Blogs from Sri Lanka, Asia - page 8

12.7. Bambeille ja lehmille pääsy sallittu Joo, ei se illallinen mikään mindblowing ollut, mutta kyllä se ehdottomasti hyvää oli. Tuli kyllä syötyä taas ihan liikaa kun jo kylläisenä huomattiin pihalla oleva grilli, josta sai isoja katkarapuja ja jotain kalaa. Ei siis vain voinut jättää väliin... Seuraavana aamuna meidät haettiin hotellista 6.30 ja vaihdettiin toiselle rannalle sukeltamaan. Oli aivan mielettömän kiva pieni hippityylinen majoituspaikka Trincon kaupungin lähellä lahden poukamassa. Lähdettin sukeltamaan ja onneksi oli toinen dive master tällä kertaa mukana. Ihan käsittämätön kohlaaja se tän alueen sukellusgurun poika, jota itseään ei homma selkeästi kiinnosta tippaakaan. Valitin rikkinäisestä vararegusta ennen sukellusta ja vastasi tyyliin "no worry". Onneksi toinenkin tyyppi oli mukana ja regu vaihdettiin. Tämä toimi kuin ihan o... read more

Saavuttiin Trincoon lopulta joskus 7.30. Heti tuli ovista ja ikkunoista tuktuk-kuskeja tarjoamaan reissua Nilavelin rannalle, jonne oltiin menossa. Yksi tyyppi tuli ylimyymään ja ns kusettamaan, koska tarjosi 800 rupialla reissua, jonka toinen tarjosi vieressä 400 rupialla. No euroissa ei ole hirveästi eroa, mutta se halvempi oli muutenkin luotettavamman oloinen. Juuri ennen riksaan hyppäämistä tuli kolmas kaveri, joka sanoi tulleensa hakemaan meitä. MITÄ? Ei me mitään oltu tilattu eikä kukaan ollut infonnut. Lisäksi toi on ihan peruskusetus. No mentiin siihen halvan kaverin kyytiin, joka alkoi tietty vänkäämään perillä tuplahintaa. No ei maksettu kun potutti niin paljon sen touhu. Lopulta selvisi, että se tuplahinta on normaalihinta, jota pyydetään Sri Lankalaisilta. Hävettää... Mentiin sukelluskeskukseen tsekkaamaan seuraavan pvn sukelluksia ja sinne tulee dive... read more

Monday to Thursday involved all the regular duties of working with the turtles and teaching English. On Wednesday I managed to convince a group of tourists that we were doctors of marine biology and Lucy convinced them that Amy had been knighted by the queen. On Thursday we started teaching at a new temple which was quite challenging as all the students spoke only a small amount of English so we were starting from scratch. We left on Friday after breakfast for Kandy. We took the train from Colombo which was a very sceneic as it wound all through the highlands however there were some scary moments where there were sharp drops next to the railway track. We got to Kandy and then spent a couple of hours looking round the town, in the evening we ... read more

We began the week with cleaning the tanks again! In the afternoon we met the 6 new volunteers so it is now a bit of a squeeze in the house! We taught English in the afternoon which was quite intimidating as all the new volunteers were watching us. For tea we got to try curd which is made from buffalo milk and treacle and it was really tasty! We also had some arrack which was good! On Tuesday morning we were weaving and we got told we would be allowed to progress to actual weaving on Wednesday rather than just straightening straw! The newspaper came as they were doing a story on us volunteers and we had our pictures taken for the newspaper which was good fun as we had to pose and pretend we could ... read more

On the 19th June I got a call from Chintake from Mihintale to say that there was a Nidane that was discovered in 1977 and now displayed in a nearby village by the a Chief Monk of that temple. Around the 3rd Century BC, some Buddhist statues made out of pure gold encrusted with large precious stones had been buried underground and out of reach of the then Kings from India that invaded the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. You should note that I have no intention of going into detail about the history and the names of past Kings etc. There are many books written on these subjects and frankly it’s boring to write leave alone read about it. Since I write this blog with a view to create interest about my country and not ... read more