Day 4 Monday ( or is it?)

Today we had a massively outrageous start at 7.30 am!!!  We were driving up to central Sri Lanka to stay in the old capital of Kandy. On the way we stopped off at an Ayurvedic (it means the science of life) centre.  It purports to be holistic and treat the causes rather than the symptoms of ailments.  Apparently Sri Lanka has very low rates of Altzheimer’s, dementia and Parkinson’s and the doctor who had an impossibly long name and who gave us a tour of the spice and herb garden attributed this to Ayurvedic medicine. Well he told us about all the trees and what they were able to treat   I was particularly interested in nutmeg. The doctor held up the brown oval nutmeg and said, “ Now how do you think we use the nutmeg to stop diarrhoea?” 😳.  Anyway he discoursed at length about the healing properties of Red Oil. It cures just about everything. I was sold. See  number 17

Those who wanted it could have a mini massage but I did think that some of the masseurs looked like the sales assistants in the shop and the gardeners.  

While the lady next to me was having her ankle massaged, she said she started feeling a tingle in her palm. Oooh, was it working?  But her husband pointed out that she had put her hand on the sticky underside of the bench. The man who massaged my knee gave me a real work out. When he had finished, it felt so much better but only because he had stopped hurting me. The doctor also said that if you got a curry stain on white clothes, a lime will remove the stain. More of this later!  We saw a
couple of large spiders in a tree. Su said one was a male wood spider and the other a female. He said we would have time to photograph them on the way back if the female hadn’t eaten him for lunch. Actually they were nothing like as big as the spider in the ladies’ loo. ( Hole in the floor!)


Back on the coach and the guide told us about marriage in Sri Lanka. Many marriages are still arranged but spouses are often advertised for in the newspapers. Women of middle age are advertised by their parents and interestingly the details of the family i.e. their caste as well as their horoscope is
requested. But a photo is not deemed necessary

On to the hotel through towns and villages with flags and bunting everywhere. It was Independance Day and all shops were closed, children on holiday from school, processions in the streets with all 

girl drum bands. But worst of all, when we got to the hotel we learned that it was dry!  What?  They 

actually celebrate Independance day by NOT having a drink?  Ronnie was in despair

Anyway that evening we went to a cultural show, which was very entertaining.  Traditional dances about peacocks, cobra training, hat twirling  and so much drummingyourearseang. But the highlight was the fire eating and walking over hit colals. There was no trickery, I was standing 2 feet away. Absolutely amazing

Day 3 Sunday

Today we went to Sigiriya, the home of the Lion Rock. It is an enormous granite outcrop with 1000 steps up winding open iron stairs, not for the faint hearted.

At the bottom are extensive formal gardens with swimming pools which the legendary King whose name I forget, had built for his 500 concubines.

At the base of the rock are two giant sized lion’s paws but the rest of the carved lion has long since worn away, not surprising as it was carved in the 6th century.

I suppose it would have been similar to the Sphinx. The bottom few hundred steps are carved of marble,

which does not occur naturally in Sri Lanka, then you begin the ascent of the rock

face on the zigzagging stairway

 

There are definitely no concessions to health and safety. I saw women in high heels, flip flops, no shoes at all, very old people, big people, a woman with a walking stick all determined to get to the top - as we were. Because it was a Sunday, there were more people than usual and there were queues and traffic jams. Half way up there is a gallery where paintings remain from 6th century of goddesses rising out of the clouds. The colours are still vibrant and there is a man made wall protecting them from the elements. At one time that wall was polished to shine like a mirror so that it reflected the paintings hence its name The Mirtor Wall

But at the top, you could see the original walls, mostly in ruins, of the palace on a number of levels with again a huge swimming  pool.

Those concubines must have enjoyed swimming!  The view from the top over the rainforest, gardens and an enormous distant Buddha would have been fantastic but sadly a mist descended and we could see almost nothing.

But the walk down, after the iron staircaseswas lovely through a wooded area with caves and grottos where the monks would meditate.

Oh by the way, the legendary king whose name I forgot, was bumped off after being tortured by one of his hundreds offsons,  serves him right for having so many concubines
Back for lunch and our by now favourite Lion beer before a trip by ox cart, catamarin and tuc tuc to a village to see local customs.

The heavens opened and the rain was monsoonial if that is a word. The ox on the cart (Ronnie said”Bullock” which I thought was a bit uncalled for), looked very downtrodden to me

. But our guide said that if they were not used for tourism to earn money for the village people, they would go to the slaughter house. There was no suspension and the dirt tracks were bumpy and by now muddy so after a 20 minute bone shaking ride we arrived at the river.
When I said catamaran, you might have been thinking Amricas Cup but the truth was more like 2wooden canoes connected by a large box. It was still tipping down and there was no shelter but at least we didn’t seeany crocodiles which had been seen the day before

. Across the river was the willage with a largeish open sided hut. 2 smiling Sinhalese ladies with absolutely perfect white teeth showed us how to thresh rice and miller, grind it to a powder and bake flat breads on an open fire.

They also made a kind of salsa with cockanut, onion, garlic, tomato and salt called sambol. They gave each of us a slice of the dark finger millet roti bread and sambol on a palm leaf to try and a herb tea in a half cockanut shell.

After that we had a demonstration of how to husk a cockanut and make food out of the coir. Did you know you can only crack a cockanut widthwise, impossible lengthwise.

You can cut up the flesh to eat or grate it and use it to make cockanut cream for curries. The shell are partially burned and put down well as copra to purify the water. Or you can put them roundthe base of other trees to provide compost and fertiser. The leaves of the cockanut tree ante used to weave into panels for the roof.

They last a year and are watertight. We know this as it was still pouring down!  A very interesting display but I did wonder if the ladies lived in the very nice bungalow we passed on the way back and popped out to the local shop to get a sliced loaf for breakfast?
A fleet of tuc tucs arrived to take us back to civilisation. The dirt tracks were mud baths by now and some got stuck and had to be rocked out of the mud. But there was lots of laughing and it was a great experience.

Day 2 Saturday

Day 2

For breakfast you could have any sort of curry you like but I had an egg hopper which was a crispy rice flour pancake in the shape of a bowl with a fried egg and chilli pickle in the middle. The tea was ok but to be honest a bit like Sainsbury’s own label. We had an early start so we’re on the coach by 8am. Can’t do that every day!  We had quite a long drive to the Golden Temple at Dambulla but it was broken up firstly by a stop at a fish drying community on the beach. Mackerel, sardines, whitebait, tuna and manta ray are gutted and filleted, soak in salt water and left to dry for several days in the sun on the beach.

The women folk have the back breaking job of turning the fish in 30 odd degrees.

Skinny dogs roam freely between the rows of fish but don’t even sniff the fish, mind you you could smell it a mile away. We were warned not to talk to the gypsies (Rodi) people on the beach. Some feigned interest in where you came from and offered to explain all the fish to you but you had to pay. They had pythons in baskets and they really did play a pipe to call it out. You had to pay to take a photo of him and a bit more to hold the snake. I passed.

Driving on through villages I spotted a few entertaining signs and shop names, “Try our tasty variants”. Fancy House, Imitation Jewellers, Lucky Beer Shop and my favourite, Shoppy Shop. Lots of tuc tucs but very plain unlike the Induan variety which are done up like Christmas trees and stalls set up by the roadside selling not just the expected fruit and veg but shoes, rag mats, piles of bricks and one stall just had a small pile of nuts and the council rent for this is £2 a month.   Our local guide Su gave a running commentary on Sri 

Lankan history, geography, culture and nature. On the latter subject he spoke extensively about the cockanut pluckers 😳.

We stopped for a tea break, yes really, at a lakeside restaurant in Kurunegala which means Elephant Rock City. We could see the Elephant Rock across the lake and there was a large seated Buddha on top.

There are 5 large outcrops of granite in this part on Sri Lanka named after 5 animals which 

were turned to stone -  the elephant, the tortoise, the monkey, the beetle and the eel but you have to use your imagination. Each has a Buddha as they believe that everything that falls under the gaze of the Buddha will have good luck. The tea however was served with 

hot sterilised milk so nul points for that 

On again for lunch at another very nice restaurant. There was a big buffet with lots of choice but even though the dishes were labelled In English, I had no idea what they were except some spicy chicken but the Lion beer was nice

Then a short ride to Dambulla and the caves of the Golden Buddha. It was a climb in 32degrees of about 200 steps which was bad enough.

So blinking hot, give us a grooming!

But at the top we had to remove our

shoes to walk into the holy area. Those of us with no socks quickly learned the ancient 

dance of the burning feet.   The caves were really a huge fissure in the granite but in the 8th wcentury were divided into 5 separate caves each with a resting Buddha or a lying Buddha 

at the point of death

The way to tell which is which is that the toes of the right foot are 

slightly further forward than those of the left on the dying Buddha. (Feet on the left)

There were also many statues of seated and standing Buddhas and the ceilings were still exotically painted.

At the bottom of the rick was the huge temple of the Golden Buddha with a queue of dozens of red robed monks waiting to approach him.

 I think Ronnie is heading off to join the holy queue in search of enlightenment

Back to the hotel hot and exhausted for a quick Lion Beer, followed by a shower and dinner. 

Day 1 Friday Ist Feb 2019

The cab arrived on time, the train arrived 5 minutes after we got to the station, the tube train was pulling up to the platform as we arrived and the Heathrow Express left 7 minutes after we boarded. Clockwork.  

We had set off very early as we wanted to get to Heathrow before the snow did. So we had several hours to kill and where better than a nice restaurant and bar?  While we charged up our phones for free, I checked out the shops and Ronnie wandered into the World of Whisky emporium. Some time later he wandered back having blagged several freebies of expensive whisky- £78 a bottle!

Time to go to the gate now and again everything went like clockwork. We were just hoping for seats  a) not near any very large people and b) not near any babies.  Guess what?  In the row in front was a lady with a young baby and two toddlers.  There was some discussion with the cabin crew as her husband and one child had been allocated seats 29 rows further back and he wanted to sit all together.  So we offered to change seats with him. When we got to Row 50 and our new seats - result!  Not only were we not near the babies but we had extra legroom!  We settled in and as we started to taxi down the runway, the snow started. Can’t believe how lucky we were. 

So here we are up to date and just waiting for the drinks trolley. Waves of relief are washing over Ronnie. He is a martyr to altitude sickness and has been advised to take quinine as soon as possible after takeoff. 

Wretched 11 hour flight in spite of extra legroom, as I hardly slept. Dinner was red curry,vegetable curry or salmon. Guess which I had. Breakfast was fish curry, vegetable curry or omelette.  Guess which I had. Not a big fan of curry although I survived a month In Nepal on various curries and dahl baht but would not choose it out of preference

When we touched down at Bandaranaike airport, things could not have been more different from Heathrow. No queues, smiling faces, baggage arrived quickly.   After

 immigration there was a long hall of duty free shops including, in fact mostly, white goods. I was tempted by a new fridge freezer but would it fit in my case?

In the arrivals hall there were huge adverts for Celestial Intellectual Opportunities???  Quick transfer to our hotel in Negombo. The town itself was founded by the Portuguese with a strong Catholic influence which continues today. Religious statues on most street corners and today was a religious festival so the school children were out in force to celebrate.

The girls’ uniform is white dresses and a red tie. No good if you spill your curry on it.

We arrived at our hotel to see a line of smiling young men in long skirts, David Beckham style. Our room is a bungalow facing the longest pool I have ever seen.

The room is very spacious and the bathroom is outside under the stars. But will we be able to find the loo if need to in the night?

Slept like the dead after not much sleep on the flight. Breakfast by the lagoon. As many kinds of curry as you like and lots of tubes, spaghetti, webby stuff all made from coconut necessary in the night?  The restaurant is facing a lagoon, just gorgeous, while the reception faces the ocean   We have mastered the Sinhalese words for hello “ ahyubovan” and thank you “istuti”.  Early start tomorrow so early night.

Off on my travels to Sri Lanka and really looking forward to it especially in view of the cold and expected snow.  I had so many requests after my last blog  but I’m still going to write another one anyway. I spent literally days trying to set up an account on a different blog site with massive frustration and no success. So I’m back to Blogger but am posting on the website as opposed to the app. So anything could happen or not happen. Apologies in advance. Hope to see people leaving comments below, I think I have enabled that option or have I?  (If you can’t leave a message, I will put some instructions on Facebook if you let me know)
  Bohoma Istuti !