Last night I got something or other. It may have been something I ate although I generally have a cast-iron stomach. It may be have been related to hauling bags around in the heat. Maybe it was N1H1. All I know is that I had a fever last night and it has taken me most of the day to achieve the normality I am approaching.It rained heavily this morning. It was a warm rain and getting into and out of air conditioned places kept me quite dry. We did get on the BTS and traveled about four stops to walk around Siam Square. On the way back we did the same several stops closer at Sala Daeng.
We went to Pat Pong night market area early last night. We’ll probably do so again later. Things get rolling late here.
At last,we checked into the Om Yim Lodge at about 10:15 as our room was already prepared. We paid for three nights.
After sleeping for only about 20 minutes last night, we went to right to bed. Rather than for the two hours planned we got up at 3:00 pm. A cursory walk out about down Silom Road to the corner of Lumpini Park gave us an updated memory map of the area.
Now we’re in the room checking maps to see where things are.
We sort of packed slowly throughout the day. We arrived with three bags and are leaving with just two. The collapsible third is inside one of the others. Strangely, they feel heavier as they shed their original gifts but are returning with the addition of unusual foodstuffs.
I have been to Sri Lanka at least six times but never drank any toddy. It is the juice of tapped coconut tree flowers. The flower is cut and the juice that runs is already mildly fermented. Agile climbers collect the toddy which must be drunk fairly quickly or it turns to vinegar. It’s well known here and is the basis for the further distilled spirit mentioned two paragraphs back. Jay’s father ordered six-bottles worth which came in a large plastic jug. My verdict is that I can say I’ve had it, but probably won’t request it again. Its taste was interesting but not something that would become my favourite. It might make for an entertaining party though.
Dhamika, Jay’s sister-in-law, lives in a newly built house next door with her daughters. She had a big lunch for us all.
Hours keep moving in a march towards 10:00 pm. Leaving here is always harder than coming. These past four weeks have surely seemed to pass too quickly.
I felt a bit sick to my stomach. Had the virus jumped the machine human divide? I have not encountered a virus problem since the days of my IBM XT clone. That was twenty-five years ago. I am more than willing to pay for a subscription to anti-virus software and I do.
I know exactly when I got infected. At one Internet cafe on my trip McAfee needed to download a completely new version of its SecurityCenter. I was attached to broadband by cable but I had finished my tasks and the download was taking too long. I simply closed the lid and put the machine into hibernation. I worked on tasks later offline but when rebooting there was no executable McAfee file on the machine. In Galle, I attached again and began work while completing my download. In that interim period, I apparently caught something.
I couldn’t even rid the computer of the virus as it was smart enough to ensure my virus scan software was the first to byte the dust, so to speak. I wondered if I could limp along by trying to reload the program from the Net. Then, I remembered about Windows Restore Point. The ability to ‘roll back’ the system software had helped me on occasion with faulty drivers in Vista. I wasn’t even sure if the newer incarnations of Windows XP, like on my netbook, included that wizard. I was pleased to see it there. I reset my computer to a point several days ago. It rebooted without a hitch. Doing a restore point doesn’t affect data so none of my blog entries or photos were modified. Phew!
Upon running a full scan I found something called, sality. It will be fun to look up that one when I’m online.
This will be my last uploaded entry from the island. Surely, I can connect in hotels further along on our journey.
Still, wishing you were here!
I knew of the business called APICO from a long time back. I associated the company with rubber mats and foam mattresses. The one in Minuwangoda still sells these basics, but on this trip we also went into an APICO Supercenter. One in Negombo had an amazing collection of household and vehicle items, and even had a food selection that competes with the local supermarket chains. It’s not quite Walmart but it surely is a new trend in Sri Lankan retail.
Jay and I went in the other tuk-tuk. We went first to the Internet Cafe. We were going to have all the photos from both my xD card and younger sister’s new SD card put onto a DVD. That way they could look at all the photos we took on our trips on the TV. Unfortunately a few minutes after arriving, the power went out. The whole town and area lost electricity. Occasionally this happens for a few minutes so we waited about 15 minutes. Still nothing. That’s one task saved for tomorrow. We also went to the large Co-op Supermarket to pick up some special items for the house and even a few food items to bring back to Vancouver. The generator backup kept the coolers and cash registers humming.
We returned home before the chairs and others.
I love hanging around the kitchen here. Most of the day is spent making food and whatever’s left seems to be the time for eating it. I could easily loose count of the time I hear the Singhalese word for eat in a day. Portion sizes are now too large here though, not only in this house but in restaurants also. I noticed more and more obese people here. Sri Lankans used to be a healthy lot.
Sticking to the same topic of food, today, the oven opened for a rich fruit cake. Jay always keeps a fruit mixture with nuts and spices in the back of the refrigerator at home. Before coming here, he packed a huge jar full of it. Some of this is in a great smelling cake with a golden brown top. Of course the multitude of Sri Lankan curries I have been eating defy words. Thankfully, I’ll have a few more weeks before I have to step on my bathroom scales but after a month I can already see the results of all of this in the mirror!
I always get a little sad when I see it’s almost time to leave Sri Lanka. One month hasn’t been nearly enough this time. In 2004, we were wiser in spending two months here. I keep wondering about the prospects of spending five or six months of every year on this island. I think I’d feel in tune with the cosmos dividing my time between two main spots on nearly opposite sides of the earth.
I feel really fortunate to have led a rather blessed life. I have been able to live the way I want and have had the means to do so. I can see how people could get sidetracked by many obstacles. I can also understand how one could get sucked into a mainstream way of living. I’m thankful, in fact, that most people do. The way we’ve created our economic system, it’s necessary that most people replace their car every three or four years. On the other hand, my truck is going on fourteen. It’s important for general society to put in eight-hour days for 48 to 50 weeks per year. Yet, I have taught 30 weeks or fewer of half days for decades now. Some people never leave the location they were born, yet I’ve been able to not only walk, but stay in hundreds of spots around our globe.
Today, I just existed and spent a great deal of time thinking about how I’ll spend my remaining years. This is not something that can be understood by someone in their 20’s or 30’s. With age really can come wisdom, not for all of course! I am smart enough to realize that, God willing, I only have another 25 years for an active lifestyle and for all the choices those years could offer. How do I want us to spend our precious remaining time? This big question is much more important than most I have on a normal afternoon of teaching at BCIT.
Today was filled with the ordinary things of life as well as some things which are rarer. For example, we planted a mango seedling in the back yard today. The newspaper said the auspicious time was at 11:40 am while facing north. What will fate hold for that tree? Will it wither or prosper? For what other creatures will it offer shelter or food? Will it remain alive at the end of my own days?
It seemed like such an oasis getting back to this little patch of green space where the house sits. There seem to be many more houses in this area with each visit. The town of Minuwangoda seems to have grown each time we come. I hope the new bus stand being built will allow for an interesting municipal space in the center of the city. It’d be great if it ended up as a civic park but, unfortunately, that just won’t happen.
I will never, ever again complain of local taxes in Canada. For the relatively small investment as a percentage of income, we get safe sidewalks, manicured city landscaping, and well-lit streets. First, as I’ve mentioned before, in North American we all claim to have ultimate freedoms. Yet in reality, we’ve bi-lawed, regulated, codified, and zoned ourselves some nice places to live. Structure and order take precedence over freedoms. Here it’s the wild west in terms of regulations. Perhaps more importantly for this country, when there is insufficient cash, adequate infrastructure simply cannot be created and maintained.
This said, it is certainly Sri Lanka’s turn now. With the three-decades of war over, it’s time for this country to begin catching up with its many Asian neighbours who are no longer classed as developing. Sri Lanka should be poised for better days. It still has an excellent national education system, a long history with the English Language, a key geographic location, and abundant human and natural resources. It needs to find better leadership, a unified spirit of internal and external cooperation, and a way to ensure all benefit from an improving economy.
It was marked as a slow train and certainly lived up to that reputation. I find some of the train system absolutely amazing not for any hint of luxury nor speed but for the sheer tenacity of the equipment, structures, and staff. Stations are a prime example of what can happen in a government organization: it continues, just. Take away incentive and there’s little to no innovation. So much of the network still seems to still be run on original equipment. Stations built in the 1960’s haven’t been updated in the slightest, and here I’m talking about the paint and signs. Some far older structures hang in there with original steel weathered to point of near collapse. If it works, there’s no pressing need to change anything. This seems to have been the mantra for decades and decades.
It sounds like I’m suggesting one not travel by train here. I feel quite the opposite, really. It took us four and a half hours to travel 117 kilometers to Mt. Lavinia. As I admitted, we were on a train that stopped at most every station. Also, we had to wait a half hour when changing trains at one point, as the one we were on turned into an express that would’ve skipped our destination. These hours were interesting and relaxing though. One can really get a glimpse of life when the train barely tops 45 mph. So many house and back yards are right outside the train’s windows. I enjoy being a casual voyeur. People-watching aboard is fun too. For example, I’ll never know if that young girl gave that persistent young chap her real mobile telephone number.
Tomorrow it’s Minuwangoda or bust. Home is not far really. We can take a bus to Colombo and a direct bus from there.
As I suggested in the first paragraph, the Sri Lankan President is in town. It is election time in the southern provinces. With a visit comes the security forces and disruption to normal life. Part of the Fort area is closed off at the present time. Perhaps later in the afternoon things return to usual. We’ll probably just hang here for one night. Rather than venturing south, we just may hop on a north-bound train tomorrow morning.
Real travellers don’t need an itinerary.
The name of one mountain we hiked down today Rumassla. If I can get the story straight, according to Indian mythology, the out of the place hunk of mountain should be in far-way, northern India. Hanuma, the monkey god, was on an errand to bring a medicinal herb only found in the Himalayas. By the time he’d flown there, he forgotten the exact name of the plant. So, to save time he picked up a whole chunk of the mountain sure that it would contain the needed medicine. On the return route he dropped five pieces of it in five different places along the way. He must have been quite the god, as the existing mountain here is several kilometers wide. Strangely, it does support types of plants found in no other places in Sri Lanka.
We lunched at Coral Light restaurant and napped. I finally went swimming this afternoon. Now as light is beginning to fade, all of the day visitors have gone. Perhaps pizza and beer, later?
The driver and van were the ones which we usually use. The driver is safe and dependable. He started in Minuwangoda picking up Jay’s father, younger sister, and auntie. Also, one of the main reasons for the trip was to bring Jay’s sister-in-law and two nieces for an outing. The girls have grown so much over these past three years! They, then, came to pick us up in Nugegoda. Lal didn’t come on this trip.
We didn’t intend to set any speed records getting here. We left and stopped to have breakfast along the way. Another big stop occurred at a large temple along the way. We didn’t even try a Kalutara but went further to Kandera Viraha. When we were there in the past the huge Buddha in a sitting position wasn’t completed. Now it is. Jay’s dad had brought along a collection of fruit, which needed to be cut, for an offering. There were lots of people there.
By the time we got here in Unawatana it was about 2:00 pm. We drove in on the public access road right to the end. The area was mobbed. Hundreds and hundreds of local folks were taking a swim. There were hardly enough places for all the cars, van, and busses that brought them.
We waved everybody off at about 4:00 pm and I finally felt as if another part of the vacation dawned! I love a little beach time. I’d be bored just spending a vacation at one, but ah this is the life! We ate dinner within two meters of surf.
Shopping is never big on our agenda. Generally, we try to get to a Laksala, the government handicraft an souvenir reseller, but haven’t yet. How many tiny elephants can one give away? I was half thinking about buying an authentic ruby ear stud as precious jewels are a big export commodity here. On all the past visits, I was never interested in the slightest. Now that I have a $9 gold-coloured ear stud in my left ear, I figured I may as well upgrade. Rubies are my birthstone. We’ll see if I get a chance before we leave the island. That unfortunate occurrence will happen soon enough!
One other interesting thing we did today was lunch. Jayantha got his first real job at a hotel not far from here in 1979. He was a room steward and barman. We went back to Hotel Janaki and it seemed to be doing well. We had a great Sri Lankan lunch in their air conditioned restaurant. I know that Jay enjoyed seeing the differences, like a new swimming pool area. Of course the whole neighbourhood area had changed a lot in thirty years too. For example on the bus we passed a great many new multiple storey apartment building towers between the Galle Road and the High Levels Highway.
We hit the House of Fashion, No Limit, Fashion Bug. This trip didn’t produce as much booty as in past years. I bought some underwear as the real designer labels sell for prices of ordinary Wal-mart clothing at home. Unfortunately, I always forget that the sizes are not designed for the North American market. Therefore, if I want M, I need to select XL. I forgot that.
We ate lunch, continuing with these new traditions, at Devon Restaurant and Bakery. Before heading home we did find something larger to buy. We got an good quality, Indian-brand food processor for the house in Minuwangoda. It has all sorts of stainless steel attachments.
I’m typing this while looking out into the little driveway / garden this evening. Bird watching is as fun here as out in the jungles near Jay’s house. It seems that most households produce waste food but none of it goes to waste as the birds and animals are fed. There are several feeding platforms in the yard and a little tub of tiny seeds for smaller visitors. Last night we even cut up some browning bananas for cute little fruit bats. A mongoose stopped by for a short visit but was a pretty shy fellow.