Sri Lanka #6 How to make Sri Lankan Curry

In different country have different culture , even in same food , such as curry ,different country have different style .

In Thailand , have Thai curry . In India, have Indian curry , of course in Sri Lanka, have Sri Lankan Curry .

Sri Lankan eat curry almost in all of their meal , breakfast , lunch , dinner all are curry , curry congee, curry fried rice , curry noodle .

This time ,I want to introduce 2 things which are the soul of Sri Lankan curry. The first one is curry leaves.No matter in the rice , noodle , or in a bread, you can found some leaves in it , that is curry leaves. In the farm where I stay for one week , there have 2 baby curry leaves tree , but they don't use that , they also have a big curry leaves tree at the other side of the farm .

The other one is coconut, maybe because too many coconut in Sri Lanka, they also use coconut in food ,every meal they would open a coconut , there have a chair dedicated to plane coconut, mix with water , then squeeze the juice fill in the food , so Sri Lankan curry you will have coconut taste.

Another special in Sri Lankan food is , they like to cut all the food in small pieces, maybe because they eating by hand , cut in small pieces are more easy to mix the food. Even the noodles they also in small pieces , but Omal told me , they also have the normal noodles , and after I went to city , also see some normal noodles in supermarket .

Sri Lanka #5 How the coconut become coconut oil ?My job in a coconut farm

Hello, as I ever said ,I went to a coconut farm as a volunteer in Sri Lanka , then , what should I do in the farm ?

Below is my daily schedule , seems many things to do in one day ,but actually ,I feel I just need to water plants every day , other time I am too free to look for something to do .

Besides coconuts, the farm has many other plants, such as tomato , sweet potato, beans , papaya ,chili and so on .They almost no need to buy food , all vegetable can pick in the farm, but sometimes want to eat meat , will buy in town .

This bean I never seen in china, but I saw many in Sri Lanka, could anyone tell me what is it named ?

Baby coconut trees , I found that coconut trees are plant by whole coconuts, some coconuts drop from trees , leave them , they will grow some new coconut trees from that coconuts.

Guess what is this ?it's vanilla. Normally , we buy a vanilla is a vanilla bean, but this one still a baby vanilla, it will grow up , and open flowers , then grow to beans.

Our coconut farm is producing coconut oil , the most popular oil in Sri Lanka , many family use coconut oil to cook. So what did I do for Sri Lankan family in these days ? Maybe I have made some oil for them .

Every week Omal will ask some worker to pick coconuts on trees, some collected here .

Then we need to remove their shells, I tried , but even use my Chinese Kongfu, I still not enough strong to do that , so leave it to the strong man, I just keep watching.

After remove the shells , we need to open the coconut , cut in half, and dry them , them they will turn out the coconut oil , seems our skin , more dry more oil .

I just know that not every coconut inside is water , some coconut like below , Omal told me that's because the coconut picked from a baby coconut tree.

When they are enough dry , we will cut it to small pieces and keep drying , I never cut such many things before .

In my free time , I would follow uncle to cook , to feed the cow , and sometimes walk in the farm pick some coconut back , some coconut drop on the floor and if we shake it , hear some water inside that means the coconut can be used , we will pick it back .

Sri Lanka #4 take shower in a open bathroom

Per my last post , I said I went to a coconut farm as a helper in Sri Lanka, also share the environment for my living house , why the bathroom separate to write another post ? 1st , the bathroom separate with the main house, 2nd, the bathroom is very special .

The bathroom is at the next side of the farm ,every time I went there need to ride a bicycle ,If I can't ride a bicycle, may be I need to walk for 10 min to reach there.

Sometimes , will meet someone stop the road , "hey ,friend , could you give a road to me ? I think the grasses at the right side are more delicious, do you think so ?"

This is a reasonable cattle, after a few talk , it give a way to me , here is our shower room , do you also think it is so special ?

This shower room without any door, it is open type , so when I arrived I saw someone here , I would go back and wait , then came back again to see does that guy still here.

Sometimes ,Omal would ask uncle to ask that guy leave, then I can come and take shower.

Normally , If I didn't see anyone surrounding here , that means really no one , cause here is no any hiding place, and when I took shower, I would look surrounding .

Water pump from the lake next to the shower room, the cattle use that water to take shower , I also use that water to take shower.

The switch for water pump on a tree behind the shower room.

One time , after took shower , I saw many cattle surrounding the shower room, they also wanna take shower?

Sri Lanka #3 the coconut farm environment where I stay for 1 week

I was contact a coconut farm in advance, so after leave airport , I took bus to the coconut farm direct .

After few hours later , transfer 3 buses and 1 tuk tuk ,I arrived the farm finally, and I would stay there for 1 week as a volunteer.

The host Omal is a nice man ,they like to make friends ,but stay in farm normally just him and a uncle , so he wrote a post in helpx .

I am lucky to be one of the volunteer , I contact him just one day before I leave my country , at the last moment , got his confirm.

This post I want to share the farm living environment ,also just for a record of my life.

First , we arrive the kitchen , they are still use firewood or dry coconut leaves to cook , Omal told me , not all the Sri Lankan use firewood to cook, in the city , they also use gas.

During the time I stay in this farm , all meals are curry curry curry , Sri Lankan really very like curry.

I found something in the farm ! Look ! It's a gun , I should be more careful, don't do any thing make Omal angry ~

Actually , the gun is used to shoot the monkeys who steal coconuts, Omal also teach me how to shoot at the last day I stay here.

I am a good learner , all shoots were hit the target .

Here is the room where I lived, a mosquito net is necessary in Sri Lanka , too many mosquito at night .

I always spend my free time here , the table just a big wood , and the decorations are coconuts , match the temperament of a coconuts farm.

A small field behind the house , also use the coconut shell to surround the field , I thought that's because they have too many coconut shell .

Sri Lanka #2 Don't believe taxi drivers at airport and how to transport from Colombo airport

Once I finished exchange money and buy a phone card , I was gonna take a bus to the coconut farm which I contact at helpx. Per google map I should go out and take bus .

But once I walked out the airport , many Taxi drivers talk with me , and I told them I would like to take bus , not a Taxi, then they told me , "no bus ,no bus , the bus just come at the morning time , and at the noon time ,cause no air flight , so no bus now."

Of cause I won't believe them , then I ask a staff work in airport , he told me "yes ,here have the bus to go to Colombo, per 10 min, just wait here , bus is coming ."
And then I ask him how much if take the bus to Colombo, he said "175 rupees". 
If I believed the Taxi drivers , take taxi to city , they are asking for 35 USD, means 6300 rupees . I think already many traveller were cheated by them, so I want to tell you all don't believe them .

And where to take the air-conditional bus to Colombo ? When walk out airport , turn left , and you can see below place, there is where the bus will stop , 10 min one bus.

And if you want to a take public bus to Colombo or Negombo or any other place , there is a small bus station Katunayake near airport, walk just around 10 min.

The taxi driver drove me there and want to change me 20 USD , then I was angry , I say I just have 200 rupees , you can get it or get nothing , and then the driver just can change me 200 rupees, the taxi drivers really very bad .

Sri Lanka #1 How to change currency and buy the phone card

Hello , I am now in Sri Lanka , will travel here for around 15 days , so from now on , I will share something about my travel in Sri Lanka , if you want to know , don't hesitate to subscribe , thanks !

When arrive Sri Lanka , that is 9:00 am , I already haven't sleep for over 24 hours , but I still need to keep awake , still a long distance to arrive the farm which I work as a helpx in Sir Lanka .

The most important thing when arrive in a new country is change currency , although USD also useful in Sri Lanka , but use Sir Lankan is better .
Once we walk out the airport , we can see many currency exchange shop , every stuff will ask you change in their shop . Actually , no need to choose which shop is better , because all the shop exchange rate are same , so just choose one which you like .

Another important thing to do is buy a local SIM card , the best supplier in Sir Lanka is the Dialog , also no need to choose which set is better , is just one set for Rs.1299, with 10G data (6G Anytime and 4G night time ),call and SMS charge separate .

Next part , I will talk about how to take bus in airport , thanks !

Road trip to Tibet, Day 14---The most fantastic lakes in Tibet

Today we join a day trip group to Two beautiful lakes , I ever said arrived Lhasa does not mean the end , at least go to Yamzho Yumco(羊卓雍措).

From Lhasa to Yamzho Yumco need to drive around 3 hours .Yamzho Yumco is a Lake , is one of the three largest sacred lakes in Tibet.

In these days ,we receive many Hatta, and we bring them here today , and hang them here , as a blessing.

Maybe the rope too high ,maybe I am too short , I spent a little bit long time to hang them on ~

We have no word to describe the beauty of Yamzho Yumco, it's so clean , so blue , so peace !

You also can pay some money to the Tibetan, and then they will take photo for you with yak. Although they are not Pro , but they have many experience taking photo here for their customers, they know how to take a good photo here .

In Yamzho Yumco, you are not just only can take photo with yak , also the Tibetan Mastiff. If you meet Tibetan Mastiff in outdoor , they are dangerous , but here , they are safe as a big dog.

When we are on the road to the other destination, we saw many many many sheep ~

Our next destination is Puma Yumco(普莫雍措), cause it near the border of China, neighbour on Bhutan , so there has a checkpoint on the road to Puma Yumco, they need to check our identity card .

In winter , Puma Yumco will become a ice lake , you can walk on it , when we arrived ,there was no any step on it ,means we are the first group arrived here today ~

If you come on timing ,maybe you can see the blue ice lake as below , this photo is found on web ,maybe I will go there again.

Today is the last day of the Tibet road trip , I will start another trip for next post ,see ya ~