I haven’t written for quite a while, I guess this is because the longer you have been in a place the more normal things seem, hence less worth writing about. The minutae of everyday life in South Asia aside I have actually done a few things that probably are worth writing about so I’ll try to describe these all briefly.

England

On Boxing Day I flew out to London for a couple of week’s holiday.  I got an amazingly cheap deal on the flight (only paid $270 US return) so I thought it was worth dropping by for a short visit.  Did all the touristy stuff, big ben, London eye, the tower, st pauls etc etc.  All ok but somehow less awe involved when you’re in a country that has a culture similar to your own.  Inner city London basically feels like Melbourne only 4 times as big and with far more McDonalds (and an “Angus Steakhouse” on every bloody corner – In Australia we don’t have to worry about what sort of cow the steak comes from – it’s all just good.  Apparently the English don’t have the same luxury).  While I was there I did mange to catch up with a mate from Sri Lanka, Matt, who was home for the holidays and had a few big nights out – many beers, a jug of long island iced tea, some dodgy latino nightclubs and dinner with Oxford girls, pretty good really.  Also caught up with Mim out at oxford itself (note:Mim is separate to aforementioned Oxford Girls).

France

Also managed to head over to Paris for a week which was great, the city looked just like you would imagine paris to be.  Had an absolute ball there.  Had another big night at an Australian bar where the barstaff (aussies)  gave me free drinks all night because I was the only other Australian in there (lots of French men drinking rather feminine cocktails for a so called pub).  Vaguely recall discussing French politics with two guys I met there and possibly dancing on a table with some polish girls.  Felt very very sick the next day.

After that I stayed with my Cousin and his wife for a few days. They live in paris, quite close to the arc de triomphe, very sweet deal.  Another sweet deal is the working conditions in france (socialism sounds very good to me now), 8 weeks annual leave, subsidised canteen where you can get a 3 course meal with wine for around5 euro for lunch, it’s perfectly acceptable to turn up to work around 10am (although you do work until about 7 in the evening – but so do plenty of people in Aus) and an office concierge who takes care of all the boring stuff like getting your drycleaning for you.  Brilliant.

Colombo (not quite the same really)

Back in Sri Lanka I managed to get around the country a bit for my last couple of months.  A group of us hiked up to Adams peak, one of the highest mountains on the island at 2200m and a sacred site for Buddhists.  At the top there is a tiny temple with a Buddha in a glass case where locals pay their respects.  There is (or would be) an incredible view from the summit except that this is mostly obscured by buildings, tv antenna’s and water tanks (there is a monastery up there too).  The monks that built the temple obviously so devout that they considered all the focus to be inward toward the temple rather than out toward the view.  Despite this if you cram onto the stairs leading up to the shrine you can get pretty amazing view of the sunrise.  To get there in time for this we had to leave our hotel at 2.30 am and at 2200m the summit of adams peak in the one place in si lanka that is actually cold, particularly at 5 in the morning.  This did provide us with one of the more amusing sights of my stay in Sri Lanka which was the sight of hundreds of locals who had made the pilgrimage wrapped in towels and sheets attempting to stay warm.  Most Sri Lankans have likely never experienced temperatures below 25 degrees let alone the 6 with a cold wind at the top and thus a) have a look of fear and bewilderment fixed on their faces and b) they don’t own anything even remotely resembling cold weather gear hence the towels in a rather futile attempt to keep warm.  I’ve never seen any Sri Lankans move so fast as those that practically started running downhill as soon as the sun was up.

Otherwise I have mostly been up to the following;

All you can eat (and drink) champagne brunch at the Cinnamon Grand.

Jazz at the rugby club on Sunday afternoons (usually following the aforementioned brunch – had a few very rough Monday mornings)

Met Hayley and hung out with her quite a lot.

In Feb (I think) we went to Elephant polo at Galle – very slow, very little skill, quite boring but they did have a beer tent so things ended up ok there.

Went to various Colombo casinos – felt important with my thousand rupee notes – unfortunately did not run into “john the bookie” who was a regular at some of these places a few years back.  (cricket people will know what I’m talking about)

Watched a lot of cricket and drank a lot of beer.

Played golf at the best golf course in South Asia. Rich organised a trip up there with a great bunch of people – very swish cabins and an amazing course – the pictures do not do it justice.  We each had our own caddy – all golf pro’s and ball spotters who would plunge headlong into dense snake infested scrub and come out soon after with any mis-struck balls that we had given up on.  I managed to shoot a 99 (which is actually pretty good for me), mostly due to the coaching of my caddy and possibly due to some dubious score keeping on his part too – I’m claiming the win though as it was a hard fought day out between Byron and myself.

I also had a weekend away with Hayley at Amanwella which is THE BEST resort on the island (at US$800 a night it would want to be).  I didn’t pay anything like that amount of course – I won 2 nights there at a ball held by the british high commission last December.  Can’t really describe how good this place was, you are treated like royalty the whole time.  Whenever you begin to think about ordering a drink or some food a waiter would mysteriously appear from around a corner and offer you a drink.  If you sat down by the pool someone would bring out a glass of water within seconds, this was then replaced every time it got below half of if the ice melted.

The only down side about this place is that it was 6 hours drive away (and it’s so expensive that I’ll never be able to afford to go there again).  We stopped at it’s sister resort Amangalla (in Galle) for dinner on the way down and bumped into Scarlett Johansen who was having a drink at a table near us.  She kept making eye contact with me but I think she was a bit too shy to come over and say hello – I can be intimidating like that sometimes.  Also the fact that I was having dinner with Hayley may have had something to do with it.

Anyway, that about wraps up my time in Sri Lanka.  Back home now and could write a whole new blog about all the weird stuff I’ve noticed hear since I’ve been away.  Don’t worry I won’t though.  Seriously though, have Australian men gotten a lot more gay since I’ve been away? What’s up with that?