Thursday 24th November - Galle, Sri Lanka

Today we woke outside the little port of Galle (pronounced gorl).  The ship was anchored in the bay as intended and the passengers were taken ashore by tender. (i.e. ferried across in the lifeboats).  As is often the case, the swell of the sea caused problems and passengers trying to get on the tenders were faced by a bucking lifeboat.  Well....... that may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but there was certainly a fair amount of rise and fall, and it meant that getting the passengers across for the tours took a little longer than usual.

Due to a couple of timing problems on our part, Peter and I missed boarding two of the tenders before they sailed across to the port, and in the end didn't get onto dry land until about 11.30.  We'd decided that once there, we'd walk up to a nearby fort, have a wander round and then come back.

So we ignored all the tuk tuk drivers and headed off, but it soon turned out we'd underestimated the walk and, realising we didn't have the time to complete our plan, finally agreed to get into one of the tuk tuks that kept pulling up alongside hoping for a fare.  I remembered what I'd been told by the Sri Lankan lawyer from Candi yesterday, and offered the tuk tuk driver $1 as a fare to the fort.  He tried to get a little more out of us, but capitulated very easily to the $1 and we climbed aboard.

So Peter and I have been driven around in various taxis in various cities all over the place.  And we've often described it as mad.  I remember the lunatics in Athens, and the race car taxi driver in the Canaries, and a few more - but I don't think any of them can compete with what we've seen in Sri Lanka. In Colombo we observed how it was quite normal for two road lanes to accommodate three lanes of traffic, and for cars, tuk tuks, bikes, buses and wagon drivers to all dip and dive into these three lanes quite erratically.  Today however, we were treated to even more pandemonium.  Anyone crossing the road or walking nearby seemed to be taking their lives into their own hands.  Time and again it seemed that the vehicles around us were going to hit us or each other, or the pedestrians and stalls at the side of the road.  When our driver wanted to turn onto a busy road, he did just that.  He didn't wait for oncoming traffic to stop, he just drove in front of it.........

But he got us to the fort undamaged, and we enjoyed a pleasant walk along the the walls. Me being me, I looked out for the wildlife, and I'm very pleased with my photos.

I think this is a young bengal monitor lizard - it's also know as a land monitor lizard or a common Indian monitor. 

Red-wattled Lapwing

And this kingfisher, which has a stunningly beautiful turquoise blue back is a white throated kingfisher.

I also managed to get a few pictures of the fort and it's surroundings.

Cattle grazing up on the fort walls, who'd have thunk it? I suppose it saves mowing the grass. 

The views from the walls were quite lovely

Interesting shapes left behind

And more lovely views 

We'd agreed with the driver that he would take us back to the port and he'd been keeping a beady eye on us as we walked along, not wanting to lose out on his investment.  Our drive back was as bonkers as before, but this time we stopped to get a few photos of the mayhem.  This did mean joining the mayhem and trying to cross the road.  You have to be quick!

As we reached the port, the driver started talking about how other tuk tuk drivers were getting 35-40 dollars out of their passengers. Peter and I had already agreed that we'd give him $5 dollars as the fare (despite agreeing $2 with him), because we didn't have anything smaller.  At the port entrance he started begging us for more, which was demeaning and embarrassing.  I'm sorry about that, because it spoilt what had been a very pleasant morning.  I handed him the $5 dollars and then left.

That may seem a little harsh, but we'd learnt yesterday that the average fare of the tuk tuk driver is less than $1, and $5 was well over what we'd agreed.

We'd got back in time for the last tender back to the ship, and spent the rest of the day enjoying the cruising experience.  On the top deck, I joined many other passengers on whale watch as the area is known for blue whales apparently.  Sadly, no whales, but we did get another downpour.

Tomorrow is a sea day and Peter will run his first art class. We have no idea what to expect because the ship isn't full - fingers crossed it won't be too busy.

Wednesday 23rd November - Colombo, Sri Lanka

When you've been awake thirty odd hours straight, you'd think a twelve hour nap would be easy.  Not so! Both Peter and I woke a little after midnight and it took me a little while to settle again.  A fitful night really, but we did sleep most of the night, until the alarm went off at 7 this morning.

So, a leisurely breakfast in the Bistro, where many of the staff recognised us and welcomed us back with big smiles, (they are a lovely crew on this ship).  We'd decided to go for a walk through Colombo this morning.  I have to admit, the city did look a little intimidating.  It had taken the bus almost 10 minutes to drive through the port area to bring us here and we didn't know how long it would take to walk out.  Colombo port is one of the biggest in the area and a very busy commercial dock.

The area looks pretty rough and squalid too and I planned to stay close to Peter. However, the little walk we planned didn't go quite the way we expected.

It turned out that it does take quite a long time to get out of the port, but it wasn't obvious at first.  We walked out of a gate a few minutes after getting off the ship and thought that was it.  Nope!  A good 10 minutes later, when we walked up some stairs to get off the road the into the city, we were asked to show our cruise cards again.

First impressions of the city is that it's big, busy, and like all cities, full of "helpful" characters who are really only looking for tips.  We'd decided to head towards the lake in the centre of the city, and then perhaps make our way to visit one of the Budhist Temples, and we followed our little Voyager issued paper map accordingly.  The first thing that caught my eye were the bats.  They were really quite big.  I'll have to work out what type they are later.

Indian flying fox bats, also known as giant fruit bats.  There were loads hanging in the trees of the noisy busy city centre.  Amazing really. 

Moving on, we were crossing the road, and one of the locals said good morning and commented about the heat and the sun and the fact that I was trying to cover up a little to avoid burning.  He started talk more, and explained he was from Candi (somewhere in middle of Sri Lanka I think), and worked as a lawyer in a bank.  He asked where we were from, how had we travelled, how long were we in Sri Lanka etc etc, explaing the best place to buy stuff, and that mostly the Sri Lankans, as Budhists, were helpful and wouldn't try to cheat you.  He seemed amazed that we didn't know that we'd arrived during a major holy and commercial event in Sri Lanka, and didn't know that Sri Lanka was the one of the best places in the world to get gemstones.  Not from the small shops in the city or near the port, because they would charge too much - but we should go to this place he knew, and that there was a 50% discount due to the holiday and that I could get a birth stone for nearly nothing and so on and so on.  Before we knew it he had hailed down a tuk tuk, agreed a price of $1 to get us there, and pushed us in.

A little bemused by what had just happened and the fact we had just agreed to visit this place - Peter and I sat in the back of the tuk tuk and thought about where we were going.  We decided we'd enjoy the ride and get the tuk tuk driver to turn round as soon as we got there.  But then I thought I'd have just have a very quick look.  You never know, if the gems where as cheap as the guy had said, we  may just pick up a little momento of our visit to Sri Lanka and this particular cruise.

One blue topaz later,(if you say "gullible" slowly, it sounds like oranges), Peter and I were in the back of a car driven by one of the employees.  He'd been tasked to take us to the ship and take payment for the stone on my visa card. (I'm still wondering if the guy on the street was plant?) Chamith (the employee driving us around) was then going to give us a lift back into town - to one of the Budhist Temples there.

But Chamith couldn't be more helpful. He decided he would take us on little tour as we drove towards the temple, and started pointing out various buildings, such as the presidential palace,

The Presidential Palace.  The current president has decided to live somewhere smaller and saved his people several million rupees.  The Sri Lankans are very happy about that.

museums and such, even stopping so that we could take photographs.  When we got to the temple, we said thank you, we'll walk back from here, but he seemed worried about us, saying that it would take an hour to walk back.  So he came into the temple with us, showing us the different rooms and then explaining different things.

Galboda Gnanissara Thera, The lead monk at the Gangaramaya Temple.  He became a monk at seven and is now well into his seventies and is very much revered.

The temple is now a bustling complex including a library and a museum as well as a massive and bemusing collection of gifts, trinkets and donations. 

The much loved elephant Ganga lived his life in the temple.  His remains have been preserved in memorial.

One of the smaller buildings in the temple complex housed this amazing image of the Budha.  The photo can't show the WOW factor of the place.  You'll have to visit. 

The temple is the largest and most important in the city, and busloads of people from the surrounding rural areas come to visit, pray and recieve blessings.  Chamith showed us the how to "water the tree" to worship, and then arranged for us to recieve the blessings from the monk. (We were the only passengers from the ship that recieved the blessings, so now we feel quite honoured.)

The monk who gave us the blessings- sruprisingly, he spoke English and explained the process .  He also got a torch out and highlighted the Budha's in the foreground, explaining that there was something like 24kg of ruby stone between them.

Chamith then drove us to the Memorial of Independence (from the British in 1948),

Colombo Independence Memorial.

and when he found out that Peter was an artist, he took us to see some the work of the locals.  I have to say, if you are in the city, and you feel that you'd like something special, then the paintings here are really quite brilliant.  If it wasn't for the fact that I'd already been talked into spending so much money, I could easily have bought one of these instead.  You have to go to the street behind the national museum, if only to look.  Those paintings were awesome.

Chamith seemed happy to keep us out for longer and wanted to take us somewhere for lunch, but we needed to get back to the ship. Because he'd been so nice, I ended up giving him $10 dollars at the end of the journey (partly to cover his "tip" to the guards at the port gates).  I think that would be nearly a days pay to him.

We decided that we'd stay on board in the afternoon, as the heat was exhausting.  In the evening we met the lecturers and the other crafter, and even later still, Peter had to stand and do his little intro piece as part of the Welcome Show to the passengers. We ended the day on the front deck talking to one of the lecturers until well gone midnight.  When we finally got to bed, we both agreed (gullible shopper moment notwithstanding), it had been a wonderful day.

We get to do our own thing tomorrow in Galle (pronounced gorl), so we can have a lie in in the morning.  Wonderful, just wonderful. 

Tuesday 22nd November - Arrival

The plane landed at around 1pm Sri Lankan time, which is 6.30 am British time. We couldn't sleep on the flight, which means that so far we've been up 24hrs, and looking in the mirror is not a good idea.

Baggage collection, immigration, being welcomed by the Voyager team and the bus trip to the port took another hour or so.  Walking out of the air conditioned airport into the Sri Lankan heat was like walking into an oven, and our first impressions of the Colombo is that is it a very big city - a mixture of squalor and high rise banks and hotels.

Our aim was to stay awake as long as possible so our body clocks could quickly adapt to Asian time, so we had tea, unpacked, cleaned up and then went to sit on the deck to drink more tea before an early dinner.  As we arrived at the teas station it had started to rain, and we thought the young lass singing on the pool deck was maybe singing to herself.  No so, a few hardened tourists had taken the sheltered tables around the deck to enjoy a drink outside.  We joined them, watching the rain and listening to the singer.

Monsoon season in South West Sri Lanka starts in December,  but no one told the clouds above us.  The rain steadily increased to "chucking it down in buckets" and the lightning started.

And it was absolutely awesome! I don't ever remember lightning anything like it before.  As well as lighting up the sky in great sheets, it forked down to the city with the loudest ear deafening cracks I've heard,  The rain soaked the decks and started to threaten the safety of sound system electrics, but the singer just moved further back into her stage and carried on.

Peter and I loved it. Half an hour that we will carry forward in our memories for a very long time.

The storm quietened just a little, and the singer finished and it was time for dinner.  We sat in the Bistro watching the strobe lighting of the storm flash and flicker outside, congratulating ourselves on the fact we felt pretty awake. 15 minutes later, we looked at each other with blurry eyes and declared we couldn't keep them open any longer so we were off too bed.

Tomorrow we spend our first proper day in Sri Lanka.  We've not got any tours, so we'll probably just take a walk into town.  I think I would be excited if I wasn't so tired.