Land of elephants

I sit here on an airplane leaving Sri Lanka after a 10 day trip. My second time here in about 6 months. This always sounds glamorous going to far away islands in the middle of the Indian ocean. People do come here for vacation as the tell tale signs of flip flops and sun dresses pace back and forth in the lobby. But not so much for us. We come to review graphic tees. We sit in hours of traffic to sit in factories, hotel conference rooms or the occasional hotel bed. Squares of fabric with art that we send with a suggestion of what technique we think they should use to give us the desired effect are presented one after the other. It really is amazing how much you can find wrong with a graphic on a tee shirt. I honestly don't know how I'm going to save this business. I do not wear tshirts and from what I saw I want to drop 50% of the line! There is no accounting for taste.

I digress. The first time I came to Sri Lanka there could have not been less charm. The oppression towards women was palatable. I am lucky to have gotten out alive. The rage I felt inside at how they treated women was more than I could take. I wanted to fight the entire time. I made it out with out starting something. As you can imagine the 10 days for this trip vs. 3 last time was going to take a lot out of me!

Until the visit to the elephant sanctuary. It is as amazing as you can imagine. They are just milling around and so are we. Then we get to go to their bathing stream. A long walk across a highway and down a side street selling elephant trinkets or elephant poop paper (uh, no thanks) and leather bags until we reach an unreal area where they get to drink and bathe. I can't describe it so I'll say it with pictures. Suffice it to say I feel
differently about Sri Lanka now. I'll do a separate post on my meals. You can always win me with a good meal and an affordable massage!