Ella

---

It was nice to have a few rainy days . I can not tell a lie ,the heat and the humidity are very wearing on me . I do not like it ! I am quite sure this is my last Asian trip . I think I knew that but I had to see the last country of the "Top10 in Asia"...right ?

Tea country is beautiful . The hills/mountains are terraced and lush with tea plants . They pick each plant once a week and it is really hard work . It seems to be women who do the picking . I do not know where the men are . I have come to the conclusion that most people here are very poor by our standards. The Tuk tuk drivers charge and earn a pittance . Yesterday we walked up and down 1.5 km through the forest to reach the 9 Arches bridge , an amazing site , and chose to take a tuk back . It probably took @30 minutes . At some point it was so steep the machine was really labouring , and it cost 1000rupees. That would be @7 Canadian $.He had charged more because of the rain and the fact that parts of the road ( dirt path in parts) was washed out .The usual price was 800R. I do know most people have gardens and by and large are vegetarians but it must be hard . Education is free and compulsory from 3-16 but you still need to buy a uniform and some paper supplies . Life is not easy .



When I arrived in Colombo I was amazed at all the construction sites ...A lot of them ! But they appeared to be abandoned. It turns out he Chinese has loaned the Sinhalese the financing for the building . The catch is they did not loan money they loaned labour . Hundreds of Chinese labourers had been working here but when the corona virus hit , the workers were all taken back to China ..people here think is was to build the hospitals to house those infected by the virus . No one knows when they will return and continue building and there are concerns about them returning with the virus. All is at a stand still . .

Enough . Today we are off to a national park . Our safari will take us through forest where there are many leopards ...I have my camera battery charging as I write this.

Hope all is well with you and yours. Do keep I touch .

---

Comments

[Shirley]

Morning!
Hey, it’s starting to get light out when I head to work in the morning; what a wonderful time of year! Spring is on its way.

[Mo]

Elephants and Leopards
Your contact with elephants fascinated me. Next you wrote of leopards. They are so beautiful so I hope that you saw some and were able to get the photograph you spoke of. Sorry that the humidity is slowing you down.

[Dorina]

Catching up
Hello, Pam we trust you are not seeing or hearing of any cases of the virus. Use lots of soap & water. I do not envy you the 32 degrees, do hope your room is cool every night. We had nice weather all last week. High 70’s but no humidity. We do have rain today and a cold front coming on, it may freeze tomorrow night. Busy couple of weeks here, Senior games. Tomorrow I have a committee set up to judge cakes, next week cupcakes and on Sunday three of us judged cornbread. I plan to enter A contest too with matrimonial cake & a Butter tart squares. Take care.