Since my long epistle last March I have enjoyed the wonderful wines of Oz, home comforts in the UK, the history and hospitality of Berlin, and a trip around some of the most beautiful spots in Sri Lanka. Sadly more and more of these spots are being denied to us with the war again escalating. Sri Lanka's cease fire was ceased by the Government in January and since then bombings and killings by both sides have got far far worse. This week marked Independence Day (60th anniversary) in a country that has struggled with politics and polarisation since becoming independent in 1948. Sad times.
You do however tend to get accustomed to the madness of it all. Sri Lanka is sadly and rapidly becoming a complete military state so you become used to armed men, or boys, wandering the streets or looking thoroughly bored at roadside check points. This morning's walk to the tuk-tuk stand on my way to work took me past a row of four armed military police strolling down the road, I nearly walked into the gun of the one closest to me as I wasn't paying attention at all. I was too busy watching the traditional Ox cart walk towards me pulling its fat metal red barrel down the street on wobbly wooden wheels. It's a scene I should be well used to by now as it's so common, but it still holds some kind of magical Sri Lankan past to me. The Ox and it's owner looked about as knobbly as each other, like dogs and their owners the two must have grown together to look alike. Skin and bone contentedly plodding along the road selling their kerosene to people coming out of their houses for their morning purchases. Following these two the bakery boy weaving his way on his bicycle coming to sell bread and crocodiles (sweet bread laced in sugar in the shape of a crocodile especially good for big kids - I am a frequent purchaser!). Street life is full of people of all shapes and sizes selling their wares to the domestics, house boys, and ladies of the house - from kerosene to coconuts, crocodiles to curry leaves, and trolleys and trolleys of fresh and colourful veg.
New Colombo home
Aside from the chaos, the streets, and the war I can now report that anyone coming to visit would be quite impressed to discover that we have found a place that has hot water - one of the few benefits of moving from the jungle to Colombo. Finding a new apartment was much harder than we had thought. The useless, I mean completely useless, Dave from 'Colombo Cottages' was showing us places we had already checked out in the Sunday papers but strangely at a price of about Rs 5,000 more than advertised. We weren't really his type of customer as we questioned a lot. He was used to green types arriving from the UK to work for the British Council paying amounts we not only couldn't afford but for places that just weren't worth the money. Dark dingy places, or apartments in suburbs way out of town or out of budget. Owners would answer the door in glee as they saw our white faces thinking 'here comes the money' and tripling or quadrupling the cost of rent and then, to top that, asking for a year's worth of money upfront. Sadly they think all white people are papier mache figures made up of bank notes which we are happy to throw at them for dreadful digs in town. Eventually our lovely tuk-tuk driver, Dulip, found us a place down the bottom of the road (we've been staying at Stuart and Shirani's apartment whose generosity has known no bounds these past couple of years).
Like their place the new apartment is also top floor, overlooking the sea which can't be bad. The block is completely Sri Lankan, with music blasting out of doors and windows at top volume, sound waves reaching us at 6am accompanying the spicy smells of different curries being prepared for the day. Every morning I wake to the sound of some kind of 70s sci-fi film which builds into crescendo (dah dahhh, dah dahhh, dahhh, dah dahhhhhh, dahhhhhh) which I'm guessing is the tune to one of the many strange religions practiced in Asia. Fair play to them though, they worship every morning and I'm sure they get more out of their religion than the apartment that played 'jingle bells' at top volume every morning over Christmas. They all seem nice as well as a little crazy. The woman in apartment 2/2 brought us a bottle of wine when we moved in I think because she lived in London for 40 years and wanted to make a connection somehow. As ever, Sri Lanka is v unpredictable! By moving down the road we've made the tuk-tuk drivers happy because they have kept our custom, and we're happy because we wake up to the sea and have the best place in town for sunset balcony beers. Also a rare place to get at least some form of fresh air in a very polluted city.
Having just about settled in and bought a few things it was time for Christmas holidays and back to the jungle house for a week. We keep extending the house rental period to delay losing it entirely, currently we have it until end March having just extended it this w/e! This is partly due to expected guests.
Island visitors
After our plethora of visitors last year, ending with T in May, we have sadly lacked in guests. It was a welcome text to receive from Grant in December saying he was coming to SL for the cricket and could he come and stay? Having someone like Grant visit reminds you of all the good things here - the genuine, good nature of the majority of people, the stunning scenery, the great climate, the rich cultural mix, and the multitude of places to see. He seemed to manage to do more in 8 days than I have managed in 2½ years!! Surf lessons, tuk-tuk driving, white water rafting, canyoning, and cricket test matches. Next visitor will be Mum in March which I'm obviously much looking forward to.
More foreigners arrived with the now annual event of the Galle Literary Festival. The bombs did not put off the beautiful people as they flocked to a crowded, yet intimate, and well organised festival of literature. A festival that personally pulls me two ways:-
1) the role of disgusted, left wing, NGO worker who finds so much money being poured into a very small part of the country, with people parading around like displaying peacocks showing off their wealth, quite tough to observe. This particularly after spending the morning before the festival in the houses of poor rural families.
2) the role of culture-deprived expat hanging off the words of famous authors such as Vikram Seth, Gore Vidal, Brian Keenan, William Dalrymple and Alexander McCall-Smith and enjoying a variety of books to read, debates to attend and films to view.
Despite the internal struggle I was impressed with the number of authors, the efficiency of the sessions, and the exclusive parties in the most stunning houses, hotels and villas Sri Lanka has to offer. The most amazing being 'Taprobane' - a beautiful villa on a small island in Weligama Bay in the South. This is where they held the final night's party for those who had helped out and for the remaining authors, before they travelled off to their next international event or headed home. Of course I did nothing for the festival but Bron worked hard everyday photographing authors, doing some great networking for us both, and enjoying many a party so at least one of us genuinely deserved to be there The Taprobane villa is not visible from the roadside - the island is surrounded with dense trees behind which is a 5 bed roomed house with rooms branching off from a central circle, and pathways twisting around the island to take you to another surprise such as the infinity pool. It is particularly spectacular to arrive there at night, wading through shallow waters, up slippery wooden steps, along a little bridge which takes you to a stone stairway leading to this wonderful retreat. Worth hiring out with some mates for a special occasion, I think it's about £500 per night which isn't bad if 10 of you go. An intimate and relaxed place with paths, pool, bar, food, and chat. So it was one hypocritical w/e for me guiltily enjoying the glitz and glamour whilst simultaneously trying to be disapproving!
For now, anyone coming to stay will have to downgrade to the jungle house as £500 is all I get to spend here per month so I shan't be treating any of you to Taprobane I'm afraid. The jungle house hasn't changed. The squirrels have now taken over not only the Buddha statue but also one of the lamp shades in the main room, though it needs to be highly acrobatic to actually get into its nest at night ¾ of the way up the wall. The kitchen rat has been hoarding things from the house including the bottoms of curtains and is happily residing under the kitchen unit. The landlord has kindly cleared out the spiders though a stubborn bathroom one met its fate once Asanka checked the place out last weekend and kicked it out for us. The garden is still a complete paradise with stunning birds flying in the garden - bright colours of greens, yellows and reds, fast flittering tiny noisy birds, birds with long elegant tails and the usual tweety birds flocking in the garden in their gangs. The palm cats are also still living in the roof with 3 new babies wobbling their way across the wire at 6.30 every night, travelling from the roof to the coconut trees to learn about all things nocturnal from their huge scruffy parents.
Jungle Christmas
It was Christmas time that we were reminded what a haven the house is, and with Grant's insistence started to work out whether we could afford to keep it on or not at £50 a month. Christmas was a quiet affair this year with no visitors and anyone we knew out of town, so we spent a week in the jungle house and re-discovered Hikkaduwa beach. Hardly much of a discovery - over a mile long and where we used to eat out every night, but with work being so busy and days getting dark here at 6.00pm I rarely got to the beach in daylight hours, and I swam in the sea ...err, maybe once?! So having for the first time managed to get to the beach in daylight we made a point of going for walks on the beach every day, and taking the odd swim. It's a really stunning beach with mounds of fine orange sand sloping into the multi-blue coloured sea where no day is the same - rough smooth, high low, warm cold. It's not only beautiful but also very long walking from the fishing boats in Dodanduwa, where you watch the fishermen and locals push their colourful boats of blues, reds, greens and whites up the beach out of the water, to the more touristy end of the beach with rickety wooden beds and chairs laid out in the sand for sunbathers and surfers. Sri Lanka is such a 'no go' area right now that the beach is almost deserted walking for almost an hour along the sand with hardly a tourist in sight was a treat.
We also discovered fine dining 5 minutes from the house!! There's a lovely little villa called Villa Kusum run by a couple of Dutch blokes and staffed by locals which does the most amazing food. The guys really know what they're doing and it's wonderfully relaxed with great service. They even sent their chef back to Holland for a few months to work in and learn from one of the Michelin star restaurants there. We certainly benefitted with prawn, chicken and chocolate delights consumed in a low lit atmosphere with the waves breaking on the beach 10 feet away. This made up for a disastrous Christmas meal which we had at the extremely overpriced Amangalle Hotel in Galle, where the food was awful and minimal, and to top that it was a day that the Government, with their anti-foreigner and anti-Christian ways, had decided to ban the drinking of alcohol in any public places for the day.
Wildlife again
Our final discovery of the month was another wildlife haven. Although you'd have thought anywhere we live is full of wildlife. Even in Colombo the place is a refuge for millions of ants - not the huge ones we had in the jungle but tiny little annoying ones which are barely visible. Often the only way to work out where they are is when you sweep the floor and watch the dirt you swept into a neat pile disappear in all directions. The ants! To counter balance the hassle of insects, we have parrots on the balcony most mornings staring at themselves in the mirror of the balcony window - very cute!
Anyway back to the discovery - we were privileged enough to be taken on a trip with one of Sri Lanka's best wildlife photographers to a wetlands area outside of Colombo known as Talangama. Here was a stunning area of lakes and paddy fields, rural village and birdlife living side by side, and the discovery of yet another amazing villa to stay in and absorb the tranquillity. We didn't stay, but are reserving it as a treat for the next visitor. Tempted?!
Bombs and Hot Showers: A brief update
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