August, and England gets dark, grey, colder and, yes let's get it out of the way now, the bloody merry Xmas serpent is rearing its ugly commercial head again - jingle bells is heard in Boots and turkey / stuffing sandwiches appear in Gregg's.
Anyway, bugger all that, much as I love you all, I'm off while I still can. Its November before I actually get away as I have to spend 3 weeks crewing boats in Channel Islands and Sardinia, and its Vinny and Beck's wedding! This allied to the Asian monsoon cycle timings in my target destinations - Sri Lanka and India.
So the only booked stuff is a plane ticket to Sri Lanka, on to Bangkok in March and return legs in July, the rest of it is all mine to play with (I mean work within).
To Sri Lanka: in summary, it is all it says on the tin for the enquiring tourist - ancient cities, temples, the "hill country" of British colonial settlements, miles of tea plantations hiking and views, beaches and tropical sun. The weather is still changeable as the end of the SW monsoon is about a month late (here too, eh?).
So that's the advert over, now for what I found and think:
- Forget Colombo, a commercial, polluted, traffic nightmare
- Beaches: For those who just want an "all-includio" hotel complex holiday then Beruwela / Bentota but NOT Negombo - it only exists as a resort for those who won't do an airport transfer of longer than 20 minutes, the beach is crap. All the good beaches are at least 2 hours away heading south, and then keep going for the really good less developed resorts and beaches to near Galle and beyond, but beware the tides and currents - its not Thailand
- Cities: some great ancient cities founded 3BC (what were we doing then, apart from going "ugh" and applying a nice shade of wode?) around either kingdoms or religion or both. Mainly buddhist (one of earliest buddhist countries, visited by Buddha himself. In fact there's an authenticated 2,000 year old Bhodi tree which came from Buddha's family home, guarded 24/7 for all this time. Are the people worshipping the tree or its symbolism now - difficult to tell, cynic that I am, bits of leaf / twig are handed out to the devout and carried off in great awe. Then the colonial cities of Colombo and Galle, Galle is fascinating mix of Portuguese, Dutch and British. Kandy was still an independent hill country kingdom (too bloody difficult to get an army up there!) until the Brits conquered it in 1815, so is a real mix.
- Hill country is totally different - cool climate for the summers, hence the Brits built an amazing railway up there and started up tea growing (and imported '000s of Tamils from India to pick it, another great legacy of ethnic "management" from us). Great hiking and views though.
- Food and drink: Hot and spicy but with surprisingly mild coconut milk based curries. Great seafood on coasts. The standard offering is "Rice and Curry" on the menu or signboard but talk about underselling! It is served in about 6 dishes so you can mix and match spicy with coconut, vegetables with meat / fish, add to the rice and use your RIGHT hand to knead that bit together, make a small bucket with your 3 forefingers, put to your lips and shovel it in by scraping your thumb along your fingers from the palm out to your mouth - NO licking fingers, go wash your hands either during or at end of meal. Or ask for a spoon. Local spirits are homemade spirit versions (which taste nothing like, but the Lemon Gin is not bad); Arrak - coconut palm spirit, rum-like, which is the usual locals' choice - very cheap and of course lethal; Toddy - tapped from palm trees and so new still fermenting in the bottle; local beers (mainly Lion) are ok lagers, Three Coins is a malty pilsner which is the best if you can find it.
Some thoughts:
- The whole of SL is just praying that the final end of the civil war after 30 years will hold and the tourists will start to come back, as a local said to me "it will only take 1 suicide bomber at the airport or at a resort and SL will be dead in the water for years to come". It was a bit weird with all the armed forces checkpoints and bunkered guardposts along the roads and main buildings, and then in the north going into what was contested territory until only a month ago. Didn't go right up north though, although possible now, aiming to get further up there when I come back for a couple of weeks in February (also when their monsoon lets up).
- The roads, or more particularly the drivers, (the roads are bad enough). Size matters, if you have the biggest truck or bus and /or the loudest horn, then all other rules don't apply. Driving on the left is optional particularly if you are a tuk tuk or motorbike. Cyclists are completely immune to all rules, and appear to have a force shield to avoid contacts. All this at top speed with horns blaring - even if its just to wave at your mate going the other way! Bus drivers have six arms, one eye on a telescopic arm and 2 brains, which enable them to drive down mountain roads / hairpin bends, hold mobile calls, chat with their mates, see round blind bends and press the horn simultaneously.
- The people are really friendly, and the kids all shout and wave and practice their English - apparently all part of growing up to become a serious scam merchant. I've seen quite a few before now but I've learnt some new ones! "You're so lucky today is a festival at the temple, come see..."; "How much are these English coins worth?"; "No money please, this is my job...(until the end)"; "I've been working as a dried fish turner-overer for 20 years, let me show you....". The last guy was even on Rick Stein's Asian Odyssey apparently, still has the BBC badge (dried fish turner-overer, yeh right).
- Pubs / bars: weird away from the resort beach bars, which themselves are only where independent travellers go, as the package hotels trap their people by the pool - Bentota has none, you have to use your hotel; and there are strict licensing laws. But the bars in the towns are amazing! "Attached to a hotel for local people only" (separate alleyway entrance). Men only. Purposely darkened, blinds / one-way glass to the outside / low lighting (if any), cement floors and walls, caged cashier / bar, pay before you get a drink (take a chitty to the bar cage from the cashier cage in some cases), and sit on plastic beach chairs and plank-top tables - with the rest of the top-class clientele of course (the Baker's has nothing on this I promise you). But all passed off peacefully so far, if a little strained at times
- Official photographer to the launch of a fishing boat was an interesting morning in Tangalle, all had to be done strictly in time with the given propitious horoscope moment (11.12am apparently, all done by my watch anyway, which I know is a minute fast but they all assumed mine was right, so if you hear of a fishing boat mysteriously disappearing on its maiden voyage...). Joined in the milk rice, sambol (hot and spicy coconut, onion, lime, chillies chutney) and bananas celebration (Muslims, just my luck!) and back slapping all round, so it was great fun. Thank whichever God or Prophet, the prints came out ok, so sent them to the owner a few days later.
- And then I wind up making my way back up the west coast to Negombo to find that Xmas is alive and well and living Roman Catholic missionary style here (shrines ans churches, convent schools everywhere)! Which is fine for the devotees but the retailers are catching on fast - Xmas trees, lights, tinsel, blow-up santas, shopping specials and sales. Luckily only there 2 days then off to India.
Bye!
Photos are at http://picasaweb.google.com/laurentmik/Sri_Lanka_1_2009
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