Sri Lanka

FAQ’s of the Summer

September 9, 2015Posted By: MitchBaby J, beach, Family, Friends, Maldives, Sri Lanka, vacationthemightaswellers View all 3 comments

When we were back in the United States this summer, we had a great time hanging out with friends and family! We were able to reconnect with a lot of people and do a lot of catching up. People were excited to hear about our experiences in Kuwait and to learn more about our lifestyle overseas. Interestingly, most people asked many of the same questions. Thus, I decided to compile a list of what I’m calling, “FAQ’s of the Summer!”

Is Kuwait safe?

Yes, yes, yes, and yes! Kuwait is a very safe country, and I can honestly say that I have never felt unsafe at any time since we have been here. The people here are fabulous, kind, genuine, and sincere. We’ve met some incredible people who have been so welcoming to us. Before we moved to Kuwait last year, I made a promise to Rachel. I told her that if either of us ever felt unsafe, we would immediately board a plane, and leave the country. I reassured her that we are always only one flight away from leaving.

Are you going to have Baby J in Kuwait?

Yes, we are having the baby in Kuwait! Believe it or not, nearly 350,000 babies are born every day, all over the world, and only a small fraction of them are born in the United States. Babies are born in the jungles of South America, in the deserts of Africa, and the 5 star luxury hospital we go to in Kuwait. Our doctor is fabulous, the hospital is excellent, and the care we receive there is top notch. Neither of us have any reservations about having our baby here.

Is Baby J going to be an American even though he is going to be born in Kuwait?

Yes, he will be an American and will have an American passport. The United States is the ONLY country in the world, that gives birthright citizenship. (Meaning that if you are born in the U.S. you automatically become a citizen). Baby J is just going to have a cool birth certificate in life that is called a “Birth Abroad Certificate” indicating that he was born abroad, but still has citizenship in the United States.

When are you going to move back to the United States?

Right now we have no plans on returning to the United States. We are currently in the second year of our two year contract in Kuwait. At the end of the year we can decide to resign another contract here, move to another country, or return to America.

What is your favorite country that you guys have traveled to last year?

Mitch: For me, it was definitely the Maldives! It was such a beautiful and magical place with the best beaches I’ve ever seen! The white sand beaches and the crystal clear water were awesome, and it was such a relaxing place. I highly recommend it!

Rachel: Sri Lanka, I loved the option of being at the beach or in the jungle in such close proximity, and learning more about the people who survived the Tsunami 10 years ago was completely humbling.

Where are you guys going to travel to this year?

So far, we only have two trips planned. For our Holiday Break over Christmas & New Year’s, we are heading to Thailand! We have a nice long winter break so we are looking forward to spending some time at the beaches. My family is also planning on going to Thailand, so it will be fun to meet up with them and spend time together over the holidays.

The other trip that we have planned this year is to Oman. We have a friend who has been living there for about 7 years, so we are excited to go visit him and his family, as well as see the beautiful countryside that Oman has to offer. From what we hear, outdoor enthusiast’s dream location with all of the beautiful mountains and beaches.

We also have a week off for Spring Break, however we haven’t decided yet where we want to go.

This is a brief recap of some of the common questions we received over the summer. Perhaps some of our readers also had similar questions, and if so, hopefully this provides a bit of insight for you.

A Visit to a Sri Lankan Turtle Conservation Project

May 27, 2015Posted By: MitchSri Lanka, Travel, vacationthemightaswellers One comment

Last December when we were in Sri Lanka on vacation, we were able to visit the Coast Guard Turtle Conservation Project near Mirissa Beach. It was a quick stop as we were traveling along the southern coast of Sri Lanka from Unawatuna to Mirissa. It was such a cool experience to see such a variety of sea turtles up close. We got some pretty cool pictures, that we would love to share with you.

Before the pictures though, a little bit more about the Coast Guard Turtle Conservation Project. The project was launched in September 2012 with the purpose of preserving and raising the awareness of sea turtle conservation. Apparently there are 8 different kinds of sea turtles, and Sri Lanka is home to five of the eight species, including: Green Turtles, Leatherbacks, Olive Ridleys, Hawksbills and Loggerheads. All five types regularly visit the sandy beaches near Mirissa Beach to lay their eggs and build their nests. Once the eggs are laid, the Coast Guard moves them to a safer area so that predators (especially humans) don’t get their hands on them. Apparently, over 800 eggs are buried at the site of the hatchery! Once the eggs do hatch, the Coast Guard then releases them back into the sea. They also house a couple of older sea turtles that have been injured and wouldn’t be able to survive back in the sea.

Here’s a few of my favorite pics:

This is a picture of one of the hatcheries. They put little signs by each set of eggs to keep them organized.

Here’s a closer look at the signs in the hatchery. You can see that it is not uncommon for a sea turtle to lay over 100 eggs at a time!

Once they hatch, they look like this:

Here’s another fun picture with the little sea turtle lifting his head out of the water to check us out! They were so tiny and a ton of fun to watch while they were swimming around. I could watch them swim around for hours!

Here is an adult sea turtle who is missing one of this front flappers.

Another injured adult sea turtle:

I really like this super close up pic of this turtle!

Here are a few fun facts that I learned about sea turtles during our visit:

Out of every 1,000 eggs that are laid, it’s believed that only 1 of them will grow into a mature, adult sea turtle.
Female turtles could lay eggs up to 5 times a season.
Adult female turtles are believed to lay their eggs on the same beach where they were hatched when they were a baby.
About 80-120 eggs are typically laid on each nest.

We were hoping to do some volunteering with the Conservation Project during our visit, however volunteers were not needed during our time at Mirissa Beach. It was still super fun place to visit and we highly recommend that people check it out during their next trip to Sri Lanka. It is an excellent place to witness such amazing sea creatures!

Sri Lankan Traffic Jams

March 31, 2015Posted By: Mitchelephants, Monkeys, Sri Lanka, Travel, Yala National Parkthemightaswellers One comment

Wherever you live, chances are that you probably deal with traffic congestion on a weekly basis. I HATE traffic jams! For me, I’m not sure if there are many other things in life that are much worse. I’ve been driving for 15 years, and still have to practice my yoga breathing and play relaxation music while sitting in a jam, to prevent my blood pressure from exploding!

When we were in Sri Lanka a couple of months ago, they definitely had their share traffic jams. Although it was a different kind of congestion, one that I haven’t really experienced before. . . . . . . . ANIMALS on the road! I was able to snap a few pics of what I call, “The Sri Lankan Traffic Jam!” I would say about 80% of the vehicles in Sri Lanka are Tuk-Tuks. A majority of the roads around villages are just dirt roads, however they are starting to get some freeways around the country. A lot of the traffic jams were caused by little fellas like this guy, a random cow just walking down the highway all by himself. At least this guy was smart enough to stay on the shoulder! Here is another guy just strolling around by himself causing some traffic issues. He was super horny! Sometimes there was just one cow in the road . . . . . but sometimes there would be a ton of them! You could honk and honk, but they weren’t going to move! They got to determine what the speed limit was. The cows also enjoyed walking along the country’s new freeway system! It wasn’t just cows that would create traffic jams in Sri Lanka. Sometimes it was these big ass lizards!!! Including the tail, this one was like 4-5 feet long. We also ran into some wild boars! These guys were lucky enough to find some garbage on the side of the road for lunch. Have I mentioned the MONKEYS yet?!? This big guy ran across the road right in front of us. We also ran into a lot of flooded roads, and mud pits! This guy tried going around a huge mud pit, but didn’t fair to well trying to cut through the grass. Of course the biggest cause of a Sri Lankan Traffic Jam is when a huge elephant is walking down the middle of the road towards you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sri Lanka Through the Eyes of Mitch’s iPhone

February 6, 2015Posted By: Mitchbeach, Christmas, Sri Lanka, Travel, Unawatuna, vacationthemightaswellers View all 2 comments

I was going through the pictures on my iPhone the other day, and found a few candid shots I took while we were in Sri Lanka. They are nothing special, just a few little tidbits I captured during our trip. Enjoy!

This is called a tuk tuk. There are millions of these little micro-tricycles all around Sri Lanka. Since gas is so expensive, they are the most popular form of transportation in the country (2nd is a moped). They operate on a little 50cc engine and get good gas mileage. We rode these all over place and they are super cheap! A 5 minute ride would cost about $0.50. The fun thing about them . . . . each one is personally decorated by the owner! There was a variety of colors, advertisements, posters, sound systems, etc. I would always pick the “coolest” looking one before we would hop in with the driver.

Check out all the chrome man!

In Sri Lanka, they drive on the left hand side of the road. It is always a little weird getting used to at first, but luckily we didn’t do the driving.

The view from the back seat of a tuk tuk.

This was the sound system in one of the tuk tuks we rode in. The driver was about 20 years old, and OBSESSED with Tupac! He decorated his entire tuk tuk in memory of him. There were posters, paintings, stickers, and all kinds of other stuff. Being Mr. Obvious that I am, I asked him, “Do you Tupac?” He smiled and responded, “You like?” After I nodded “yes,” he pumped up the sound system and we listened to “California Love” bumping through the speakers for the rest of our ride!

Rachel jammin’ out to 2Pac!

This was the main road through the town of Unawatuna. It is about the width of an alley back in the States. When a car would come down the street, everyone would have to pack to one side of the street so that it could pass. This is also a good view of all the tuk tuks lined along the roads.

Beep Beep

Here is a cool panorama picture I took at Jungle Beach. It is located on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, about a 15 minute tuk tuk ride from Unawatuna. You have to hike down a dirt path for about 15 minutes to reach the beach. It was a super nice beach, and very quiet compared to Unawatuna Beach.

Jungle Beach

This sign was posted outside a small surfer bar in Unawatuna called Koha Surf Cafe & Lounge. It was one of my favorite places, because they didn’t have any tables to sit at. Instead you took your shoes off, and climbed into like a king sized bed. There tons of cushions and pillows, and you just made yourself comfy there. A super hippy place, just how I like it! I took advantage of the “free smiles” but didn’t want a hug.

Free hugs & free smiles!

These little rigs were all over the streets and highways in Sri Lanka! they basically took the front end of a large garden tiller, put bigger tires on it, and attached a homemade trailer to ride around in. I think they did it because it is so much cheaper to operate that little gas engine, rather than buying a pickup truck.

Weirdest invention ever!

I know it’s 2015, and there is free wifi virtually EVERYWHERE . . . . . however I still get pumped when a place offers it. I usually keep my excitement to myself. However one night when we were looking for a place to chill at, I blurted out, “let’s go here, there’s free wifi!” Rachel and our friends gave me a look of, “really dude? You get that excited over free wifi?” Of course, from that point forward, it became the joke of our trip every time we saw another sign advertising free wifi!

Woohoo, free wi-fi!

One of our favorite things about Sri Lanka was all of the fresh seafood! Just about everyday for dinner, one of us was enjoying a plate full of fresh (and cheap) seafood. All along the southern coast of the country, you would see these little fish stands on the side of the road. The fisherman would literally park their boat on the beach, and unload their daily catch at their stand.

My favorite was the fresh tuna!

During our time in Unawatuna, we had a chef come to our chalet to make us breakfast. Everyday he said we were going to have sausage. We quickly realized that the word “sausage” in Sri Lanka was not the greasy, fatty, pork that we so desired. Instead it was a grilled Oscar Meyer hot dog that tasted like it was grilled the night before, then microwaved before breakfast. Yuck!

WAIT!!!! That’s a hotdog, not sausage!

There was so many fruit stands along the roadways too! There were so many different kinds of exotic fresh fruit you could buy for a couple of nickels. Our favorites were the mangos, papaya, bananas, coconuts, passion fruit, and pineapple.

There was so much fresh fruit!

Our favorite place in Unawatuna was the Kingfisher Hotel & Restaurant. They had the best food, best service, and was just a super nice place. One night we were all sitting on the beach for dinner, when Rachel excused herself to the bathroom. Moments later she returned with a look of disblief on her face! She stumbled for the proper words to describe what she had just encountered . . . . a dog in the women’s bathroom! Apparently, she opened the door and started walking into the dark bathroom when she heard a dog growling. She JUMPED back, turned my iPhone’s flashlight on, and realized there was a dog snuggling up to the toilet! So she did what any tourist would do . . . . SHE TOOK A PICTURE! (then used the men’s restroom).

That dog must have had too many Lion Lagers the night before. He was snuggled up to the toilet all night!

Christmas 2014 in Sri Lanka

January 31, 2015Posted By: MitchChristmas, Family, holidays, Sri Lankamitchsjohnson Leave a comment

We spent Christmas 2014 in the small surf town of Mirissa, on the southern coast of Sri Lanka. We knew it could be tough emotionally being without our families on Christmas, so we made sure we booked a nice resort on the beach to spend our holiday. Unfortunately though, it rained for 2 straight days leading up to Christmas, and all day on Christmas Day!

We started our day by calling our families back home on FaceTime. However with the thunderstorms in the area, our internet connection was pretty spotty. We were at least able to reach them, and wish them a quick holiday greeting before we lost connection.

Although we couldn’t spend the holiday relaxing on the beach because of the weather, we decided to make the most of our day anyway. We headed to the beach and found a couple of nice little bar/restaurants where we got comfy. We had a couple of drinks, played some cards, had lunch, and just kind of chilled out for the day.

This was our Christmas tree this year:

Our 2014 Christmas Tree!

We didn’t set up a tree at home this year, so we decided to adopt this tree we found along the beach in Mirissa. One of the bars set it up, and even decorated it with ornaments, garland, and Christmas lights!

At one of the bars we stopped at, we found this very festive family. We decided next year that we are going to pack Santa hats and wear them next year on Christmas Day! . . . . . . . NOT!

Sweet hats eh?

Perhaps the toughest part of the day, was when we learned of the passing of Rachel’s Uncle Walter. It definitely made being away from family on the holidays a bit tougher. We knew that when we decided to move overseas, things like this could happen. However it didn’t make it any easier when we heard the news. We did the only thing we could, we raised our glasses and cheersed to the great life he had.

Throughout the day it continued to downpour. In the early evening, we finally said, “screw it!” We changed our clothes and headed straight for the ocean. The water was actually warmer than the rain, and we had a ton of fun swimming in the downpour rain and massive waves!

The following day, the sun came back out, and shined down on us for the next two weeks of our holiday. I think it was Uncle Walter’s first act of kindness in heaven!

Mr. Pillow . . . . . Saved Again!

January 28, 2015Posted By: MitchSri Lanka, Travel, tree house, vacationthemightaswellers View all 2 comments

You may recall a blog post I did a few months ago, when we first moved to Kuwait called: Mr. Pillow. Well, he still holds the top spot in Rachel’s heart, and I’m a distant second. However I am thinking I might have a scored a few bonus points with the Mrs. when I saved his life . . . . AGAIN!

During our Holiday Break, we checked into our tree house at Yala National Park, when Rachel suddenly realized that Mr. Pillow was gone! We had just completed a 4 hour tuk tuk ride (it was supposed to be 2 hours) and I thought for sure it was laying on the side of the road somewhere in the beautiful countryside of Sri Lanka. Rachel was bummed, however I was a bit excited. (Perhaps this was my chance at being #1 in her heart!) Unfortunately though, my feelings of excitement did not last long. . . . .

We had just sat down for dinner at the hotel restaurant on our first night there. We were hanging out with a few people from New Zealand, drinking some Lion Lagers, and watching some cricket on tv, when I noticed a blue blurr. For a second, I just assumed it was the Lion Lagers taking their effect on me after 4 months of sobriety, but then I realized what it was . . . . . Mr. Pillow!

I asked Rachel, “is that your pillow?” She nearly broke her neck, as she twisted her body in world record speed. Her face lit up when she realized that it was indeed Mr. Pillow. She nearly pulled a hamstring sprinting across the restaurant to go grab it! It somehow must have fallen off her pack when we were getting out of the tuk tuk, and whoever found it, just put it in the lobby.

I was sure to capture this pic as she was reunited with Mr. Pillow:

This is Rachel reuniting with Mr. Pillow. She had to go to the “lobby” of our “hotel” to grab it. It is kind of hard to see her ear-to-ear smile in this pic, but it’s there!

And then he joined us at the table for the rest of our dinner:

Mr. Pillow got his own chair at the dinner table.

Everyone is happy that he is back with us:

I’ll thumbs up to this!

I will continue to update the comings and goings of Mr. Pillow during our time in Kuwait. He has survived a couple of times, but we’ll see how many lives he has!

Elephants

January 21, 2015Posted By: Rachelelephants, Sri Lanka, Travelthemightaswellers One comment

We had given up hope. As we rode in our open aired jeep out of the national park we were already discussing how we could try and go to a different national park the next day. We were leaving Yala National Park, the area in Sri Lanka with the most wild elephants without seeing a single elephant. I was disappointed. It had been raining for days, the park was flooded and it was just impossible to get further into the park, to find where the giant creatures were roaming. The sun was setting and as we rounded the last corner to head out of the park gates an elephant was heading straight for us.

He was huge.

He walked straight at us, throwing his trunk around and grabbing a trunkful of whatever was in his path.

I did what anyone with a camera in their hands who was looking at an elephant would do. . . . I started wildly snapping pictures, barely taking the time to focus any of my shots.

I was so excited, I was silent giggling, worried that if I made a noise he would dart off into the jungle. The only sounds I dared to emit were the clicks of my camera.

As I continued to snap away Mitch quietly whispered in my ear, “Don’t forget to just look with your eyes.”

He was right, some moments are just better to be lived rather than captured. So I put down my camera, reached over and grabbed my husband’s hand and looked with my eyes.

We Found Real Bacon!

January 9, 2015Posted By: MitchFood, Sri Lanka, Travel, Unawatunathemightaswellers View all 2 comments

Upon our arrival in Sri Lanka, I was in search for two things:

Booze
Pork, more specifically Bacon

We quickly found a bar on the beach, and started enjoying the first of many beers, however they didn’t have bacon. We stumbled down the beach until we came to another bar/restaurant called Koko’s on the Beach. It’s a little family run place owned by a super cool British guy, his Sri Lankan wife, and their two daughters. One of their daughters was about 2 years old, and her job was to bring us our beers. One time her mother brought out a round for us, and the little girl burst into tears because SHE wanted to bring them to us! It kind of made me excited to have a 2-year old kid one day to run back-and-forth to the fridge for me 😉

I noticed on the menu at Koko’s that they had a bacon cheeseburger. I asked the owner if the bacon was pork, and when she confirmed, I told her that we wanted a plate of JUST bacon! Her english wasn’t the best, and she kept double checking that she heard me right, “you want 10 pieces of bacon?” I smiled and said yes, however all I could think of in my head was: Yes lady! I haven’t had a piece of pork in 4 months, goooo!!!!!

Minutes later, her husband brought out a plate full of the best bacon that I have ever had! It was greasy, grizzly, crispy, and fucking delicious! (sorry for the language mom). I kind of felt like the dog in this video when he was carrying it out to us.

It was so good, that I had to take a picture of it!

The owner was baffled at my order, and started asking, “why so much bacon?” After explaining that we lived in a Muslim country and that pork was illegal, he felt so bad for us that he didn’t even want to charge us for it. We slipped him some money, and returned again a few days later for another plate of bacon!

Tree House Tour

January 6, 2015Posted By: Rachelelephants, Sri Lanka, Travel, tree house, Yala National Parkthemightaswellers View all 4 comments

While we were in Sri Lanka I had a major mission, I wanted to see elephants! After the guilty conscious I experienced with the camel riding in Dubai, I had made a pledge that I was going to be a more responsible traveler and do my homework in advance. After reading much about the treatment of elephants around the world, I knew I didn’t not want to visit any animals that were in captivity. Even if the facilities were claiming to be an elephant hospital or orphanage, I just didn’t want to take the chance on it being a cover up for a circus type situation. I realized I needed to see elephants in the wild. I wanted to go to a national park, and had my eyes set on Yala National Park.

When Mitch and I are in the planning stages of a trip, I am almost always the one coming up with ideas and things I want to do. Mitch is the “logistics guy” and enjoys figuring out the transportation, where we will stay, and other types of details. This trip was no different. I decided I wanted to see elephants at Yala National Park, and Mitch made it happen!

At first Mitch had his eyes set on “glamping” in the national park in semi-permanent tent structures. However, the $900 per night price tag was enough to point us in another direction. The end result: Beddegama Eco Park! Mitch found this awesome little gem about 10 minutes outside the park for about $90 per night, where we slept in………a tree house! It was so awesome we decided to make a video tour of it.

Our stay in the tree house was awesome. The location was the perfect jumping off point for our safari in Yala National Park. We left with many memories that we will be taking with us like: listening to the peacocks scream at us while they sat in the near-by trees, surviving the thunderstorm that shook our entire bungalow the first night, taking an ice cold shower that came out of the side of a tree, and plenty of other little gems that are tucked away for us to take with us.

Moral of the story: let your husband plan all trip accommodations, because it will be awesome!

Unawatuna, Sri Lanka

December 30, 2014Posted By: Rachelbeach, Monkeys, Sri Lanka, Travel, Unawatuna, vacationthemightaswellers View all 2 comments

The first stop on our Christmas Vacation was Unawatuna, Sri Lanka. Unawatuna, pronounced just as it is written una-wa-tuna, is a small beach town on the southern coast of Sri Lanka. Nearly all of our teacher friends who recommended Sri Lanka to us, said we had to spend time in Unawatuna! We heard it was the perfect spot to swim, lay on the beach, drink out of coconuts, and relax. Unawatuna delivered on all of those promises and a few more that we weren’t expecting, like monkeys coming out from the jungle and checking us out during our breakfast. We chose to stay at an Airbnb that was located “upstairs” in Unawatuna, a short Tuk Tuk ride up the hill from the beach into the jungle. Our view was amazing, we were surrounded by jungle with a view of the Indian Ocean off in the distance. So with a view like that, we spent as much time as possible sitting out on the deck and soaking in all the greenery that we have been desperately missing since we live in the desert. On our second morning in Unawatuna, a brown adult male monkey decided to come and check out what we were up to while we ate breakfast on the deck. He swung his way from tree to tree and hopped right up onto the deck railing. Even though the camera was sitting right on the table, Mitch was too excited by our visitor to snap any pictures. The monkey stared at us for a few seconds before climbing the post on the deck to go to our friend’s Lauren and Adam’s deck to say hello to them as well. Lauren and Adam were clearly aware that a monkey was nearby, as once the monkey started to make his way up to their deck, I began yelling like a crazy person: “MONKEY, MONKEY, LAUREN, MONKEY, ADAM, ADAM, ADAM, MONKEY.” The nice part about my crazy yelling is that Adam reciprocated my crazed enthusiasm by answering with “MONKEY, MONKEY, HOLY SHIT, I SEE A MONKEY!” After Mr. Monkey made his way across Adam and Lauren’s deck, I had composed myself enough to snap a couple of pictures, but none of them would truly do justice for how close this buddy had come to investigate what we were up to. Once he was at a safe distance from us, we heard a bunch of crashing in some nearby trees. Soon after, Mrs. Monkey and her three babies emerged and followed him from tree-to-tree making their way deeper into the jungle. The beaches here are great, the views are beautiful, but sometimes it’s an unexpected breakfast guest that makes the trip worth it.

The Might as Wellers

The adventures of our life as we try and live by the mantra "might as well."