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Recently I listened to a play about Kafka and his absurdist writings by Alan Bennett. The inimitable Toby Jones played Kafka....Funny how I should bring it to mind as we came through immigration in Bandaranaike Airport.
First stop was the queue at foreign passports. We waited patiently here chatting to a fellow Aussie only to be told we needed to complete an arrival form. A sign or information prior to the queue could possibly have been helpful. The computer forms did not work, impossible to choose the flight number you arrived on so hard forms were searched out and completed. Queued again to be told that although we were only staying for less than two days (supposedly visa free) we need to go the visa office queue. No visa officers in sight, it was past eleven at night. Sorry, say the others in the queue he's gone to do something else! Eventually get to the desk and show him the passports and the booking for Thursday morning's flight. USD 120 he says, but no we're not staying more than two days, then you have to go to Sri Lankan airways desk and get a boarding pass. No argument possible. At
least there was no queue there! The Sri Lankan airways staff member shook her head and told us she would explain to him. Of course they weren't going to give us boarding passes we couldn't even check in! She speaks to him and I think he nods in agreement but I'm not sure. Will we have to go to the back of the queue, Graeme asks? It is of course twice the length it was on our first attempt. Sorry, I think so, she says.
I stand stubbornly at the counter clutching the passports until the lady being served leaves and I push them under the glass not daring to look at the others queueing behind. He stares at them in perplexity. Maybe he couldn't read...maybe it was too late for him and his head hurt. Anyway he took one of the passports into the back office and returns in a few minutes after maybe showing it to a senior official, who knows, who could possibly read English. That sounds terribly condescending but isn't as here, like in India, the bureaucratic language as English persists.
He passes back both passports without even a glance in our direction. We
Contemplative
Or is it jetlag? ruffle through to find if there is a stamp or something to at least prove that we hadn't queued for nothing. There wasn't. Back to the immigration queue, four American girls queueing in front seemed to have problems with their online visas. The officer drifted off accompanied by all of them back to the visa office with a soon come back wave. After a few minutes we decide another queue might be a good idea. Hysteria is definitely beginning to threaten. The next officer says that we'll be fined USD600 each if we overstay our two days. No intention of that, we have daughters to see! But finally we are out of the door and ready to pick up bags.
Everything else was plain sailing, taxi stand staff were friendly, the taxi found the villa with no problem, the house staff were waiting up for us. We collapsed into a well-deserved sleep and opened our eyes to an overcast day threatening rain and a splendid swimming pool beckoning us anyway.
We walked along the road from Villa Sarakuwwa to Dutch Trails, a small resort and restaurant on a slightly wider part of the isthmus. Good seafood and back
Exotic plant
Used to poison fish for another swim and a rest with jet lag threatening.
Spoke to a young Dutch couple the next morning over our splendid breakfast who regaled us with tales of a three week drive around Sri Lanka in a rented Tuk tuk. Sounds interesting! Research needed before we return at the end of the year.
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John and Sylvia
John Wallace & Sylvia Bowman Wallace
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Hi. This is John. I have only just discovered your blogs. Great reading. I am one of the TB moderators and live in Budgewoi, just down the road from you. When you are next home, maybe we can get together for a coffee. If you haven't already arranged it, go up to Nuwara Eliya by train. It is quite an adventure (but make sure you go First Class!). Sylvia and I stayed at the Dilmah tea plantation but I believe it has now been turned into a five star hotel.