A Bad Day in Sri Lanka?

 So a little back info: I don't really love to snorkel. I do it if I have to but I am uncomfortable the whole time. I have never had a desire to scuba dive. Actually, I really did not ever want to do it. I figured if Nathan wanted to at some point, he and Eric, or his brother could get certified and go, I would support that. I have few fears in life; I've gone sky diving, I kill ginormous spiders in my house, I've had babies in a Chinese hospital for heaven's sake! But something about being in deep open water, and having to breathe through a tube, makes me absolutely claustrophobic and panicky.

Back to the trip:
We were all planning on snorkeling for part of an afternoon. I knew it was coming and though I wasn't looking forward to it with much anticipation, I was fine. I knew I could do as much or little as I wanted. So when we showed up and discovered scuba was really inexpensive, and you didn't need to be certified because you would go out on a dive and it counts towards your certification, everyone but me got super excited. I had never imagined I'd be faced with scuba because you have to be certified, right?!
It was so unexpected and I was freaking out. I absolutely did not want to go. But I knew how bad Nathan did. And he wouldn't just let me sit and read my book on the beach for half the day while everyone else went. He wouldn't leave me. And I didn't want to make him miss out. I was so scared I cried. During the safety video they'd show someone under water clearing their mask or regulator (mouth piece) and I'd imagine myself doing that and totally start tearing up and having massive anxiety. I was a mess! I truly had had no idea how deep my fears were.

Here is me climbing out of the water (DANG that gear is heavy!) after practicing in shallow water, can you tell how worried Nathan was for me? Poor guy, I didn't mean to stress him out, but when you are unexpectedly forced to face a fear, sometimes you freak out a little. Having to think about breathing was really stressful for me. At least when we got to the dive site it was one trainer with each couple. I still can't believe I did it. I actually hated it the entire time. I was never able to relax. I felt kind of dizzy when I tried to move my head to look around- fun fact, you can get sea sick from the motion of the water under the water. 

To be fair, it wasn't the most amazing dive. But still. I felt like I was on the verge of a panic attack the whole time. I just can't describe how uncomfortable I was. 

But I did it! Yay! I faced my fear. And I didn't hold back Nathan from doing it, which was what was really important to me. 

When we got in the boat, I discovered I had total locked jaw. I couldn't open my mouth more than an inch, and when I bit down my top jaw was shifted over to the right and didn't match up with my teeth. Apparently this can happen to new divers, as you bite down on the regulator unnecessarily hard for a long period of time. It went away in about an hour. 

I am proud I was able to do it but unless it was literally the best diving in the entire world, I don't think I could be persuaded to do it again. But I will happily support Nathan... from the shore.

They boated us over to Jungle Beach after scuba and we relaxed and ate lunch for an hour or so. I tried to unwind from my emotionally, and physically draining morning of scuba diving. For as much as everyone had built me up about surfing the day before, I was sufficiently humbled a mere 24 hours later. 

We didn't stay too long because we had scheduled special Sri Lankan Ayurvedic massages. However there were only 4 spots at the really nice spa, and so Nathan and I went by ourselves to the appointment the house manager made for us at another little place. Big mistake.

We took this picture the next morning when we walked by a creepy lot/shack... cuz that's pretty much what the place looked like where we went for massages. It was an old shack, and we were supposed to have a romantic spa couples massage, that my friends is laughable. 

We were separated before we could even realize what was happening. I thought at first they were taking him to change somewhere. No. He never came back.

Picture a dark, dank shack. My room was a closet with two doorways, no doors, one opens into the small "wait room". Picture a "massage table" that was a wooden plank with a thin black vinyl mat on it. The only linen I saw was one raggedy old wash cloth "towel". The first half of the massage was performed while I was sitting in a plastic lawn chair. The busy highway road mere feet away. For ambiance I counted 54 car/truck horns, 3 trains, and 2 trash trucks playing their songs. I endured callused hands scratching all over my body for the longest hour ever. After, when I was slathered in oil, I was taken out back, into open air, before being shown a dingy bathroom that had a shower head on the wall. No soap, no towel, no hot water. 

Nathan and I were both traumatized and at least now have earned the confidence to walk out of any massage at any time.  

Yeah, not the best day I've ever had on vacation. But it was still vacation! I'm honestly not complaining. And good home made food can fix so many things. Dinner that night was wonderful.
In case you are wondering, the other spa was quite nice and Ross and Carrie especially loved their massages. I guess we were the lucky ones who had an "adventure"!

 On our last morning we got up at 6:30am and went to see if we could get some pictures of real fisherman out in the ocean. They had become a visual symbol of Sri Lanka to us and we wanted to capture some of it if we could.

 We learned that each fishing stand or perch is privately owned. If someone puts it out there, you can't just go fish on it. It belongs to whoever put it there.
Just fyi, I haven't altered any of these pictures of course, it really was that picturesque. We were so glad we got up to go see them. It was a memorable morning.

We spent the day laying on the beach under an umbrella, reading our books then shopping for spices and other souvenirs for our children.

We had a delicious Sri Lankan dinner at the famous Fort Printers that is located back in the fort area.
We packed up (can I just mention how easy and fast it is to only pack for myself?!) and headed to bed early since we had to leave at 3 am to drive to the airport and make our flight.
Overall it was a magical vacation that I still feel so unbelievably grateful we were able to take, and to go with dear friends made it all the better. I still can't believe we pulled off a Lane 55 vacation. We left 14 kids on the lane without their parents! (With sitters of course, but still!)
We took some 1,500 pictures between all of us, I tried my best to narrow it down and share the experience, I hope I've done it justice. The sights of Sri Lanka were worth every picture we took. It is a truly, beautiful country.