point something miles in the hot sun on the Freedom Trail. We started at the Visitor Center in the Boston Commons, and our first stop was the Statehouse.

On the Freedom Trail!

We took pictures, and went back on the trail, walking from stop to stop, until we had been stuffed full of history and we all had back pains. We did stop to get ice cream halfway through, and then we went back on the trail. We went on until Paul Revere’s House.
We toured the House and the museum, but chose not to go any farther.

 

 

We didn’t have enough time or willpower to finish it all at once. Then, we went back to the library, to pick up Mom, who had been having a fairly good time. We got snagged on a book until 5:00 when the library closed, then went back to the hotel to collect our luggage. After making sure we had everything, we took a shuttle to the Embassy Suites near the Boston airport. We checked in just in time to drop our bags off at our room and rush down to the lobby for the complimentary evening reception. We happily snacked on celery, cucumbers, chips, goldfish, and more. Later, we went back up to our room where we relaxed until late. Then, we got room service for dinner and promptly fell asleep.

New England Trip 2018 – Day 8

When we woke up today, we did a major unpacking and repacking of our belongings to make sure we hadn’t lost anything. Considering that it was our eighth day of vacationing and our minds and bodies weren’t used to do any work,  it took us about 3 hours. This meant that we had breakfast at 11:00! When we arrived at our hotel room again, our Dad surprised us by telling us his conference ended at 12:00, which meant we had the rest of the day with him.

We decided to use our time taking a tour of Harvard. Our tour guide, Mike, was a student from Harvard and was extremely professional, informative, and hilarious all at the same time.

Posing with John Harvard!

After our tour, we decided to visit Faneuil hall one more time, before we went to our hotel again. We chose to use half an hour to check out the pool, which was huge and it was amazing! We then had room service again, and us three kids got the hotel room to ourselves for two hours while our parents went on their first ‘dinner date’ since the day we came into this world and made their lives miserable!

New England Trip 2018 – Day 7

by Kiran Jayasinghe

Today we woke up at 10:30. You would think this would have us rested and energized and ready to go, right? Wrong. We woke up cranky and sluggish and ready to go – back to bed. Somehow, our mom got us out of the house and into Starbucks for breakfast, where we ate our bacon, egg, and gouda sandwich. By then, we were excited and fueled, so you can imagine the energy we had when we heard we were going to the Boston Public Library.

The first public lending library, the Boston Public Library (BPL) is magnificent in it’s own 17th century way. The BPL has several floors with gigantic rooms filled with books and reading tables. It has it’s own cafe and high tea room. It also has a new, renovated, second wing, complete with modern computer catalogs and reading nooks. We enjoyed time in the BPL’s map room as well.

 

At the Boston Public Library on Copley Place.

After visiting the BPL, we stopped and took an audio tour of Trinity Church, just across the street. We learned so much history about the church, we were happy to donate. After the tour, we took an Uber ride to Faneuil Hall. The environment surrounding it is awesome! People are always giving shows, either singing, drumming, or – performing flips on a pogo stick. The actual hall is filled with tiny shops and boutiques, selling Boston merchandise, keychains, and more! The Quincy market, opposite Faneuil Hall, is filled with dozens of restaurants, selling a variety of foods, from fresh lobster rolls and clam chowder, to amazing cupcakes, gelato, and saltwater taffy and chocolate.

We finished our day by ordering room service. We ordered clam chowder and quesadillas, both of which were wonderful and sent us off to sleep.

New England Trip 2018 – Day 6

by Simran Jayasinghe

Today, our family (minus Dad) headed to Harvard. We had Starbucks for breakfast, again, and then went to Harvard square. There were many shops, including CVS, Cabot’s Candy, SWEET, and J.P. Licks, all of which we visited. We walked around and got Harvard apparel from the Coop Harvard Bookstore. It is worth noting, that it took us some time to find our Harvard shirts. There were 3 or 4 Harvard Bookstores, and it took us some time to find the one that was dedicated to Harvard apparel. After that, we got delicious cupcakes from the Sweet bakery, and took a moment to devour those. Our mother was in the mood to indulge in our ‘needs’, so a short while later, after some more walking, we stopped at J.P. Licks to get what was voted the ‘best homemade ice cream in Boston’. I got a small mint chip ice cream, and I loved it.

Cupcakes at the SWEET bakery!

By the way, they are not skimpy with their sizes, so it is worth the money. After that, we went to Cabot’s Candy store

which was a few shops down, to get sugary souvenirs for our friends back in California. We walked some more around Harvard square, but then we got tired so we went back to the hotel. After relaxing a little bit, we picked up dad after his conference and we all went to dinner with our friend Katie. We went to dinner at a restaurant called Fiore in the North End. I got some tasty ravioli. The food was good, as well as the service, so it was an enjoyable dinner. After dinner, we walked around some, and we went back to our hotel.