Blogs from Unawatuna, Southern Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 3

For the final leg of our nine week trip we decided to spend a week on the beach having a holiday from our holiday and Unawatuna seemed like the perfect place. We reached Unawatuna by catching two buses after our 7hr long morning safari in Yala National Park. We had decided to book a much nicer hotel for our time in Unawatuna than we would normally stay in; which meant that we looked quite out of place standing in the lobby with crumpled clothes, sweaty faces and dirty packs while the other guests walked around wearing ironed, matching, clean clothes with styled hair and makeup. Despite grand plans of cycling to see the stilt fishermen one day and visiting nearby Galle another, our time in Unawatuna was spent relaxing on the beautiful beach, reading books on ... read more

... war immer mein Vorsatz. Darum ist der kleine Kerl auch vor der Haustür ... ... read more

Im Allgemeinen bekommt man als Tourist in den Tropenparadiesen die klimatischen Auswirkungen der Regenzeit in relativ abgeschwächter Form mit. Ist man hingegen als „Langzeit-Tourist“ oder sogenannter „Expat“ in solchen Breitengraden ansässig, machen sich die Auswirkungen dieser Jahreszeit schon ein wenig vehementer bemerkbar. Man ist von einer unbarmherzigen Feuchtigkeit umgeben, gewaschene Kleider brauchen eine kleine Ewigkeit zum Trocknen, selbst die Teile, die man als „trocken“ erachtet, weisen eine erhebliche Restfeuchte auf. Lüftet man diese nicht regelmäßig in den selten auftretenden Sonnenstrahlen, schleicht sich unweigerlich Bruder Muffel ein. Oder schlimmer noch, Gevatter Schimmel. An Lederschuhe ist schon gar nicht zu denken. Bei uns in Europa verschwendet man keinen Gedanken daran, dass Leder so schnell schimmeln kann. Aber ich versichere Euch: Es kann! Ich frage mich, wie die... read more

As I sit on balcony at different times of the day there is any number of people walking past selling all sorts of things. We have the Maalu (fish) man selling his catch from the mornings run, we have the man selling Kiri which is milk and curd from his buffalo that roams in front of my home, on the weekends we have the ice cream man on his bicycle, his version of green sleeves is a pump type horn incessantly blown down the street (god knows how he keeps the ice cream frozen..), there is also the man selling lottery tickets, he has a microphone hooked up to a car battery attached to the bike and he rides along announcing what lottery is on sale today! And sometimes if you are lucky to be at ... read more

Journey into Sri Lanka 13 June After an odd start at the Sunflower Hotel, Negombo which is no longer the Sunflower, but the Paradise (they changed the name but didn’t tell anyone, even the taxi drivers….) Anyway, turned up there at midnight to a very dark and odd looking place, upon further inspection I realized the place looked like a building site, they were doing renovations, another thing they forgot to mention. So I head into what would be a reception desk to 5 guys hanging around all trying to help me, one with a folder looking official, but having no idea if I should be there or not! At this stage I was getting concerned for my safety, I asked if there were other guests, to which I received no reply, I then asked if ... read more