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The festive fourth entry
The title of this blog may appear to be a misnomer but when you read it's contents you'll soon realise that it isn't. You see I like to blog about events quite a bit after they've occurred - it's a lot easier than trying to write about them beforehand - and so now here are the happenings from over the Christmas period and new year. This is rather lengthy and most of it is just 'well on my holiday I did this, that and the next thing' so I fully understand if you'd prefer to skip down to the end bit. I will take note of your name though and send you a very disapproving letter on some later date.
The first thing that started me thinking about tinsel and all that was receiving a surprise advent calendar from my sister which I was careful to open every day. For some reason there weren't any chocolates behind the doors (!) but the daily excitement as to whether I would find a candle or an angel was enough for me. And it kept the Andy Williams Christmas Album in my head non-stop. I mentioned in the last update that Jo and Alan, who are now safely back in the UK, were leaving Sri Lanka and the morning after we bid them farewell we also said goodbye to Unawatuna although just on a temporary basis. With the schools shut and not due to open until the new year we had the opportunity to expand our view of Sri Lanka, starting with the town of Tissa and Yala National Park.
Like Unawatuna, Yala's on the south coast but much farther east making this the most eastern point I've visited - scary thought. Visitors hire a jeep and a guide to navigate the maze of unsigned tracks that criss-cross the park and we definitely hit lucky because ours appeared to have some wildlife super-sense that allowed him to spot more than few sights that had escaped my untrained eye. Crocodiles, elephants, water buffalo, mongooses, peacocks and a multitude of other birds whose names I can't remember. We didn't see any of the leopards that the park is famous for but I was more than happy with what we got.
The park was the only reason that we'd come to Tissa so that evening we took a bus to Ella, the highest town in Sri Lanka. What really made our stay here was definitely the owner of our guest house, Gunasiri. He was one of the friendliest people I've met here and was keen to introduce us to his wife and son who's around the same age as us and, guess what, he's a guitarist too! This discovery led to all seven of us sitting down to some entertainment from the musicians amongst us. During our stay we hiked up 'Little Adam's Peak' which as the name suggests is a small mountain that shares the distinctive shape of it's namesake, Adam's Peak. Herbie and I also took a walk with Gunasiri's son to a nearby village and up the mountain-side to a spectacular viewpoint that overlooked the edge of the hill country. We were enjoying ourselves so much that two nights soon turned into four and it seemed that we weren't the only ones to be impressed with Ella because while looking through the guest book Erin stumbled upon two British names from 2006. Claire and Charlotte, Project Trust volunteers! Of all the places we could have chosen to stay what were the chances that these two would have also been there? They'd been back three times since so they must have liked it. Another thing that reminded us of Scotland was that I found a length of tartan material in a shop and took it to a tailor in Ella. Now I have a tartan sarong to add to my collection. It's cool. I'll just tell you that it's really cool.
Our next stop was the town of Badulla where we weren't to do the tourist thing. Instead we were following Jo's recommendation and staying in an orphanage for a night. She'd visited a few months beforehand and had been mesmerised by the kids so we were really looking forward to following her lead. The orphanage houses around fifty kids and is staffed by only four or five people. This makes it hard for them to spend a lot of time with the children so that's where we came in. For the two days, after giving everyone a book and pen, we sang songs, told stories and played games - duck duck goose was a favourite. In addition we were asked to join in with their daily prayer sessions (It's heavily funded by a local church and follows a strict Christian theme) and contribute our own songs and stories which was fine. There was a slightly awkward moment however when we forgot to say grace before eating. I should say that I think this orphanage was a fantastic thing and the kids seemed to be having great fun but Herbie probed a little into their admissions process and the answers he got weren't so rosy. All the children have been involved with the police in some way - some have been living on the streets, some have been victims of domestic problems and some have lost parents in the civil war. I now quote the woman in charge "We educate them about Christianity but if after three weeks they don't accept the truth and drop their Buddhist or Hindu backgrounds then they must leave." That's right, they'd have to go back to living under plastic sheets and concrete overhangs. This left us shocked and dismayed, how many had been turned away in the past? I looked at the children there and in all honesty it seemed like they didn't have a care in the world but must this happiness and security come with a condition? At the end of our second day we said goodbye, gave a final few piggy-backs and then we were on our way to our third stop - Kandy.
Once upon a time, Kandy was the Sri Lankan capital and has remained an important city with attractions like the famous Temple of the Tooth which houses one of Buddha's gnashers. For me however, one of the best bits was finding an old home comfort in a small bookshop. The Reader's Digest - Asia. Ok, I didn't get the Asian edition back home but it was just as gripping. Walking past the display I caught sight of the cover and realising that it contained details of who had won 'Asian of the year' I couldn't resist. Suthasinee Noi-In , in case you were wondering. Other occurrences included being offered a chance to take the handlebars by an enthusiastic tuk-tuk driver and finding a live pianist in the local branch of Pizza Hut. Seriously. We were so impressed that we had to hand over a tip and say hello when she made to leave. From our discussion we learned that she works in several of Kandy's five star hotels... and Pizza Hut. From Kandy we took a day trip to the nearby Millennium Elephant Foundation to see their rescued tigers (Calm down Gillian, I'm only joking). Herbie and I just paid the entrance fee but Emma and Erin wanted to give extra for a thirty minute ride through the grounds. I'd thought 'maybe I'll give it a go another time' but the handler said to us, "go on, get on for a quick photo." It may have only lasted a few seconds but YEAH! I rode and elephant! Following that we went down to the river and scrubbed the elephant with the best natural sponges available - discarded coconut husks - then we climbed on a second time so that the elephant could douse us in water via it's trunk. Just hearing about it makes it sound great fun but realising that an elephant is effectively blowing it's nose on you it makes you think a bit. As for the elephant, the expression on it's face made it clear that it was enjoying itself. The other facility they had on site was a factory for making paper out or recycled elephant dung. We were given a tour of the surprisingly un-pongy building and saw the 'raw material' being shovelled into a pulper, disinfected, dyed, pasted and dried before being cut and glued into diaries, photo albums etc. I'd planned on buying a few plain sheets not having realised that this was to be the most expensive poo I've ever seen.
Moving on, we arrived at our next destination a little out of the town of Elkaduwa. This was the place where we planned to just relax, read and play hide and seek around the building. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't put that last bit in. The only thing that caused us any distress here was the leeches. I've never been unlucky enough to experience leeches before but fortunately Herbie had the foresight to bring a lighter along just in case. On one occasion while returning from a nearby shop in the dark I was aware of a irritation on my foot and knew that it was probably a leech but felt it would be easier to deal with it when we got back to the light in a few minutes time. They were everywhere. All of us had them on our feet and lower legs and it took some time to remove them all. Herbie depressingly noted that one of the ones he still had attached was markedly bigger than it had been a few minutes previously. The thing is that the blighters are clever enough to go between your toes where you can't get them off easily without burning your feet so at one point we had a team of three holding toes apart, holding lighters, standing by with tissues. It was quite amusing in a strange, dark way.
But enough of all the gory stuff, we next journeyed to Newar Eliya and then on to Delhousie, a very Scottish sounding place at the foot of Adam's Peak (the real one this time) or Sri Pada to give the Sinhala name. The place we were staying wasn't luxurious to have showers but it did have a river as an alternative. I guess it's something you want to do once, eh? We went to be very early that night because we were planning for an early start the next day. Half past one, to be exact. Half past one on Christmas morning to be even more exact. Madness, I know, but there was a reason for it. You see Sri Pada is traditionally climbed at night so that you can watch the sun rise from the top and with the first rays of light due to spill over the horizon a little before six, we needed to give ourselves plenty of time. It's a mountain unlike the familiar Munros in every way possible. First of all there were stairs all the way to the top, secondly the under tens and over sixties seemed unfazed by it's 7,359ft and thirdly the path was dotted with stalls selling food, drink and toys. I really feel for the men who had to carry all the stock up. Upon arriving at the top we took a seat and began the wait, passing the time by opening the christmas presents we'd been left by Jo and Alan. Each person got a parcel and I opened mine with delight, discovering a frog stuffed toy. Feeling a strange, solid shape inside I made the mistake of allowing my curiosity to win and squeezed. The result was that it erupted into a series of bellowing 'ribbits' that no amount of stuffing into my bag could quash. Definitely not the most appropriate thing at a holy Buddhist site but I'm sure I caught sight of a few grins being shot in my direction. It seems that I'm forgiven this time. The top was pretty busy and when people finally began to reanimate themselves we made an attempt at the very summit where we could view the sacred footprint of Buddha alleged to be enshrined there. Thirty minutes later, I'd moved about a meter and a half. There was a short period when the call of breakfast and a return to bed competed with the urge to conquer the mountain but the former was to be victorious. Down we went and let me tell you, that was a good sleep. The rest of the day differed quite substantially from my previous experiences of Christmas. Not tree and no turkey which was replaced with a celebratory sea-food barbecue. Mmm. We'd organised a secret santa amongst ourselves so that we'd have something nice to open after dinner. A couple of games too and, of course, crackers. But the biggest difference was of course not being with my family (Hear that? I do think of you occasionally) which meant that although we'd had a great time it didn't quite measure up to the smell of pine and roaring fire of home. We got another early night since we'd be moving on the next day. I'd be rising a little earlier than the others because I felt there was an obvious solution to the issue of being unable to reach the summit that morning. Do it again.
And so ended our time in the hill country. The next morning we returned to Unawatuna via Colombo, a long bus journey. On the second leg I found myself seated next to a 25 year old monk who thought it would be appropriate to give me a three hour Sinhala lesson as a form of entertainment. By the time we were to get off he had announced that I was "the best friend I've ever had" and wished me a "happy birthday for the rest of your life." Lovely. Disembarking was a relief, no not because I didn't like him. Because it was good to be back. Ironically the second person we passed on the main road stopped to ask if we needed directions.
Being back home meant that we no longer needed to be concerned with finding food or a place to sleep and we could just relax on the beach, so long as we took a bus a few miles out of the town. Normally my favourite spot is devoid of tourists but by this time the season was at it's peak so besides swimming and writing I jumped at the rare opportunity to join the holidaymakers in a game of beach volleyball. The beach is also a particularly relaxing place to sit and play guitar - take note my fellow musicians. I deny having played fancier stuff whenever anyone walked by. No one put anything in my hat though. Only joking. This was nicely followed up by declining the bus home and instead opting for the hours walk along the rail track. Don't worry, they're a lot slower and noisier than in the UK and make busy pathways through the jungle for the local people.
Keeping with the festive spirit, Herbie and I bowed to Erin and Emma's request that we'd take part I the surprise Christmas party they'd planned for a couple of their friends. Having dressed up as Santa and Rudolf we pranced into the kitchen to hand out their gifts, much to their amusement. On reflection, seeing as they're senior UMV students they may have just been alarmed by the antics of two teachers.
Which leads on to our English activities room at UMV which has been fantastic for bringing a bunch of pupils to for small group work or games. Last years volunteers worked very hard to brighten the place up by painting Union Jacks on all of the chairs, having got all the proper approval from the headmaster. But now it seems that someone has complained and they'll have to go, or rather we'll have to paint over them. Apparently this would've brainwash all the children into becoming a troop of mindless pro-colonialists but it's still ok to learn the language, that won't damage them. They're now an uninspiring brown
For new year we were invited to a party at the home of a British ex-pat who founded a local charity that works with disadvantaged children on the south coast. We've become quite friendly with several of the staff and were delighted to be asked to join them. Now I say 'home' but a better term might be 'beach-front villa' complete with swimming pool and live Sri Lankan band who were also keen to show off their plate spinning and acrobatics.. So all went down, myself, Herbie, Emma, Erin and Tim, a Dutch traveller we'd met in Newar Eliya and upon hearing that he'd be down on the coast around the same time as us, we resolved to meet up. As the night progressed we counted down to the bells then made our way to the pool for the next item on the agenda, a game called Danger Ducks. The rules are quite simple. You and an opponent place yourselves at either end on an enormous inflatable duck. You race to the other side and do your utmost best to not fall in. Because you have to be fully clothed. I was feeling good by the time I was halfway across and Herbie was already in but that must have been too boring because someone reached from the side and tipped me over. I've never been swimming in a shirt and tie before. It was an interesting start to 2012. Our new years dinner, provided by Agnes, was also something special. White rice instead of red. Bliss.
And so concludes the Christmas and New year entry. I hope that you all enjoyed your own and that you'll have a smashing 2012, assuming that the world won't be extinguished on December 12th. A lot's happened in the last four and a half weeks so I'll soon be putting up the next edition which will include dance lessons, school shake ups, visits from Scotland and most excitingly, the arrival of Jo and Alan's replacement. Until then, all the best.
Michael.
- comments
Janet Photo of tartan sarong please! Lovely to hear all the details about your holidays - and already looking forward to the next update.
Jen Wow, this all sounds so amazing mike! and... you write so well! :) xxx
Mum Really enjoyed reading this, Michael. I didn't realise you'd stayed at an orphanage. I'm glad you were able to bring some entertainment to them! Glad you had such a great holiday!
Mum Just found your photos and videos. Amazing to see you all wearing so many clothes, and amazing to see so many people at Adam's Peak!
Grandad Enjoyed your festive fourth entry would,nt advise wearing tartan sarong in Sauchiehall Street
Dad Mike. Really enjoyed reading your blog. Very please you are getting so involved in so much and have taken advantage of the holiday to see some much of the country and its people.
Elizabeth Bates Really enjoying your blogs Michael. They are very descriptive, moving and amusing'
Gill Great blog Mike, it sounds like you had a good new year and a wonderful holiday :) and I like how I got a special wee mention ;) xx