From Colombo to Dambulla

On Tuesday we were up at first light ( which is about 5.30 am, here) to make the journey from Colombo up to Siguria.This was to be another bone jerkingly protracted drive along very crowded roads because, as yet, Sri Lanka does not have any equivalent of a motorway. We did not have the family's usual driver but a security guard who worked for my host whose driving skills were not as accomplished as the usual diver so the trip was definitely of the extreme stoccatto kind. He  had other attributes however, which proved invaluable later on.
we had a cup of tea before we left but after several hours we stopped for breakfast at a very smart cafe called:
Wahalkada
When I walked inside  knew that my time of reckoning had come because there were pots of curry on offer for breakfast> "Bite the bullet, Elaine", I thought, because up until then I had avoided the bowls of curry for breakfast thinking that my digestive system would not stand it. I chose some milk rice because I know that I like it, with very small amounts of dahl and potato curry and coconut roti. I can't say that I will ever get accustomed to eating curry for breakfast but I have learned to enjoy eating it.

After another protracted drive, we stopped at Dambulla. Here, there is a huge golden statue of the Buddha facing the road, a Buddhist televison station and a quantity of plaster Buddhist monk statues and many pilgrims including a very large group of shaven buddhist nuns. Above all this is a climb to a cave with a large number of statues of the Buddha and also frescoes inside. Merton mentions this in his Asian Journal on p.231:
"The caves are dark....The guide is not interested in the frescoes which are good, only in the rank of Buddhas which are not good."

 On the strength of this, I decided not to make the steep climb in the searing heat up to the cave but i climbed with our driver, who is a Buddhist, up to the huge golden Buddha. He showed me that I must remove my shoes and hat because it is a holy place and I stood there with the frangipani flower offerings  before the Buddha, making my own offering of myself to the vast open sky, baking heat and the quiet reflection of the Buddha for the journey to Pollonuwara which lay ahead of us.

Lazing on a sunny afternoon

I can see how people get used to a life with servants but nothing could get me used to the punishment that travelling on Sri Lankan roads brings. You arrive at a destination feeling as though you have been pummeled by a boxer and shaken up and down like a rattle. It took me much of Monday to recover from our trip and I was so grateful to Stephen for pointing out to me before I went that I would need recovery time from expeditions.
However, I knew that the following day there was going to be an even bigger expedition so I needed to wash clothes and prepare for what lay head both physically and mentally. While my hostess went out shopping, I stayed at home to do just that. I only ventured out in the later afternoon with Tania to buy some postcards and a birthday card for my host whose birthday was the following day of our departure. She has been very vigilant about not letting me go out alone and I am grateful to her for such care but it means I have had little chance to see Sri lanka except from this cocoon. Although, you cannot miss the reality of the place, even if you don't directly engage with it because its all around you!
In the afternoon, I took up the sketch I had begun of some plants and a water pot in the garden, here. I hope to turn it into a painting when I return. I also re read some of Thomas Merton's Asian journal to give me some idea of his search. I know I have my own agenda for this pilgrimage and I am finding a lot of what I have been looking for. This house has a wonderful silence when you are left to yourself. We live next door to a Buddhist old people's home and the days is punctuated by bells which indicate time for their meals etc. Its like being back at Mirfield and finding one's day structured round the monastic life. I was determined when I came here to be as open as I could. I told myself that I would  not try to force or arrange anything for myself and that I would accept what was happening of the flow and rhythm around me. I have found this enormously gratifying and found that. there is now need to struggle but to see what the next moment brings. Of course, here, I am in unrealistic circumstances. I don't have to take responsibility for the next meal or for clearing up.  Yet, if I was on retreat at home his would be the case so I am seeing this visit as a kind of retreat/pilgrimage in which to listen and learn and hopefully to take some of what I have learned back into everyday life with me.

Muddle and confusion

Please forgive the repetitions, hesitations and downright confusion in the last few blogs. I lost one blog in mid typing then managed to retrieve an old copy which I seem to have pasted onto new information. I hope you are not too confused! The reason for an absence of blogging for the past five days is that i have been away up country with no internet connection so I shall have to do a rapid catch up before I leave for England on Tuesday. The time has passed so quickly and I hope my memory does not fail me too much as I try to describe the wonderful experiences of the last five days.
Our time at the Lighthouse Hotel in Galle passed far too quickly and we found ourselves driving back to Colombo on the Sunday. I did manage two swims in the hotel swimming pools and a beach scavenging expedition And to eat a  considerable variety of foods that were offered including hoppers and curry for breakfast!

Rebirth In Galle

Galle was the town in Sri Lanka that had the most fatalities in the 2004 tsunami. The  East Coast suffered more physical devastation but the area was less populated than Galle and has had to recover more in terms of livelihood and overcoming fear of the sea. There are now sports charities which help people to learn to swim  and therefore to feel more confident in the water.

  However, it is easy to see that devastation has occurred in Galle in the recent past. There is an enormous amount of rebuilding going on sometimes on top of old foundations. A new bus station has replaced the old (which was under water during the tsunami) and there are now signs of new enterprise. I think that the goverment must have directed aid in this direction because the first motorway/highway has recently been constructed from Colombo to Galle. The old colonial fortress walls seems to have protected its interior  town but even here there is a resurrection taking place. The town’s roads are being recobbled and refurbished  and many  western expats have bought up the old Dutch villas and are renovating them for the tourist market. For now, the town still has a rather down at heel but hip vibe and the cafes we looked into were delightful. The museum has seen better days (I hope!) but I rather enjoyed its peeling, crumbling, disinterested air. Such a contrast to the rather too bright and INFORMATIVE western museums  who have overall themes and interaction which commands your attention. Here, some interesting objects were left to decay slowly and you could look at them if you felt like it or not!

 The old dutch streets had a feel of walking in Bruges without the self conscious neatness. I found the Dutch reformed church utterly depressing with its stark table but a large pulpit with a huge canopy with its emphasis on hearing the word rather than participating in liturgy.

We wandered slowly through the baking streets, saw a man with a cobra in a basket ( much to my astonishment) and chased us with a python round his neck trying to persuade me to wear it also. No Than k-you! We bought a few reasonably priced souvenirs and were often pressed into buying outrageously expensive ones. I found that I was unable to enter into the spirit of bargaining so just refused to buy anything that  I considered overpriced. We had lunch in one of the hip cafes where I enjoyed a beautiful king prawn salad and another refreshing smoothy.

We returned to our hotel with its calming view of the ocean for a well earned siesta, than popped down to a nearby beach  at Unawatuna where there is naturally safe area for swimming. Tehani and her boyfriend went into the water but I just sat on the beach happily watching as families enjoyed them selves and the sun went down. I walked along the darkening beach, paddling in the incoming tide and then we sat having a coffee in one of the many beach cafe's as lights and music went on all around the bay. This beach, is now the beach party location and there was to be another Big celebration that evening. Mercifully, we returned to the hotel for supper before it got started.

This is luxury you can't afford

Where was I? Oh yes, driving up to the foyer of the Lighthouse Hotel, designed by Geoffrey Bava. An intimidating number of men dressed up in beautiful matching sarongs and white shirts, dahsed up to open the car doors and to take our luggage. Then we were taken by one man into the hotel which has a huge central spiral staircase covered with almost lifesize bronze sculptures of the battle between the conquering soldiers of Sri Lanka, their horses and their weaponry. I did not like it at all but it has to be said that it is quite remarkable and certainly makes a big impact. We were accompanied up in the luft to the first floor reception where my breath was really taken away. The room opened on to a terrace where there were set out lovely seats and tables in hardwood. These overlooked the ocean which was pounding away on massive rocks with the warm breeze floating over us. I sat on a chair by the ocean as my hostess checked in, and I gasped at the beauty and terrible might of the water as it hit the rocks and sent up torrents of spray. All around me were men and women dressed in the matching sarongs or saris which were beautiful woven shades of turquoise and orange. One man came up to me and offered a drink of iced lime soda, papaya juice or something else which i could not identify. The lime soda which I chose tasted wonderfully refreshing and I sat and sipped it, drinking in the view in front of me. Tania came and asked me if I would like to hurl myself off the rocks into the sea. I  said I would but it would not be an advisable thing to do. It struck me that we talk rather glibly about the ocean of God's love and here was the reality of that ocean: wild and terrible, wonderful and strong. Yes I would love to hurl myself into it but I would perish if I did so recklessly. What does that say, I wonder?    
tHE ROOMS DESIGNED BY GEOFFREY BAVA HAVE A MARVELLOUS AFINITY WITH THEir natural surroundings. The turquioise painted doors are distressed and inside the rooms were a haven of light and coolness. each room looked on to tghe sea and had huge hardwood bedheads and dark, tropical wood forniture. The bathrooms were very luxurious but not in the standard, clinical hotel  way. the back of the bath was mirrored and reflected the ocean, there were cadles to light and lovely bath smellies in refillable blue pottery glasses, cinnamon and lime soap and gorgeous spicy body lotion. The sink had marble surround an there was a separate wet room  where I had umpteen  showers in two days jjust because i was so pleasurableto the

The road to Galle

The reason for no blog for two days has been that we have been staying away from Colombo in Galle. Galle is a fortress town in the south of Sri Lanka. It is believed that it may be the ancient city of Tarshish ( according to the Rough Guide and historian, James Emerson) and was on a major trade route for many ancient nations. Solomon was supposed to have picked up his supply of peacocks and ivory from here. Maybe it was the ancient world's equivalent of Ikea, or perhaps Heals?
Anyway, the town was obviously a magnet to would be conquerors and was captured by first the Portugese, then the Dutch and then the British.
The town is all inside the Garrison walls and nowadays has a charming, down at heel, colonial feel. However, all this is soon to change. Galle was the town with the most fatalities in the 2004 Tsunami. It was not so badly damaged, structurally, but due to the density of the population, many people died. Since then it seems to have attracted both money and entrepreneurial spirit. The town's bus station, which was outside the walls and covered with water has been rebuilt and the country's first highway is being built from Columbo to Galle.
 It was supposed to have been finished by September but it is not ready, alas, which meant we had a three or four hour drive along the old Galle road. It was certainly an education. I had enormous respect for our driver at the end of it. How he keeps his cool on such roads I don't know. I was very glad to be sitting in the back. The tuk tuks and motor bikes come out of nowhere and cross your path but more terrifying is that because it is a single lane road everyone crosses over to the other side of the road to overtake, which they do ALL THE TIME, irrespective of what is coming in the opposite direction. The driver just beeps his horn and out he goes. Very often I looked up to see a lorry or bus coming at full pelt straight towards us. It was not for the fainthearted. One of the girl's boyfriends said that he thought Sri Lanka was bad until he went to Bangla Desh. there all cars are fitted with cow catcher bard back and front. Nobody stops if they hit you and the rickshaws which have no brakes actually stop themselves by bashing in to the back of the vehicle in front. So you are often feeling a thud, thud as the next rickshaw driver, drives into you!
The route along the Galle road was very congested nearly all the way but we had two refreshing stops. One to have a cupof tea and a hot dog ( a real hot dog, complete with slices of chilli!) and two to pick up a painting for a friend at the house of an artist in a little village off the beaten track. The house was a tiny  bungalow in which some of his paintings were hanging looking very dirty and neglected and then a hut which he used for a studio. However, the man had an amazing talent. His watercolours, particulalrly, were so beautiful. He prefers to stay and paint in his village than move to Colombo and likes to paint local people going about their daily business: fishermen, craftsmen, women, monks and people of different faiths, whom he says get along quite harmoniously, together. I was completely taken by a picture of a buddhist monk walking along looking so contemplative and peaceful. I asked him how much the picture would cost, but, alas, it was outside my league, costing the equivalent of £90. However, such a picture could fetch three times that in England. I felt very sad having to leave it behind as it mouldered away on his wall.  
He generously spent a lot of time showing us his pen and ink drawings of nature ( which were exquisite) and his sketch books. He also teaches art and lives alone with his ancient mother but has had several exhibitions in Colombo and elsewhere thanks to American sponsorship money.
We said goodbye and then sped on to Galle. Hot, dusty, and tired  I suddenly found us driving up to the Lighthouse Hotel, one of the most famous luxury hotels in Sri Lanka and what an experience that was!
More tomorrow.......