Small Things Bright and Beautiful

Sri Lanka

2022-03-17T10:25:00.001-10:00

Notes and observations on our Sri Lanka trip, January 2022

Saturday 12-31-2021 to Sunday 1-1-2022

Start out from Zurich on New Year’s Eve. Airport is quite empty. Qatar Airways flight is maybe half full, we have three seats for the two of us. Nice spacious seats, new plane, good food. Midnight (European time zone) comes and goes but there is no announcement, champagne, or whatever. The plane has left that time zone a while back.

Doha. World’s best airport - in case you didn’t know this fact, there is a giant sign announcing it under an even bigger yellow teddy bear statue. We arrive at 5:00 am Qatar time - airport hotel full, sleeping pods full, everything full. Guess we should have booked in advance. Hard to find even a seat. Airport is very nice and modern with lots of stores but nothing like Singapore Changi, my fave airport. There are lots of people helping all over the place, which is very nice. Food is pricey even for airport standards (think $9 for a slice of cheese pizza). At the end of an almost 5-hour stopover as we are getting ready to board, suddenly everything stops. Flight delayed, lack of crew. It takes four more hours of waiting to get a crew to fly the plane. Most other flights also delayed, too many crew testing positive for Covid. After spending some time acquiring lounge passes (ultimately successful) we don’t have time to enjoy them, as suddenly we are boarding. This one is a full flight. A large number of Russians are on board, who all seem to think mask rules don’t apply to them. A frustrated mom of three from Austria -whose two older kids are wearing masks despite their young age- just shakes her head disbelieving as we lock eyes.

Colombo airport. Through immigration and health check and walking out into the tropical evening. Sri Lanka, a former British colony, is a right hand drive country, and that, in combination with the free-for-all traffic prompted us to engage a driver/ guide for our entire trip. We meet our driver Shehan, a 28-year-old nice young man, right at arrivals. He takes us to the Jetwing Colombo Seven, our hotel for the night. The Jetwing is very nice and modern with large rooms. There is a beautiful rooftop pool and a bar. We check out both, order some room service dinner and then fall asleep quickly, in hopes to recover from the long exhausting journey.

Monday 1-2-2022

The next morning after breakfast we go for a swim in the pool before packing up to start our drive to Dambulla. It is a four hour drive, on two-lane roads that clever Sri Lankan drivers constantly turn into three-lane ones. Cars, trucks, tuk-tuks and motorbikes navigate the road that goes through villages and towns. We see garment stores, car part shops, fruit stands, and drive through a town where everyone seems to sell only cashew nuts.

Sri Lanka is like India in many ways, but there are some marked differences. It is much cleaner here for example. In India we saw piles of trash on the roadside. Sri Lanka it is quite clean. In India I loved watching women ride on the backs of motorbikes, wearing bright, jewel-toned saris. I have seen nothing like that in Sri Lanka during our drive. There are saris here too, mostly made of a patterned fabric not the single bright colors as in India. We spy a few Buddhist temples and even a giant Buddha statue on top of a hill.

In the late afternoon we arrive in Dambulla at the Tropical Life Resort and Spa, our home for the next three nights. The buildings with the rooms are clustered around the main dining building and the pool. The resort is in the middle of the rainforest and when we arrive it is pouring rain. Our room is beautiful and large, with a balcony looking out at the nature reserve area. Bird calls and other animal sounds fill the evening air.

Monday, 1-3-2022

We wake up to some ruckus outside. A group of monkeys are playing on the trees right by our balcony. As I walk out to snap a photo of them they clamber quickly away. Breakfast is a British-Sri Lankan affair with baked beans and tomatoes, omelette, curries and rice. The rain has stopped but the air is heavy with humidity.

Shehan meets us out front and we set off to our first stop, the Dambulla Cave Temples. A long set of stairs, with monkeys huddling on one of the landings, takes us up to the entrance where we drop our shoes off (for a 25 cents minding fee) and proceed barefoot into the temple yard. It is raining and the cobble stones are wet and slippery but we manage. We visit the different cave temples and admire the various sizes of Buddha statues within. There are also painted ceilings as well as murals all over the caves. This is an ancient place of worship: humans have come here for over two thousand years. The rain has stopped, incense scent drifts in the air and a man is banging on a drum by one of the caves. We collect our shoes, politely decline buying anything from the eager vendors, and take a different set of stairs down to where we are to meet our car. We check out the huge golden Buddha statue at the bottom, not nearly as ancient as the ones in the cave temples, having been completed in 2002. Shehan is waiting for us and we set off to our next destination.

As we approach the cultural village tour site, dark clouds start gathering overhead. We transfer from our car to a tuk-tuk, and speed down narrow roads until we stop at a spot and see some oxen. Two of them are tethered to a cart, and we exit the tuk-tuk and clamber up onto the ox-cart. The oxen start pulling amid the encouraging noises of the driver. Left ox seems more lazy than right ox, he gets more encouragement accordingly. We roll past homes set amid fruit orchards, and spy mango, papaya, banana, and other tropical trees. The ox-cart stops at a lake and we transfer onto a double hulled canoe, paddled by a young man. The dark clouds by then look positively menacing. When we reach the middle of the lake the clouds decide to unburden their water weight in a torrential downpour, right onto us perched on the canoe. We try to fend the deluge off with umbrellas but to no avail. By the time we get to our lunch destination, we are thoroughly soaked. Lunch is preceded by a cultural demonstration of palm frond weaving, rice pounding and milling, and coconut opening and grating. The coconut shavings are turned into a wonderful salsa that is part of our lunch. Everything is made with traditional Sri Lankan methods, and the food is delicious. We leave with our bellies full, ready for the main attraction of the day.

This highlight takes place in Hurulu Eco Park, and is a Jeep Safari in search of elephants. While we hope to see a few, maybe a dozen, we are rewarded with way more than that: in the 3.5 hour safari, we encounter some 80+ elephants, moms with babies, lone males, teenagers hanging out together, and several large groups. We observe them eating and wandering, taking a mud-bath and playing in the rain. For most of the safari we are lucky to not get rained on, and ride standing in our open-topped Jeep. It is a thrilling experience. Towards the end the rain starts again and we roll the tarp-top back on, and continue our elephant adventure while peeking out from beneath this roof. Our Jeep driver Sasilu does some extreme off-roading to take us up close to these amazing creatures. I keep snapping photos. Exhausted and happy we meet up with Shehan and head back to the hotel. We stop for a quick purchase of wine and are surprised at how relatively pricey wine is in Sri Lanka. Back at the hotel, after dinner and warm showers we fall asleep dreaming of elephant adventures.

Tuesday, 1-4-2022

We start our day by a challenging climb up to the top of Sigiriya Lion Rock. The elevation change is only 150 meters but it is in a from of sets of almost vertical steps. To view the “rock” we are about to climb we first drive to a viewing spot and admire the unusual geological formation rising above the landscape from afar. Shehan then drops us off at the entrance to this UNESCO World Heritage Site. We start our exploration in the museum and then move on to the hike to the top. Water gardens, low walls and giant boulders are the first things we pass by and when we arrive at the foot of the rock the gentle uphill grade turns into a steep climb. We huff and puff alongside other visitors and then are rewarded with amazing views as we reach the top. An ancient king of Sri Lanka, King Kashyapa decided to build his palace here in 477 A.D. The structures were only used until the end of his reign in 495, but well-preserved ruins remain today, because of the remoteness of the location. We wander around and take lots of photos. Sigiriya Lion Rock is an extraordinary place of beauty. We are luckier with the weather than we were the day before: with clouds masking the blazing sun we are neither drenched with rain nor roast in the heat during our hike. We head down navigating endless narrow steps, and meet up with Shehan.

Next stop is lunch at a local restaurant. The food is delicious and we both opt for a vegan feast. One of the offerings is made of taro, and we both find it much more flavorful than the Hawaiian poi version of the root.

After we polish off a large amount of food we set off for Polonnaruwa, one of the ancient capitals of Sri Lanka. Stray dogs loiter along the road, and we see a few elephant crossing signs. Sri Lanka rivals India in the amount of dogs wandering free. They all seem to be of undetermined ancestry, usually a rust color, varying sizes with perky ears, mostly with short hair and a long tail. The dogs are of a mellow temperament, friendly yet dismissive of humans at the same time. They are fearless nappers: they can fall asleep on the side (and occasionally the middle) of the road, with motorists swerving around them. They seem to be mostly healthy and well-fed. In contrast to them the dogs we see at Polonnaruwa are malnourished and have wounds. We are told with the lack of visitors because of Covid, many dogs in the ancient city have died because of malnutrition. More casualties of the pandemic. Besides the dogs, there are also a lot of monkeys playing on the ruins and I of course stop for some snaps.

Polonnaruwa is a city built and inhabited between the 11th and 13th centuries, and it is very well preserved, because it has been abandoned instead of “renovated”. The jungle took over and reigned supreme, until at the end of the 19th century some British explorers found the ruins. This ancient city is so large that we opt to hire a guide and explore the different sights by car. From our guide we learn not only the history of the city and the kingdom, but also some new facts about Buddhism and Hinduism too. The late afternoon sun accompanies our exploration, and as it is about to set we head for our hotel. It is an hour and a half drive from Polonnaruwa, and we arrive in the dark, tired and happy with an exciting day behind us.

Wednesday, 1-5-2022

The following morning we say goodbye to the Dambulla region and head south towards the city of Kandy. It is a lovely drive. The inland areas of Sri Lanka are lush, dense tropical jungle. Big Island Hilo side feeling, but also reminded me of Borneo. We drive past houses with wraparound porches, hibiscus bushes, bougainvillea, monkey pod and banyan trees, and lots of king coconut palms. Much of life happens along the road. We watch people selling everything from chairs to fresh fruit, people walking along, chatting, or just standing and looking, maybe waiting for someone. Dogs wandering and napping. Everyone wears masks: motorbike and bicycle riders, tuk-tuk drivers, pedestrians. Sri Lankans are very disciplined mask wearers. Tourists wear masks most of the time, except for Russians who almost never do. Even when they are specifically asked like at the Sigiriya Mirror Wall, some of them still don’t comply. We try to give them a wide berth.

We drive through towns with stores crammed next to each other, tuk-tuks and motorcycles navigating around people and roaming dogs. Women in bright dresses, some in saris not lithe and jewel toned like in India, but patterned and of a heavier weave. A lot of the men wear long traditional looking wrap skirts. Women also often wear dresses or jeans but no shorts or miniskirts. We stop at a spice plantation and learn about the many spices which made Ceylon famous. I love plants and am considering trying to grow some of them, like vanilla, in my garden in Hawai’i. Having never considered how black pepper is grown - (Is it a bush? Is it a tree? Is it groundcover? Turns out it is a vine that keeps up trees.) - we marvel at the origins of some of the spices we use daily.

We continue our trip south and reach Kandy shortly after noon. Kandy, the former capital of Ceylon is a large city with lots of traffic. Policemen direct traffic at some intersections- no lights. We see girls and boys on their way home wearing school uniforms. Kandy has many schools not just for locals but also boarding schools for children around the region.

Our first stop is the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. It is an important Buddhist pilgrimage site, as the tooth in question once belonged to Buddha. Like many special objects, the Sacred Tooth had a colorful history, which is displayed on beautifully detailed painted panels in the great hall. It was brought to Sri Lanka by an Indian princess and her husband 1700 years ago, and its guardianship has become the symbol of power on the island. Several kings built various temples to house the relic. The British took possession of it when Ceylon became a colony, and it was finally returned to the people of Sri Lanka in the middle of the 19th century. Since then it has been residing in this temple in Kandy. We visit the temple complex (including the former royal palace which also includes a museum of Buddhism), and watch locals bring lotus and other flower offerings to the relic. It is beautiful.

After lunch and we visit the Royal Botanical Gardens, a tropical yet quintessentially British establishment. Strolling along the manicured flowerbeds we learn the difference between Norfolk and Cook pine trees. Hawai’i friends, you may be interested in the fact that what we call Norfolk pine is often in fact Cook pine.

To end our tour for the day we check out the sunset over the mountains from a viewpoint in the Kandy hills. Our hotel is not far from this spot, and has a gorgeous view of the Temple and Royal Palace across Kandy lake. It is a small eco lodge with maybe 8-10 rooms and great food. We eat an excellent dinner and sip wine looking out at the lake, then retire to our room, which has a large balcony with the same spectacular view.

Thursday 1-6-2022

After a tasty British breakfast we set out on the windy road from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya. Our drive takes us past tea plantations, and through villages with lots of tuk-tuks, small shops and dogs along the road. We hike to Ramboda Falls. Tropical mountain vegetation, large bamboo bushes, lush leafy trees. Very much like a hike in Hawai’i. The path is well maintained with a lot of steps, the hike is not long and the waterfall is beautiful. There are monkeys everywhere, hoping for a treat from the tourists walking by. We climb on some rocks for a few photos and then just sit and watch the waterfalls and the people. There may be about a dozen others at the site.

Back by the car, we see some old women begging along the road. First time seeing this in Sri Lanka. Poverty doesn’t seem to be as widespread here as in India, though we learn that the epidemic was terrible for the local economy, which -much like Hawai’i- relies heavily on tourism. Apparently there are rolling blackouts in several areas of the country as the results of the pandemic.

We continue towards Nuwara Eliya, past pine forests, the road hugging the hillside. Amazing views open up as we climb higher. There are no more rice paddies, only tea is grown up here. We stop at a large tea plantation. On the factory tour we are showed how tea is processed from green fresh leaf to what we know as tea. Up here only black and green tea is grown. They are both made from the same plant, just with different processes. (White tea also grows in Sri Lanka, at lower altitude.) It takes only a day from fresh leaf to finished product, a much faster process than coffee.

We reach the pass to Nuwara Eliya - the elevation here is about 2000m. The weather is much cooler up here and I pull my hoodie out of the luggage. Nuwara Eliya is nicknamed Little England because it was settled and developed by colonial tea plantation owners. Nestled among the tallest peaks of Sri Lanka (highest point is 2500 m), colonial era bungalows dot the hillsides. “The Rotary Club welcomes you” says the sign on the outskirts of town. There is a horse racing track - no races now, the season is March-April, at this time of year it only offers horseback riding to visitors.

We walk around the lovely Victoria Park and along Lake Gregory, enjoying the cool breezes and upcountry scenery. It is a very different Sri Lanka up here, but no less beautiful. We stay for the night in a large hotel, a departure from the small lodges. Our room is huge, on the 6th floor, and has a beautiful view of the landscape. As we look out, a bright rainbow appears in the sky.

Friday, 1-7-2022

After a leisurely breakfast we set out to explore more of Nuwara Eliya. Per my friend Shiyana’s suggestion, we walk to the Grand Hotel and the Hill Club. Shiyana used to spend summers here as a child. The Grand Hotel is a beautiful colonial era building and we check out the photos of famous people who had stayed here. First in the line is Queen Elizabeth, who visited in 1954 when she was also Queen of Ceylon. I somehow overlooked this hotel when I booked our accommodations. Now I wish I hadn’t. Oh well, there is always next time. Next door we check out the Hill Club and a golf course with lovely mature trees. We walk along the path and then up the hill back to our hotel for a swim.

Early in the afternoon we take the train from Nuwara Eliya to Ella. It is one of the most scenic train rides in the world. Our driver Shehan drops us off at the station. He needs to hustle, since the drive to Ella is 2.5 hours where the train only takes two.

Train is an hour late. We ain’t in Switzerland any more, Toto. Guess Shehan will even get to take a nap in Ella. It finally arrives and we get on board. The ride itself is spectacular, the track mostly following the ridge. Dense rainforest, tea plantations, lots of eucalyptus trees. A group of otherwise cute kids on the train scream at the top of their lungs every time we go through a tunnel. There are a fair number of tunnels. Some of the kids (I have seen this elsewhere too) are wearing thick winter hats - we have no clue why. Otherwise mask-wearing Sri Lankans seem to forget doing so on the train - luckily, all the windows are open. Catering guy walks up and down the length of the train singing in Sinhalese the name of whatever food or drink (tea) he is offering.

The train stops in small villages, occasionally in a town, sometimes at a station seemingly in the middle of nowhere in the jungle. We get to Ella just as the sun sets. Shehan is waiting for us. Ella is a hopping little party town with a fun vibe. We check into our hotel, the Ella Heritage, and then take a walk around town and find a gallery that sells prints of vintage travel posters. My kind of souvenir. We pick up two that both say Ceylon. Back at the hotel restaurant we order Kottu Roti for dinner, a yummy Sri Lankan dish of diced roti stir fried with onions and vegetables, spices and the optional meat. We have had this dish a few times and it is delicious. It is quite a climb to reach our room, (we dub it mini-Sigiriya Rock) but the view of Ella Mountain is worth ascending the many steps.

Saturday 1-8-2022

Exploring the Ella region, we hike to and then watch the train cross Nine Arch Bridge. Surrounded by lush rainforest this colonial era viaduct is a must see in the area. To get to the hike we take a tuk-tuk for some off-roading. We could technically walk from the road, however, our time is constrained and taking a tuk-tuk there and back saves us an hour. There are a fair number of other visitors (Sri Lankan and foreign alike) who also came to see the 9:20 a.m. train pass over the viaduct. The train is indeed on time and we snap shots as it enters the bridge, riders hanging out of its doors looking at the scenery or posing for a shot.

Next we climb Little Adam’s Peak for some spectacular views. The hike is a little over an hour with some decent elevation change (230m up). The landscape, as the vegetation, remind me of Hawai’i. So does the weather. It is warmer here than Nuwara Eliya, but still quite a bit cooler than along the coast. There is a Buddha statue on the top as well as some vendors selling fresh coconuts to drink from. The views are incredible.

Back at our hotel we shower, pack up, and say goodbye to the mountains of Sri Lanka. On our way down we stop at Rawana Falls. A beautiful but (because it is right on the road) very touristy place. Vendors peddle their wares. The monkeys begging for scraps are pretty happy here: lots of opportunities for them to score some food.

Continuing our drive, the road winds down towards the flatlands. There are lots of fruit stands on the roadside, selling mostly coconuts, bananas and papayas, but also occasionally oranges or mangos. We take a side road to view some ancient Buddha statues carved into the hillside. This spot is relatively unknown, even our driver has not been here before. It really is just the three of us in the whole place plus one family of Sri Lankans. The site is called Buduruwagala (don’t you just love these long names?) and there are seven large statues carved into the rock surface. They date back to the 7th-8th century B.C.

As we continue towards Yala, I spy lots of shallow clay pots stacked on stands by the road. Shehan tells us they contain curd. He also regales us how the area is also known for illegal marijuana growing, and tells us of the airport built here and then abandoned because all the birds in the area posed a risk to aircraft.

Further along there are a group of water buffalo on the road and a few minutes later we encounter a herd of cows. Cows here roam free just like in India, but there are a lot less of them, and they are in the countryside and not inside the cities. In India we saw cows roaming free even in the middle of large cities like Delhi.

Our hotel for the night is the Shangri-Lanka Resort. It is a tiny (just three private bungalows) but lovely resort, with a main building that has dining, and a huge garden with a large pool. We go for a swim and make friends with a puppy named Lucky. We order our dinner for 7:00 - we need to wake up early tomorrow. It is just the two of us there for dinner, making it feel like a special date. We sip wine and listen to the sounds of wildlife around the lodge.

Sunday 1-9-2022

Wake up today is at 5:00 a.m. for an early morning game drive. Our safari driver meets us in front of the hotel. We were supposed to get a picnic breakfast which is nowhere to be found, so we set out without it. Two Russian dudes (no masks of course) are already in the back of the jeep which is a less than ideal scenario. Our last Safari was private, this one apparently we have to share. Yala safari vehicles have 6-7 seats in an open-air cab perched atop the truck bed, with fixed roofs. There are rolled up tarps alongside the roof to let down as a shield against the elements. Our truck has three seats behind each other on either side, with space in the middle to pass. At the back is a door along with a short ladder. We board and pick the two seats in the back, distancing ourselves from the Russians with no masks.

The ride from the hotel to the park is 45 minutes. At the park entrance we pick up one more passenger, a local wildlife guide. He sits down in the middle row. There are a large number of trucks just like ours around with tourists, most do not have guides of board though. We set out to find some wildlife. In the proceeding four hours we drive down bumpy red dirt roads, cross patches of water and weave through bushes in search of animals. Despite the massive number of trucks swarming around the park, we do find a lot: water buffalo lounging in ponds, spotted deer, foxes, crocodiles, boars, a few elephants, one of them causing havoc by jogging after trucks on the road. Mad scramble ensues as jeeps scatter and speed away from the tusker both forwards and in reverse. We see wild buffalo and a large monitor lizard, lots of birds: peacocks preening with their tails fanned out, small but colorful bee eaters, Sri Lankan eagles and hawk eagles atop trees, storks, hornbills. But we came here to see leopards, and they prove to be elusive and do not show themselves. There are about 25 of them throughout Yala National Park, and our guide tells us they are easier to spot in the dry season when they go to the ponds to drink. It is a bummer, but we still feel we got to see a lot on our safari.

We get dropped off back at our hotel and partake in a very late but plentiful breakfast. Shehan arrives to take us to our next stop: the Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home. This facility, located next to Udawalawe National Park, cares for orphaned elephant calves and prepares them for release in the wild. It is one of two such facilities in Sri Lanka.

We arrive not long before the elephant calves are to be fed. There are about sixty of them, ranging from a few months old up to five years. When the feeding begins the young elephants are let into the feeding area in groups of three. Their excitement is palpable and contagious. We watch with awe as they make a beeline to the milk station where they are fed through a large tube with a funnel on the end. The caretakers mix powdered milk with water for them. It is such joy to see the excited calves run towards the milk station. Have you ever seen a baby elephant run? They take fast long strides, nothing like the canter of other animals. After they get their allotment of milk they move on the the solid food area where there is some sort of grain mixture in two large tubs as well as a bunch of sugarcane. They crowd around the tubs and reach in with their trunks. New groups are released into the feeding area three by three until all of them are there chomping happily on sugarcane.

After the feeding is over and the last reluctant calf is ushered out of the area we walk through the information exhibit where we learn a lot about the center as well as many cool facts about elephants. A wonderful experience through and through.

We proceed to the town of Galle on the southern shore of the island where our next hotel is located within the fortification of the old Dutch fort. The Bartizan is a beautiful small boutique hotel and we are here for two nights. The first night we spend in a small (somewhat cell-like yet sumptuous at the same time) room as the hotel is full, the next night we manage to upgrade to a large sea view room which is huge and beautiful. After checking in we roam around the fort in search of dinner (ultimately settle on pizza) and check out some shops too.

Monday, 1-10-2022

Fantastic eggs Benedict for breakfast at the Bartizan. We have a full day to explore Galle and surroundings, and we ask Shehan to take us to see some of the traditional stilt fishermen that the area is famous for. In olden days these men made their living by fishing perched on tall poles in the ocean. These days they hang out in the shade waiting for tourists to arrive and then dress up and climb atop the poles for photos. We giggle as we watch them get ready and then go out to “perform” for us. Emboldened by their friendliness we also climb up on poles and pretend fish. The fishermen do actually catch a couple of small fish and we are handed the poles with the fish on them to make it look like we caught them. In parting we take a few group photos on the beach and say aloha to the men. Best $10 ever spent, we had so much fun with them.

Next we explore some beautiful beaches and take a swim in the warm Indian Ocean. The water temperature is similar to, or maybe even slightly warmer than in Hawai’i. We relax on the beach and take in our surroundings. It is heaven. Sadly, soon we have to proceed to a laboratory for our PCR tests for our trip home.

Back at our hotel we move into the large room. It is four times the size of the old one. Definitely worth the additional $$. At sunset we walk around the ramparts and check out the lighthouse. We have sunset cocktails and a lovely dinner at an oceanfront restaurant called A Minute By Tuk-tuk. We sit gazing out at the ocean as colorful wooden fishing boats head out to sea for the evening catch. A special experience.

After dinner we wander the streets within the old fort, and do a little souvenir shopping. It is still very hot, even though the sun has set a while ago. Dogs lie asleep on the doorsteps of stores. In one establishment I count five sleeping dogs.

Tuesday 1-11-2022

After a leisurely breakfast (Eggs Benedict for me again!) we take a last walk around Galle Fort, buy some tea and then check out the clock tower and some of the fortifications on the other side of the fort. Shehan picks us up and we say goodbye to The Bartizan and head for a turtle hatchery and rehabilitation site.

Injured or sick turtles are brought in here by fishermen who get paid for delivering them so they aren’t sold for food/their shells. They get veterinary care and are nursed back to health, then are released to the ocean. Most common issues encountered are plastic in stomach (they become so buoyant that they can’t dive and feed any more), missing limbs because of fishing nets, injuries by fishing hooks. Turtles with missing limbs can get artificial limbs fitted. Ones with plastic in the stomach get either surgery or are treated with medication that helps them expel it. We get to meet some of these patients and also to hold some baby turtles that have been born the day before and are set to be released at sunset. Seeing all these beautiful creatures suffer from plastic pollution and injuries drives home the point of keeping our oceans and beaches clean and cutting down on single use plastics. The center is funded by visitor tickets and donations and just like at the elephant orphanage, we make a donation before we leave.

Our last stop on the tour is the modern-day capital of Sri Lanka, Colombo. It is a large city with all the traffic and noise that large cities come with. We see beautiful colonial mansions, run-down shacks, and modern buildings all next to one another. Some vehicles spew out black smoke. We have noticed this around the country. Shehan explains that some places mix stuff in the fuel to make it cheaper. It is bad for the environment and illegal too, yet seems to be a widespread problem. Traffic is crazy as ever in Colombo and we are grateful for having a driver. We visit a Buddhist temple complex and a national memorial site. It is crazy hot in the city, and we don’t feel like lingering for long at either spot.

After picking up some dinner we go to our hotel for our last night in Sri Lanka. The Green Olive Villa is close to the airport and offers free drop off which we will need at 2:00 a.m. We say goodbye to Shehan and eat our dinner on the porch overlooking the pool, as the sun sets on our final day in Sri Lanka.

Wednesday, 1-12-2022

Our flight to Doha is on time and after going through three airport screening checkpoints we board the Qatar Airways flight. In Doha we just have enough time to transfer planes and we are off to Zurich. Arrive a little after noon to cold, but sunny skies.

Room with a View

2019-03-12T10:35:00.000-10:00

It seems like forever since I last did a blog post. A lot has happened. We moved from Hawaii to Switzerland, and I spend even more time traveling than before. We have also just finished this project, a small studio apartment for a lucky girl in her first year of studying veterinary medicine. This place may be small, but it works well for a college student, and has killer city views.

Mothers' Day

2017-05-13T20:05:00.001-10:00

The story I share with you today begins about 15 years ago. I was at a party at a Hungarian friend's house. Living so far from home, one gets to appreciate the chance to relax and chat away in the old mother tongue. I call it switching my brain off. As a plus, there is always awesome Hungarian food to gorge on too!

One-day-old Dominic and me in 2004. Photo by Andi Lilikoi Gaspar

This particular event was a Hungarian women's get together and at some point during the course of the evening one of the ladies, named Marta, asked me what the best thing I had ever done in my life was. At that point in my life I was already married, had two kids, a master's degree, had travelled extensively, as well as lived and worked in several countries. Still, without hesitation, I replied: my children. Marta just nodded at my response and then we chatted about other stuff and I soon forgot about the exchange. Most likely, I proceeded to stuff myself with Hungarian food and then passed out as soon as I got home.

Fast forward a few years to some time around 2005, a year after my third child was born. At another Hungarian party (this one was in celebration of a national holiday), Marta, who herself became a mother maybe two years prior, and was chasing her little daughter around the people gathered, walked up to me and reminded me of the exchange we shared three years prior. Our conversation this time went something like this:

Marta: "Hey Zsuzsa, I need to ask for your forgiveness."
Me: "Sure, Marta, but what for?"
Marta: "Remember when a few years ago at Sylvia's party I asked you what the best thing was that you had ever done in your life and you replied it was your children."
Me: "Yeah, I remember."
Marta: "Well, I have to make a confession: at the time you said that, I was thinking to myself, 'Wow, Zsuzsa really hasn't done much in her life', and I actually pitied you. Poor thing, what an uneventful life she must have lead that having kids is the highlight. But of course this happened before I had my daughter. Now, that I am a mother myself, I finally understand what you had said then, and I wholeheartedly agree with you."

I was of course surprised that Marta pitied me for my lack of fun experiences in life, after all, I think I had (and still have) a pretty great life. But I also very touched by her honesty and that she took the time to remind me of the conversation. We both had a good laugh.

Marta had a second child, a little boy about a year later and is now a mom of two. I have not seen her in years, as somehow she lost touch with many of us Hungarian girls, but whenever I ponder motherhood and all that it has brought into my life I remember her and this story. Marta, if you happen to read this, thank you.

All-Dessert Party!

2017-03-14T18:53:00.001-10:00

Are you a dessert enthusiast? If you said yes, it is not surprising - most people are. Take my friend Melanie for example: she not only excels at consuming desserts, but is also a talented baker. In fact, she spends her birthday month baking a different delicacy almost every night. Luckily for her, none of the calorie laden sweetness seem to affect her figure.

As for yours truly, to say I am not a baker is an understatement. My attempts at birthday cake baking when my kids were little were pathetic at best, and as a result, we now buy professionally made confections for birthday festivities. As much as I enjoy cooking, there is something about desserts that I am just not cut out for.

But this is a post about Melanie so I better get back to it. As her birthday approached (this was a few months ago, but hey, better late then never when it comes to reporting on it) I wanted to throw her a party that reflected her love for desserts. a small group of friends were invited for an afternoon affair outside in the garden. It was an all ladies event, because it somehow seemed right for a party with only sweets and champagne.

In the invitation the attendees (except for the birthday girl of course) were asked to bring a dessert. I set a table out on the lawn and arranged all the sweets and the champagne glasses on it. We sat under the tree, wiped champagne and sampled all the delicacies. It was a fun afternoon!

Waikiki Reshuffle

2017-03-07T12:11:00.002-10:00

Last year I worked on a lovely penthouse apartment in Honolulu that somehow I never got to blog about. (Maybe one day I will...) Then in January I got to do another penthouse, this time in Waikiki. The view is just gorgeous! There was a lot of furniture in the apartment, and after removing some, we reshuffled the remainder and added some accents. The blue pillows really pulled the space together and added to the relaxing atmosphere. It all helps in getting people to sit, chill and enjoy the most important feature of this great property: the view.

Photos are courtesy of Debbie Schatz.

Hillside Retreat

2016-09-26T10:09:00.000-10:00

Another project I worked on this spring was this lovely home situated on a hillside in Kailua. It is a short walk from the beach and has three bedrooms, two baths, a large lanai overlooking the landscaped garden and saltwater pool.

We helped the homeowner upgrade the paint, flooring and some of the fixtures, so the house looked its best. It sold right away, and since then the new owners have already moved in.

Beach Cottage Charm

2016-09-21T13:04:00.003-10:00

I am finally back to the world of blogging and would like to share with you some of the projects I have worked on in the past six months. Eventually, if I get my act together, I may also write some posts about travel and design. First up, let's take a look at a cute beach cottage I staged back in April.

The house belonged to friends who have great taste, and it was a delight to work on. The couple was committed to presenting the property in an immaculate condition and meticulously fixed the few small issues that we found. To freshen up the space, we switched out some light fixtures and art, edited the furniture and added some finishing touches. The house looked great and ready to go on the market.

Of course the property sold right away. Al that we left of the project are the photos and the memories... :-)

Oh Those Lanikai Views...

2016-02-16T12:48:00.001-10:00

Early in January I worked on this property in Lanikai. The house is built high on the hillside, and this is what you see from the front porch:

Not bad, huh? I tried not to get distracted by this beautiful view.

It is a three bedroom, four bath kama'aina estate, offered for $2.9 million. Don't have that kid of money? You can still come along with me for the tour below.

I could have breakfast at this outdoor table just off the kitchen any day really.

Or hang out in the afternoon with a good book on the front porch. Sliding pocket doors open the living room to the outside.

There is a terrace in the back, and steps lead to the small house in the garden that would make a perfect yoga/ meditation room. Or an office, depending on what your priorities may be.

The kitchen is awesome! It was a joy to stage. Clean lines, white cabinets, warm wood floor. The only color I wanted to introduce here was green, which goes lovely with the blue-grey of the countertops.

The aforementioned breakfast area is just outside the sliding doors.

There is a small bar opposite the gas cooktop, perfect for someone to keep the cook company while dinner is prepared, or for a child (or two) to do homework. Yes, I went with the friend keeping company route with my staging.

The meditation room in the back garden.

The spa-like master bath has the same grey-blue color scheme as the kitchen.

The master bedroom boasts incredible views also. Imagine waking up to the sun rise over the Mokolua islands just out your window.

This was a fun project for me, despite having to lug furniture up the steps. I am sure this house will make its new owners very happy. If you are interested, contact Anne Oliver at Coldwell Banker Honolulu.

Many thanks to Anne for providing me with these beautiful photos taken by Andy Landgraf of 360 Property Videos.

A Clean and Inviting Island Home

2015-09-09T17:00:00.001-10:00

After months of silence, I am back on the blog. Lots had happened in the past few months. My oldest son graduated from high school. We spent two months traveling in the summer (possibly topics for future posts). We also have been quite busy with a little project in the past six months: we bought a house and renovated it from head to toe.

The property is located in beautiful Kailua, my home town, and when we bought it together with my friend Debbie and her husband Brian, it was in less then perfect shape. In fact, I called it "the icky house". It was in dire need of help. After six months of renovations, the house is all done, and looks perfect, inside and out.

The inspiration for the house was a clean and neutral beach look, with driftwood colored floors, grey tiles and creamy white walls (Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee).

In the center of the home is the brand new kitchen. Its layout was completely rearranged, walls got knocked down and we created a large island.

We chose a light color palette for the kitchen and baths, with custom grey cabinets (Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter) with white speckled quartz countertops. Stainless steel appliances finish the look.

To the left of the refrigerator and pull out pantry shelves is a desk area created with the same quartz as the kitchen countertops.

To the right of the entrance from the garage, there is a small mudroom and a laundry room, and to the left is the kitchen. The main entry to the home is on the right side of the photo above.

Delta Cassidy faucets and accessories were used in the kitchen and the baths.

White subway tile, custom grey cabinets, quartz countertops and Delta faucets in both bathrooms. The house had 1.5 baths originally, we upgraded it to two full baths.

Grey slate in the entryway.

The complete renovation of the property included full landscaping. We added tropical plants, including banana trees, regraded the back yard and installed a lawn. I am happy to say we managed to stay in budget and finished only a few days after the projected finish date. Overall, it was a great experience.

A Beautiful Vancouver Home

2015-03-30T12:36:00.000-10:00

After what seems like ages, I am back with a post on my friend Annekatrin's house. If you are a faithful reader of this blog (hi mom!), you may remember that my youngest son and I visited Vancouver, BC in October to check out fall leaves and spend some quality time with our friends who live there. They have recently renovated their home and below are some pictures of the results. They worked with an architect and an interior designer, and the final product is stylish and welcoming. But let the photos, taken by the design firm, speak for themselves. Lovely, isn't it?

A mosaic tile focal point in the French country kitchen

The old modern kitchen was torn out, replaced by this stunner in white

Skylights bring in much needed light on gloomy Vancouver afternoons

Next to the eat-in counter French doors open to the deck and garden

The dining room has a fabulous chandelier and a custom built-in cabinet along the wall

The entry area

The bay window in the living room provides a cozy nook for reading

The master bedroom is an oasis of calm in greys, beiges and blues

The master bath

My Goddaughter, Kati's room got a makeover in lilac

The powder room on the main floor - check out that sink!

The laundry room

A Foodie Tour of Upcountry Maui

2015-03-15T17:00:00.000-10:00

On Valentine's Day weekend, which coincided with President's Day weekend and thus was one of those wonderful three-day affairs, we flew over to Maui for some quality relaxation. For those of you not from Hawaii, Maui is about a 30 minute airplane ride from Honolulu. And that includes taxiing. Flight takes off, you get a tropical juice drink, you have five minutes to drink it, flight lands. Just my kind of travel.

View from our room at the Grand Wailea

So off to Maui we traveled, to the very posh Grand Wailea Hotel. That place should probably have its own post, however, I am going to forgo telling you about all the water slides, pools, gilded statues and such, because as the title reflects, on the second day of our mini vacation we went on a foodie tour. While there may be foodie tours that one books with a travel agent, this particular tour was organized just for us, and as such it is not commercially available. However, you can visit all the places we went to so this tour is very easy to duplicate.

The tower above the building is where the alcohol gets distilled.

Our first stop was at Ocean Vodka. This brand new facility is located on the slopes of Haleakala, and they distill not only vodka but also rum from sugarcane. Not being much of a hard liquor drinker, I never pondered where vodka comes from. Having done the 30 minute tour at Ocean Vodka, I now know quite a bit about it.

The bottling room/ different types of sugar cane to taste/ the bottle was designed to resemble an old Japanese glass float

Ocean Vodka makes all their alcohol from sugarcane. While rum is traditionally a sugarcane based drink, vodka can be distilled from many sources (basically anything that contains sugar or starch, such as grains or potatoes), the only requirement being purity. To put it simply, if you distill any alcohol long enough you get vodka. In fact, what you get is much stronger than vodka. The master distiller then takes this supercharged alcohol (think 80+%) and dilutes it into a drinkable strength. At Ocean Vodka they use desalinated deep-sea water for this dilution. The very same deep sea water apparently sells for over $20.00 a bottle in Japan. No flavoring, no alcohol, just the bottled water. At the end of our distillery tour we got to taste not only the vodka and rum, but also the expensive water. I swished it around and announced in my best wine connoisseur voice: "Smooth". Can't say it tasted all that different from the $1.00 bottled water.

The tour was fun and informative, and definitely the earliest in a day I have ever consumed vodka (even in a minute quantity such as this was). We also got to see the twenty or so varieties of sugar cane they have on the plantation - I was previously not aware of the diversity of sugar cane plants. The place also had lovely views of West Maui, which we got to enjoy as it was an exceptionally clear day.

Kids waiting to be fed/ the entrance/ the milking line

After Ocean Vodka, we made our way to Surfing Goat Dairy to taste some yummy goat cheese and learn about its production. We took a guided tour and learnt about goats and milking, and after the tour we tasted all the varieties of goat cheese they make there. Definitely the highlight of the goat farm tour. I loved the many different flavors.

Having said goodbye to the goats, we then made our way to Ulupalaka Winery. Most people think Hawaii's climate is too warm to cultivate grapes and produce wine; the slopes of Haleakala, however, are cool enough that vineyards can be planted here. With that said, the Napa valley or Bordeaux winemakers have no need to worry, Maui wine will not take over the world. The winery offers fee tastings and the staff is very nice and knowledgeable. We bought a couple of bottles of the white to take back to Oahu as gifts.

Ulupalaka Winery is housed on a historic ranch and besides the tasting room and garden, across the street there is a farm to table ranch store, selling tasty lunches with locally sourced vegetables and meat. After our wine tasting we had some elk burgers, lamb burgers and pulled pork sandwiches, all farm raised meat. Consumed at a picnic table in the shade of some century old trees in the winery garden, with sprawling views of the Pacific.

French lavender/ fields of lavender/ lavender products

With our tummies full, we went in search of dessert, and found it at Ali'i Kula Lavender, a lavender farm -you guessed it- on the slopes of Haleakala. What can I say, Haleakala is very large, and this was an upcountry foodie tour after all. To give our bodies a bit of time to digest lunch, we went on a guided walking tour of the farm first. Here we learned (amongst other things) about the differences between Spanish, English and French lavender. Ali'i Kula Lavender grows all three varieties, some of those making their way into soaps, lotions, jams, tea or scones.

Besides lavender, the garden is home to a variety of plants /a friendly Jackson chameleon

Lavender scones with lilikoi lavender jelly is what we had for dessert, out on the deck of the little store there, again with amazing views of West Maui and the islands of Lanai and Molokai beyond.

Top of Haleakala: if the moon had roads it would probably look like this/ silversword/ nene goose

Since we had no more capacity to consume anything, be it liquid or solid nourishment, as the final stop of the tour, our lovely guides drove us up to the summit of Haleakala, to watch the sunset. We came well prepared for this viewing event, and brought our ski jackets with us. Even bundled up in those we were chilled to the bone by the time the sun graciously decided to set. Of course the beauty of the scenery made up for the cold. As luck would have it, on our way up the volcano, when we stopped at the visitor's center, an endangered nene goose flew over and landed right next to us. With this happy event within a few yards of each other we were lucky enough to see the two endangered species symbols of Haleakala: the silver sword plant and the nene.

As we descended the volcano in the darkening sky, we got to reflect on our foodie day. It was time indeed well spent: we learnt things we did not know before, tasted flavors we have not tried before and capped the day with the beautiful sunset. We are thankful to our gracious hosts and guides: Pauline and Nicholas for a lovely day on the slopes of Haleakala.

Crystal Beauty

2015-02-26T08:17:00.000-10:00

I have a confession to make: I am obsessed with giant crystal chandeliers. No, I don't own any. I also don't own a mansion or palace. Which is exactly where these beauties belong. Or in a theater - and that is where I found the specimen below. It hangs in the Baroque Theatre in the royal palace in Gödöllő, Hungary. The theater was recently restored (one of only two existing baroque theaters in the world) during the latest phase of the palace reconstruction.

Isn't this chandelier gorgeous?

If you want to see it in real life, you can find information about the royal palace here. By the way, this is not the only beautiful chandelier on the premises.

The palace hosted a variety of advent programs throughout the month of December. Would love to go take part... I only got to visit in the summertime, but it certainly looks magical in the snow. Visitors can attend programs throughout the year, concerts, plays and festivities.

Finally, here is a photo I found on the royal palace's web page (see link above) that shows the theater with chandelier. Yes, that do stage plays here. Check out the palace's programs page for 2015 and you may get to sit on one of those red velvet chairs.

A Charming Castle Hotel in Central Wales: Craig-Y-Nos Castle

2015-02-03T08:30:00.000-10:00

Last summer on our tour of United Kingdom and Ireland we stopped at this lovely castle hotel, situated in central Wales, in the Upper Swansea Valley in Powys. Craig-Y-Nos ("Rock of the Night") was built between 1840 and 1843 in neo-gothic style.

After its completion and a few decades of adventurous history, the property was sold to the famous opera singer Adelina Patti. Madame Patti was the most celebrated soprano of her day, who could count Queen Victoria, Tzar Alexander II of Russia and Franz Joseph of Austria among her fans. She fell in love with the castle's romantic setting and architecture. I suppose playing all those opera heroines had to be an influence on her decision. Thus began the golden years of Craig-Y-Nos, with parties, events and famous visitors including several European princes as well as the future King Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales.

Adelina, who holds the distinction of being the highest paid performer ever known, happily sank a fortune into the refurbishing of the castle. She built a train station close by so she and her quests could arrive from London in style on private train. She also added a theatre to the property where she would stage operas and sing to her guests. Other changes included the building of the clock tower, conservatory and a beautiful winter garden.

The famous singer lived at her beloved castle (leaving only on occasional tours to sing around the world) until her death in 1919. The property became a hospital soon after that, and functioned as such until 1986. The years have not been kind to the buildings and by the time the hospital vacated the grounds the place was in dire need of repair. Several private owners followed, each taking on various restoration projects. Today the once magnificent castle is slowly being returned how it looked in its glory days.

Currently the castle houses bed and breakfast type accommodations. We stayed in one of the side buildings in a family suite with a living room below and two bedrooms above, and a tiny bathroom. If you prefer to have five-star splendor Craig-Y-Nos castle is not the place for you. If may be in the years to come, as the owners keep renovating and upgrading the place. What it is right now is a charming rustic old castle in an idyllic setting with some nice large common areas.

The rooms come with breakfast and the friendly staff is always available for a tour of the public areas of the building. On our tour we got to visit the beautifully restored theatre which today again hosts opera performances, and learnt about the history of the property and about Adelina Patti.

As charming as Craig-Y-Nos castle is, its surroundings, the garden, park and woods and even more lovely. Located in the Brecon Deacons National Park it is a popular area for hiking. We walked along the creek flowing at the bottom of the park, explored the meadows, woods and found a small lake too.

There are stables across the street for those who like horseback riding, and the Dan-Yr-Ogof Showcaves are just up the road. We have visited those also and I may do a post on them later.

The theatre can seat 150 people

If you find yourself in Central Wales, I recommend you pop in -or stay a night- at this romantic castle. As the renovations proceed to beautify the property, I am sure more and more people will learn of its existence and accordingly the price of stay will increase. For travelers of today, however, it is still a charming and bit crumbling estate definitely worth a weekend.

For more information check out the history of Powys as well as the Craig-Y-Nos castle website.

A Perfect Little Japanese Garden in Kailua

2015-01-24T15:32:00.000-10:00

One of my favorite things about working with real estate is the ability to check out properties. I get to see it all, the great, the good, the bad and the ugly. This past Thursday was an especially lucky day to check out the offerings on the Windward side of Oahu: the first place we visited had this lovely garden as a surprise. The house itself was also very nice, but the garden was simply perfect.

Situated in the Bluffs neighborhood of Kailua, this small garden makes the most of its location and views. With water features, a rock garden, little benches and a nice large seating area by the lawn, it is a relaxing space you wouldn't want to leave.

A lava rock path ends at a small bamboo bench

The seating area looks comfy

Water lilies in pots, mondo grass and trumpet flowers

A white bird of paradise flower (bottom right)

Views of Mount Olomana over the hedge

Yup, this garden is so zen, I could just curl up on that sofa with a drink and a good book and while away the hours...

Lava rock bench at the edge of the garden

The front of the property definitely got curb appeal!

This perfect little retreat, along with the three bedroom two and a half bath house could be yours for just under $1.2 million. Better yet, use the pictures as inspiration for creating your own Japanese style garden!

Help Me Pick Out Wall Mural for Budapest Apartment

2015-01-21T11:01:00.000-10:00

About a year an a half ago I wrote a series about the remodeling of our small apartment in Budapest (you can find the before here and the after here). However, even though the apartment is practically done, a few finishing touches remain. There is a wall in the bedroom where I have been thinking of putting a mural.

The wall I am talking about is the far wall that is opposite the bedroom window, not the one the bed is against. Another future project will be a headboard for the bed and that will take care of that wall.

Below is another view of the blank wall between the built-in closet and the bed. The wall begs for some adornment. After pondering the dilemma for a while, I decided to do a picture mural. You may shake your head and think "Picture murals are so 1970s". Well, too bad. Everything old is new again and even if it makes me unfashionable I am set on putting a picture mural up on that large blank wall.

And this is where I am asking for your input. I found a web site that turns photographs into murals. It is an awesome site with probably millions of photos to choose from. My idea is to use an architectural photo of a Budapest landmark, preferable in black and white, or very little color. Below are some of the images I found. Which one should I put on the wall?

1. Liberty Bridge

2. Parliament Building detail

3. Fishermen's Bastion

4. Foggy Budapest

5. Castle Hill Stairs

6. Parliament Building

7. Royal Palace

These seven photos are all great candidates. Which one is your favorite? If you click on the links below each photo, it will take you to the mural web site where you can see the picture on a wall of a room. The wall is almost a perfect square: 2.4 meters wide and 2.38 meters tall. Thanks for your help!

Which mural would look best on the wall of the apartment?

"Excuse Me, Is That a Dead Body Floating in the Pool?" - A Great Gatsby-Style New Year's Eve Murder Mystery Party

2015-01-18T13:48:00.000-10:00

My friends and I really like getting together and having a party. We are not the going-out-clubbing-until-dawn types, rather the throwing-a-fabulous-soiree kind. And the perfect occasion to have fun is New Year's Eve. This has been a tradition in the making: for the last few years, we have put together an elaborate event for this special last night of the year. One year we had a group cooking contest, another time an Amazing Race style dash around Kailua town. Last year we did a progressive dinner where we the party migrated between four different homes.

The roaring 20s have come back to Kailua

If you follow this blog, you might have read about the Downton Abbey themed murder mystery dinner we did about a year and a half ago (you can read about it here). We had so much fun at that dinner, it was time to do another one! First on the list: pick out a script. I went to Shot In The Dark Mysteries, the premier murder mystery portal, and looked at all the different offerings they have. We knew we wanted a dressy costume party (it is NYE after all), and ended up picking "The Sly Mr Foxx", a roaring 20s flapper mystery - a'la The Great Gatsby.

The tables are set for dinner, the scene is set for murder!

Next on the to do list was to determine the exact head count. In order to be able to distribute roles in the mystery, we needed RSVPs confirming the number of ladies and gents attending. We had 22 confirmed guests (everyone was excited to come!), so we got the package with the maximum number of characters - 18 - plus an expansion pack of two more. Our hosts, Kathy and Keith graciously decided to forgo having roles, and spent their energies making sure all guests were happy while also taking part in solving the mystery.

Two weeks before the party, each attendee received an email with his or her character. It included background information, tips on what to wear and how to act, and blueprints of Land's End, Mr. Foxx's lavish mansion. Leigh Clements, AKA the "Mystery Maiden" over at Shot In The Dark Mysteries gives wonderfully detailed instructions not only for the hosts of the party, but for each guest attending. Steve and I practiced our characters on a plane ride home. To give you a little sampler of the mystery, here is the trailer to "The Sly Mr. Foxx".

Party like it's 1925!

Because of the numerous guests needed to be seated, we decided to rent tables and chairs, as well as place settings. The pretty white floral centerpieces were brought by my friend Jodi - the cute blonde on the photo above.

Kathy and Keith put together a fabulous 1920s menu for the evening: Old Fashioneds and Gin Ricky cocktails, and champagne and oysters for starters, and then for dinner Waldorf salad on endive, poached salmon, grilled flank steak, roasted brussels sprouts and green beans, and pasta bolognese. Dessert in a decadent "Gatsbyesque" style was of course a chocolate fountain with fruits and other follies to dip.

Everyone arrived in character. Everyone looked fabulous. Since there were over twenty of us, it took a little while to figure out who was which character. We chatted and mingled, some people took written and others mental notes, and drank champagne and cocktails. By the time we sat down to dinner we all had an idea of everyone's character. No murder yet, however...

Oysters and champagne, the perfect NYE combo

Some time after the oysters and cocktails, a guest noticed there was a body floating in the pool. Oh no! It was a young woman named Dahlia Sparrow. Who could have killed her? The mystery was on! We all sat down to dinner and started questioning each other in earnest. All the while poor Dahlia kept floating in the pool.

Oh no! is that poor Dahlia's lifeless body floating in the pool? Like an Energizer bunny, all night she just kept floating and floating and floating...

After the first course we traded places and mixed up the tables to make it easier to talk to different characters. We also played the recording of a phone call that was instrumental to the plot. Though dinner soon finished, the sleuthing went on for a while longer. Suspicions grew. Soon we were ready to fill out the accusation slips. Once those were collected, it was time for the big reveal. Shot In The Dark Mysteries has audio files for all their reveals. Eagerly we gathered around, and listened as the whole sordid story unfolded.

Trying to solve the mystery during and after dinner

So that was who did it! I had my suspicions about that character... After all was revealed, Kathy tallied up the accusation slips and announced the results. Five or six of us guessed correctly - great job! The rest of us can continue to improve our detective skills - there is always next time.

Oh, wait. I never told you who the killer was. It was.... drumroll.... ah, never mind. You will just have to zip over to Shot In The Dark Mysteries and play the mystery yourself!

Keith and Kathy: our hosts with the mosts

After the big reveal, it was time to put on our dancing shoes and shake to those 20s tunes. Yes, we did the Charleston, we shimmied and twirled until the clock struck midnight.

Debbie's got moves!

Another fabulous New Year's Eve experience! Mahalo to Kathy and Keith for hosting, and for the fantastic food; to all who helped with organizing and setup; and to Leigh of Shot In The Dark Mysteries for another phenomenal mystery.

It is indeed very lucky that we have the entire 2015 ahead of us to figure out what to do for next New Year's Eve. This one will be hard to top! Ideas, anyone?

An Adventure in the Sonoran Desert

2015-01-03T18:07:00.001-10:00

Happy New Year! My absence over the holidays was due to a 10-day trip over Christmas. Had a chance to fill up on snow and cold, and of course, ski/snowboard. As soon as we got home, it was time to party and ring in the new year. More on that later.
Today I wanted to share some images of the beautiful Sonoran Desert, taken early December. We went on a two-hour drive with Green Zebra Adventures in Fort McDowell, AZ.

The tour is a wild drive through the desert, generally super dusty, but we were lucky and it rained the day before (hello, puddles in the desert) so instead of dust all we had to contend with is a bit of mud here and there. By the time of our adventure, the rainclouds were gone and we had beautiful blue skies.

The car we both got to drive is called a Tomcar. They are compact, extremely durable, and can handle pretty much any terrain. Driving in a ravine among rocks large and small I was marveling at being able to be here and do this is a vehicle.

Above is a photo of the Tomcar we drove. It is as basic as a car gets: no gear shift, no hand brake, no nothing. Only a gas and a break pedal, and an elaborate safety harness. Easy to drive. If you like it, you can buy one for yourself. Just click here to get more information, (including different models) on Tomcars.

Yes, the picture above is of a river. Unlike the traditional image people may have of them (sand dunes, anyone?), deserts indeed have rivers. The Green (Verde) River snakes its way across this part of the Sonoran desert and on its banks live plants very different from the cacti that otherwise pepper the landscape.

The desert adventure was a blast. We had a chance to see up close a very unique and beautiful part of the world, and got to drive a cool Tomcar in the process.

Christmas 2014 - Norfolk Pine Tree

2014-12-18T13:55:00.001-10:00

It is only a week left until Christmas, and today is my last day at home in Hawaii. We are going up North for Christmas, all the way to snowy Canada. Since we would not be home, my initial inclination was not to put up a tree at all. Family voted me down... - as a compromise we decided to do "only some minimal" decorating.

One of the new ornaments for this year: I picked this cute rocking horse up in Amsterdam

After we got home from Scottsdale (I will post some more pictures of that trip) we did not waste any time going out to the only Christmas tree farm on the island of Oahu: Helemano Farms in Wahiawa. You can check them out at http://www.helemanofarms.com/

It was a beautiful Hawaii day, not a cloud in the sky, and there we were, roaming around the forest of Norfolk pine trees, trying to find that "perfect" one. After about half an hour of getting on the poor tree guy's nerves (it's too small- it's not full enough- it has a large gap- it is crooked- it looks ok, but could we keep looking just a little more) my daughter Rhiannon spotted the perfect tree. Lucky for me, since I was about to acquiesce and settle for a somewhat-better-than-ok-looking tree.

I was saved by Rhiannon having found what is now our Christmas tree. Of course it was a bit larger than what we wanted: at 10.5 feet tall we knew there would be no chance of getting it into the living room. Out ceiling is a little shy of 10 feet.

Patient tree guy cut the tree for us (apparently cut your own does not actually include cutting) and Nicholas -my oldest- kindly hauled it to the checkout and then to the car. At home of course we ended up having to cut over a foot off its height, but hey, overpaying and then cutting it smaller is perfectly acceptable when having found the perfect tree.

Finally being able to fit into the living room, the tree sat there undecorated for a few days. I think it looked gorgeous even without the ornaments. This was the first year we decided on a Norfolk pine, in the past having bought noble fir trees that get shipped in to Hawaii from Oregon in refrigerated containers. This year our tree was truly fresh cut.

The only thing our beautiful Norfolk pine lacks is that lovely Christmas tree scent. It is pretty much odorless (which is of course preferable to a not-so-good smell) and I have been using some scented candles to create "that Christmas feeling". However, I am staying away from fake pine smells, opting for other scents instead.

We found this ornament at Stirling Castle in Scotland

In the colored vs. white lights debate I am definitely a white lights person, though I like colored lights well enough too. No matter their color, the most important thing about putting Christmas lights up is to pile them on. Lots and lots of lights. This tree took less strands than the noble fir did, being so airy - which makes the ornaments much more visible.

We like to pick up ornaments wherever we travel, and this year we have added three new ones to the collection. The horse from Amsterdam, the lion from Scotland and finally this Frank Lloyd Wright design we picked up in Taliesin West in Arizona.

You might have noticed that there is no topper on the tree. That, as well as some other old an cherished ornaments, stayed in their boxes. Since we will be gone and the dogs stay with a house sitter, we did not want any possible tree mishaps damage our most precious ornaments. I think the tree looks fantastic even without those. We will probably keep it up well into the new year.
How is your Christmas decorating going? Are you all ready for Christmas Eve?

A Fuzzy Little Flower

2014-12-15T08:58:00.002-10:00

The other day as I was walking home from having dropped off my 10-year-old son at school, I found this flower by the road. It was a nice clear Hawaii day and I took some photos of it. Though somewhat small and unassuming, it has a vibrant beauty to it. Just another perfect little thing for this blog. I hope you are having a great day, wherever in the world you may be.

Great Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West

2014-12-12T13:53:00.000-10:00

Lucky me got to take a short trip to Arizona last week. The entire sojourn lasted only four days, and two of those were really mostly travel. When you live in Hawaii, even the closest thing is five plus hours away by air. The flight from Honolulu to Phoenix was a little under 6 hours.

Not to be intimidated my the wealth of sights and our lack of time, we crammed quite a few adventures into our brief stay. At the top of my Scottsdale list was a visit to the winter home of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wrignt: Taliesin West.

The entry area with a fountain and the entrance to the book store

Taliesin (Welsh for "Shining Brow") West is located on the desert hillside overlooking Scottsdale, Arizona. It is run by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The property is also home to the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.

A large rock with ancient petroglyphs greets visitors

The Foundation offers a wide range of guided tours to the estate every day, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There are other special tours available, though not daily, including some evenings. We opted for a 90-minute Insights Tour that took us not only around the grounds and the public areas such as Wright's office, the Cabaret Theater, or the Music Pavilion, but also into the private living quarters of Mr. and Mrs. Wright.

Taliesin West, the winter home of the Wrights and their students, was built between 1937 and 1959. Wright kept changing and modifying the buildings and spaces, and the current state of the complex reflects how everything looked at the time of his death in 1959.

The house and surrounding buildings blend organically into the landscape. Nature was Wright's greatest muse, and Taliesin West is a great example of combining the man-made with the natural.

The buildings are complexly simple, with clean lines and a unified color palette, but there are many different changes of elevation, to take advantage of the hillside setting. The prevailing color is called Taliesin Red, a rich earthy brownish red. The day after I got home from Arizona, the internet was abuzz with (dis)approval over the Pantone Color of the Year 2015 - a brownish red called Marsala - that though it is different in hue from Taliesin Red, nevertheless I think Wright would have approved of it. You can check Marsala out at Pantone.

Wright created Taliesin Red to match the mountains of the Sonoran Desert. The color is everywhere: on the floors, upholsteries or the outside of the buildings. Considering that the complex dates back to 1937, it is an amazingly modern structure.

Japanese art and design were another inspiration for Wright, who during most of his long life made a better living by dealing in art than in architecture. Taliesin West has many references to Japanese design, and there are several Japanese art pieces on the property.

The buildings used to be completely open to the outside, with only canvas panels protecting them from the elements. Windows were only installed years later. The house kept changing and evolving up until Wright's death.

Small red windows provide ventilation to the living quarters.

The landscaping surrounding the buildings is also an integral part of the scene, creating a harmony between inside and outside. Desert plants like agave and bougainvillea add color to the rocky countryside.

In 1991, the American Institute of Architects named Frank Lloyd Wright the greatest American architect of all time. His homes, Taliesin and Taliesin West are National Historic Landmarks, and are currently being considered along with some of Wright's other work for World Heritage Site status.

Inside one of the three theaters on the property.

You can find more information about the estate and book tickets at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation's Taliesin West page.

An Evening With The Makk Family in Kailua

2014-12-10T08:47:00.001-10:00

Last week I was invited to a lovely soiree combining art with architecture. The home, where the event took place, and which I have written about before (you can see it here) is a sprawling Kailua beach estate, and the art displayed within is by the Makk family.

The Makks: Americo, Eva, their son A.B. and his wife Sylvia are a family of wonderfully talented artists living in Honolulu. If The Sound of Music had been about painters and not singers, it could have starred the Makk family. They are not only a very gifted bunch, but just like the von Trapps, have had interesting and adventurous lives bringing them to Hawaii a few decades ago. (OK, so the von Trapps had to escape nazis. Americo escaped communist Hungary to meet and fall in love with his future wife, the gorgeous Eva - where else, but in the Eternal City, Rome. Tell me this is not the most romantic love story ... )

Born in four different countries on four different continents, all four artists of the Makk family are of Hungarian descent. Despite their international upbringing, they all speak perfect Hungarian, and take their heritage very seriously, not only in their lives but also in their art. Quite a few of of their paintings feature themes from Hungarian history, and they have graciously donated a series of these to the Republic of Hungary.

However, the art featured at this beautiful estate is different entirely. It is mostly Hawaii themed, perfectly fitting the surroundings. Walking around the 10,000 square foot home there are some fifty pieces of Makk art, all blending seamlessly with and in the meantime enhancing the grand yet relaxing atmosphere of the place.

On the photo above is the master bedroom, with a vibrant painting by A. B. Makk.

The evening featured guided tours around the estate, with the artists talking about the different pieces, offering anecdotes, inspirations, background stories. There is art everywhere in this home, in the rooms, hallways, even in the bathrooms.

Besides the art regularly on display at the home, the Makks brought some other pieces

just for viewing that evening. Propped up against the couch is a landscape by A.B. Makk.

In a hallway nook is the portrait of a little girl playing on the beach by Eva Makk .

Besides the beautiful art and estate, there was wine and food, and good conversation of course. All in all it was a lovely evening.

A.B. and Sylvia Makk stand before a large painting by Americo.

If you would like to learn more about this talented family of artists and check out their extensive portfolio of art, please visit their website, Makk Studios, by clicking here.

Make Your Own Advent Calendar

2014-11-29T08:02:00.002-10:00

Advent is only two days away (can you believe it?!?) and it is time to reveal the advent calendar I have created for this year. First of all, let me say, that buying the chocolate filled calendars at Trader Joe's is definitely the easier way to go. They also only cost 99 cents, I believe - what a bargain. However, if you want something a tad more personal and upscale, and have the time, why not make your own?

I searched the internet for inspiration (see it here), and decided on making a calendar out of brown paper bags. To jazz them up a bit I added a sparkle trim, and little cards to mark the days.

I found the tags on Etsy. Asked my daughter (who has a much nicer handwriting than I do), to write the numbers from 1 to 24 on the tags. This is a step that could be also stamped, that is if you have number stamps, which I do not.

After the tags were done, I cut the top of each brown bag off, and then folded about three inches down. Then used a hole punch to punch a hole through the folded top area of the bag.

The next step was to use an edge punch (this particular one is by Martha Stewart) that I found at our local craft store to create the trim of the bag. I picked this garland pattern because I thought it suited the occasion.

Finally, I brushed the some Mod Podge (I suppose you could also use some other glue) over the punched out pattern and added silver and white sparkle to it.

Voila, the baggies were done. Now it was time to fill them with small goodies for my three kids. After that was accomplished, I cut thin silvery ribbon into lengths of about a foot, threaded the ribbon through the punched hole in the bag and tied the number on it.

My friend Amy helped me with the finishing touches. She has also kindly provided the bottle of wine you can see amongst the bags. I am a firm believer that a glass of good wine helps every project turn out even better. One person making something is a craft. Two or more people? It's a party! (Check out my pumpkin painting party here.)

Here are the finished bags all lined up by number. The final step was to add small clothes pins (also found on Etsy) to the tops of the bags and clip them onto a ribbon we tied to the wall.

Now they all hang there patiently awaiting the first day of Advent. My ten-year-old is already excited to start unclipping and opening them.

The entire project took about two hours, plus the time gathering the supplies. I am happy with how it turned out. What do you think?

Antique Blue Toile Wallpaper

2014-11-17T16:01:00.000-10:00

In July my friend Dora and I spent four days in the Netherlands, more specifically, in Amsterdam. One of the sights we visited was the Museum Van Loon. A private residence built in 1672, the former town home is now a museum. The name Van Loon comes from the prominent merchant family who called the house home from 1884 and who were the founders of the museum.

This blue toile wallpaper is original to one of the rooms, the blue drawing room. It is a stunningly intricate design of plants, birds and monkeys.

Blue and white are of course the colors of the famous Delft china, which is made not far from Amsterdam in the charming town of Delft. This wallpaper is reminiscent of Delft pottery in an intricate exotic way. It is a good example of the title of this blog: another small but beautiful thing I happened to come across, and wanted to share.

You can find more information about the Van Loon Museum here.

Advent Calendars

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We are already well into November and advent is only a few weeks away. Time to gather inspiration for advent calendars. Instead of giving my kids the usual chocolate calendars (which have been a long-standing tradition in our family) this year I am making my own calendar to fill with little daily gifts for them. I think I already know what I am going to create. The many great ideas floating around the internet provided plenty of inspiration, and to inspire you, too, here are a few of them.

source

Wishing you many crafty moments in the season, and a peaceful and warm advent.

I Love My Lemon Tree

2014-11-08T14:24:00.001-10:00

One of my long-standing garden related wishes was to have a couple of citrus trees. Most of all I wanted a lemon tree. About seven years ago my wish came true: my parents gave me a Meyer lemon tree as a birthday gift. I planted it happily and waited for the fruit. Three years the tree stood there not giving me a single lemon. I guess citrus trees need time to acclimate to new surroundings.

The fourth year however, my lemon tree started bearing fruit, and every year since, its branches have been heavy with giant succulent lemons. Sometimes I have to pick some of them before they are ripe in order to prevent their heavy weight breaking the fragile branches.

There is no lemon quite like a home-grown lemon. The skin is much thinner than that of the supermarket variety, and the inside holds about twice as much juice as a store-bought lemon of the same size.

I use lemons in my cooking, but my favorite way is to put a thin slice into a glass of sparkling water. I add a sprig of mint (also grown in my garden) and some ice and voila, the perfect drink.

For the children I make lemonade. I can think of no better drink on a hot Hawaiian Sunday afternoon, and besides tasting delicious it is of course much healthier than anything you can buy in a store.

So of course I love my little lemon tree and the delicious organic fruit it bears. We also have a tangerine tree but it is yet to produce anything. Hopefully next year will be the year!