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

Actually, I’m a bit late. It’s almost Sunday morning. It seems that most flights from Sri Lanka leave at night. In our case, we’re leaving at 2:15. It’s not a direct flight to Hong Kong as we stop first in Bangkok. Just as when coming, we will not leave the plane.

Saturday was a calm day. It was a day for the virtual transition. Long before one heads out on a long flight, there’s the time one gets one’s head there. This effect is more pronounced on the flight itself. Life on one side of the departure gate is completed but life on the other side of the arrival section hasn’t begun.

It was sad saying goodbye to everybody. Since there’s a great distance, it’s always harder than leaving friends or family in a place where a person could, in theory, visit in only 4 or 5 hours. It was very comfortable staying and uncomfortable leaving.

Still, Hong Kong beckons. That’ll be something new and new is good. There seems to be unlimited space in my head for the internal map of additional cities. Tomorrow, I’m ready to process new geographic data. Cool.

Labels: Sri Lanka 2006

I’m sitting in front of the television with most everybody. The top video countdown is on Sirasa TV. Now that I’m up on which Sinhala songs are hot, it’s time to leave. The program is hosted by a guy that looks about 15. He’s probably older but it’s obvious his most loyal fans are the girls of about that age. There’s a number to text message greetings which appear on screen for everybody to see. Here’s an example: “I love you chami. I dedicate dis to u dear. Tharindu.”

As this is my twentieth anniversary visit, some people have asked for my views of what has changed the most. The increase in landline and cell telephones strikes me an important change. Wider adoption means convenience for both businesses and individuals. For example, we travelled to Colombo in 1986 in order to reconfirm flights. Today, we simply called.

Most probably, I’d say the electrification of rural areas is another important change. It has brought convenience and a huge change in lifestyle to many. It’s also had side effects such as an increase in private television channels, changes in diet due to refrigeration, and the proliferation of household appliances.

In addition as mentioned previously, private vehicles have choked the developing road system. In turn, this caused a more polluted environment, at least along roadways. In theory the improved highway system should allow for increased movement of goods and people. In actuality, it now takes longer to get from point A to point B. It’s also dirtier and more stressful.

As a conclusion, I should warn that it’s always tricky looking back to make comparisons with the present. The observer undoubtedly undergoes many changes during the same period. I’m a lot happier and more satisfied with my life nowadays. Somewhat contrary to the opinion of others, I’d like to think I’m a lot wiser now too.

Labels: Sri Lanka 2006, television

Today, we came in a hired van to Minuwangoda and arrived at 1:00 pm. It should’ve been a bit longer than the time it took. We did stop to pick up lunches to go. We also stopped to do a bit of grocery shopping. Still, it would’ve taken longer than two hours, had our driver been a bit more cautious. He admitted to liking to get out of Colombo to drive fast. I noticed with clocked 90 kph on the Colombo-Negombo road. I don’t think on any of our road trips on this journey did we exceeded 70 kph.

It is really nice to sit on the back step and watch the feeder. Birds of all sorts came in order to welcome me back. It’s cooler here in the trees. I could wear several shirts here a day. I am still not used to sweating every time I go outside. So, there were lots of clothes to wash in the afternoon.



It’s hard to believe our remaining time is so short. A month of vacation time here has gone much too quickly. Although it will be exciting to explore Hong Kong from Sunday, it’ll be very sad saying goodbye here.

I have a few resolutions to accomplish before the next visit:

Reduce my body weight.

It has been so long in coming that it seems hard to believe I would do well to lose 50 lbs. I haven’t been physically unable to climb the mountains or any tasks. Yet Sri Lankans are generally smaller people. I would like to get my ass to a size that would better fit into a bus seat for my next visit.

Get serious about learning more of the Sinhala language.

I recognized only the most basic communication such as ‘good’ and ‘okay’. Other words like ‘beautiful’ and some numbers were familiar. Of course, ‘drink’ and ‘eat’. Yet it’s odd that that I recall more Arabic for my years in the Gulf. Jay is too fluent to be a great teacher, but what a resource I have! I figure that this island will play an important part in the rest of my future, so I really have a sound reason for studying.

Labels: Sri Lanka 2006, weight loss

Posted by: Dennis S Hurd / 8:29 PM 0 comments

This was our last day in Nugegoda.

We decided that I could pick up a few Sri Lankan souvenirs from Laksala. I’ve discussed the government-run handicraft sales organisation before. It’s still the easiest place to do complete souvenir shopping. It’s also nice to know that some of the funds will actually benefit the people who made them. I wanted to pick up something for my secretary at work. After all she is ‘fish-sitting’ for five weeks. We also needed to buy something to give ex-colleagues from Dubai. Bill and Leone left a decade ago when we did. They’ve been raising the kids in Hong Kong. Since we’re spending a week there .. yikes .. next week, we plan on seeing them. Even though the coconut shell monkeys were sold out, there was a cute, fat coconut elephant that needed a home. We have enough travel junk but at $1.60 it was one of those things I couldn’t afford not to buy.

When in the Fort area, we developed some digital photos. Earlier in the morning, we sat and looked though the directory on the Gateway and found 78 ‘people pictures’ to give to folks here. I burned them to a little CD for transport. The prints were SR 15 each and they were ready to pick up after Laksala and lunch.

We ate at the Pagoda restaurant which is something of an institution here. It has been there for quite a while. It’s not the cheapest but is reasonably priced so office workers eat there. Duran Duran (Do you remember them?) filmed part of a music video inside in the 1980’s when on location in Sri Lanka. Mongolian grill was a speciality today and I’m sure I smelled like it on the way back to Nugegoda in Bus 137. We hit the roads just when some schools let out; therefore, the trip took over an hour.

It’s warmer here than out among the coconut trees in Minuwangoda. I’m typing this in the yard. Jay’s showing a DVD of last year’s Euro-trip to the others. Lal’s house presently has one floor, so the sun bakes the roof/ceiling. Jay’s eldest sister, though, has created a living space that looks like an art gallery. It is beautiful.

Labels: monkeys, souvenirs, Sri Lanka 2006

Today was first dedicated to hitting the stores. It’s tradition that Jay takes his sisters shopping when back. We hit all the traditional places: House of Fashion, Fashion Bug, No Limit (formerly, French Corner) as well as a number of smaller places.

I once thought that brand-name clothes were cheap here due to the garment factories in the free trade zone. Yet, the BOSS, DIESEL, and CK fashions are imported. Still it’s interesting that a Calvin Kline shirt sells for less than $8.00.

We’ve discovered it’s easy to spend on plastic in Lanka. The point-of-sales terminals seem able to process a Mastercard in no time flat. Credit cards can be use used at supermarkets here too. It seems as if all the banks have really been pushing the use of them. This will definitely change how we travel here in the future. Even with the ease of transactions, nobody bought very much today.

Although close to sections of Colombo, it is still tough getting around. The busses and roads can be extremely crowded. There are some very nice wide, tree-lined avenues. When schools get out they are all chocker-block-full of cars, vans, busses, and tuk tuks.

Eventually after getting back and a little rest, Jay and I walked out to the closest junction. Lal’s place is directly in back of the police station here. The closest area has a suitable supermarket, video stores, and lots of restaurants. Life here is a little less bucolic than at the house in Minuwangoda, but it’s a great deal more convenient. I went to an Internet café with DSL. The access was fairly quick. I uploaded a few Flickr photos and added a few blog entries. I hope Google’s spiders haven’t abandoned checking me due to my recent inactivity!

In the evening we had more short eats, drinks, and quite a bit of the six Dominos pizzas that Lal bought. I’ve never been so stuffed! I was seriously thinking of doing something about my weight. After this vacation, I will doubly need to.

Labels: credit card, money, Sri Lanka 2006

There was no rush. In fact, getting to Nugegoda is quicker if you miss the morning rush hour. We got on the a/c in Minuwangoda at 9:25 but it didn’t actually get enough passengers to leave until 9:45.

We got to Lal’s house at about noon. It is a pleasure to stay here as Lal is the ultimate host. He’s a guy who can understand the importance of sausages and all those other things which are typically frowned upon.

We brought the DVD player I’d picked up at my computer store in Canada. It is multi-system and multi-voltage and should play just about anything on a disc. We hitched the audio to the big Sansui stereo system to ensure better sound than from teeny-tiny, tinny television speakers. It works well and we tested by watching some of the discs we brought along. Maybe we can check for video discs to copy and bring back home.

I am so full. We ate a lot of food just with drinks. Here, I’m referring to Lal and me only. Then a huge dinner after a short map means I won’t need to eat for a week.

Labels: Sri Lanka 2006

Reading the Sunday Times took most of the afternoon. Why am I so interested in the real estate section of the classified ads?



Now that I am an age where I can actually envision retirement, I have started thinking seriously about where I wish to divide up those years. I’m not talking about the partial, part-time retirement I’ve been enjoying for that last ten years. I mean sometime after 2014 when I hit 55. Spending six months a year here and the remaining six in Canada is beginning to sound like a possible proposition.

We could easily scrape up the funds to buy something. Housing is fairly expensive here. Oh, I’d venture it is only one third to a half of Canadian prices, but by local standards that’s very expensive. The problem would lie not in the price though, but in the selection. I absolutely love the geographic variety that Sri Lanka offers. Most probably, to every place I’ve ever travelled, I’ve briefly considered owning property. Yet, here I’d be hard pressed to choose.

Owning a house such as this one would be restful. I can remember trying to draw coconut trees before I learned my alphabet. A yearly escape to a big yard and garden would be refreshing. It’d be hard to argue with tropical fruit juices freshly squeezed from one’s own trees. As well, the poor infrastructure of most Sri Lankan big towns makes them really rather ugly. Still, I would find it hard after a while to live without the amenities of urban life. Some of the most jaw dropping scenery is hours and hours away from a DSL connection or the airport. I think that a $70,000 apartment on the eighth floor of one of those new, urban Colombo residential buildings might be more practical.

An additional hindrance is the distance involved. This is quite literally half the world away and therefore one of the most expensive air tickets one can buy. Brochure type information for large projects is available on the Internet. Yet, I would be hard pressed to actually purchase anything sight unseen. Trying to arrange all the details for the purchase of property on a short vacation would be a stressful experience too.

I believe there’s a 100% tax on foreign ownership in Sri Lanka. That’s no problem, however, as it could just be put completely in Jay’s name.

Labels: Sri Lanka 2006