Blogs from Sri Lanka, Asia - page 125

Journal 9 Wednesday 22nd April Walking home from town there were a couple of interesting points. First an overwhelming bad smell, like a really over ripe French cheese - eppoisses - only worse, and moments later I heard a guy shouting Durian - apparently the most pungent fruit in the world, well it certainly stank. Later a man walked by with a monkey on a chain - something I found utterly discomforting, and yet as I walked on the monkey did not seem in any distress and was walking happily - not on a tight leash, and it could easily have been comparable to someone walking a beloved dog on a lead. The moral dilemmas one finds oneself wrestling with are one of the many interesting facets of travel. I may have expected to be outraged ... read more

Journal 8 Sunday 19th April - Tuesday 21st Cleaning up the old house! We awoke and wandered into town for a quick breakfast after which Nicky and the boys returned to paint some pictures to brighten up the place, and then get on with some cleaning, while I headed off for the first of several trips into town for cleaning supplies. We decided to cut our losses on some things to improve how we feel about here and so I went in search of plastic sheeting to cover any surfaces we were using, some bright cheerful crockery of our own, big plastic buckets, bowls and mops, tupperwares, a variety of scourers and cloths and a selection of vittels. Between my various trips Nicky at her most Susanish performed miracles of cleansing, so we had various spaces ... read more

Friday 17th April After breakfast we took a tuk tuk to Galle Fort and Khalids Guest House. Chatwin would approve of this place, plain white walls, dark floor boards and ceilings, it is calm and simple except the noise of the ice cream vendors outside. With Nick and the boys settling in the rooms I wandered. At the train station I established I could neither reserve seats nor buy tickets in advance. Walking back past the cricket ground I was ushered in to see the ground by the security. Can you imagine that happening at Lords? As I left I wandered up to the walls of the Fort, and bumped into a group of youngsters off to find somewhere to play cricket. They urged me to join them, but I resisted, instead continuing clockwise around the ... read more

Saturday 11th We had a fab morning playing on the beach, which the boys were understandably sorry to leave. We watched Jake carefully and sensibly snorkelling along an inner reef. He came ashore elated with tales of fish, corals and when asked also having seen anemone. We were proud (as so often we are) of his care and delighted in his pleasure. Lunch was a simple vegetable rice after which we headed off on the local bus - actually not overcrowded and a delight. The water safari was wonderful. Within minutes we saw Monitor Lizards and a Jurassic landscape. We were brought a little monkey to hold which felt very odd (liberal thinking modern western morals do not always sit easy here). We also headed to Cinnamon Island where we were fascinated (especially Jake) by being ... read more

Midva se spet in zadnjic oglasava, to potovanje je kar prehitro minilo. Se pa oba strinjava, da je bilo eno boljsih potovanj, ceprav je tezko primerjati potovanja med seboj, ker je vsako nekaj posebnega in prav vsako malo drugacno. Pa ti na koncu vseeno nekatera ostanejo se posebno pri srcu. In imava obcutek, da bo tako s Sri Lanko. Predvsem se bova spominjala ljudi, ki temu otoku dajejo poseben pomen. Nikoli slabe volje, vedno nasmejani in zeljni pogovora, pa ceprav z znanjem le nekaj angleskih besed. Pozdrav na cesti je skorajda obvezen, torej lahko stalno pozdravljas vsakega, ki pride mimo, stoji pred trgovinico ali ponuja taxi prevoz, tukaj imenovan tuk-tuk. Najprej je malo cudno, potem pa se tega navadis in z veseljem odzdravljas. Na splosno so ljudje izredno odprti in prijazni, seveda pa bi vecina rada ... read more