Blogs from Western Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 26

Unfortunately I was delayed a week from starting at the resource centre, due to falling victim to a scam and numerous trips to Colombo to ensure I got my money back. The police were very supportive (even refusing a bribe to drop my case) and they all know me up there now. I finally got to visit the centre last Friday and attended the foundation laying ceremony for the building of a new two storey facility last Sunday. It was blessed by a couple of monks and attended by the founder Dr Jayasena and his wife (his daughter is a doctor currently working in Hartlepool!). I’ve discovered they have lots of problems with the PCs used for computer studies due to the humidity, sea-salt and the sheer age of this rag-bag of donated machines. I’m going ... read more

Hello all, Sorry it's been a while since my last posting, I've been too preoccupied with Sri Lanka to sit still long enough to write a blog! First off, Sri Lanka is hands down superior to India. The people are friendly, the food is superb, and the country as a whole actually values it's image as a tourist friendly land. Just sitting in a restaurant or passing time in a train station, people will just come by and start up a conversation............with no hidden agenda..........to just see who you are and find out whether you are enjoying your holiday. This is mind-boggling compared to the touts in India that are always trying to make a buck off of a tourist. AND THE FOOD IS GREAT! It is like ingesting a fire-ball. Everything comes coated in chilies ... read more

Hi Everybody! If I ever take a trip like this again, I am not going to arrive or depart an airport after dark. It is frightening to go into an unknown place and especially at night. On our flight, there was one Caucasian lady. We approached her when the plane landed and asked her a couple of questions. She worked for the Asia Foundation, a human rights organization. We were thankful for her help and advice. We were able to locate a kiosk run by our hotel, the Colombo Hilton. They got us a taxi and we felt safe leaving in it. We had to ride approximately 40 minutes to the hotel. We were stopped numerous times by the military police. The driver would turn on the inside light, the police would shine a light on ... read more

Serendipity in Sri Lanka (2004)-Part I This is not a thesis about Serendipity in Physics, Chemistry or Biology or any other science, but a blog about how I found THE star sapphire in Sri Lanka, which I was searching for in Nepal. Please refer to my blog Kathmandu Nostalgia, and my misconceptions about the ‘Polarization Effect In Star Sapphire”. Well, I owed it to Bunny. I had to buy a star sapphire for her now (And, of course for Bambi also) or bust, and I DID go bust in buying the start sapphire, believe me. We went to Sri Lanka just before the Tsunami of 26 Dec. 2004. (And that is why the tsunami affected us more than it normally would have done. We could picture exactly the sports stadium in Galle as well as ... read more

So, our adventures have led us to Sri Lanka. Adam and I arrived in Colombo after 32+ hours of travel. We left from Atlanta, GA on Friday night, Aug. 25 and arrived in Sri Lanka on Sunday night, Aug. 27. Amazingly, it was not too bad, despite the fact that I badly injured my pinky toe while packing the night before we left Atlanta. I'm pretty sure I broke something since it is sticking out the wrong way, bruised and swollen nearly 5 days later. I even got wheelchair assistance in Hong Kong. Another wheelchair was requested for arrival in Sri Lanka, but after getting off the plane, it looked easier to just limp my way out instead of wait for someone to come wheel me to a lift somewhere, just to go up half a ... read more