Daylesford Dispatch, Tuesday 29th March, 2011

Lovely photo of Wes at our hotel in Kandy

Dear Friends, I left you as we headed out to walk along the Galle Face – the Esplanade that we can see from our bedroom. It was a hot walk, but exciting to be by the water and watching the young couples sitting together under umbrellas whispering secrets; the families paddling in the waves; the food & drink sellers proffering their wares, and the kite makers entrancing kids of all ages with their brightly coloured and beautiful kites. There were also long queues to catch buses to the quay where a ship was moored and visitors were welcomed. We came back to our hotel for an ice-cream and Wes and Murray arranged to meet our guide, Cecil, tomorrow morning to see the Methodist Orphanage run by his church.

Then we all hopped onto the bus for a two-hour tour of Colombo, including a stop at a Dutch Reformation Church full of tablets to de Kretsers, and a wonderful temple with an elephant with long tusks, two Labradors trying to catch fish in a pond and a Buddha whose eyes follow you around the room a la Mona Lisa. We had hoped to go to a cricket ground or two but they were occupied with cricket matches and heavily guarded. Our favourite was the Nondescripts Club!

Wes went swimming with Norma afterwards and I did Logic Puzzles in the cool of the air-conditioning, then we set off en masse to the Galle Face Hotel for dinner. Keith had booked a table; we did a quick tour of the Hotel, had a G&T then enjoyed an old-fashioned meal in the dining room. One of our party lives on Christmas Island and another in Cairns, but has lived in New Guinea for many years, so there are heaps of stories to hear. Norma told us all that she had tried to buy stamps at reception, where she was informed that they kept stamps, certainly, but she could not buy them on the weekend – only during Post Office hours apparently!!!

We had a completely free day on Monday, so after breakfast Wes & Murray joined Cecil to visit his orphanage and I managed to balance Quicken after a long chat to Viva who is sounding much better – nothing like getting air-conditioning back and the rest of the repairs are being done this week as well.

Our view at the cricket in Colombo

Meanwhile, Norma, Jenny & I got a tuk-tuk to the Cinnamon Grand Hotel about 10 minutes away as it has a supermarket in the basement, so we were able to get toothpaste, nibbles, etc. Wes met us there and debriefed over a cool drink in the coffee lounge which was the only air-conditioned part of the shopping centre. He told us that the Warden of the orphanage asked for $A200 to buy sheets & pillowcases for the 28 beds occupied by the boys they had seen, so we are taking up a collection on the bus today. When Viva heard was Wes was doing she immediately donated $50, so the fund has a good start. Not everyone wants to contribute, which is fine, but Murray has asked us all to collect soaps, shampoos and bath foam bottles as they boys make do with old bits of soap in jam jars when they have their communal showers.

The boys’ dormitory above & kitchen below

We caught a taxi to the Mount Lavinia Hotel, the oldest hotel in Columbo, used the loo, had a good look around and walked along the beach before catching another taxi back to our hotel. Jenny needed to post presents back to Australia, so our driver stopped at a Post Office, went to the book store to buy a jiffy bag for her, and made sure that her parcel was properly stamped before taking us back here. We were very grateful and tipped him accordingly. The afternoon was spent chatting, swimming, reading and relaxing, before we joined others for drinks before dinner, which we had at the hotel Chinese Restaurant, where we shared a yummy meal with Norma, Jenny and David, who lives in Brisbane and has visited 50 countries so far in his 42 years on earth. Conversation was on films and we had a loud and enthusiastic chat. Wes and Norma kicked on with Stacky, but I went to bed at 10.30pm to try to catch up on sleep.

Our hotel was full to bursting this morning with people streaming into Colombo for the day’s cricket, as well as the remnants of 2 weddings of the day before. We breakfasted early to avoid the crush, but when Wes went down to organise lunch boxes, he said there was no room to move. He heard a young man in the lift tell his Chinese partner that he would explain cricket to her over breakfast! Everyone is talking about Ricky Ponting’s resignation and Murali’s injury – you can have a great chat with anyone you meet, provided your topic is cricket.

Orphan boys playing cricket with newspaper ball

Daylesford Dispatch, Sunday 27th March, 2011

Dear Friends, I left you as we were about to go to the Cricket on Saturday. What a debacle that was! We arrived early at the stadium in Colombo, were body-searched, our bags were checked and we were allowed in with our backpacks, thermoses, cameras, food and water. A far cry from the Test in Brisbane when we were lucky to get any of those items into the Gabba. Our seats were in the open but under cover on the lower level of the stand and we spread out early and found spots that were not behind pillars. There was a good crowd who were kept entertained with screaming competitions, loud music to encourage them to dance and win prizes, announcements suggesting that this was Pakistan’s big chance to bring down the mighty Aussies, and sundry other distractions. Murray had gotten the kangaroo blown up and Skippy was very popular with the children especially. Most of the stadium was barracking for Pakistan, but a few Sri Lankans were hoping Australia would win.

Some of the crew - Patrick, Chris, Wes, Karen, Norma, Jenny, Keith & Kerry with Maurie & Jonno in front

I found a radio station that spent half its time commentating in Singhalese and the remainder in English. The commentators were thoughtful and entertaining, but sadly the Aussies were not. We had not been advised that no meals were included in our tickets and Wes, Norma and I had gone with little or no food, expecting conditions like the Indian Test tour. The only food for sale was ice-cream; KFC and potato chips and the only drinks were tea, coffee and water, until the water ran out early in the piece. So we made do with bags of potato chips. It was poya, so there was no alcohol available at the ground much to the disgust of the Aussie blokes. Murray got so desperate that he abandoned Skippy and caught a tuk-tuk that drove him to a bar, where he bought 3 cans and drank them in the tuk-tuk, so the police wouldn’t catch him.

The crowd was very generous in its applause of Aussie fours (not many) and later of Brett Lee’s bowling as they love him and he responds well to them. After Pakistan had won, everyone got up and danced to loud music, blew horns incessantly and waved flags. We walked back to our bus and were driven to the hotel, where most of the men headed for their mini-bars. Wes and I had a half bottle of Jacob’s Creek Shiraz, which we downed as our dinner.

The next morning we had to be in the bus by 7.30am for our trip to the Maldives. We all breakfasted early and well, as we had not eaten any dinner the night before. It took about an hour to drive to the airport and another hour to complete formalities. Then Wes, Norma and I settled in a tea & coffee bar and spent an enjoyable hour chatting together. We were unable to take any liquor into the Maldives, so had to be satisfied with window shopping. Finally we boarded the plane for the 45 minute flight to Male, which took an hour, then we spent another hour going through immigration and customs – most of the men had secreted grog in their luggage and that was removed by Customs. We then enjoyed a 30-minute speedboat ride to our island, where we were greeted with cool drinks and lovely smiles.

In the rainforest crossing a makeshift bridge – leech territory!

Our huts were beautiful – close to the beach, with lovely views through the palm trees. Our shower was in the outdoors, but the rest of the bathroom was indoor. We were all so exhausted after 8 hours of travelling, that everyone spent a quiet afternoon, swimming, walking, watching India & West Indies on TV or sleeping.

We had been given set tables for meals, so made sure we were sitting with Norma & Jenny, who is finding the whole thing a bit of a challenge. Wes & I are the only couple on the trip and there are only 3 females. We have taken Jenny under our wing as John & Keith lose the plot once they get with the blokes. Dinner at night was a buffet and that set the scene for the rest of our stay – buffet meals with anonymous red & white wine served by the glass, but not in front of you!

We spent our time relaxing – Wes getting in the water whenever he could and me avoiding the sun and doing crosswords and logic puzzles and reading Reginald Hill (Dalziel & Pascoe) in sequence. We walked around the island after breakfast, which was enough for me to need another shower. Wes went snorkelling over coral one morning, which was a fabulous experience. Each night we sat around drinking and chatting with the others.

Norma & I at our Kandy Hotel

We had to be up very early to leave the Maldives and the hotel put on a Continental breakfast at 6am, which was a nice surprise. We flew back to Colombo and straight into the bus for the trip to Kandy. On the way we stopped at a lovely rest-house for lunch and a tea factory in the afternoon. Our hotel was beautiful, way up in the hills, which were too steep for our bus, so we moved into a smaller bus and our luggage went into another van and we met at the top! We had stunning views from our room. Wes went and had a massage and came back raving about it. I had an Arrack cocktail and unwound, Norma joined us for dinner and we lashed out on a bottle of champagne.

The next morning we were up early and had a three-hour bus trip to Sigiriya, where we climbed the rock, all 1,200 steps. It is a little safer than when we did it in 1979 in sarongs & thongs, but we still felt an incredible sense of achievement. Only 7 of us got to the top. We didn’t get back to our hotel until 4pm and everyone was dying to watch Australia vs India in the cricket. Our thanks to Carol Bruce and Jane Knox for cricket scores and to Barbara Simpson and Carol for footy scores. The Carlton supporters were very nervous, especially when Richmond were ahead, and relieved when the Blues won and assumed top spot on the ladder. Carol buttered up again the next afternoon with St Kilda and Geelong scores and information, as well as letting us know about Black Caviar, which made her messages very popular.

We made it!

We ended up taking over the Tea Lounge in our hotel, where the biggest TV screen was and the waiters kept cold beers up to the thirsty Australians and brought us a la carte meals. Norma, Wes and I all had massages during the break – mine was the most painful massage I have ever had – Ayurvedic and Herbal, but it certainly got rid of all the aches from the climb and finished in a herbal bath. We were pleased to see Ponting make a century, but the Aussies didn’t score enough to give India too much trouble.

Yesterday, after breakfast we set off for Colombo via the old Kandy Cricket Ground and the Elephant Orphanage. I found the experience rather unsettling, even though we were assured that the elephants were being well looked after. There was a group of young school children coming in as we were leaving so I gave them each a sheet of stickers and was very popular while I had presents.

We finally got back to the Galadari Hotel around 5pm, were delighted to be checked into a Non-Smoking floor, unpacked and showered and then caught a tuk-tuk to The Sizzle restaurant, which Wes had found on Trip Advisor. It is a fascinating concept – no alcohol, but plenty of mocktails, everything served on sizzle platters – we had prawns and mushrooms to start with and then lobster, prawns and fish for main course. We couldn’t finish our dinners – they were so yummy and served with pepper and chilli sauces, rice, vegetables and potatoes!

Yesterday morning I waded through 60 emails – I haven’t been able to download easily and Wes has, but it has cost him nearly $300 so far, so we are pleased to be able to use the laptop again. We will have internet access until we leave here on Wednesday afternoon for Mumbai.

Wes found Radio Australia for me and I have spent 2 hours listening to ABC radio’s broadcast of Collingwood’s victory over Port. It’s not as good as being there, but I am not complaining as I got all the atmosphere. Then on to the bus, Skippy now wearing a Sri Lankan flag, and off to the Stadium again to see Sri Lanka easily defeat England in very hot and trying conditions. We were utterly exhausted by the end of the game as the noise never lets up. Keith Stackpole had invited us, Norma, Jenny & John to his room afterwards for white wine and chips and we chatted about footy for an hour or so.

At the cricket

Murray with Skippy

This morning we have free, so I am sending this to you and will try and get another one out before we leave on Wednesday. Thanks to Danny Millman for the footy scores last night – no mean feat as he was at a birthday party in Sydney! There are enough AFL followers to be keen to know about each of the teams. I hope Earth Hour went well for everyone and I’ll be in touch again soon.

P.S. The line of the trip goes to Maurie, who was trying to find the cricket on his radio and complained that he had found a station commentating but it was ‘in some foreign lingo’! Maurie also spends his time telling our bus driver to go down a gear as he twists his way around the winding roads – much to everyone’s amusement.

Daylesford Dispatch, Saturday 19th March, 2011

Breakfast on our first morning –not much sleep!

Dear Friends, as we will be travelling tomorrow to the Maldives and as I am not sure what sort of internet access we will enjoy on our island, I thought I should update you this morning before we catch our bus to the cricket. When I left you on Wednesday we were about to have lovely massages – they were – I promised not to talk while Wes enjoyed his Balinese massage and I tried a herbal massage, because Rhonda had brought me home one of the herbal pummels that are used here and in India for these massages. It was delightful, especially after the young girl stopped walking all over me. Don’t tell Ann Holden, but I did let her give me a head massage!

That night we had very lacklustre G&Ts in the smokers’ lounge (before the smokers arrived) watching an equally lacklustre Australia beat the Canadians. Then I tried the best cocktail I have ever tasted – Old Arrack, Lime Juice and hot Spiced Tea – it was magic. We ate some snacks, then watched the rest of the cricket back in our room.

The next morning we had a big drive to the Boulder Garden Hotel in Kalawana – we drove for ages through beautiful hilly tea country, stopped in a little town for ‘short eats’, fried snacks, and were very pleased to finally arrive at this stunning hotel that Wes had found on the internet. It is carved into the rocks, with a pool fed by spring water, and we were the only guests. We were given the best room, where the bathroom was behind the bed and we could open the shutters to see rainforest all around us. Getting to our room involved about 50 steps and we were pleased not to have to carry our own bags. Wes had a swim, while I read and we were served tea and coffee and not charged for it. That night dinner was 7 courses – a beautiful menu, and the best Western style food we have ever had in Sri Lanka. Neel was most impressed as well. We had a bottle of Chilean red wine and the whole thing cost $75.

Yesterday we chose to get up at 5.30am to be ready for our Jeep Safari, and we very wisely asked if we could have breakfast on our return. We could have been issued with cheese and tomato sandwiches, but we find sandwiches haven’t improved over the 30 years since we were here, so had some water before we left. We drove over difficult terrain for 14kms until we reached the ticket office, where we thought we would commence our walk. Silly us. Instead, we got back into the jeep and drove for another 4kms on what can only be described as a goat track, where rocks have been thrown in a haphazard fashion. Even Glenn Mack would draw the line at this sort of 4-wheel driving! Our jeep was more comfortable than the others we saw, as at least we were sitting in bench seats like a car, not in back with nothing to hold on to. We had dressed very wisely for this trek – long sleeved shirts, trekking pants, long socks over our pants and good shoes. Sadly for me that wasn’t enough and I attracted the interest of 11 leeches along the way, including a huge one that attacked my upper legs (all the others concentrated on my ankles and wrists). I continued to bleed for hours and we have gone through all the bandaids I brought with us, as well as some that Neel bought for me. The bleeding has stopped on all but 3 of the bites – thank God. The hotel manager suggested I had very bad blood to start with and now it would be much better – I am sure he is right.

The restaurant under the rock

The trek was a lovely experience apart from the leeches (Wes did find two in his shoes on our return, but his bleeding stopped fairly quickly). We saw birds, butterflies, beautiful flowers, tall trees, tree and ground frogs, stick insects etc – everything except the promised solution to the Carlton-Collingwood marriage – a blue magpie! We did hear it and it has a beautiful song.

Back at our hotel I showered again, bled everywhere again, put on clean clothes and joined Wes under the big rock for a late breakfast of freshly-squeezed Australian orange juice, fruit platter and cheese omelettes. We can’t recommend this experience more highly – but you need to be able to walk up lots of steps, over wet rocks and not mind a lack of privacy in the bathroom! We wished we could have stayed another day – the service was second to none.

We have noticed such a difference in the amount of English spoken these days –schooling is compulsory for children up to 19 years old and if there is an English teacher available they have an English class every day from their first year. Of course, they speak proper English and we casual Aussies have to think very carefully about how we express things and ask questions, as there is so much slang in our everyday speech. Neel fell in love with ‘chook’ for chicken and we assured him that any Australian would know what he was talking about using that word.

Our bedroom with bathroom behind and open shutters

After our late breakfast, we got back into Neel’s car and drove to Colombo, where we are now. It was a 5-hour drive, punctuated by a visit to Neel’s home to meet his beautiful wife and 4 month old baby, of whom he is very proud. We had a cup of tea there, he dropped off his bags and drove us to the Galdari Hotel on the seafront. Our room has a beautiful view of  the water and the old Parliament. However, this is a very old hotel, which has just upgraded to computer keys – as we checked in the whole system crashed and we had to wait 30 minutes before we could be shown into our room. I changed out of my clothes again as I had continued to bleed, and we decided to have curries for dinner in our room while we watched Sri Lanka beat New Zealand.

This morning we set the alarm for 6am, had an early breakfast, met up with John, Norma and Murray from our previous cricket trip, introduced ourselves to Keith Stackpole, and enjoyed a fish curry breakfast in a very disorganised dining room. It reminded us of old Sri Lanka, lots of people wandering around getting in the way and very few of them doing anything – the table next to us took 4 waiters & 10 minutes to clear. Murray came to breakfast carrying a giant kangaroo – he needs a pump to blow it up and fortunately can’t find one!

The pool at the Boulder Garden Hotel

We have purchased 24 hours of internet access so that we could catch up on our emails (I had 45 and Wes 23) and make phone calls. I rang Viva and spent 20 minutes on the phone with her, she sounds tired, but excited that her air-conditioning will be back next Friday. She was thrilled with the visit from Paun, Brian & Rohan during the week, but all the excitement has exhausted her. Then Wes rang Barb, which coincided with Jessica cleaning our room, so I am sure everyone on our floor could hear him as he asked her about her week, and then told her about ours, making sure he was not saying derogatory things in front of Jessica. Now he has gone downstairs to have a coffee with Norma and catch up with her while I finish this.

Jane Knox has sent me a message to say they are home safely from their wonderful trip and that I am not to expect her to be awake for the whole of the match as it doesn’t start in Eastern Australia until 8pm. Judi has emailed to let us know that Averil’s funeral went well and that she was pleased with her eulogy and various friends have sent messages to say they are following our travels and enjoying the photos. Carol Bruce googles everything and looks at where we have been as well as following our itinerary, which is such a compliment. Meanwhile Frank Page writes screeds on Facebook, as he and Ellis learn from our experiences in preparation for the Daylesford onslaught on Sri Lanka in May. Thank you everyone – it is so good to stay in touch with you all.

Some of the stairs to our room, the pool and the restaurant

Daylesford Dispatch, Wednesday 16th March, 2011

Our bed in Trincomalee the day after the swans!

Dear Friends, my last Dispatch was written on Sunday and after our relaxing day, we had a wonderful seafood barbecue on the beach with our driver, Neel. The food was great – lobster, seer fish, prawns, octopus and we washed it down with a light French Shiraz and Wes gave Neel the wine lesson, which he really appreciated. The next morning we had a yummy breakfast of fish curry, string hoppers, egg hoppers, sambals and fresh fruit, followed by curds and treacle – no need for lunch! Neel took us to see a famous old Buddhist Temple, we stopped to photograph the deer, drove to some hot mineral springs (Daylesford has absolutely no competition as far as mineral water goes), and visited the Hotel Nilwali, where we stayed with Judi and Jane in 1979 and had a lovely time. It has been modernised of course, but we recognised it easily and were able to have a cool drink on the beach.

With one of the many friendly deer we encountered on our way to the Buddhist Temple

The rest of Monday was spent relaxing – Wes had hoped to take Neel out snorkelling but the sea was too rough and the boatman refused to go to Pigeon Island. We were very impressed with everything about our hotel – the staff is friendly, knowledgeable and helpful and one of them told us that the management is fantastic and everyone loves to work at Chaaya Blu. We had Sri Lankan curries again for dinner that night with Neel and arranged an early start in the morning for the big drive to Nurawa Eliya, the tea area.

 Neel & I

After another yummy breakfast we headed off with a few stops along the way – the Juice Factory is an oasis of wonderful juices made from organically grown fruits (although I had lassi to drink as it hadn’t been offered anywhere else we had been – Wes & Neel enjoyed avocado juice). The Factory is situated on an organic farm, which grows the fruit, vegetables and plants, as well as offering organic eggs and is on the outskirts of Dambulla. Shortly after that stop, we found ourselves at the famous Buddha Rock Cave and Golden Buddha Temple and Museum.  Neel had forgotten to mention to Warren that his knees needed to be covered, and told neither of us that we would be climbing 120 steps plus some steep inclines in the heat. We advised him that he should always warn his passengers of these things, especially as you pay 1,200 rupees for the privilege. Neel found a sarong for Wes to wear; we removed our shoes and socks and hopped over the hot sand until we reached the cool of the old Cave. There are plenty of Buddhas to see and it is well-maintained, which made visiting the 5 areas a pleasure, although we are both always delighted to put our shoes and socks back on again.

We stopped again in Kandy to cash some Australian dollars – an easy thing to do at the airport, but rigmarole at banks, then continued our big drive. The road was good for most of the journey, but the last 43kms were on windy roads, and our hotel was another 14kms beyond that on a goat track! We finally arrived at 6pm, where we were greeted warmly, given a sweet fragrant tea, anointed and allowed to go to our room, which has stunning views on 2 sides of the plantations all around us. We were quite emotional as we drove through Nurawa Eliya – it was a special place for us all in 1979 – we had our first massages at the Grand Hotel, which still stands, opposite the golf course, where we used to walk daily into the town to get short eats for lunch.

The Tea Factory Hotel this morning on our walk

Last night we decided to eat in the restaurant, which was quite OK, although the food was not as yummy as Trincomalee. Neel was born in this area, so he was seeing friends for dinner and we had an early night – not as early as we would like as hotel restaurants don’t seem to open until 7.30pm! Everyone is happy to talk about the cricket and they are all confident Sri Lanka will win the World Cup.

Today we gave Neel the day off to visit family as we have another big day of driving tomorrow, followed by a half-day safari and a drive to Colombo on Friday. So we awoke early to see the plantations shrouded in mist and enjoyed breakfast watching it lift. At 10am we joined three French people for a 2-hour walk around the plantations learning about tea-picking and spotting various birds. We all got soaked to the skin when it suddenly rained, but we have dried off again, after a refreshing pot of tea in the tea lounge. I drank organic green tea, which is easily the nicest green tea I have ever tasted, while Wes had orange pekoe, of which they are very proud. Even though we are in the home of beautiful teas, I am carrying my tin of Jasmine tea around with me as the tea that is served in the restaurants is not Ceylon’s finest and everyone is fascinated to watch me put the leaves in the teapot and stir them around before drinking. They all want to examine the tin and smell the leaves – it’s a good talking point.

Shortly we are heading downstairs to the spa, where I am having a 90 minute herbal massage and Wes is having a 90-minute Balinese special massage. Then we plan to sit in our room and watch Australia play Canada, indulge in G&Ts and perhaps have some of the many cricket flavoured snacks that are being offered by room service. We won’t have much access to computers over the next couple of days, so don’t be disappointed if we are not in touch. We will be thinking of everyone in Daylesford tomorrow and hope the sun shines for Averil’s funeral.

Dear Friends, my last Dispatch was written on Sunday and after our relaxing day, we had a wonderful seafood barbecue on the beach with our driver, Neel. The food was great – lobster, seer fish, prawns, octopus and we washed it down with a light French Shiraz and Wes gave Neel the wine lesson, which he really appreciated. The next morning we had a yummy breakfast of fish curry, string hoppers, egg hoppers, sambals and fresh fruit, followed by curds and treacle – no need for lunch! Neel took us to see a famous old Buddhist Temple, we stopped to photograph the deer, drove to some hot mineral springs (Daylesford has absolutely no competition as far as mineral water goes), and visited the Hotel Nilwali, where we stayed with Judi and Jane in 1979 and had a lovely time. It has been modernised of course, but we recognised it easily and were able to have a cool drink on the beach.

With one of the many friendly deer we encountered on our way to the Buddhist Temple

The rest of Monday was spent relaxing – Wes had hoped to take Neel out snorkelling but the sea was too rough and the boatman refused to go to Pigeon Island. We were very impressed with everything about our hotel – the staff is friendly, knowledgeable and helpful and one of them told us that the management is fantastic and everyone loves to work at Chaaya Blu. We had Sri Lankan curries again for dinner that night with Neel and arranged an early start in the morning for the big drive to Nurawa Eliya, the tea area.

 Neel & I

After another yummy breakfast we headed off with a few stops along the way – the Juice Factory is an oasis of wonderful juices made from organically grown fruits (although I had lassi to drink as it hadn’t been offered anywhere else we had been – Wes & Neel enjoyed avocado juice). The Factory is situated on an organic farm, which grows the fruit, vegetables and plants, as well as offering organic eggs and is on the outskirts of Dambulla. Shortly after that stop, we found ourselves at the famous Buddha Rock Cave and Golden Buddha Temple and Museum.  Neel had forgotten to mention to Warren that his knees needed to be covered, and told neither of us that we would be climbing 120 steps plus some steep inclines in the heat. We advised him that he should always warn his passengers of these things, especially as you pay 1,200 rupees for the privilege. Neel found a sarong for Wes to wear; we removed our shoes and socks and hopped over the hot sand until we reached the cool of the old Cave. There are plenty of Buddhas to see and it is well-maintained, which made visiting the 5 areas a pleasure, although we are both always delighted to put our shoes and socks back on again.

We stopped again in Kandy to cash some Australian dollars – an easy thing to do at the airport, but rigmarole at banks, then continued our big drive. The road was good for most of the journey, but the last 43kms were on windy roads, and our hotel was another 14kms beyond that on a goat track! We finally arrived at 6pm, where we were greeted warmly, given a sweet fragrant tea, anointed and allowed to go to our room, which has stunning views on 2 sides of the plantations all around us. We were quite emotional as we drove through Nurawa Eliya – it was a special place for us all in 1979 – we had our first massages at the Grand Hotel, which still stands, opposite the golf course, where we used to walk daily into the town to get short eats for lunch.

The Tea Factory Hotel this morning on our walk

Last night we decided to eat in the restaurant, which was quite OK, although the food was not as yummy as Trincomalee. Neel was born in this area, so he was seeing friends for dinner and we had an early night – not as early as we would like as hotel restaurants don’t seem to open until 7.30pm! Everyone is happy to talk about the cricket and they are all confident Sri Lanka will win the World Cup.

Today we gave Neel the day off to visit family as we have another big day of driving tomorrow, followed by a half-day safari and a drive to Colombo on Friday. So we awoke early to see the plantations shrouded in mist and enjoyed breakfast watching it lift. At 10am we joined three French people for a 2-hour walk around the plantations learning about tea-picking and spotting various birds. We all got soaked to the skin when it suddenly rained, but we have dried off again, after a refreshing pot of tea in the tea lounge. I drank organic green tea, which is easily the nicest green tea I have ever tasted, while Wes had orange pekoe, of which they are very proud. Even though we are in the home of beautiful teas, I am carrying my tin of Jasmine tea around with me as the tea that is served in the restaurants is not Ceylon’s finest and everyone is fascinated to watch me put the leaves in the teapot and stir them around before drinking. They all want to examine the tin and smell the leaves – it’s a good talking point.

Shortly we are heading downstairs to the spa, where I am having a 90 minute herbal massage and Wes is having a 90-minute Balinese special massage. Then we plan to sit in our room and watch Australia play Canada, indulge in G&Ts and perhaps have some of the many cricket flavoured snacks that are being offered by room service. We won’t have much access to computers over the next couple of days, so don’t be disappointed if we are not in touch. We will be thinking of everyone in Daylesford tomorrow and hope the sun shines for Averil’s funeral.

Above, we are soaking wet walking down from the tea plantation & the clever use of bottles to stop soil erosion

Daylesford Dispatch, Sunday 13th March, 2011

Our bed when we came back from breakfast this am in Trincomalee

Dear Friends, I thought I would try and get a Sunday Dispatch typed up and sent to you to let you know that all is well and that we are enjoying ourselves enormously on this trip. When I last wrote, we were heading off to visit Viva and arrived with a big bouquet of lilies from our local florist. We had a great visit, and, although Viva is still without air-conditioning, it seems as though her claim has made it to the top of the pile again and perhaps action will happen this week.

We spent the remaining days until leaving on Friday getting everything in order – Wes cleared his desk, we backed up everything we could and attended our last Rotary, U3A, Strong & Hydro classes for some time. We managed to eat nearly everything in the fridge, with a little help from the boys, and gave ourselves the whole of Thursday to pack. Sadly we discovered that our friend, Averil Dickenson, had died unexpectedly that morning, after recovering from a life-threatening issue. She had been in hospital since before Christmas, had fought to stay alive and when the battle seemed won, she suddenly died. Judi, in particular, is very upset, as she and Averil had formed a lovely friendship in a very short time. We had planned to have dinner that night at the Farmers with Judi, Michael & Glenn, so it gave us a chance to reminisce and give Judi some support. Wes is one of the executors of Averil’s will, but Jeff Bain will have to manage until our return.

On Friday Wes walked the boys early with Judi, then we closed our cases, packed them and the boys in the car and drove to Eureka Kennels, where Bilbo and Frodo did their best not to look too excited! Then off to Strathmore for a quick farewell visit with Viva and Leanne. My brother Peter and his wife, Anka, have been in Melbourne this weekend, so they were planning on seeing Viva today, which she was thrilled about. As well my sister, Paun, her husband, Brian, and their youngest son, Rohan, are all coming to Melbourne from Tathra and will be visiting Viva on Tuesday. It is sometime since Viva has seen them all and she is very excited.

We decided to put our car in Andrew’s Airport Parking and save ourselves $100 car parking fees. We used to use them all the time and it was lovely to be greeted with a smile, driven to the airport and deposited at Singapore Airlines with another smile and a cheery farewell. We were into the Business Lounge in no time at all and settled down to bubbles and sandwiches for late lunch and a read of The Age.

Our flight to Singapore of about 8 hours was most enjoyable, although the plane was an old one and not as comfortable as the next leg. We had a 2-hour stopover there, freshened up, and I took the opportunity to read about Collingwood’s win in the NAB pre-season Cup. The AFL had sent me quarter by quarter scores, but the game was well & truly over by the time I saw them. Danny had also sent me the final score which was very thoughtful, and the next day, he let us know about Black Caviar’s record-breaking win at Flemington.

We arrived at Colombo just after midnight (5.5 hours difference) and were met by our lovely driver, Neel, who is 29 years old and therefore was not born when we first visited his beautiful country.  The whole country is excited about the World Cricket Cup and we passed life-size cardboard cut-outs of each nation’s best player as we walked off the plane – Shane Watson was our representative. Unlike that earlier visit, the car is a brand-new Hyundai, and we couldn’t believe how good the roads are! Neel drove us to a welcoming hotel, Wallawwa, about 20 minutes from the airport. This was very comfortable and we were sorry to be spending only 8 hours there – no sign of a railway line and service was prompt and smiling, unlike our first hotel in 1979, where we couldn’t sleep for the noise of the trains and the discomfort of the beds, and where our request for orange juice in the morning took an hour to be filled. Wes enjoyed egg hoppers and chicken curry for breakfast, while I made do with an omelette as everything else had meat with it.

Our room was the first on the left and there were orange carp in the pond you can see

Neel picked us up at 9.30am and we drove all day until we reached our hotel, Chaaya Blu, in Trincomalee. We had various adventures along the way (250kms) including Neel being fined by the police for passing 2 vehicles, instead of weaving in and out and passing one at a time. We stopped by the roadside to drink coconut milk from King coconuts; we had a late lunch in a typical inexpensive restaurant with buffet offerings which we washed down with ginger beer. We were pulled up at a roadblock, but once the police realised we were Australians, here for the cricket, they smiled and waved us on. The last 43 kms of our drive were like the Sri Lankans roads of old and it took forever, swerving around potholes, all made worse by the floods last year.

Our current hotel is also beautiful and looks just like the photos on its website. Our room looks out onto the beach, there is a comfortable day bed outside the room in the shade, where Wes has spent most of the day since we enjoyed a long, leisurely Sri Lankan breakfast of string hoppers, fish curry, dhal and sambals, finished up with curd and treacle – yummy! Neel has the day off and we are meeting him at the seafood restaurant tonight for dinner. Wes has gone to have a massage, while I try to paint a picture of this lovely place we are in until Tuesday morning, when we drive to The Tea Factory Hotel in Nuwara Eliya. Apparently the road there isn’t too good either, but it will be worth the discomfort.

Our bedroom before the swans arrived

I was too tired and not hungry enough for dinner last night, so Wes and Neel enjoyed a quiet meal together while I did crosswords, read, answered the door to people wanting to clean the room, and finally fell asleep around 9pm. Wes was home shortly afterwards and we both slept through until 7.30am which was just what we needed.

I will put the link to this newsletter on Facebook, as so many friends are getting in touch that way. It has been fascinating to read David Castles’ descriptions of Sri Lanka circa 1986 when he travelled here and had a very different impression of Nurawa Eliya than we did. Tomorrow we are going out in the morning with Neel to see what should be seen here, then I think the afternoon will be free, so Wes can battle the waves again. There aren’t very many people here and our view of the beach is uninterrupted.

Thanks to everyone who has been in touch already – it is lovely to hear what is happening at home, or in New York if it is Jane and David Knox.

Daylesford Dispatch - Saturday, 5th March 2011

Dear Friends, another Saturday Dispatch, as we will be driving to Melbourne immediately after breakfast tomorrow to visit Viva. We had hoped to see her yesterday, but she was too tired, so we are making a special trip tomorrow instead. She celebrates her birthday on Tuesday and we can’t be there on the day, but a visit two days early will be welcome.

We are loving Autumn here – cool nights and mornings and beautiful days – the roses are flourishing, the fruit has ripened and been eaten by Labradors or birds except for about a dozen pieces that we rescued, the silver beet and basil are prolific and the zucchini are about to take over the garden. The tomatoes are ripening slowly, but the chillies are showing a reluctance to participate in all this activity.

Dinner at the Flower Drum with Ian & Robyn 2006

Since I last wrote we have been busy as usual and sadly spent too much time indoors booking footy tickets, answering emails, paying bills, reconciling bank accounts and backing up data. Wes gets into the garden a little more than I do, and he did tidy up under the house, filling our bin with rubbish and making it much easier to access everything. We discovered that we are completely out of still wine, so we will have to remedy that!

We have been to see ‘The Social Network’, which we loved and were pleased to see that it did well at the Oscars, as well as the play Apologia’, which we did not enjoy, although dinner with Ian & Robyn beforehand in the Curve Bar was lovely and made up for the play’s shortcomings. We had dinner with friends, Al & Elli Barnes, who have taken on parenthood of Bella, who is now 19 months. Her mother is unable to look after her and they are now her guardians and official parents. We shared an interesting evening chatting about all the obstacles they have faced and are overcoming, as well as enjoying some homemade pizzas. Bella, surprisingly, took to me – most young children much prefer Warren, but any thoughts I have of converting her to the Pies would be very misplaced, as the Bombers deserve her support in honour of all Al & Elli are doing for her.

Wes and I have both suffered bad headaches during the week – most unusual for us and took to bed with Panadol and managed to sleep them off. Sadly we missed Rotary, a Strong Class, and U3A Morning Tea. However, Wes was well enough to enjoy the Men’s Lunch at Sailors Falls Estate on Thursday in company with 25 other blokes.

Porcupine Ridge 2003

Yesterday was spent in Melbourne – we met up with Doug Walsh, Joy & Russ Dale, at the Fitzroy Garden Cafe, opposite the Exhibition Buildings, which was hosting the World’s Longest Lunch (try getting a park in Nicholson Street while that is going on). After a good discussion about the 2010 Premiership and the 1990 Premiership (you can imagine how delighted Wes was with this), we settled down to a serious chat about Rotary projects in the Philippines. Doug is now considered the Australian Rotary expert on the Philippines and he is finding that quite a burden, so wants to enlist Wes and Russ to help spread the load.

After lunch, we drove to Ascot Vale, where we spent a lovely afternoon with Robert and Marilyn, catching up with them and some of their news. We love spending time with them, as anyone does with old and true friends. Then home again where the boys were waiting eagerly for dinner. Judi and Michael had been away in Ocean Grove for three days to celebrate Judi’s birthday and it was great to hear from them that they had arrived home safely. As well, an electrician rang Wes to see if he could visit Viva, and she reported afterwards that all her wiring is OK, which should surely mean the air-conditioning can be fixed at last.

This morning we did the early shift on one of the best Farmers’ Markets we can remember – everyone was in good spirits, smiling, greeting friends or making new ones, complimentary of the produce available, understanding that Red Beard Bakery and Meredith cheese couldn’t be in two places at once (they are both in Melbourne for the Food & Wine Festival), reminiscing about yesterday’s Longest Lunch in Musk, which was held in the Musk Schoolhouse Gardens, created and owned by Stuart Rattle. We sold lots of bags, gave away plenty of leaflets on the Market and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Then Barbara, Warren & I went to Gracenotes Café for breakfast, before we headed back here to tackle today’s issues. I managed to delete the back-ups on Quicken, so have had to recreate the last month of transactions – eek!

Anthony, Jessie, Dante & Chiara Mammino at Dante’s 4^th birthday

The next Dispatch will come to you from Sri Lanka (I hope) as we are heading off on Friday for a month away. We haven’t been back to Sri Lanka since we were there in 1979 and missed the births of Heath Preston and Matthew Spiteri! We are hooking into the Cricket World Cup, but will spend a week in Sri Lanka ourselves before meeting our co-travellers and seeing Australia play Pakistan on 19^th March. Then we have a short break in the Maldives, back to Sri Lanka, then onto Mumbai for the Final and finally a few days at Raffles in Singapore before flying home. Wes is busy checking all our paperwork which arrived yesterday. We will spend the cricket leg of our tour with our dear friend, Norma Hutchins from Freo, and meet up again with John Schibli, the tour organiser, and Murray Holderhead, who we also met on our first tour. Keith Stackpole is the resident celebrity – definitely our vintage and we are looking forward to meeting him. Sadly Jane & David Knox are in Canada on a lovely holiday incorporating snow and New York, and Terry McDonald is off to New Zealand – we will miss all three of them, and hope to make new friends from the small group of cricket lovers we will be joining.

I will try and keep in touch via email and will upload my Dispatch onto the current blog - www.karenmaloney5.blogspot.com –so if you are not hearing from me and would like to know what is happening, please log onto it. We don’t have a camera at present, so unless we purchase one before we go, photos will be from our phones and intermittent in download ability. While we are away and the boys are in Eureka Kennels, Judi will look after our mail, the street bins, and check the house, as well as raid the garden for produce; Barbara will have spare copies of passport information and our ‘What to take in the event of a fire bag’; Ian Tinetti may do a new back fence; Jonno will mow the lawns and tidy the garden, and no doubt all the wineries we support will send us boxes of wine! This week will be spent packing, getting tidied up, visiting Viva and Leanne, sharing a last breakfast at Café 3460, as well as having cuppas with various friends to say goodbye. Enjoy your week and we’ll be in touch again as soon as we can.

Jane, Wes & Judi in Sri Lanka 1979