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?

Nepal November 10^th – 25^th

I had a 3.30am flight to Nepal (actually the first of 3 flights to get to Nepal via India) so I did what anyone would do ant went out to dinner and then to the pub before getting a taxi to the airport just after midnight.  My first flight went to Chennai in southern India then it was on to Delhi and finally Kathmandu over 12 hours.  Despite the fact I was flying with the same airline the whole way I was they wouldn’t link check my baggage to Kathmandu so I had to collect it and recheck it each time.  After clearing immigration in Chennai, picking up my bag, walking 300m to the domestic terminal, re-checking my bag, being frisked, scanned, searched about 5 times and waiting 2 hours I was put on a bus and taken back down the tarmac to board the same plane I’d arrived on for my flight to Delhi.  I went through this process all over again at Delhi only this time it was a different plane and I got absolutely fleeced by the taxi driver who drove me between terminals (it was a fair bit more than 300m at Delhi).  When I finally arrived at Kathmandu I was exhausted, I didn’t really sleep much on the plane although I do vaguely remember being woken up for a meal on one flight with drool on my chin so that was fairly embarrassing.

Kathmandu is situated in a valley at 1350m above sea level so the cool weather was great after living in Sri Lanka for 7 months (32 degrees… every… single… day…).  There are also lots of cool restaurants there and Thamel, where I was staying is a great little tourist area in the city.  Every second shop sells climbing and trekking gear and the others all sell souveniers.  The place is full of travelers either embarking on or returning from trekking tours or people hanging about pretending they are alternative and cool because there doing nothing in Kathmandu instead of Thailand.  There also seems to be a mindset that it is also ok for men to where tights as an outer garment here, especially with hiking boots and a polarfleece jacket.  This crime against fashion is mostly perpetrated by Europeans and is even more common once you get up into the mountains but I think is especially unforgiveable in a city.

Our trek started with a flight into Lukla at 2800m which is the starting off point for all trekking & climbing in the Everest region.  On the side of the steep hill the runway at lukla “airport” is about 200m long and runs up hill so that the plane stops almost as soon as it touches the ground, quite an experience to land on as it feels like you’ve just dropped out of the sky and landed on the spot.

It took us 7 days to reach base camp with a couple of acclimatization stops along the way where we would stay in the same place for 2 nights but ascend 4-500m during the day and come back down.  The landscape was quite different to what I had expected, the path very dry and dusty and vegetation larger than a bush disappeared above 4000m.   The snowline didn’t begin until almost 5000m and even then it was patchy  and only on the shaded side of the valley.  The trail was crowded with hundreds of trekkers, Yaks, porters and Sherpas going about their business.  For the first few days there were villages every few kilometers but the higher up we got the less common these became.  Similarly the price of food and water increased the further along we got.  There are no roads anywhere in this region and everything is either brought in by porters carried on their backs or by Yak.  Obviously the higher and further someone has to carry something the more expensive it will be.  After seeing what these guys do every day any pretense of toughness I might have had previously has definately vanished.  Most of the porters are little over 5 foot tall but carry between 40-70kg on the back, walking for up to 9 hours a day in high altitude.  This trek was hard enough carrying a day pack with a couple of bottles of water and a camera.

The altitude started to affect me at about 3400m, I woke up one morning in Namche where we had stayed 2 nights with a light headache which gradually got worse the further up we went, the day we reached base camp I had completely lost my appitite (though whether this was altitude sickness or the quality of food I am not sure) and thought I was going to throw up just walking along a path.  I had thought beforehand that the altitude would simply mean it was harder to breather and it would be more of an effort to walk so the headaches and nausea were definitely unexpected and very unpleasant, particularly when added to the effects of some more common travelers afflictions.

Base camp itself is a fairly plain place despite being at 5363m, at the bottom of the Nuptse, one of the peaks that shares a ridge with Everst it is basically just a rocky patch of glacier that is cleared every spring when the climbing expeditions arrive.  The only sign of its existence on our visit is a small monument (which must have to be moved every year to prevent it gradually being carried away by the ice flow) and the wreckage of a crashed helicopter that no-one has bothered to remove – understandable given it would have to be carried out by hand.  You can’t actually see Everest from base camp either, the peak is obscured by the surrounding ridge but the scenery is spectacular none the less.

The following day before beginning our descent we climbed to the summit of Kala Pattar which is 5545m and has the best views of Everest from the Nepal side (the Tibetan border was quite close by – but is former by a ridge about 6500m high so couldn’t see much).  This was pretty much the hardest thing I have ever done.  We left at 5.30am for the 2 hour climb to the top, the overnight temperature had been -12 but when we left had warmed to around -8, I had a throbbing headache and could barely breathe with the cold and low oxygen.  By the time we neared the summit I was almost crawling over the rocks and was breathing like I had just finished a 400m sprint but it was well worth it for the view at the top.  Out of 12 on the group only 5 of us attempted Kala Pattar and thankfully we all made it (although one girl did get a lift on our guide, Gelu’s shoulders for a couple of hundred meters along the way).  All of us could barely move up at the top while our guides looked like they had just strolled down to the shops.

After Kala Pattar we began our hike back towards Lukla and some form of civilization, dropping from 5545m down to 4060m in a day definitely helped with the altitude sickness and arriving in Namche at 3400m the next day was even better – not least because that was the only place where we could have a hot shower, our first in 6 days and because we could finally have a beer.

A few days later and we were back in Kathmandu, luckily we got out of Lukla on our scheduled flight, the airport had been clouded in for 5 days before hand and there was a backlog of people trying to get out (scheduled flights have priority but if you are not able to depart on the correct day you go to the back of the queue).  Lots of very anxious travelers at the airport when we departed who were no doubt keen to get home, many had missed international flights out of Kathmandu, one group we met had even charted a helicopter to pick them up that morning at US$600 each.

From Kathmandu (after a hot shower, a decent meal and a few quick stops at  Durbur Square and the Monkey Temple) it was on to India for my 24 hr stopover in Delhi.  After all the horror stories I’d heard about India I was dreading spending a day there but was pleasantly surprised to find that the place is actually really nice (at least the bits I saw).  I didn’t have to be at the airport until 3.30 in the afternoon so I crabbed a taxi and went around to see a few sights in the city and found the place really clean, no-one hassled me, the taxi driver didn’t rip me off and when I went to a temple or monument “guides” would ask if I needed help and then simply say good bye and walk off when I said I didn’t.  It was all very weird compared to the usually treatment you get as a tourist in this part of the world.  What was also a bit weird was the chicken maharaja mac I had at McDonalds but better than getting delhi belly on a one day stopover.

Back in Colombo now with about 3 weeks to go before I finish up and head to Europe for a couple of weeks so probably won’t write again before I’m home.  For anyone else reading this thanks for putting up with my blogs/winges while I’ve been away.

Cheers, Sam.

Thailand, September 14-17^th

I’ve been in Sri Lanka about 4 months now and it seemed like it was time to get off the island – 18 million people in a place little bigger than Tasmania can get quite crowded – so I planned a trip to Thailand for a 4 day weekend.  Now when I say planned I am being a little generous with the word – what I in fact did was book flights to Thailand and buy a copy of lonely planet.   The extent of my lack of planning is demonstrated by the fact that I woke up last Wednesday morning thinking how good it would be tomorrow when I was on my way to Bangkok.  I got to about 11am that morning when I realize my flight was leaving at 1.25am Thursday and I actually had to be at the airport that night.  Still I managed to get there in the end despite leaving packing until after work and turning up the airport with little more than a plane ticket and an overpriced guidebook.

My lack of foresight again shone through when I arrived at Bangkok International and it occurred to me that maybe I should have looked into this visa thingy that lots of countries get hung up about.  Luckily though (or so I thought), there was a big sign which said “Visa on arrival” so I filled out a form and lined up.  An HOUR AND A HALF later I was nearing the front of the queue (this was the queue to be let into the waiting area where you took a number and waited to have your visa processed) when another Australian got to the front, showed his documents and was promptly told “oh your Australian – you don’t have to line up just go straight through the immigration counter”.  Five minutes later I was in a taxi on my way into town.

On a different topic I can’t say I think very much of economy class on international flights.  Until now the only other times I’ve flown overseas has been business class thanks to some good luck on my part and company policy regarding flights longer than 3 hours.  You don’t get your own TV, the in flight movie is shit and there’s no-one to bring you a Johnnie Walker Black whenever you want it.  I’m spoilt I know but when you’re used to something it’s hard to adjust.

Back to Thailand, for some reason I was expecting it to be pretty much the same as Sri Lanka, I was very wrong.  People in cars are civilized, bus drivers aren’t trying to kill you, even tuk tuk drivers are reasonable, if you don’t agree on a price they leave you alone to bargin with someone else – not tell you their life story and the history of the petroleum ministry.  The infrastructure there is also fantastic, trains run every few minutes, they’re all clean and never crowded, all the streets are wide, clean and well maintained.  It’s also possible to get real ham (not fake chicken ham) and orange juice for less than the price of a bottle of grange.  All this might seem pretty normal to people back home but after living here they are definitely luxuries.  Someone in Thai Government got a few things right a while back.

My first day, I did very little apart from find a hotel (hadn’t organized one of those before I left either) which I did in Koh Sarn Rd, the backpacker hangout in Bangkok.  I have never seen so many people who exactly fit the “traveler” stereotype in one place.  If I had one baht for every person with fishermans pants, dreadlocks and braided hair I would be very rich – exchange rate and all.  I also did a bit of shopping, mainly for my trip to Nepal in November so got some decent shoes and a warm jacket (this may not seem relevant now but will make slightly more sense later on).

Friday I did a tour to Kanchanburi province which is about and hour and a half west of Bangkok and is where the bridge on the river kwai is located.  The tour took us to an allied war cemetery and the bridge itself.  This is not the original bridge of course but a slightly newer one built in the same place.  I actually went whit water rafting on the river where the movie was filmed the weekend before (it was filmed in Sri Lanka) so have been very involved with both cinematic and wartime history recently.  We also took a ride along the railway that allied prisoners of war and local labourers built for the Japanese during world war 2.  This is known locally as the “Death Railway” as something like 120,000 people died during its construction, 80,000 of which were locals.  Until now things had been going pretty well but after these attractions however the tour fell into disarray.  When we were all picked up that morning, we were loaded into 4 or 5 minibusses and all given different stickers which we had to put on our shirts to indicate what tour we were on (I had a pink triangle).  I suspect this was ruse however as the tour people seemed to be making it up as they went along.  There were some people who though we were going to see some temple where Buddhist monks keep tigers as pets and you can feed them (literally perhaps you feed them) and some going to the war memorial at Hellfire Pass.  Both of which I had hoped to see.  What I got however was a crappy elephant ride which went about 400 metres in a circle and took half an hour and put on a “traditional” raft with no engine and one paddle and pushed down stream in the rain.  I think traditional might be another work for shit in Thailand – there was a token shelter on the raft but it did absolutely nothing to keep 6 of us dry for the 30 minute trip.  After that we were taken to some waterfall which was pretty good but waterfalls are always good so nothing particularly special there. 

That night I went to a night market in Pattaya in Central Bangkok which gets a good write up although as with any market it’s basically the same 5 stalls repeated over and over.  The interesting/weird thing about this market was that it was located down a street which has “go-go” bars lining each side.  In Thailand a “go-go” bar is pretty much a table top dancing club, the doors to which are all wide open so you can see exactly whats going on inside from the street.  As you walked along guys would come running out and try to convince you come and see one of the “shows” on offer – as this is a family blog I will not go into any further detail about what these shows purportedly entailed. 

The next day I took the train up to Ayuthaya, which was the country’s capital for 400 years or so about 90km north of Bangkok.  Here there are ruins of many of the old Khmer temples which are quite spectacular and the city itself is an island surrounded by a river so you have to take a ferry across from the train station.  There were bridges but they were a fair way away.  I saw about 6 temples in Ayuthaya and ended up getting motorcycle taxis around most of the day – you just jump on the back of a motorbike or scooter with a guy in a green vest and they take you wherever you want to go for about a $1.  All this was pretty good but once you’ve seen 3 or 4 temples they all kind of look the same.

On Sunday, my final day in Thailand I raced around Bangkok trying to see all the big tourist things before I had to head to the airport that night and my feet gave out.  First thing in the morning I went to the Grand Palace and the temple of the emerald Buddha.  If a Thai person ever describes something as “grand” to me in the future I will certainly take notice, this place was amazing.  All the buildings were covered in gold and glass mosaic and ornately decorated and the gardens were immaculately kept.  The Thai’s have a fair eye for landscape gardening too it seems.  As for the interiors, where Sri Lankan Buddhist temples are a bit garish and over done, Thai temples are amazingly extravagant yet tasteful and understated.  The intricate patterns in the ceiling and columns and painting on the walls were impressive enough but the emerald Buddha itself (actually it’s made of jade but someone thought it was emerald a long time ago) is fantastic despite its diminutive size.  Unfortunately you’re not allowed to take photographs inside the temple so I have nothing to show for all this talking up of interior design.

IT was then on to Jim Thompson’s’ house who was an American who moved to Thailand after the second world war.  He is almost single handedly responsible for the revival of the Thai silk trade and had a vast textile and fabric empire until he mysteriously disappeared while on holiday in Malaysia, back in the 60’s I think.  In addition to being a silk merchant he was also a trained architect and he build his house from traditional Thai homes which he took from around the country and rebuilt and joined together in Bangkok.  The house is now a museum and has some great artifacts of Thai culture that this guy was able to acquire. 

Finally I went to Chatuchang weekend market which in the largest in Thailand, again basically the same 5 stall repeated, just about 500 times over.  I would estimate (conservatively) that this place was at least 4 times the size of the Queen Vic market (and had a lot of the same stuff).  By this stage my feet were more sore than they had ever been.  The first day I was in Bangkok I wore thongs around all day and did a lot of walking, by the time I got back to my hotel that night I could barely walk because my ankle was so bad.  Hence I decided o wear my new walking shoes I had just bought (I told you that was relevant) for the rest of the weekend which of course were not worn in.  So in addition to having a badly swollen ankle it felt like the entire soles of my feet were turning into one huge blister and here I was in the biggest market I have ever seen.  Luckily there were no women with me and I was able to do a quick lap and get out of there.  I cannot imagine the pain if I had been dragged around to every clothing store in the place by some girl on a bargain hunting spree.

From there I had a few hours to kill (which I did sitting down) before heading to the airport for the flight back to Sri Lanka.  I would definitely like to head back to Thailand and actually get around the country a bit more as there is so much to see.  I didn’t even get near any of the beaches or to Chiang Mai in the north.

The other thing I should mention is that a day after I leave the place the military comes in and takes over the country.  Although from what I can tell it is the softest coup of all time – not shots fired and everyone loves the army now.  The Thaksin guy who was PM must be feeling a little unpopular right now.  Despite the travel warnings now is probably a really great time to go to Thailand if anyone is considering it, the crowds will be down and you can probably pick up a good deal on flights and a hotel.  One thing I’ve learnt from living here is the Australian Government (through DFAT) always overstates the danger and are pretty much just covering their arses when the say not to travel somewhere.

Anyway that’s all for now hopefully I can get the photo’s uploaded and there is something a bit more interesting than me saying everything is amazing or spectacular all the time.

Cheers, Sam.

Tuesday August 22^nd – Colombo

So it has been some time since I last updated my journal.  The reason being that nothing of note has happened lately, at least not that I was directly involved in.  Mostly my life has been fairly mundane, going to the office and the gym every day and back to my modest 3 bedroom “fortress of solitude” in a nearby suburb. 

Because I realized recently I have only a few more months here (it is only 7 1/2 weeks now) I’ve been trying to get out a bit on my weekends.  Mostly I have been heading down to Unawatuna, a beach resort about 120km down the coast (it takes three hours to get there though) which has been pretty good.  There are a lot of travelers there and there is a beach party on every Friday and Saturday (at the same 2 restaurants – and with the same DJ with the same playlist) so it’s a pretty good night out.  Plus the place where I stay is next door to Friday nights venue (the Happy Banana) so I don’t have much choice but to go along – I can’t get to sleep until the night winds down anyway.  Accommodation here is ridiculously cheap – my usual room is $13 US a night but last weekend I upgraded to a $20 a night room with air conditioning, a standard meal costs around $3 and a longneck stubbie $2 so it’s a fairly idyllic place.  I will try to put some photo’s up of the area – some of it is pretty nice. 

One of the interesting “cultural” quirks of Sri Lankan beach towns is the population of “beach boys” (not the Californians who sing in harmony).  Beach boys are young Sri Lankan males who hang around the beach all day, smoking marijuana (among other things) and trying to pick up white girls (which to be fair they are reasonably adept at – more so than me anyway).  They are most active on Friday and Saturday nights at whatever venue is hosting that nights’ party.  No sooner has a girl or group of girls stepped onto the dance floor than they are surrounded by long haired locals in tight t-shirts trying to dance in close.  They are also quite “protective” of what they perceive to be “their” girls (any girl in the place).  Last Friday I was standing at the bar when waiting for a drink when a girl stood in the spot next to me to order.  Within 10 seconds a beach boy had wedged himself into the non-existent space between us with his back to me to make sure I had no chance of starting a conversation with “his” girl.  It’s pretty funny to watch if you stand back and observe how they operate. There must not be many groups of blokes traveling through Unawatuna though because I’m sure these guys would get beaten up pretty regularly if there were.  Getting sheparded away from any girl that walks past – especially when you are just talking to someone else (or if the girl is good looking) does get on your nerves a bit.

I also spent a weekend at the Cinnamon Grand – my favorite hotel here.  It’s a bit more expensive but still very cheap by Australian standards – probably on a par with the Hyatt but for $70 a night (with my UN ID special discount)  The South African Cricket team was staying there at the same time I was and mostly they could be found at the bar by the pool drinking beer.  Surprisingly it was Castle Larger – their sponsor – not sure how they got that over here – the hotel must have stocked it specifically.  I only left the hotel once over the weekend and that was to get lunch so it was pretty relaxing – the pool there is great and because the lobbies and all the restaurants are air conditioned its nice to walk around without sweating for a change.  The hotel also happened to be just across the road from where Friday night drinks were so it was an easy stagger home.

Back in the real world there has been quite a lot of violence in the North and East of the country.  It may have been reported back home about the Tigers closing off a sluice gate which supplies irrigation to a government controlled area to the south.  This has triggered a month of fighting which doesn’t look likely to end anytime soon and has meant that I am unable to travel to Jaffna, Trincomalee and Killinochi where I was due to do some field visits over the last few weeks – coincidently Jaffna and Trinco are the towns where most of the fighting is taking place and Killinochi is usually described as a “rebel stronghold” so I might be sitting around the office waiting for a while yet. 

The sluice gate that was at the centre of all this is the most pathetic looking thing to fight about – it’s just a small valve in a canal that looks more like an open drain.  I’m fairly sure if the army had anyone who was a decent shot with a mortar one round would have destroyed the weir, water flows again, problem solved.  Unfortunately no-one seems to think like that here.  The army has been just as big a cause of the problems as the Tamil Tigers, at one stage the Tigers were on their way to open the gate with the head of the peace monitoring mission (who had informed the army he was on his way) and the army opened fire with heavy artillery and nearly shelled his 4wd.  Both sides blatantly lie about everything from casualty figures to who started what and there is a lot of blame being passed back and forth over 17 aid workers who were executed in Trinco.  Personally my money is on the army given that 16 of them were Tamils and the investigation has basically been swept under the rug.  I’m painting a bit of a bleak picture about this but for the most part life goes on as normal in Colombo and we just hear half fabricated reports from the mostly government controlled media.  It’s almost as if it’s all happening in another country, certainly at no point have I felt in any danger. 

We’ve even had 2 bombs go off here in Colombo in the past fortnight (thanks no-one for checking if I was still alive) but even then I tend to view these things with a sense of detachment.  The first was a few km’s south of here and I happened to be meeting some people round the corner from where it happened later that night.  It was a bit weird walking across the intersection where it happened – there was glass still on the road and a bit of police tape – but everything else had been cleared away and traffic was still going through.  My tuk tuk driver had been a bit nervous though when I told him where I wanted to be dropped off. 

The second was quite close to the office – about 1 ½ kms away and along the road I go when I head into town.  It was reported as an attack on the Pakistani Ambassador but I’m not sure that the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) are that organized – I suspect they were just trying to get the army truck that was escorting him – the army barracks is just down the road and there would be trucks heading down there all the time so probably just bad luck on the Pakistani’s part – although he was unhurt.  Again everything was cleared away and life returned to normal pretty quickly.  Sri Lankans seem to take these things in their stride and don’t get too worked up about them.  This incidentally was the blast the made the South African Cricket team decide to abandon their tour which they have been absolutely slated for in the press here.  The media in Sri Lanka is not above mudslinging, particularly when it comes to foreign sporting teams.  The South Africans have been called cowards, it’s been suggested they left because they were worried about losing the one dayers, the Australian team has even been dragged into it for their refusal to come here during the 1995 world cup after a similar blast.   In fact every cancelled tour or match for the last 20 years has been blamed on foreign teams not being man enough to come and play here (that’s the description used in the papers). 

Another interesting aside to this whole ”civil war” thing is that there was a peace rally here the other day organized by anti war Buddhist monks.  The demonstration was then disrupted by (I shit you not) pro war Buddhist monks who got up on stage and tried to take over.    Who has ever heard of pro war Buddhist monks.  I like to imagine they are like those Shoalin fighting monks who are all kung foo experts but unfortunately there was no Jackie Chan style action on the TV coverage.  Only in Sri Lanka.  I wonder if the pro war monks also like to go deer hunting and get in bar fights.  Perhaps George Bush should get some of these guys when he is up for re-election – I mean if a Buddhist monk says’ it’s ok…..

I will leave it there for this entry.  Am hoping to get to some of the more interesting (less civil war type) locations in Sri Lanka before I leave so will write more when I have seen some of those.

Wednesday 5^th July

Finally I have something a bit more interesting than the oddities of life in a foreign country to write about.  The last two weekends I have done some traveling and got to see a few of the more picturesque and culturally significant locations that Sri Lanka has to offer.  First we headed to Unawatuna on the south coast just a few minutes past the city of Galle (we being myself and Sam who dropped by on her way home from Europe – not talking about myself in the third person or making up imaginary friends – not yet anyway).  Unawatuna is a beach resort that during the tourist season is packed with backpackers and surfers but at the moment is relatively quiet.  It is a small bay crowded with restaurants and bars on the beach and home to many small hotels and guest houses.  There looked to be a half decent wave off the point (next to the Buddhist temple) but I didn’t take the board down so didn’t get to check it out for myself – will have to go back sometime soon – a room at one of the little hotels on the beach can be had for about $15 US at this time of year so it’s a good option for a weekender.  We spent most of our time here relaxing and took a walk around the Galle fort on Sunday before heading back to Colombo on Sunday afternoon.

The fort is pretty cool and I think was first constructed by the Dutch around the 1500’s and then later added to when the British took over.  It sits immediately adjacent to the Galle Cricket Ground which is well known to cricket fans as where Warnie took his 500^th test wicket.  You can see a large section of the fort walls in the background on TV when international matches are played at the ground.  Inside the fort the old town is still thriving and the mix of Dutch and English buildings still present gives the place a nice feel.  The fort is well known as a tourist destination – we saw several busses of people driving around with some bloke at the front with a microphone pointing out places of historical interest. This however brings its own hazards, such as the constant barrage of locals trying to sell you souvenirs, be your guide or just bail you up for cash.  Almost as soon as we stepped out of the car we were offered “rare” Dutch coins at a bargain price.   By the time we had walked a quarter of the way round the fort walls we realized that the coins were neither rare nor a bargain – apparently the Dutch were not too fussed about taking their currency with them when they left town.  Out of curiosity Sam (other Sam – not me) made the fatal mistake of asking the price of a dress one lady was trying to flog us.  Evidently this gives the seller free reign to hassle you incessantly no matter how much you tell them you don’t want it.  The woman followed us for 200 or 300m in spite of our polite requests to leave us alone before I had to firmly explain that she had to go away now.  Her response was that “Madame”  had asked the price and therefore wanted to buy the dress  (I’ve always said being polite gets you nowhere).  We were hearing “Madame” quite frequently (much to Sam’s frustration) as a tall white girl seems to attract plenty of attention here – am now more comfortable with the level of hassling that I endure – it could be lot worse. 

            A less historical but equally apparent feature of the fort is the amount of couples “canoodling” under a virtual sea of umbrellas along any and every corner, rampart, crack, rocky outcrop, and structure on the fort walls. This is quite frustrating when you’re trying to find a place to look out at the view – I nearly tripped over several people tucked behind walls when looking for a good spot to take a picture. Why couples choose to do this under an umbrella rather than at their home where they may have some actual privacy is a mystery to me.  PDA’s (public display’s of affection) seem to be actually illegal here – I have heard that police hassle people – hence the umbrella’s but still it would seem more logical to go somewhere less public.  Perhaps Sri Lankan parents are particularly strict about having girls in your room (no wonder there is civil unrest) but most of the people we saw looked well beyond their teens.  Just another unexplained cultural quirk I suppose.

            Back in Colombo we moved into the Cinnamon Grand for a few days (my house being located well away from any places of interest and my kitchen ill equipped to prepare a decent meal) which is a fantastic hotel – If anyone ever comes to Colombo you should definitely stay here.  From here I went back to work during the week and Sam found Odels – the Sri Lankan equivalent of Myers except that just about everything is under $10 in our currency – and shopped up a storm.  On Monday night we headed to the Australian embassy to watch the socceroo’s get absolutely robbed by the Spanish referee who I believe has since been sent home from the world cup and I suspect is now relaxing in a nice little villa somewhere in Tuscany.  Apart from the result a pretty good night.  I am almost as sad about no more embassy bbq’s for a while as I am about us being knocked out of the cup.

            On Thursday I knocked off work early and we caught the train up to Kandy, the capitol of the hill country, where we were staying for a night before heading further north.  The train ride was spectacular, the track winding up the side of steep, rocky mountains and the landscape changing dramatically from the Palm and Banana trees at low altitude to the far more diverse rainforest in the hills.  On the train itself we were seated in the “1^st Class” observation carriage which is at the back of the train and all the seats face a large window which in theory looks out over the tracks and the fantastic scenery behind the train.  Sri Lanka being Sri Lanka though the railways staff had attached the carriage the wrong way so the full height window gave us all a great view of the back of the carriage in front.  Still, the view from the side windows was pretty good.  Also with a more relaxed approach to pubic safety all the doors to the carriage at the rear of our compartment were wide open and you could stand on the step and hang out the side of the train which is pretty good for taking pictures (you have to watch out for tunnels though – the walls can be pretty close sometimes).  The toilet in first class (I suspect the provision of a toilet is pretty much the only thing that sets 1^st and 2^nd class apart)  consisted of a pan which led directly to a hole in the floor so anything deposited down there would end up straight on the tracks which can’t be too pleasant for the hundreds of people who use the railway line as a walking track and thoroughfare and who had to press themselves against rocky walls or wade into chest high grass when the train comes past.  Also worth mentioning is that we were traveling on the “intercity express” – the “fast” train which covers the 120km in around 2 ½ to 3 hours which probably makes it comparable with Melbourne’s public transport system (only there’s probably more chance of the Kandy train stopping at east Richmond and less blokes in Collingwood jumpers)

Friday morning we headed out to the Pinnewella Elephant Orphanage – 25km and AN HOUR AND A HALFS DRIVE!! From Kandy (roads here are shit – and that’s a generous assessment).  The orphanage though is amazing, being skeptical I arrived expecting to see maybe a dozen but when we reached the river (it was elephant bath time) we saw a heard of about 50 playing in the water.  Because they are used to people you can go right up and stand next to them, pat them on the head or side depending on their size and walk in amongst them when they are out of the water.  The younger ones are quite playful and if you stick your arm out they will wrap their trunk around it.  They will also grab onto you with their nostrils which are quite dexterous and almost like a hand.  Sam’s arms were covered in mud from the river after one of them took a liking to her.  For their size they are quite nimble – they all stepped up out of the water and made their way up the steep banks with ease (apart from some of the younger ones) when bathing time was over.  As soon as they were back on land most would pick up loose dirt with the end of their trunks and throw it on their backs  - I imagine this helps them keep cool but perhaps they are just like giant dogs and hate being clean.

  The Elephant orphanage takes in elephants who are found injured or whose parents have been killed or taken away to be used as working elephants.  They have a total of about 70 elephants and since it began in the 80’s they have had several births in the orphanage.  We were lucky enough to be there about 3 weeks after one such birth and got to see the baby who was about the size of a large dog or maybe a particularly fat 12 year old on all fours.  The sense of family the elephants have was clearly evident as the newborn was always surrounded by at least 3 or 4 fully grown elephants who kept a constant watch – I would not like to try and get close with those guys protecting it.   Consequently I wasted plenty of shots trying to get a clear photo of it through all the legs and trunks – thank god for digital cameras.

After an hour and a half at the orphanage we realized we had little chance of making it back to the hotel before our already extended check out time of 2pm (it was about 1.30) so we found our driver and got back in the van to make our way back to Kandy.  We had organized the driver through the taxi service we had gotten from the train station the night before – primarily because he was about $30 cheaper than the car the hotel could provide.   Things looked promising initially – we were making good time and it looked like we might be back not too long after 2 when the driver pulled over and stopped halfway up the mountain.  When asked for an explanation we were told we would be waiting half an hour then heading back. The language barrier proving to be difficult to overcome, we persisted for several minutes to find out why we had stopped, as it turned out that the driver had been drinking Arrack (a local alcoholic beverage made from coconuts – very potent) and was either worried about police so wanted to wait a while or was too drunk to drive and wanted to sober up.  Once we had extracted this information the driver put his head on the wheel and promptly went to sleep.  Feeling that the level of service was somewhat lower than we had hoped we abandoned the van minus the $10 we had paid in advance (we never paid the other $15 for the total we were quoted so it wasn’t all bad) and flagged down a tuk tuk on it’s way up the hill.  The tuk tuk (pretty much a lawn mower – maybe not that powerful – with seats) struggled a bit up the hills with the two (relatively) large white people in the back.  Still the view was probably a bit better from the more open 3 wheeler and as people keep telling me – travel ling’s about the experience.  When we finally reached the hotel we hurriedly packed our things and checked out – receiving some not so friendly looks from the staff – and waited for our next driver (also from the same company as our friend sleeping halfway down the hill) who was to take us to Dambulla, our next destination.  Thankfully he arrived and this trip was made without incident – 70kms in a tuk tuk would have taken the whole weekend. 

At Dambulla we were going to visit Sigiriya a palace/fortress constructed on top of huge rock in the 5^th century BC and the caves at the Buddhist temple in town.  Our hotel here was one of the most spectacular I have seen.  Designed by Sri Lanka’s most famous architect, Geoffrey Bawa, it is set against a mountainside and covered in vegetation so as to blend in with its surroundings.  The interior is very minimalist with black tiled floors and white walls broken up with natural rock protruding in from various directions – definitely a place for architecture buffs.  Our room had amazing views over the nearby lake and the from the hotel dining room you could see the rock at sigiriya in the distance.  In the trees around the hotel there were families of monkeys playing and fighting.  They would also get up on the ledges outside the hotel windows where the vines and creepers grew.  All guests are instructed to keep their windows closed when not in their rooms because the little buggars get in and steal everything.  One time when I was in the pool (which is perched on the side of a cliff and overlooks the lake)  a group of monkeys crept up behind the pool ledge on the cliff side and would jump up and stick their heads over the side to drink then quickly dart away again.  The pool, which has no edge above the waterline on the lake side so it blends into the horizon, was one of the best things at Kandalama (there are 2 other pools but one had a leak and was not in operation – the other was good but not a patch on the main one – ckeck the photo’s in the Sri Lanka Album) in the evening when it was just starting to get dark the hotel had some guy dressed in white wonder up on to a nearby rock and play the flute while the sun set.  A bit over the top for me but it did create a tranquil atmosphere.

On Saturday we headed out early (7.15 – that is early for me these days) to Sigiriya about 45 minutes drive away.  Once you get past the “guides” at the entrance and manage to persuade them that you don’t want to pay $50 US for them to point to things for you it’s a pretty interesting place.  There are 2 moats – an inner and outer, separated by an earth wall.  I am told that there are small crocodiles in there but unfortunately didn’t see them – there was plenty of fish though and a few monkeys nearby which would have made a good meal if they do still exist.  To get to the rock itself you walk through the remains of the water gardens which are in pretty good shape for something built 1500 years ago.  These are made up of many pits and small lakes that would have once been full and small winding streams all constructed from bricks through which water would have flown.  You then pass through the rock gardens which is a series of terraces dotted with huge boulders. On the top of some of these flat surfaces, seats and altar like structures have been carved.  There are also small holes everywhere where timber posts once fitted that supported buildings above.  Once you’ve made your way up several steep brick and stone staircases you get to the rock itself, an enormous boulder, probably 3 or 400m high.  There are narrow iron stairs and walkways that have been placed there more recently but you can see ledges carved into the rock which once formed the stairs or places where timber structures literally hung off the side.  The wind up there was really strong so I’m glad I didn’t have to make the climb on some rickety timber thing. 

 Part way up there is a wall which protects a path carved into the stone.  The wall looks oddly out of place as it is rendered and looks like it should be around someone’s house in Brighton.  At the time of it’s construction it had a mirror like glaze finish on the inside which of course everyone vandalised and scratched writing into – not that you can read it, it’s in Singhalese  - but some of it is over 1000 years old.  When you finally reach the top it is obvious why  this place made a good fortress, you can see for miles in all directions so if any invading army where approaching you would be well prepared by the time they got there.  Or at least you would think so.  Back a thousand years or so there was a king (the bastard son of the former ruler)  who, instead of staying put in his impenetrable palace, rode out in front of his army on an elephant to meet the opposing force (his half brother, the legitimate son of the former king).  He subsequently got stuck in a marsh, his army abandoned him and the palace was retaken by the rightful heir.  Just remember that next time you are facing an army and you have an impenetrable fortress at your disposal – stay in it! 

On the way back from sigiriya we stopped at the Dambulla cave temples – built by Buddhists sometime in history – I was historied out by this stage.  The caves were slightly disappointing after sigiriya, they look spectacular from the outside, a collection of white doorways and terraces that lead directly into the rock.  Once inside however they almost look a bit tacky and overdone, 20 golden Buddha’s in a room and the ceiling covered with the same painting of Buddha over and over was not particularly awe inspiring. 

            The rest of our weekend was spent relaxing by the pool back at the hotel and making the most of probably the only time I will ever stay at a truly 5 star hotel.  Ordering drinks from by the pool, room service in our suite, breakfast at the dining room with one of the best views in the world (I’m kind of rubbing it in now).  Generally a pretty relaxing weekend.   The trip back to Colombo was fairly uneventful except that I hadn’t booked tickets on the train back from Kandy and it was full so we ended up on the bus.  After that it was back to work on Monday, Sam headed home Monday night and I’m back to life as normal in Sri Lanka.  I’m heading over to the east cast next week to a place called Ampara, which is in Tamil Tiger controlled territory so should have some interesting stories to tell after that.  Well done to anyone who has actually bothered to read this whole thing – if I can get the photo’s uploaded you can actually see some of what I am talking about too and it won’t be quite so boring.