tree house

Mr. Pillow . . . . . Saved Again!

Posted By: Mitch, , , 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:

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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:

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

 

Everyone is happy that he is back with us:

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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!

 

 

 

Tree House Tour

Posted By: Rachel, , , , 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.

Yala

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!