A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

(Jump to Sunday the 17th.) When was the last time you had a complete day where you didn't have to do anything? No, I'm not talking about a day when you didn't accomplish anything. We most always have a to-do list secretly squirreled away in our minds. That list unobtrusively resides there behind all of one's thoughts.

Yet today, I had absolutely no obligations. Jay and his dad arranged for a rented van to go visit various relatives. It would be an all day affair, so I declined the offer to come along.

Instead, I enjoyed life while sitting looking at the jungle. At one point, there were at least a dozen birds with which I am not familiar. We don't have them in North America, so I cannot relay their real, English names. I will, however, describe my pet names for a few. There were black and white jungle ducks, brown and white speckled starlings, the funny birds with cowlicks, and my favourite . . . the multi-coloured, upside-down woodpecker.

Perhaps this tropical diversity is driven by the massive amount of energy that the tropics receive from sunshine.

Labels: flora and fauna, Sri Lanka 2004

One major advantage of the location of Jay's house is the proximity to the international airport. It's also important to remember that it's within commuting distance to Colombo, the capital.

A day downtown did seeme like a lot of work although we opted to travel by luxury a/c bus. The cost was $0.35 for the 75-minute trip. Colombo is crowded but fun. It's also really big, so we stayed close to the Fort area. We bought several Singhala DVD's. We tried hard to ignore the shouting street vendors. Later, we had a quick lunch at a Moslem restaurant, took a few photos, checked email, and brought a few gifts at Laksala.

Laksala is the Sri Lankan Handicraft Store which was founded on a good idea. It was formed as a clearing house for native products. The government-owned company buys items and resells to tourists. Yet, in traditional bureaucratic style, there were twelve workers mostly doing nothing at each cash register.

We got back to Minuwangoda at 4:00 pm. Phew!

Labels: souvenirs, Sri Lanka 2004

During the night, my fever disappeared. We walked downtown, had something to eat, and got an air conditioned, express bus to Kandy. What amazing scenery! We ascended the famous winding road that quickly climbs into the mountains. The mere 75 kilometres showed a huge variety of geography which I was not expecting. The terraced rice paddies reminded me of Bali. Drier sections looked like hills in Montana. There were fir trees that reminded me of some I'd seen in Turkey. All these things in a very short distance; although, it did take two and a half hours.

The trip continued on a different bus from Kandy to Nittambuwa Junction. We unwittingly participated in a bus race on the Colombo-Kandy Road. The highway is a bit of a raceway and live obstacle course.

We got home at 2:00 pm and the journeys are over. Well, wait .. we've got to explore Colombo tomorrow.

Labels: Sri Lanka 2004

We did tea. Then, we walked downtown to find a bakery. The sky was amazingly blue so we walked to a temple exactly copied from the original found in Bodh Gaya, India. We had seen the original years ago. It was an amazing engineering project designed for people who might not make it to the Bihar province of India.

After, Jay found and asked a 3-wheel driver how much it'd cost to go to the main temple. We liked the price and it was only 2-kilometers from downtown. This place was the first of three times that Buddha visited Sri Lanka. The initial visit was to prevent a war from occurring.

The driver was very young but knowledgeable, so we ended up hiring him to take us more than 14 kilometres to the Sri Lankan aboriginal village too. The 'original' people are darker and have very wild hair. They speak a dialect of Singhala that requires an interpreter. These people were, until very recently, subsistence hunters. Now that they've agreed not to hunt, they count on tourists and crafts to subsist. I wanted to help and agreed to buy a deer-antler ring for $US 3.50. The problem was that we only had a SR 1000 bill ($US10) and no change. Even the village store did not have that kind of cash on hand! We had to travel quite some distance to a shop in a neighbouring village to get change.

I felt a little ill this afternoon, but still managed to walk to an enormous reservoir from which our hotel was named.

Tomorrow, we'll head back towards Minuwangoda. The first part of the trip should be exciting as it's almost directly up into the mountains. There are supposed to be 18 switchbacks as one gains elevation quickly. It's the road that will bring us to Kandy again.

Labels: Sri Lanka 2004, temple

It was very, very dark at 5:30 am. It was too dark to shave. In fact, it was quite difficult just making sure the room was emptied of our belongings. Dawn slowly approached over the Indian Ocean. People had suggested we go to the road by 6 o'clock to make sure we catch the scheduled 6:30 am bus as it goes by. We did and it did. We road back to Monaragula but it took longer going back. Still, when getting to the familiar station there, we didn't need to wait very long.

We were quickly able to board a bus to Mahiyangana. The travel was north and a bit east towards the mountains. There is a temple to see here and there's an aboriginal village only 12 kilometres away. We will stay a few nights. A tuk-tuk guy brought us to the Soraboraweva Village Inn. It seems to be run by twelve boys. I'm writing this in a covered area in the front of our door. It's raining out . . . and the staff are working to correct an electrical fault that is preventing us from turning on the room lights.

Labels: Sri Lanka 2004, temple

The power went out last night. The advantage to that was I didn't need to turn off the fan due to the chill. The morning had gloriously blue sky. We walked down the beach a few doors to have breakfast at the Paradise Sand Beach Hotel.

Then later, we walked a total of 5 kilometres toward the north end of the bay. Moslem boys, skipping school, were walking near the water. They wanted money, pens, or for us to take video. We told them that tourists don't carry money or pens on the beach and that our video battery was dead. Maybe they went along to school. While there, we collected some seashells for Jay's younger sister. She makes all sorts of crafts.

We went into town by tuk-tuk. Because the seats were different, it was a bit interesting as Jay got to ride 'up front' with the driver. We ate lunch in Pottuvil and brought breakfast buns for tomorrow's breakfast. The main street had very little tar, so it looked to me, like something out of a movie about the old west. It cost SR 50 into town and SR 100 back. The distance is about three kilometres.

Jay walked the beach in the afternoon, and I was going to take a nap, but ended up swatting flies instead. Later we drank tea, watched the waves, and listened to the surf. I have to make sure that I retire at 55 in ten years!

Tomorrow, we'll head back out on a journey. We think the bus will come by at 6:00 am!

Labels: Sri Lanka 2004

We checked out of the nice room and walked to the new bus station. There were some new shops set up there, so we bought mosquito coils and a bit of baby powder for me. We got on the 9:30 bus at 8:45 am as it departed from there. The road went to the left around the enormous Monoragala mountains. The scenery reminded me of Hope, BC . . . save for the fact it was tropical. The bus travelled to Arugam Bay in just two hours. So we had already checked into a hotel (which was listed in the Lonely Planet Guide) by noon.

We walked up the beach, then down past the point. I was getting red. As we went we watched some threatening storms developing. It started to rain just minutes from the Aloha Beach gate. We ate lunch and dinner at two different places in the bay. There are 47 different places on the beach, I'm told. The real wind and waves start in a few months during the east-coast monsoons. Surfers love that type of environment, so there're not too many people are around here right now.

I like this bungalow a lot. We have prime real estate in our compound as the other guests are long-term visitors and are staying cheaply. We can afford this luxury by paying a whopping $14 / night for this concrete structure with refrigerator. Too bad the electricity went out at dusk!

Labels: Sri Lanka 2004