The Galle Face

It's a wet and windy evening here in Kandy and in fact last night I actually felt cold in bed, although I'm not sure if that could also be because I'd become to used to warmer weather after 3 days in Colombo.

I was working in the Colombo office yesterday and on Tuesday, so I drove down to Colombo on Sunday afternoon after class and caught up with some friends. I stayed at Ruth's place on Sunday night, but Monday and Tuesday nights I was put up at the Galle Face Hotel.

The room I was given initially faced Galle Road - one of Colombo's main roads - so I asked if I could have a different room and ended up in one of the hotel's biggest rooms with views across Galle Face Green and the sea. Not a bad way to spend a couple of nights in Colombo really. The hotel itself is not as luxurious as some of Colombo's other hotels, but there's something very special about sitting on the terrace having breakfast or on the verandah having a drink in the evening.

I got back to Kandy late last night - exhausted after the drive back from Colombo. I didn't have to take my car, but it made getting around Colombo much less stressful and meant that I didn't have to leave at a particular time. I also don't like how people drive here, so would much rather drive myself - even if it is more tiring.

My birthday - on May 30th - was a pretty quiet affair as I was working. A friend did take me out for breakfast last Tuesday though, and some other friends organised a small get-together in the evening - including a cake - although thankfully not with 39 candles! I'm trying to decide what I'm going to do next year - all depends really on what I decide to do. Am not sure if I'll stay here yet as there's a lot of change at work at the moment, but I don't have to make any decisions just yet. Will see.

East Coast Road Trip

I've just got back to Kandy after a 4-day road trip with Maria to the east coast as I managed to get Wednesday off, which meant that I had a 5-day break because of the Vesak holiday.

Unfortunately the trip didn't quite go according to plan as halfway to Batticaloa the passenger window wouldn't go back up and then the a/c started playing up, so we ended up wasting a lot of time waiting around for the car to be fixed. Sometimes I really wish I had a newer model car, but cars are so expensive here and I'm reluctant to spend so much money on a car - especially as I still haven't decided what I'm going to do at the end of the year.

In many ways Batticaloa is pretty much like any other Sri Lankan town, although the location on a series of lagoons is spectacular and gives the town a very languid feel. Culturally though, it's very different from a lot of places I've been to because of the large Tamil and Muslim population. Unfortunately, there's still a sizeable police and military presence and although the town itself seems fairly prosperous, there's still lots of evidence of the long conflict - particularly outside of Batticaloa. Everyone I spoke to has very little faith in the current goverment and a lot of people want to emigrate to other countries, which is very sad.

From Batticaloa we drove north along the coast to a place called Paskudah. I'd heard lots of good things about Paskudah, so Maria and I were disappointed to find that the beaches weren't that great and that it was very difficult to access a lot of the coast because of the military presence. Facilities are still very basic there as well and none of the guesthouses are actually on the beach, so we only ended up staying one night.

The original plan was to visit Dhanushka's family on the way back to Kandy, but I realised that it wasn't such a great idea to drag Maria along with me - so in the end we decided to spend a night at a more upmarket place in Habarana and come back to Kandy for Vesak. Maria wanted to visit Minneriya National Park to see elephants, but when we asked about renting a jeep for the trip we were told that there aren't any elephants in Minneriya at the moment because of the heavy rain recently.

We got back to Kandy late yesterday afternoon and in the evening went to see all the lanterns in the town. I actually thought there'd be a lot more lanterns this year, but there didn't seem to be any more than last year. It is amazing though to see all the lanterns outside of people's homes.

Back to work tomorrow...

A Social Life

I know - yet again it's been a long time between posts. Strangely enough though, I've actually - shock, horror - had a social life recently, so I haven't been at home in front of my computer as much as I usually have been. I'm not used to having a social life (didn't know it was possible to have one in Kandy) and I feel like I've been out more in the past couple of weeks than I have in the past year!

A few weeks ago I met an American woman who used to run a sheep ranch in Mexico through CouchSurfing and we very quickly became good friends. I met up with her a couple of times last week and have also spent a lot of this weekend with her - today we went out to visit another couchsurfer who lives not far from Kandy.

Through CouchSurfing I've also ended up with a housemate until the end of June - another American woman who was out in Polonnaruwa studying monkeys! I wasn't planning on having another housemate, but she was looking for somewhere to stay during her last couple of months in Kandy and as I have a spare room, I suggested that she stay here. She's in Colombo at the moment as she had some meeting to go to, but she should be back later in the week.

I'm actually really glad I'm not in Colombo at the moment as there's been a lot of rain there over the past week and many streets in and around Colombo have been flooded. My friend Ruth said that she had to wade through knee-deep water last week to get into work! The strange thing is there's been hardly any rain here in Kandy.

It's Vesak next week, so I have Thursday and Friday off. Unfortunately it looks like I'll have to go into work on Wednesday, although I have thought about asking my boss if I can have Wednesday off as I don't teach. If I can get Wednesday off, I've thought about going to the east coast for a few days then driving back to Kandy via Polonnaruwa to see Dhanushka's family. Will see.

The photo is one I took a few weeks ago when there were storms every afternoon. Sometimes the sky was amazing and it was quite something sitting on the baclony watching as the storm got closer and closer.

Türkiye

I'm back in Kandy after a wonderful holiday in Türkiye. I was secretly hoping that the cloud of volcanic ash would make its way to İstanbul so that I'd have to spend an extra week or so in Türkiye, but no such luck. There were lots of cancelled flights from İstanbul though when I was at the airport on Monday evening and apparently a number of teachers in Colombo who were in Europe during the break didn't make it back in time for the beginning of the term.

Although I only got back to Kandy last Tuesday, Türkiye already seems like a distant memory as I've been flat out at work since I got back. While I was on holiday I didn't think about work at all, but now that I'm back it's all I seem to be thinking about - especially as for the next two terms I'm adult learning co-ordinator - sounds impressive, doesn't it?

The first part of the trip I spent with Kiya in Kapadokya in central Anatolia. Kiya spent the summer in İstanbul a couple of years ago and as she only had a week off work we decided to take an overnight bus directly to Kapadokya and spend as much time as possible there. I wasn't particularly looking forward to an overnight bus journey, but bus travel in Türkiye is fantastic and although I didn't sleep that much, the bus was really comfortable and it meant we were in Kapadokya early the following morning. Kapadokya was amazing - have never seen anything quite like it in terms of the landscape. We stayed in a fantastic hotel - in a 'cave' room - and rented a car for a couple of days as well so we could explore some of the less explored areas of the region.

The guy who ran the hotel we stayed at introduced us to his father and a couple of his brothers who have a carpet shop. The father was quite a character and as it turns out Kiya had bought a couple of carpets at an exhibition that a couple of Australians had organised with him in Perth about 10 years ago. Although Kiya wasn't intending on buying any more carpets, she ended up going home with 3 and we spent a good few hours sitting in this amazing room that was piled high with over 2000 carpets drinking tea, talking and looking at various carpets.

From Kapadokya we made our way west to Konya, which is where the Mevlana - better known as Celaleddin Rumi - spent much of his life. His mausoleum - located next to a former dervish lodge - is part of a museum complex and although it was packed with visitors - both foreigners and Türks - it was a very mystical and beautiful place. Kiya flew back to İstanbul from Konya the following morning, but I decided to stay around for another day to explore some more of the city, which is not on the tourist trail. Unfortunately it was bitterly cold in Konya and although I thought about staying for another night to attend the weekly sema (whirling dervish ceremony), I decided to make my way to Antalya on the Mediterranean, which thankfully was a lot warmer.

In Antalya I couch-surfed for the first time and stayed with a lovely woman called Fevy. Although she was really busy, we had some really interesting talks and it was great getting to know something about life in Antalya. She also put me in touch with some of the other couch-surfers in Antalya and I met up with some of them in the old part of Antalya for a drink one evening. I stayed with Fevy for 4 nights and ended up renting a car for 2 days with a fellow couch surfer from Portugal as she was also interested in seeing some of the places around Antalya. The most impressive place we went to was a place called Termessos - a ruined town high up in the mountains outside of Antalya. Driving was fine - in fact it was a breeze after driving here - although we did manage to get hopelessly lost in the centre of Antalya on the second evening as a number of roads had been closed for re-surficing. Antalya itself is fairly modern, but Kaleiçi - the old part of the town - is really interesting, although very touristy, and the views along the coast to the mountains are stunning.

I flew back to İstanbul from Antalya as it's an 11-hour bus journey. I had 5 days in İstanbul and although I didn't get to see everything, I had a wonderful time. It wasn't as warm in İstanbul as it'd been in Antalya, but spring was definitely in the air and the parks were full of tulips. I was hoping to couch surf in İstanbul as well, but everyone I contacted was either busy or had someone staying with them, so in the end I stayed in a guesthouse in Sultanahmet in the old part of İstanbul - a few minutes walk from the Aya Sofiya. I did meet up for a drink with one guy I contacted though.

I spent a lot of time in İstanbul just wandering, which is a really good way to get to know the city. It's a big place, but the centre is fairly compact and easy to get about on foot and by public transport. I saw most of the famous sights - but also managed to go to a few less-visited places. One of the highlights was the cruise up the Bosphorus. It's very touristy, but was a great way to see all the waterfront mansions that line both the European and Asian sides of the Bosphorus and as I decided to make my own way back into central İstanbul, I also got to visit some of the places I'd seen on the way up.

I've actually been thinking that I might look for work in İstanbul, if I decide to leave Sri Lanka. According to Kiya university work is fairly well paid and accommodation is usually provided. Will have to look into it. Since I got back to Kandy it's been very stormy and unsettled and I have a feeling there's going to be another storm this afternoon as I can hear thunder in the distance. The mornings are beautiful though, so this morning I went for a swim. Don't have any plans for the rest of the day, although will probably talk to my Grandma later this afternoon as she's usually at my aunt's house on Tuesdays.

The photo is of a beautiful mosque in Ortaköy, an old fishing village on the European side of the Bosphorus that is now a suburb of İstanbul. There's a very popular market held there on a Sunday and it was a great place to while a way a couple of hours on a sunny, spring afternoon.

On Holiday

From this afternoon I'm officially on holiday and tomorrow morning I'm off to Turkey. Maggie's flight is at 1am tomorrow morning, so we've organised a taxi to pick us up this evening and I'll stay in Negombo near the airport after dropping Maggie off at the airport.

Am really looking forward to this trip - particularly visiting İstanbul. Kiya is on the same flight from Doha, so meeting up is going to be easy. We're not actually staying in İstanbul as Kiya was there for a couple of months a few summers ago. Instead we're heading straight to the main bus station and catching an overnight bus to Kapadokya in central Turkey, where we're planning on spending 4 days. I'm not a big fan of overnight buses, but Kiya only has a week off, so we want to make the most of the time we have together.

The photo is one I took the other morning when I went for a walk by the lake before having breakfast. The weather seems to less unsettled today, but since Saturday there's been a storm most afternoons and the mornings have often been misty. Although the lake is not actually that pleasant to walk around because of the heavy traffic, it's a beautiful part of Kandy.

Off to work. I'm placement testing today, so thankfully I don't have any preparation to do. Next post from Turkey.

Rain

Have just been standing outside in the rain - the first rain in what seems like ages. When it first started raining I actually thought there was an animal on the roof - it's been that long since I've heard the sound of rain!

I'd actually planned to go to Colombo this weekend, but because I ended up having more IELTS candidates yesterday than I'd anticipated, so decided that going to Colombo just wasn't feasible. If it didn't take so long to get there I'd probably have gone, but it's at least 3 hours on the bus. I also wasn't feeling very well yesterday, so am glad I decided to stay in Kandy.

This morning someone I know who manages a boutique hotel just outside of Kandy called me to ask if I knew of anyone who would be able to solve an IT problem for her. I didn't, but offered to drive out there and see if I could solve the problem. I couldn't actually solve the problem as such, but I worked out what it was and in exchange for my help was treated to breakfast and the use of the pool. Not a bad way to spend a morning really.

Having a very lazy evening at home. I should probably do some marking, but can't actually be bothered...

Nilambe

I'm feeling quite calm and collected at the moment as I spend the weekend at Nilambe meditation centre just outside of Kandy. I actually first heard about Nilambe when I was travelling in India and have been meaning to go since I came to Kandy 3 years ago. Funny that it's taken me nearly 12 years to actually get there.

I went with Ewen, a friend from work, who's been there many times over the past 12 years or so. We drove up early Monday morning and came back yesterday morning, so basically had 2 full days. I had class at 9 yesterday, so we left the centre at 6.30 after the morning meditation and were back in Kandy by 7.30, which was pretty good going.

On the way back to Kandy I told Ewen that I'm going to try and get up to Nilambe once a month. It's a very special place and although 2 days is not that long, I feel a real sense of peace. I've been very lazy when it comes to meditation, so am going to make a concerted effort to meditate every day from now on.