Daylesford Dispatch, Sunday, 10th April 2011

Raffles welcome fruit & flower bowl

Dear Friends, when I last wrote, we were just about to head out for a pre-dinner drink and we found ourselves at the Long Bar again where we were given a great table as we were hotel guests. Lots of visitors came looking for tables, but finally a young Asian-looking couple wandered by, so we invited them to join us and had another of those wonderful encounters you have when travelling. She was Korean, who has lived in Boston from age 15 and he was from Arizona. They are now in their thirties, married and have lived in New York and currently in London, and were fleeing from the cold for 2 weeks. Their biggest decision is where in the world to settle down.

Long Bar box of peanuts – it is etiquette to leave the shells on the floor

After two G&Ts each, we said goodbye and walked across the road to Chijmes, where we found another Lei Garden Restaurant and enjoyed double boiled sea treasure soup, steamed prawns with asparagus and Chinese cabbage with mushrooms for dinner. We walked back to Raffles and reprised our crème de cassis over ice drinks of the night before and reacquainted ourselves with Jimmy the pianist.

The next morning we were sorry to have our last breakfast in the hotel – everyone made a fuss of us – we are very easy guests and make sure we smile and say thank you for every service, unlike some of the guests who take the staff for granted. The afternoon before, we had received news from Barbara that her cat, Ascot, had gone missing on Sunday and when found, had been in a fight and was at the vet recovering. Fortunately there are no broken bones, but she has been unable to get onto both back legs, which has been worrying, although now she is home, has eaten a little and is responding to TLC. Fingers crossed that she recovers fully.

We went for a walk to the Singapore Library where we saw a wonderful exhibition on traditional weddings, as well as admired the various photographs and miscellany that has been donated over the years. Then into the biggest Anglican Church for a squiz and finally a browse in a second-hand bookstore, where we found a good history of Singapore, a book on Napoleon and another on Ramses, which will keep Wes going for ages.

We packed our bags, checked out of Raffles, enjoyed our only dim sum meal for the trip, in the Raffles bakery, and then found a quiet spot under the main staircase where we settled down to read our books until our car arrived to collect us. One of the many butlers who stopped for a chat organised tea and coffee for us, and we very reluctantly took our leave at 6pm. Our driver was very interested in cricket and Australian Rules and suggested we needed to get a catchier name if we are to appeal to Asians in the future with footy.

We arrived at the Singapore Lounge and the first thing I spotted was that day’s Melbourne Age. What bliss! We settled down to have a serious feed as we expected to be given only a snack on our flight home. When we found our seats we were amazed to be on a very new plane, where there are only 4 seats per row in Business Class – what luxury – the window seats are single seats, which means every traveller can get up and walk around without disturbing your neighbour. We found the seats so comfortable, the TV screens enormous and the bed delightful – it comes down from the backrest and includes a doona instead of a scratchy blanket.  I watched a very silly film ‘The Tourist’, because it was set in Venice, while Wes caught up with ’Another Year’ and ‘The Fighter’. When we reached Immigration, we were delighted when the young official said to us ‘Daylesford, I’m going to retire there’. It was lovely to be home.

Singapore Restaurant – perhaps a clone of the House Next Door?

We passed through security easily, got the Andrew’s courtesy bus, collected our car and set off home, arriving here about 9am, which was fantastic, as we landed at 6.40am. Everywhere looked wonderful – Jonno had cut the lawn and trimmed the garden beds, Judi had collected mail and papers and put out bins, with some help from Barbara, the roses, tomatoes, basil and spinach were all blooming, and Sandra had cleaned our house to within an inch of its life. Judi had put yellow liliums in my favourite (her least favourite) vase and left us tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber for a salad, as well as cabbage and carrots for the boys.

Wes went straight over to see Barbara, who had missed him dreadfully, especially with Ascot’s drama, while I unpacked both suitcases and started the first of 4 loads of washing. We climbed into bed with The Age, the local papers and cups of tea around 10.30am after Wes put the computers through their paces, and slept on and off the rest of the day. We got up in time to see sunset and watched a ‘New Tricks’ episode while enjoying our tomatoes and spinach on toast.

On Friday Nicole came to do my hair and Wes collected the boys from Eureka - This is how they looked as we left them to go away – you would never guess how excited they were and how much they enjoyed their holiday as well. I opened the mail, packed a small running away bag and Wes drove me to Ballan to catch the 3.30pm train to Southern Cross Station for the footy. I met Danny at European Restaurant in Spring Street, where we had a memorable meal – I was greeted with a glass of champagne to celebrate my return and matched it with ‘black and white pasta with fresh crab’. Danny had a stunning piece of meat, and we somehow managed tiramisu, which was a meal in itself.

We got to our seats just before the raising of the 2010 Premiership Flag, which was done very well – including as many past players, staff and supporters as possible and culminated with Simon Prestigiacomo hoisting the Flag onto the flagpole. We were delighted to be part of 88,818 crowd and the atmosphere was fabulous. Carlton came out with all guns blazing and gave us a great game, which we managed to win in the last quarter.

I stayed overnight with Danny, where we were wakened early by a group of painters, who decided to start work at 7.30am and thought it would be OK to knock on the door, rather than ring and make a time the day before. Danny went off to work, and I caught the train into town, where I bought some new Winter tops and some chocolates for Wes. Then I walked to Carlton, where Wes met me for lunch at Jimmy Watson’s to celebrate 45 years since we met on Sunday, 10^th April 1966. He had taken Barbara to dinner at ‘Gracenotes’ the night before, watched the first half of the footy with her, and then collected Ascot for her  next morning. Afterwards we saw ‘The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest’, which we really enjoyed and drove home in pouring rain. Barbara had let us know that the power was out, but we could see that everyone else had power as we got closer to home, so Wes went straight over to her place to restart her power which had turned itself off.

This morning we had a lovely reunion with all our friends at Cafe 3460 where Kim outdid himself with breakfast, Gary was at our sides with drinks before we knew we needed refills and we distributed our gifts. One of the delightful traditions of going overseas is bringing back presents for the Breakfast Group and everyone had great fun with their bags of goodies. Kim & Gary were given a Sri Lankan cookbook so we are expecting all sorts of wonderful goodies next week – string hoppers might be a bit much to ask for though!

Laundry hamper – Trident Hotel Mumbai style

Daylesford Dispatch, Tuesday, 5th April, 2011

Dear Friends, we are on the final full day of our holiday and having a wonderful time here in Raffles in Singapore. Wes is very keen that I get the full flavour of the World Cup Match, so I will try and tell you what it was like. When I last wrote, we were about to go to dinner at the Cricket Club of India, where Stacky had hit a century many moons ago. We duly arrived and it was a very traditional, colonial club, with the wonderful surprise of seeing groups of people seated around tables on the ground having pre-dinner drinks. We were shown to the main table in the dining-room, where we were offered a la carte (Indian curries) or Chinese. We opted to share a Chinese meal as that simplified ordering as there were 13 of us at dinner. The food was fine, nothing special, but the service was very good, although one of the younger waiters was unable to distinguish white wine from red and kept pouring red wine into Norma’s glass! It was a special honour to be allowed to dine at the Club and it was only because three of us were members of the MCC, that we were accorded the honour.

The next morning I suffered from a headache, so decided to sleep in and give breakfast a miss. Wes went down and came back to report on the amazing atmosphere – just like Grand Final morning, everyone was hopping from one foot to the other, on mobile phones checking on their tickets or trying to get tickets, meeting friends or organising meeting points. We sat quietly in the room listening to Collingwood easily account for North Melbourne, then getting progress scores on other games, before we joined our group to go to the ground. We couldn’t find our bus, so we set off walking together and followed Gill, one of our group, who knew where Gate 6 was! When we arrived near the gate, it was impossible to find out where the queue started as there were queues to 3 gates snaking around that side of the ground, so we joined in close to where we thought we should be. After a while we reached the railway pedestrian overpass and were within sight of the ground. It then took an hour to get to our gate. The temperature was 32° and the humidity almost unbearable and it stayed like that until the sun went down, when it became just bearable.

We went through at least 5 search points – at each point males and females were separated and we lost everyone else in our group except for Norma and Jenny. Wes stayed around waiting for us each time until we reached the top of the stairs, when Norma inadvertently followed him through the male check point and Jenny & I didn’t see them again until we found our seats. I waited each time for Jenny as she is 73 and finds stairs a trial. As you may remember, we were not allowed to bring anything much in with us, so I was carrying in my pockets – Kleenex, mobile phone, hotel room key, a comb, Ventolin spray & my ticket – all of which items were allowed through. After the 5 searches, we finally reached turnstiles and our tickets were scanned. At the bottom of the railway overpass stairs we turned to our aisle, but were forced through yet another search, this time, an electronic one. The previous 5 searches had been manual – women were taken one by one into a cubicle with a curtain and we were patted down and our pockets inspected. All along the way were soldiers with or without rifles and sundry officials blocking the way of the ticket-holders and making it very difficult to catch up to our male partners again.

Finally, I was passed OK and allowed to progress to the staircase to my seat – Gill had waited for Jenny and I left them looking for toilets and went up 2 flights of stairs to find half of our group in their seats, including Wes and Norma. We were seated in the back of 5 shortish rows in front of a ‘superbox’, with the loveliest official looking after us, as well as sundry policemen and women & security offers. Our official was so excited to have a row of ‘kangaroos’ to look after, that he took us under his wing – Wes responded well to his concern, so he treated Wes as our leader and when he thought we would be hungry, announced that we were entitled to dinner boxes and that we should give him our seat tickets and he would arrange it. In the meantime we were discovering that we could not buy bottles of water, only cups and if you weren’t careful, you ended up with cups of Pepsi, as happened to Norma! The ladies’ toilets were just at the back of our section, which was very convenient, but they were actually men’s loos, with ‘Ladies’ written in chalk on the door and the urinals scrubbed up to furnish us with hand-basins!

Our dinner boxes were full of pastries, bread rolls, cake, chocolates, curry and fruit juice, very little of which was edible and all of which was cold. Once our helpful official discovered Keith Stackpole was part of our group, his eyes filled with tears as he had been 4 years old when he saw Keith bat, so Warren introduced them and took a photo. About 20 minutes later, our official brought up the Commissioner of Police, who also met Keith and had his photo taken. After this we were offered more dinner boxes, chocolates and bottles of water that the water police did not take from us. We said no to the dinner boxes and gave the chocolates to Wes. We were also given lots of clappers and signs, which we gave to the children in front of us. These children had accompanied the players onto the ground and then took their seats in our area. We suspected that many of them were underprivileged or orphaned children; at least one was blind and another slow in his reactions to everything. I made friends with the boy in front of me and gave him my cap to wear.  He tried to give it back, but I told him it was a present from Australia, so he wore it very happily.

In the meantime the match was playing out. Sri Lanka started too slowly, but finished with a good score of 274. The Indians strode out confidently, but when Sehwag went for a duck and Sachin made only 18, the Sri Lankans were cock-a-hoop. Sadly for them, they could not move Gambhir or M S Dhoni until too late and India won a memorable Final. Norma gave her cap to our official and he hugged her in delight. We left before the end as we were worried it would be bedlam getting out of the stadium, and arrived back at our hotel as the game finished.

We said goodbye to Norma, Keith and Jenny, as we were leaving at 4.30am the next day and headed to bed, where we watched the scenes of joy all over India. We had packed before going to the ground and Wes had arranged a wake-up call in case our phones’ alarms didn’t go off. Our thanks to Jane Knox for footy scores during the cricket until she fell asleep and to Barbara for final scores – much appreciated.

We slept well until 3.30am, were in the lobby by 4.20am and enjoyed a pleasant drive to the airport in the hotel car. We drove through celebrating Indians in cars, some sitting in open boots, others hanging out of windows flying flags. Our flight to Singapore was very comfortable with wonderful service and we were met at the other end by a loquacious driver, who couldn’t have cared less about what we wanted to do in Singapore and told us what he thought of everything.

Our Room looking out to the Parlour

Then we were at Raffles and everything went up a notch or two – Martina, our Irish check-in person, expressed surprise that  Australians were interested in cricket, so we set her straight and when we next saw her she asked us which team we had been supporting in the World Cup, having boned up on it in the meantime. We have a Palm Court suite in the oldest part of Raffles – a regular suite includes a parlour with dining table, which is where I am sitting, a spacious bedroom, a dressing room and bathroom, all beautifully appointed. We have our own butler who attends to whatever needs we might have.

We were too tired to do much on Sunday night other than have a G&T in the Long Bar, where each table has a big bowl of unshelled peanuts and it is etiquette to shell them and throw the husks on the floor. We were given someone else’s bill to sign, which started a good conversation going with that table and they were all envious we had been at the cricket. We had an Indian curry buffet in the Tiffin Room, where we were well looked after until Marie, our delightful French waitress, presented us with someone else’s bill for drinks from the Writer’s Bar. When we explained this was the second time it had happened, she promised to ‘put an end to it’ and we parted with a smile.

After a good sleep in yesterday, we went back to the Tiffin Room for breakfast, where I was delighted to find congee on the menu and the waiter and I agreed that Raffles made the best fish congee in the world. Wes had soft-boiled eggs, which were perfectly cooked and the array of fruits and juices was second to none. Last time we were here, probably 8-10 years ago, eggs were cooked by chefs in front of you, but this has changed and there is a menu of extras, which are brought to your table on order.

Of course, once you arrive at breakfast, your butler is told, so your room is cleaned while you are away without you having to mention it. We had decided to walk to Sentosa and set off on Northbridge Road to do just that. It took us 1.5 hours to get to Vivo City which is the Gateway to Sentosa, so we stopped for a Haagen Daaz ice-cream, which took ages to eat and was a fun experience. Then we walked to Sentosa on the new boardwalk, which has just opened. We decided not to enter Sentosa, and walked back to the Gateway to get a taxi back home.  We walked to the Bugis Street area, then came back here for a shower and ordered afternoon tea to be served on our veranda.

Sentosa Boardwalk

It was traditional English afternoon tea –three tiers of sweet things and scones, jam and cream. As well we were given a cake and Pink Champagne, and promptly put back all the weight we had lost by our big walk. Wes had found a good restaurant on Trip Advisor called Lei Garden – when we read a review by a Pom saying ‘beware, nothing you are used to eating at home is on this menu’  we knew we were on a winner! We tried to walk to it, but got lost and caught a taxi instead. Our driver did not know the building but assured us that he would find it no matter what and find it he did – what a delightful experience that was.

Dinner was sublime – we were met in the lobby and shown the lift to the 3^rd floor, where we were greeted by name and shown into a beautifully appointed room, which was staffed completely by females. We chose steamed grouper fish, which was served on tofu so sublime that even Wes loved it, chilli prawns served whole and garlic broccoli, all accompanied by a Marlborough NZ Sauvignon Blanc. We finished up with rice balls stuffed with black sauce (me) and green tea mousse. When we arrived back here we decided to have crème de cassis on ice in the Writer’s Bar, where Jimmy, the ageing camp pianist was playing wonderfully on the piano. He and Wes had some witty exchanges, our butler came to check on us and make sure everything was OK and we went happily to bed.

This morning we were having another enjoyable breakfast – I had the Raffles omelette this time with chillies, coriander, onion & Emmental cheese and Wes made do with croissants after our fruit, when we were joined by Lesley, the Raffles Historian, who greeted us by name and asked if we were by any chance from Melbourne. Both his daughters had studied there – one at Melbourne Uni and the other at RMIT and he and his wife have visited 5 times and done just about everything there is to do in Victoria, except visit Daylesford. We had a wonderful chat, he was a mine of information and we did enjoy talking with someone who loves Melbourne so much.

Wes has been in the pool and steam room, while I have been talking to Viva, reading my emails and writing this lengthy Dispatch. We are heading off for a walk to Little India soon – perhaps we will have dim sum later on or save ourselves for another exciting dinner. We had planned to go the Imperial Herbal Restaurant, but it has moved to Vivo City, where we were yesterday, so we might look at the Chijmes complex across the road instead or eat outside here.

Lei Garden Restaurant

Thanks to everyone for your messages and emails – all much appreciated. Carol tells me that Channel 7 is showing the Collingwood/Carlton match live on Friday night, so I assume it is close to a sell-out – Wes has chosen not to go, so I have invited Danny and we are very excited about the unfurling of the flag as well as going to our first match of the new season.

 

Daylesford Dispatch, Friday, 1st April, 2011

Sweltering at the cricket – Keith & John in front, Karen, Norma & Jenny behind

Our tickets for the semi-final against New Zealand were upstairs for a change, so we opted for a clutch of seats at the back in front of an open grilled area which allowed us the odd breeze during the 9 hours we were there. The atmosphere was magic – everyone so excited, and those of you who watched any of the game, would be aware that the noise is incessant – horns, drums, clappers, whistles, chants etc and whenever the noise dies down, the ground announcer exhorts the crowd to shout or do a Mexican wave or to sing along with the ads. The game looked a foregone conclusion and we were planning to leave early, but suddenly Daniel Vettori stopped the Sri Lankans in their tracks, wickets fells, runs dried up and the stadium grew quiet. There was an appeal for caught behind turned down, McKay bowled 5 wides and the game changed. We left then to avoid the crush and got a great view of the fireworks as we dashed through the tuk-tuks across the road to our bus.

The night was a difficult one for sleep – everyone went to have a shower and it was too late for us to go back downstairs for a drink, although we felt like one. The streets were full of celebrating Sri Lankans – on foot, in tuk-tuks or cars or buses. Wes forgot to turn his phone onto silent and exchanged SMSs with Frank Page, and took phone calls from Roberta Donnelly and Jeff Bain in the early hours of the morning! After breakfast I rang Viva to let her know what was happening with the orphanage, and that Barbara and Danny had also made donations, which were much appreciated and should enable the girls’ dormitory to get new linen as well.

Views of the night sky at the cricket during & the fireworks afterwards

We arrived in Mumbai early yesterday morning after spending over 10 hours getting here. We gladly left our hotel in Colombo, travelled by bus for 1.5 hours to the airport, were processed efficiently, had something to eat then were shepherded into the Gate Lounge. The incoming flight was delayed, so we watched the match between India & Pakistan until we were finally loaded onto our narrow little plane, where the Captain gave score updates. We should have been in Mumbai at 11.40pm, but landed around 12.30am and then took an hour to get out of the airport, another ¾ hour to our hotel and finally to bed around 2.30am. The Trident, Nariman Point, is a beautiful, new and ultra modern hotel and we are all very happy here.

Most of the group was in the foyer at 9am again to go on a 5 hour trip to see Cave Sculptures, but we decided to give it a miss and sleep as long as we could. After breakfast we went for a walk to the main part of the city and marvelled at the wonderful English architecture which has survived here and had an encounter with an interesting bookseller. We were exhausted by our big walk, so spent a lazy afternoon sleeping and reading, then joined some others in the bar, where we had more drinks than we had intended and ended up with room service watching the Australian TV channel.

Both cricket teams are staying at The Taj, so there is heaps of security around there. This morning, after breakfast, we did a city tour and drove past the ground which is about 15 minutes walk from our hotel. It is going to be a challenge tomorrow – no bags, food, drink, umbrellas, cameras, radios, etc – yourself, your wallet and your ticket are about all that will be allowed into the stadium. We don’t know yet where our seats are, can only hope they are reserved and under cover. Tomorrow has been declared a Public Holiday in India and there is much excitement everywhere – the news broadcasts are all full of the game and conversation flows if you are prepared to chat about the wonders of Sachin Tendulkar!

Our tour included a visit to a public laundry, Gandhi’s home, the museum, the Floating Gardens (built over the city’s water supply) and a handicrafts store. We have bought nothing except books so far – two in Sri Lanka and two here. Afterwards we had lunch with Maurie & Norma in the coffee lounge and are resting now in preparation for dinner at the Indian Cricket Club tonight, which will be our final meal as a group. We leave here on Sunday, the rest go on Monday morning, either back to Australia or to various other parts of India, except for Keith Stackpole, who is spending 24 hours in Singapore, so we may catch up with him while we are there. I’ll be in touch again once we get to Singapore.

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