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
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