Paradise calling. Weekends in Colombo. Friday!

Weekends in Colombo must start with a liquid lunch at the popular Colombo Swimming Club in Colombo 3. The late Joanna Miles our then Brit creative director loved the place as all Brit expats and any tourist do. A left over of the colonial era, this swimming club’s main attraction is it’s main building. An old bungalow still preserved in its original condition. A long verandah at the back serves as the spine to the club where one can sit and watch the trains go by frequently on the adjoining commuter train track that connects Colombo to the deep south of Sri Lanka.

All this capped by a magnificent view of the Indian Ocean that the club overlooks. Aunty Jo as we popularly called her was the epitome of the British expat. Single and born to be, she loved her drink and got on famously with all the boys from the advertising and marketing fraternity in Colombo. She would unfailingly arrive most Friday’s around one o’clock at our desks and off we would go. Fresh grilled seafood, the proverbial Gin and Tonic and the weekend is off to a brilliant start as we sway off back to office late afternoon. Wherever you are in the nether world Aunty Jo, rest in peace, we remember you with love.

Last copy checks of art works, sending material off to press, last minute frantic calls to clients for approvals and everyone’s done by late evening. The start to the debauchery is always at a sports club that dots Colombo’s landscape. These clubs, a hangover from colonisation of Sri Lanka by the British, range from exclusive Golf, Rowing and Swimming clubs to the bit more rowdy Rugby clubs and little more refined Cricket clubs. Most have huge lawns that are readied every evening with tables, umbrellas and chairs for relaxation and quaffing of alcoholic beverages after a hard day of sport or work. A wee different from the rest of the world, this does not mean a couple of drafts of beer, no, Sri Lankan men and women alike love their spirits from the local arrack to whisky, brandy, gin or vodka. Bottles of it are consumed, not shots, especially on a Friday evening.

Our club of choice was the Old Joes Sports Club within the premises of St. Joseph’s, a boy’s catholic school! The main attraction to this establishment was the incredible fried pork that was served with fresh buttered bread to deaden the effects of various alcoholic beverages. Late evening when the sun sets the view you see from the club is the lovely green cricket field, the old chapel standing grim and proud with wonderful shadows giving light to many ad man and woman’s imagination. Old Joes serves to encourage every one of us to reach the correct stage of inebriation for someone to start clambering to go play pool.

Allow me to meander from this weekend of mine for a brief moment. If the reader is wondering where are the spouses, partners, children, boyfriends, and girlfriends of these people? Under the guise of one’s profession, Advertising, these loved ones all over the world suffers in patience. Not all but most. Ad people are very good at hiding behind their profession. The creativity, short deadlines, demand what we call letting off of steam with the team!

Now back to a late Colombo Friday evening where darkness, any party animals friend has announced its arrival. Groups of us stagger into our respective cars and zoom away to one of Colombo’s best nightspots. Owned by the genteel Russell Fernando ‘Rhythm and Blues’ is a club that offers live music six nights of the week and pool at any time of the day. Popular amongst Colombo’s ad and marketing fraternity, young expats and tourists, R n’B caters to a slightly older clientele through a delicate balance of live rock music with covers performed of songs from CCR, Eagles, Santana and Eric Clapton to name but a few. DJ Ben takes over during band breaks.

If Ben is exceptionally ‘smiling’, smiling the operative word, he can be persuaded to play a bit of house, drum and bass late into the night. And if you wish to ‘smile’ too, Ben will point you in the right direction!

The atmosphere is uber cool and relaxed starting from Russell and his lovely wife. One is required to be in pants and shoes and adequately covered on top. Our noisy entrance is usually accompanied by grins from the doormen, bouncers and waiters, and wry smile from Russell. We’re regulars, so tolerated for our various vices and curiosities. Again explained by ‘Oh ad people, no?’ Fiercely competitive amongst some of us, games of pool begin. Unusually or usually one finds games of pool where suddenly it’s creative vs. the suits. It’s late Friday night as I usually wean myself from the pool and enjoy my Jameson on the rocks with live music from the band.

R n’B’s small dance floor is usually packed with expats dancing their cares away. The crowd is eclectic, from Colombo’s executives to tourists, musicians, journalists, and the worldwide mandatory Russkies and Thai girls. Everyone’s cool. Universal love is always in the air.

Late night and the stronger souls stagger off to Clancy’s. Another Brit Pub themed bar owned by Russell’s family. Here one finds live rock music from the more modern era performed and an edgier, younger crowd with many young couple on night outs or dates. Clancy’s like R n’B stay open to the wee hours of morning. Finally Friday ends on early Saturday morning. There is still no hurry-to-hurry home, everyone chats about and finally heads off to Colombo’s premier 24-hour night restaurant ‘Pilawoos’ for breakfast.

Sri Lanka formerly known as Ceylon was on a world spice route via the Indian Ocean. Colonised by the Portuguese, the Dutch and finally the British, the food influences are many. Especially through the Chinese and the Moors who continuously did and still do business here. The Muslim and moor culture is part and parcel of Sri Lanka. So are their food and the origin of many of these night restaurants called ‘night kades’ in Sri Lanka. The choice of food amongst Colombo’s night lovers is called a Kottu. A Kottu is cooked on a huge metal plate heated from underneath. Pieces of delicious roast chicken, beef or mutton, eggs, onions, leeks, tomatoes, garlic, herbs and curry sauce are all fried with cut pieces of leavened bread parotha’s on this metal plate. The noise accompanying the cooking of this dish is loud, and usually the cook does this right outside the restaurant, so one can watch this dish being prepared. All part of the night experience and the food washed down either with cool incredibly sweet chocolate milk or limejuice. For the more adventurous party people all one has to do is whisper in a waiter’s ear either for more of Sri Lanka’s home-grown alcohol, arrack or a neatly rolled spliff. The Kottu roti is a Mongolian dish adapted to suit Sri Lanka’s palette for spicy food and is the best food guaranteeing the lack of a hangover in the dawning day!

Finally dawn breaks in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s commercial capital. There is an early morning chill, little forewarning of the humidity and a median temperature of 96 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade during day. The restaurant Pilawoos is on Galle Road itself that links the capital to the south of the country. Morning commercial traffic, huge commuter buses, lorries carrying large loads of fresh produce to the city thunder down the road. Wearily but happily sated and plied with alcohol and food everyone meanders to their cars. The last cig is smoked, hugs, kisses and goodbyes. The end of a busy week, the beginning of the weekend. Saturday morning has dawned and what happens on Saturday, another post from this blogger.

Partying every weekend in Colombo is a must. An experience any visitor to Sri Lanka must experience. Seeing is believing. Please do go…

Sri Lanka, a promise like no other.

Sri Lanka’s best-kept secrets. Playing in Paradise. Kandy.

It’s Friday evening and darkness, a thick blanket has descended on Kandy. The only sound is the steady trickle of rain usually common to any late Kandy evening. We roll into home and my nephew springs out from the car to open the gate to our house. The spotlight brightens the gravel on the driveway, shining black stones shimmering. My mums rose bushes glimmer invitingly with dewdrops. Getting down from the car and stretching as the fresh mildly cold air hits you, refreshes you.

The kids run into the house screaming in youthful exuberance in anticipation to the week ahead. The dog jumps at you in welcome, pawing at you in impatience to be petted. Your home, in the city called Maha Nuwara (Big City) during the days of the Sri Lankan kings. Best known as Kandy, 72 miles from the commercial capital of Sri Lanka, Colombo. With evening traffic Kandy is about a three-hour absolutely wonderful scenic mountainous drive that really tests the skills of any adventurous driver. I usually successfully attempt to do in two hours.

Kandy, life is slow, uncomplicated there. Mountainous Terrain. Home to Sri Lanka’s dubious descendents of loyalty, sons of the soil. There is plenty of rain, so agriculture and rolling fields of paddy are common. The mornings hot with blazing sun and days that cools from the afternoon with a steady trickle of rain turning to majestic thunderstorms during the monsoon. Fresh produce in everyone’s backyard, an abundance of natural food, and a lifestyle very different from the rest of Sri Lanka, chilled would be the best word.

My friends in Colombo would always wonder why in the wide world I descend to this part of the world of perceived boredom every single weekend. But the secrets: the sights, the sounds and places of Kandy are many, waiting to be discovered, enjoyed.

I worship the statue of Buddha in our living room, then kneel in worship to my parents, say hi to rest of the family and go to my room to change in to Sri Lanka’s preferred choice of relaxing wear, the sarong. The domestic is awaiting my arrival and has a huge simmering cauldron of hot water heated by wood fire by the well in the back of our house. As I draw the first bucket of water and pour it on my head all the worries of the week from life and work in Colombo just wash away. I scrub the dog on his weekly bath and myself hard with Lifebuoy soap while chatting to the domestic. The dog loves it and splashes water all over us. Finishing with icy cold water drawn from the well and drying in the icy cold of the night outside feels wonderful with the terry cloth towel washed and dried in the sun. I head inside in anticipation for the night. Call my half Brit-half Sri Lankan gentile friend to check if he has made it home from Colombo too. Quick dinner and off to his house on the high mountains of Pitakanda, Kandy. About five minutes drive from our house in Wattapuluwa, Kandy.

We sit in his verandah overlooking the rolling mountains right above the Nittawella rugby grounds, home to the Sri Lankan champion team, Kandy Rugby Club. Infamous for its credentials of importing players from as far as Fiji and Samoa for an unfair edge in the national rugby league. A spliff is rolled, vodka poured into tall glasses filled with ice and we finally lay back on the antique long arm chairs famous only to Sri Lanka. The first sip of vodka with the spliff sends an incredible feeling throughout my body. We can’t help but smile. My friend’s partner is sitting on the cool tiled floor using his legs as a rest for her body.

We finally get out of our chairs lazily and head out to our favourite watering hole in the Kandy town, the Bake House. The feeling of euphoria and freedom is incredible as our trail bikes thunder around the Kandy lake to our destination, I can hear my friends partner screaming as we try to out do each other too see who corners the best. After the beers at Bake House we set off to one of the hotel discos or to hear live music in a hotel lobby. The choices are many but Mahaveli Reach, Earl’s Regency or the Tree of Life are personal favourites. Couple of hours in town and we are back at my friends winding down from the evening and weeks trails and tribulations of hot and humid Colombo. I am finally off home in early twilight to collapse on to bed for dreamless much needed sleep. Fresh cotton sheets, large white pillows filled with natural cotton all dried in the sun cocoon me in comfort. The dog flops into bed at my feet and I am too tired to push him away. I sleep by myself in the ground floor of our house in the annexe, the large Alsatian dog does give me a sense of comfort and security.

Wake up late next morning to hear the house hustling and bustling upstairs. A cup of coffee lies on the nightstand beside my bed, discreetly brought in by the male domestic. I open the door of the bedroom that opens out to our garden, quietly light up the first cigarette for the day and enjoy my coffee sitting on the step. My mothers jealously guarded visitor, a King Cobra glares at me from behind a rock in the garden. I acknowledge him nervously and hug the dog close to me. The Cobra is a venerated animal in Sri Lanka and it is believed that the gods send them to your home to guard you but also test your belief. Believe you me I have actually seen this Cobra come really close to my mother and just chill out when she ventures out to the garden.

I then use the bathroom; change in to shorts and t-shirt and head on upstairs to be greeted excitedly by my niece and nephews waiting for me to rise for the day. We eat a delicious breakfast of rice and mung beans soaked overnight and cooked in coconut milk with fresh-grounded chillie and onion paste and fresh river fish curry. Finally we all pile in to the car and head out to the Tree of Life hotel where we rent mountain bikes and go for a vigorous ride on the trails especially built by the hotel for hikers and bikers. Back after an hour and the kids all splash into the hotel pool. The Tree of Life hotel’s main section is over 100 years old and used to be the British Lord Mountbatten’s jungle hunting retreat and bungalow where as well as hunting for wild boar and deer, he sowed his oats as any good colonial sod did in Sri Lanka during the late 1800’s and as far as 1948 when Sri Lanka finally gained independence from British Colonial rule. Although much debated and unaccepted the bony Kandy lasses are amazingly beautiful. The tanned local heritage mixed with British blood and toned down over generations give these local lasses golden skin which contrast amazingly with their long dark tresses. It is not unusual to see some of them with light brown almost hazel or blue eyes. Beautiful is an understatement.

While the kids splash around, I head off to the hotels Ayurvedic centre for Herbal Treatment. Head, Face and Body Massage ‘Snehana’ (Oil Massage), ‘Swedana’ (Steam Bath), ‘Shirodara Kutisweda’ (Herbal Sauna), and Aroma Therapy. The hotel offers a genuine, reliable and traditional Ayurveda in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Ayurvedic therapy comes from an age-old formulation passed down from generation to generation of Ayurvedic families in Sri Lanka. After a good couple of hours I emerge a new man, now finally all the worries of the week massaged away.

All of us then head to the hotel buffet lunch. I stick to the traditional rice and curry from the buffet as the hotel maintains it’s Ayurvedic credentials by offering a range of Sri Lankan vegetables that sadly do not feature in the regular fare of Colombo’s home meals.

Afterwards we drive to the Kandy town for the afternoon. First visit is to the Dalada Maligawa, the former palace of Sri Lanka’s last king, Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe and now a Buddhist temple that houses the scared relic of Buddha, one of his teeth. Outside the palace the regular showpiece before entering the temple a huge tame elephant awaits the brave. It is believed that going under the elephant’s stomach and circling three times builds bravery and courage in children and also wards off evil! After offering the traditional araliya flowers and incense in the inner sanctum we head off to explore around Kandy town.

Kandy offers a labyrinth of streets more complex than those of New York City. Around every corner awaits a surprise, always pleasant. All though buyers must be aware as you may end up purchasing a useless trinket, for the discerning eye antique jewellery shops abound in Kandy. From genuine antique bracelets, earrings, and rings worn by the nobility of ancient Sri Lanka, one will find small shops selling silver rings woven with elephant hair for luck, leopard tooth pendants made from real tiger teeth from hunters of the past and various intricate jewellery items made from ivory. The elephant is a venerated animal in Sri Lanka largely, so buying ivory although needs to be at one’s beliefs and discretion, most ivory items are antique and obtained from elephant graveyards of old. I still remember the large leopard skin that adorned the games room wall at my grandmother’s home in Kandy. Gemstones and jewellery made from precious gems such, as rubies, sapphires, garnets and moonstones are a plenty. Unless you really can identify gems, I would advice a visitor to only purchase jewellery made from moonstones. These are really cheap and won’t be more than 10 to 20 British pounds maximum. All this and more such as local handicrafts made from brass, devil masks, and Sri Lankan drums and in the main though fare of Kandy, a Cargills supermarket and a KFC for a quick snack of chicken! Even a Pizza-Hut!

If visiting Kandy in July and August one has to book early to avoid dissapointment as these months herald the beginning of the world famous Kandy Dalada Maligawa procession. A parade of over one hundred elephants in ball gowns brightly lit up very alike a Christmas tree with thousands of dervish dancers, firewalkers, whip crackers and traditional drummers. These processions are held to give thanks to the gods for life, gifts of nature that nourish and good health.

After our walk-about in town we finally head home early evening to beat the drizzle that gradually starts as small drops to steady. Fresh cups of tea for the adults and Milo for the kids, everyone crashes in bed for a nap. The kids head out to the garden for a noisy game of cricket. I switch the TV on and drowse off to the news and woken up again only when the domestic brings me a cup of coffee.

Darkness falls early in Kandy. It’s twilight when I wake up and refresh myself to head to Pitakanda to my friends house again for dinner. I have my dad’s driver drop me off as I plan to get properly sloshed at my friends. More spliffing, loads of vodka and a refined dinner. My friend’s family were restaurateurs in England. So we enjoy a refined meal of pasta with a lovely mushroom sauce all washed down with red wine. Chatting for hours with coffee made from freshly ground beans, the sun’s rising as my friend drops me off at home.

Awake unusually early for a Sunday morning and fast drive to the picturesque Victoria Golf Club for a couple of holes of golf, ride around the club complex on a trail bike and some much needed exercise. The English breakfast at the clubhouse later negating the benefits of the previous exercise. Then I head back to set off with the kids to the Polgolla dam a five minutes walk from our home in Wattapuluwa, Kandy. We have on our bathing suits underneath and carry fishing rods, as beneath the dam, in the flowing calm waters of the Mahaweli River is a perfect secluded spot for bathing and if one wishes to even fish. Not the hectic sport fishing, but the type that calls for calm patience with a line cast in the water and watching the world go by, not counting the seriously adventurous and curious Monkey families living on the trees by the banks of the river that glare at you for invading their territory.

The kids I take along with me as they provide the perfect credentials to my status as an uncle, therefore harmless to parents looking for prospective bachelors for their bony Kandyan female offspring. An insight to life of the people in Kandy, the girls are beautiful, respected and protected. Culturally with no real fuss or bother, they usually head off to school, socialise mostly with the family, an occasional chaperoned movie with friends. Otherwise home. On a Sunday the proud parents allow these girls to hang out by their front gate in the garden in their Sunday best. It is a very subtle way for parents to almost show off their offspring. Be proud. Believe you me the concept of an untouched virgin still exists in this part of the world. This was and still is the best eye candy I have seen any where in the world! And an important part of what makes Kandy, Sri Lanka what it is. One of it’s most jealously kept secrets.

Sunday evening dawns. Early dinner, worship parents and its time for the mad drive back to Colombo. This time more fun as driving in you climb, going back is downhill and much faster!

It’s early Monday morning. I am in office in London. The room is just 10’ by 10’, but I do have a large window that looks out. The winds howling outside, dark clouds make it seem like night, rain beats incessantly on the window as I type this post. The office tower blocks are foreboding, a Range Rover parked illegally is clamped as the owner runs up to it screaming. Traffic was especially bad this morning on the school run, the Jubilee line running late with the tube station closed and I had to get off and walk six blocks to work in the rain. Forgot my raincoat. Inside my mind the parrots with their lime green plumage and bright red necklaces call out to each other from the Mango tree in my parents garden in Kandy. I wipe the tears falling down my face, I imagine my clothes and my face is soaked from the fresh tropical rain of my country of origin, my Paradise Isle. I am OK.

Kandy, Sri Lanka. Please do go and see…

http://www.hoteltreeoflife.com/

http://www.aitkenspencehotels.com/earls/

http://www.mahaweli.com/home.asp

http://www.maligawa.pooranee.lk/index_maligawa.html

http://daladamaligawa.org/esala-rituals-observer.htm

http://www.golfsrilanka.com/

Sri Lanka - Discover the Secrets...

Colombo’s best-kept secrets.

An Oasis in the middle of a city. Barefoot.

Either to drink long glasses of ice tea at its café on a Saturday morning to recover from a hangover from the previous night of debauchery or to chill out and listen to live Jazz on a Sunday afternoon, Barefoot is undoubtedly one of Colombo’s most famous but best kept secrets.

Galle Road is Sri Lanka’s busiest highway as it loops through the southern coast linking Colombo the commercial of capital to Sri Lanka’s other best kept secret, wonderful stretches of coastal towns with long stretches of beach and gin clear waters of the Indian Ocean. On Galle Road in Colombo 3, popularly known as Colpetty awaits Barefoot. A clothing store, art gallery and café. Barefoot is Sri Lanka’s creative Mecca where advertising people, writers, aspiring poets, artists, musicians and the expat community haunt at all hours of the day.

From outside the black and white ‘Barefoot’ logo against the white building with colourful store windows say little to the outside world. One must drive down the lay-by and park in the parking lot at the back. The first surprise is immediate as soon as you walk in through the arched entrance into Barefoot’s garden and café. You leave behind Colombo’s hustle and bustle, hot sun and humidity. A sense of calm and tranquillity awaits you.

The café experience is usually to be savoured unhurriedly after a walk-about inside the Barefoot shop. In the shop awaits a colourful selection of Sri Lankan hand-woven cloth. Sarongs and shirts for men and women, hand woven material, table clothes, handicrafts, antiques of every nature, trinkets and presents for friends abroad. A bookshop that boasts of every Sri Lankan author and every type of book on Sri Lanka.

With it’s long bar, high ceiling fans, the beautiful garden with tables strategically placed for relaxed dining one wonders if this is still the city. A fusion of bright colours, bustling smiling waiters await with blackboard specials for the day. The Kalu Pol Pork Curry is a personal favourite.

What really make Barefoot special however are the people. The ever-affable Sri Lanka’s top chef, colourful personality, wonderfully gay doyen, chubby Kolu who is ever ready to stroll over say hi and chat. The chilled out owner and world renowned photographer Dominic, bustling wife Nasreen are always around again to come over say hello or just simply to help you select something for your house.

Suresh the tailor who will help you choose the right kind of fabric for your curtains and sew them for a reasonable fee has always been a centre of attraction for the hoi polloi of Colombo. In fact even as far away as London, all our house curtains, cushions and chair covers are Barefoot fabrics carefully discussed, chosen and stitched by Suresh. Well placed warm lighting and the wonderful Barefoot colours always uplifts the mood of anyone venturing to our living room on a cold, foggy London morning.

Barefoot, no suits in attendance, calm, tranquil, chilled out. Native Shopping, Fantastic Food, Jazz, and Art exhibitions at the Gallery, Film nights, Colombo’s creative fraternity and much more. The scent of jasmine in the air, aromatic candles, incredible splashes of bright colour, the gentle trickle of water from the koi pond, cool air wafting amongst the garden gently caressing your troubles away, wonderful fusion cooking, the most relaxed shopping experience for a discerning visitor to Sri Lanka.

A true insight to the untroubled life of Sri Lanka and its people’s philosophy. Take it as it comes, always with a smile. A secret that is best shared.

Sri Lanka’s best-kept secrets. Wild Elephants, Wild Boar and the deep rural South.

A young child stands bare bodied with a grin on his face as he waves at the SUV as we approach. The intense heat bounces off the tarmac in the long smooth road as I squint through its haze tapping the brake to slow down and see what the boy has to offer. He has been in the forest picking up the fallen feathers from early morning, the prize he now waves to us for sale. The bright blue and purple hues of the Peacock feathers wave in brilliant colour as we roll to a gentle stop. A scene I have seen many times on the southern coast stretch from the city Matara to Kataragama. Home to Lord Skanda who is venerated all over in Sri Lanka. A scene my fellow companions from London have never seen, a Peacock in its live glory.

I am taking my friends on a journey that I have made many times in my life. To the home of Skanda in Kataragama, Sri Lanka, 350 kilometres away from the city of Colombo.

Our journey begins past midnight from Colombo. In my opinion the best time to travel, as the nights are cooler, traffic less and as a person who loves quiet long drives the best time for solitude. My companions soon fall asleep, waking only when I pull over almost half way through the journey for my usual nicotine break. I wake them again only close to Kataragama. The morning is chilly as its 4am in the morning now. The full moon bathes the Weerawila stretch of road with its adjacent sugar cane fields in soft light. I have switched the headlights off. The lone wild elephant waits to cross the road, the promises of the sugar cane on the other side. He is nervous of the SUV and us as I am of him. My friends scramble around for cameras, their sleepiness all gone, everyone’s wide-awake. The bravest of the lot demanding to be let out of the SUV to take a better photo. My experience of wild elephants limited to viewing at wild life parks and chance encounters like this on the road demand that everyone stays in the car. I switch on my parking light and roll forward slowly as cameras click furiously inside.

We finally arrive at the Rossen Hotel in Kataragama. After the elephant experience everyone in the car is pumped up, wide awake and our chattering wakes the security guard up and he opens the huge gate leading to the hotel. The staff stir wake, the receptionist still manages to smile brightly at us and cheerfully wakes staff in the kitchen to cook my ravenous companions chips, eggs, toast and pots of coffee and tea. As we head out to our rooms the heated pool beckons invitingly. A mist escapes from the pool and the bellboy informs me that at the request of some visiting tourists the pool water has been heated to exactly 70 Fahrenheit. We are delighted, nip to the rooms, breakfast served by the poolside, everyone’s in the pool. It’s 6am and all the staff is out and about. Bright Sri Lankan smiles, the traditional ‘Ayubowan’ mixed with ‘Good Morning’. The other guests must be annoyed, an impromptu game of tag has the females in our group screaming. The pool lifeguard still sleepy looks on in bemusement. While three of our group stay back in the pool the others accompany me to the Lord Skanda temple.

I drive the SUV through the back and we park behind the temple. The flower vendors clamour for our custom. Especially the custom of my British friends. Incense, Coconut Oil for the lamps, and the traditional Sri Lankan flower - white and pink lotuses. I offer the pooja of light, scent and colour to the Buddhist Stupa and the statue of King Mahasen. My friends help eagerly all excited to participate in everything and enjoy their holiday. The suns up now and all of us are glad for our loose white linen clothes, the bottles of water in our hands and the stiff breeze that blows through the wind swept sandy ground beneath our bare feet. Pilgrims from all walks of life go about their business of worshipping. We get back in the stupa and drive to the Skanda temple. From the white clothes and the pilgrims at the stupa to the incredible fusion and splash of colour at the kovils amaze my friends. Camera’s click constantly.

I grin as we stay for the Skanda pooja, the ritual of cleaning the gods casket and sutra lying in the inner sanctum of the god where no one other than priests are allowed. A large curtain with a picture of the God Skanda and his two consorts cover the entrance. The pilgrims pull on the bells that surround the camphor filled outer sanctum of the temple. I grin as I now see my friends drenched in sweat. They smile, their OK.

We return to the hotel find the rest of our gang still lazing around by the pool. Long showers in our rooms, a late lunch in the hotel and a nap in air-conditioned comfort. The sun blazes overhead now, only a few ventures outside in the deep south of Sri Lanka as temperatures reach the 35 to 40 centigrade at noon. We emerge out of our rooms early evening. Tea, coffee and sandwiches have been served to our rooms. Some of us pile into my SUV, the others into the carefully maintained Land Rover of Suresh, the driver from the Udawalawe Wildlife Park who will accompany us on the short drive from the hotel to and in the park. Especially to see wild elephants. After this mornings experience, I hear my British friends narrating this to Suresh and egging him on to take us as close as possible to the elephants. After one close encounter with a heard of elephants, a friend climbing on to the track much to my annoyance and dismay of the tracker, millions of photographs we leave the park. Everyone is excited talking one to a dozen about his or her experience. In the parking lot I discreetly open the boot of the SUV and surprise everyone with my cooler filled with pint bottles of the best Sri Lankan lager – Lion Lager. We then pile into the SUV and wave our goodbyes to Suresh after much banter about the evening’s elephant experiences. Suresh leaves happy, his wallet much fatter than when the evening started.

At the top of the road on the turning to Udawalawe begins my friends experience to the wild side of Sri Lanka’s deep south. We stop at my favourite roadside restaurant. I discreetly inquire if the night’s fare includes ‘Meat’. We are lead to a table, wild boar curry, venison, and Potatoe curry in coconut gravy with freshly baked bread. All washed down with Sri Lanka’s fiery Ginger Beer and more Lion Lager. The night is cool now as we finish. We make one last procurement stop in Tanamalwila for the best and freshest green before returning to the hotel late at night. Deep in the jungles of Tanamalwila away from preying eyes there lies farms that rival any produce even grown in the jungles of Jamaica. A discreet smoke by the poolside puts everyone in the mellow but party mood. I have carefully packed the rest of it away in the bottom of a cane basket containing fresh green oranges on the top for the remainder of our holiday. Midnight and everyone’s at the hotel bar singing karaoke and drinking numerous numbers of Sri Lanka’s arrack and cokes. In a couple of hours I stagger to bed as we have a long drive ahead of us. I do not forget to drink a huge glass of chilled king coconut juice, Sri Lanka’s best hangover remedy. My friends I know will party on until the wee hours of the morning.

The soft sound of the A/C and the far way sound of my friends singing Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen at the bar lulls me to sleep. An end of another day of holiday in Sri Lanka. I dream of the day that awaits us. Hikkaduwa, more Lager, fresh Seafood direct from its source, Sun, Sand and Sea.

Surfs up, anyone? White linen shirts, shorts, Speedos, fresh white cotton sheets dried in the sun, sun tan lotion, flip flops, go to Sri Lanka.