The Ankara Riot

Some of you may have heard how I ended up in a riot in Ankara - what a beautiful city, full of culture, warmth, great food and great people. Here is some video of the riot I captured with my digital still camera, so the quality is poor....

Batumi

Torn down?
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

As you may have heard I was stuck in Trabzon for several hours. Finally the airport closed and we were left alone in a small reception area. When the security guards were leaving we thought we would be asked to wait outside and even the cabs were all gone so it would have been cold and miserable. Luckily he said we could stay inside. I put on a DVD and we watched Master and Commander and Gajane fell asleep. I had given her my blanket and pillow and she was amazed that someone would travel with such luxuries. She was even more amazed when I opened my suitcase and had quite the assortment of food! At one point a man walked in said something to me in Turkish, I asked if he was our driver to Batumi and he indicated that something was going to happen at 5 AM and something about Istanbul. he then walked out. by the time I got my shoes on and went running out to say that I wasn;t interested in spending that time waiting in the airport he was gone. I felt bad that Gajane was sleeping and that I hadn't woken her up to deal with the guy and sat there feeling rather frustrated that we would have a few more hours to wait... then half an hour later a different guy walked in and was obviously looking for us, I was SOOOOO relieved. So these two guy started to argue with Gajane about why we didn't indicate ourselves to him when we got off the flight. I said to him "Did you SEE ME???!!!!" and he said no, so that ended the conversation... So we're speeding along in a mercedes going rather fast and we learn that this is their third return trip between Trabzon and Batumi that day (well, it was now the next day - so within 24 hours). They are extremely tired and I can't sleep as I don't want to wake up in skid... I felt a bit better that we were in a mercedes and that it was fairly safe until I realized most of the vehicles coming at us were big trucks, traveling as fast or faster. At one point I was just dozing off when I was jolted from my seat as we were stopping rather suddenly and there was a lot of shouting. I then saw the red and blue lights in the rear view mirror and realized we were being pulled over. The two drivers got out and were gone for some time. Finally a police officer showed up and wanted to speak to Gajane. He was showing her a piece of paper that showed the ticket was 250 TYL, about $150. She didn't have any money on her and was saying she didn't. I had the money but didn't want to say so in front of the police. Finally we realized he was letting us off because we were foreign guests, so we were on our way. The drivers kept switching off and would be talking loudly and hitting each other, I assume to stay awake. Finally at one point I suggested I drive as I was the most awake of the group, despite having had little sleep the previous two nights! Once we got to the border the fun began, Gajane has a Belarus passport with a visa to the USA. The guards did not like this and were looking at each and every page of her passport under a bright light. Eventually the called me forward and had me stand in front of the bright light, I still don't know if the light was to blind us so we couldn't see who we were talking with or if it was to clearly see us. Either way the liked me and stamped me through easily. The real fun began when the car was being processed. It was only permitted to cross the border once a day and as it had been used a couple of times the day before they didn't want to let it pass. Eventually after much yelling we were permitted to leave. The drivers were very aggressive with the guards which surprised me as I thought they would end up in jail, however it worked and we were let through. When we arrived at the hotel it was just getting light out and we had time to check into our room, shower, and a bit of work on my presentation (baed on my talk with Gajane as to who was attending) and it was time to leave. My keynote was at 12:40 and I was exhausted. The talk went really well and I had some great comments. The chair said it was the best presentation he had seen at these meetings because I had provided numerous questions to ask when implementing ICT rather than giving the "answers" which can be completely taken out of context or were inappropriate in other contexts. I also demonstrated 5 unique ICT solutions that we had used at SFU that they enjoyed. It was a long talk and by the end I was mentally and physically exhausted. We walked to lunch which was chicken kiev and very enjoyable. After the big meal I was very sleepy and had a very hard time staying awake through the afternoon. I did find myself waking up here and there and felt bad as I was in the second row! The room we are in is part of the Georgia National University, which is located in an old palace. It is right on the Sea and it very opulent. The room reminds me of the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver with a beautiful chandelier and velvet curtains and comforatble seats (maybe that is why I fell asleep, it reminded me of my dad at the Orpheum when we would see the VSO,,,,). After the conference we went onto a giant ferris wheel that is on the campus and gave us an incredible view of Batumi. We then went for a long walk as a large group along the sea and a few people went wading into the sea and enjoyed the cool water. We got back to the hotel where I was to collect my phone I had left on the registration desk that morning and I had my first run in with the Russian mafia. The owner of the hotel, who drove a brand new HUGE Hummer, complete with fancy mag wheels and blackened windows was called to the desk to give me the phone back. This guy swaggers up, leans on the counter while saring at me. Gives me a look of "okay, what is this worth to you", slowly pulls out his cigarettes, and lights up. Takes a puff and blows the smoke at me. Then he starts questioning me on the phone, what is the model number, (I have no idea), what are the phone numbers in it??? This is all through the front desk staff translating, and they are very uncomfortable. This guy is about 6'6 and 300 pounds. I tell them that there is a photo of my wife on the screen and she is wearing an orange shirt... still he won't give it to me. I then explain that I can show him a photo of me on it if he gives me the phone, just to get control of it. So he hands it to me and I find a photo (self taken, cheesy smile) and imitate the photo with a cheesy grin to make the situation a bit lighter.... He didn't respond so I just put the phone in my pocket and thanked him profusely and made sure he knew that I knew he was in charge... I then went to bed and slept for 12 hours.... I went for a brief walk in the morning and got some photos of the derelict buildings. I'm not not sure why, but there are several large buidlings that look like they are under construction, and some are, but others look like they are being demolished and were once lived in. I'll have to get the story on them. You can see different rooms have been pained and there are still doors on some of the patios, but they are vacant. These are large buildings, some 20 stories high! There is a HUGE building next to the campus that was to be a 5 star hotel that is now about 3 acres of concrete jungle. I would love to jump the fence and have a look around it. I'll post a photo of it on Flickr. The presentations have been good, luckily I was an early keynote because there is a lot of duplication, which is good I suppose as we all have the same thoughts on ICT enabled Distance Learning...

The LONG road to Batumi....

Hi there, well, things are totally messed up. The driver picked up two "fake people" who wanted a ride to Batumi and said they were another person and me. I was waiting here and after about half an hour I saw another lady who looked like she was also waiting. She looked more professional than everyone else so I walked up to her with my laptop and the email message from the coordinator enlarged and pointed to the four other names on the list and asked if she was one of them. Sure enough she was... So luckily she had a phone number for the coordinator and was SMS'ing him about where the driver was. After a few hours they tracked him down and found out that he was already in Batumi, apparently it is only a few hours, not 13 (that was the only good news I got today). He had discovered at the border that he had the wrong people and threw them out and continued on to drop off the 3 people he did have who were correct. The driver was then dispatched to pick us up and apparently was really rude to this lady that is with me when she called him. She is from Belarus and we've had a nice chat and she's seen all our Sri Lanka photos. She was all dressed up and did not have anything to make herself comfortable. Luckily I had a blanket and pillow and some food and she was able to go to sleep. She had to fly to Moscow to get a visa and then to Istanbul and then to Trabzon... The airport emptied a few hours after we got there and even the security eventually left. I think Gajane was very happy I found her, she also didn't have any Turkish money so I bought her a tea. We started to watch Master and Commander but she fell asleep so I ended up watching it myself.

Okay, now it is 8:45 AM and I still haven't slept. I did manage a few minutes in the car, then we got pulled over for speeding. Then we stopped to switch drivers, they were both falling asleep. Then they stopped to pee. Then we stopped for Turkish customs, then Georgian Customs, and for gas twice... I couldn't sleep.... I even offered to drive as they kept falling asleep. When we got the hotel I started to work on the presentation and made a few changes that made me have to change all the slides text ( I made the slides bigger)... So, now I have to meet the group in 45 minutes and there isn't time to sleep. I did have a great shower, lots of pressure and hot water. There wasn't an iron in the room so, so I did the steam trick to my outfit, hope it is good enough...

My Time in Istanbul

My time in Istanbul....

A few things struck me as being familiar, but in very different ways. The smells and the sounds were like so many places I've been before, but in a new combination. Sort of like eating a pizza with a bunch of new toppings such as fruit and nuts. Two things really are noticeable though, first, all the men seem to smoke, so wherever you are there is smoke, which isn't great. Luckily my room wasn't smoky. The second thing that is really noticeable is the lack of beggars. I wasn't asked once for money. Even in the Grand Bazar it wasn't that bad for people asking you to come into their shops, nothing like shopping in India. The spice market was really interesting, great smells and so many great treats to try. I was tempted to buy some of the food that was familiar to what Randa would always bring from Jordan that I haven't had since she sent some to Sri Lanka with Wayne and Delcie. They also had Turkish Delight (of course) which looked really good. I found that they make freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. They cut the top and the bottom of the fruit off, and then cut it in half. Then then have a plunger tool that squishes the juice all out and with two large and one small pomegranate they fill a glass for about a dollar. It is SOOO good, they also make a nice mix of pommegranate and grapefruit that I enjoyed as well. They sell donairs like they did in Cyprus and those were really good, and only cost about 75 cents!! I visited the Basilica Cistern which is an underground cistern that is beneath the city, it is incredible engineering dating back hundreds of years. It was actually lost for about a hundred years and then "rediscovered". I am leaving for Trabzon tonight and am sorry I only had half a day here, it is a wonderful city with lots of activity and lots to do. A definate place to return to with Cher and more time. Oh, I did see lots of cruise ship tour groups running through the city, I can't believe how they make them move! I did get a laugh as one tour group was being lead into a carpet shop where tea was already laid out for them... having been through that ritual once too many times I sympathized and wanted to tell them to turn around while they could, but everyone should experience it once - except dad! He'd end up buying the store - sort of like the apple cinnamon yoghurt of 1981! I'll post some photos on flickr as well... Rob

Our Christmas Vacation…

Cher and I headed to Maui to visit Cher’s parents for Christmas. What a trip it was. The trip started with our driver being quite late to pick us up and then hitting really bad traffic. It got to the point where he finally crossed the median and drove for about 3 KM down the wrong way flashing his lights and blaring his horn to pass the blocked traffic. It was quite amazing! When we got to the airport we had three bags and the Christmas tree from our parties in it’s small box. Two of the suitcases were a few Kilos over while the tree was about 30 under… didn’t matter to them… so I asked for some plastic bags and shoved junk in from the two suitcases and then took this package over to the guy with the shrink wrap and we had it bundled up, not exactly Louis Vuton looking luggage but it worked! We stopped off in Tokyo to visit a friend for a day as well, what an experience. Tokyo was amazing, it was like going into “Future World” as Cher called it. The entire 36 hours we were there we didn’t hear one horn honk, it was such a pleasant time. Cher has billeted Javier during a conference in June at our home after I had left for Sri Lanka so it was nice for me to meet him. He took us for some incredible meals and some great shopping. We started with a meal of shubu-shubu which was really nice for me especially as I had been craving beef. We then took a cruise down the river and visited a nice pier shopping district. It was only 3 degrees Celsius out so we really enjoyed being cold for once!! It was great seeing Tokyo all decked out for Christmas too. We had another incredible meal of something we forget the name of – (we’re hoping someone can let us know what it is called, here is a photo…)both meals were great and were neat as we had to cook them ourselves. I hope to find a place in Vancouver where we can get it, maybe Hisako can help us out! After saying goodbye to Javier we boarded a train to the airport that was so nice, it was like sitting in First Class on a plane, quite a difference from our trains at home here!! We then flew to Honolulu and then off to Maui. I was worried about driving again as I hadn’t done so since the end of April and then having been in a left hand driving country for so long, but I fell right back into it. We were first to arrive and check into the condo which was great as we needed the time to get organized with the luggage. Cher’s parents arrived later that night and then the next day Nicole and Grant arrived with Michelle. We had a fabulous time with lots of snorkeling and body surfing and walks along the beach walkway. It was so nice to have such good roads to drive on, fresh air and quietness, and grocery stores. We probably indulged in things like Dairy Queen blizzards and Baskin Robins a bit much but oh well, it was the season! Our trip home was very very long. We left the condo very early for a 7 AM flight to Honolulu, then waited there for an hour for our flight to Tokyo where we had a four hour layover. We then got a flight to Singapore and that’s where things went bad :-) It was just before New Years (11:45) and we were told we had to clear immigration and leave the secure area. Well, that was bad advice as all the services like showers, chairs, hotels, internet etc. were on the other side of security and we couldn’t get back without a boarding pass which we couldn’t get for another 7 hours. So we celebrated New Years in the Singapore airport and without a place to sit. It was rather miserable. We then flew off to Kuala Lumpur where we sat for another hour and then off to Colombo. It was nice that it was a Sunday that we arrived as traffic was quiet and it wasn’t so hectic. I’ll post some photos on Flickr too :-)

Christmas Party

DSC06150
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

What a party it was!! We had a small party on our roof top this past weekend. It was great to have a Christmas party where we were wishing it WAS snowing as it got a bit warm dancing the night away. The food was excellent (I thought so anyway :-) and the DJ was good, once he showed up (he was about half an hour late…). We finally had to shut the party down though as the folks from Global Fitness started to lose their clothes and began singing into the microphone – sorry Roshan, Dancing Queen will just never be the same for me again… We think that it was a great rehearsal for the going away party we’re already planning for March!!! We’re so lucky to have such great friends here!! More photos on Flickr for you to see...

Life is balanced...

A few weeks ago I got on the bus to go get groceries and handed over my 5 RP and the guy asked for more money. I thought he was trying to rip me off and argued as much as I could (like with the parking ticket lady - I'll write about that later... Wayne is probably still laughing at that...) and finally paid up the extra 2 RP. I got my groceries and headed home and again was charged 6 RP. I figured this was one of the fare increases I had heard about and thought wow, 50% is a big increase. I was quite perterbed as I had been bragging to Wayne about the 4 RP bus ride and now it was 6 RP. Luckily I didn't write in to the papers or make a huge stink as it seems it was an anomaly. I'm back to 4 RP for the trip and still don't know why it was six that day. Maybe something like the no alcohol sales within a week of the election... Anyway, a RP is about the same as a US cent so in the end not a huge deal I suppose.... It was at the time though!!

The flood, the run and the banks...

PB220033
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

Well I went on another jungle run this past Monday. As it turned out it was the start of the heaviest rain Sri Lanka had seen in 40 or 50 years. When the run was laid out the creeks, ditches and marshes were easier to cross but by 6 PM the floods had started and it became a half run half swim event! Again it was very interesting running through a rural area where you’re running through fields of cows, past brick factories (Mud huts where they burn hay or something and smoke the bricks – very smoky and very smelly) past a dump, through back yards, down lanes and trails. Needless to say I was completely soaked within about a minute of the run starting. Just moments before the run I received a message from Cher about the project that was rather urgent so after the run I had her come with the driver to pick me up. The instructions I had Cher print out were VERY specific (start at railway crossing at X and Y street, drive 1.8 KM turn right at Gas Station, drive .3 KM turn left after crossing canal bridge and veer left immediately, drive .4 KM to junction….) anyway, Ravi said the instructions were impossible to follow and decided to try and find his way into the jungle without measuring distance… needless to say it took a lot of time and I was standing in the pouring rain for a couple of hours, but at least it was washing off the leeches and mud (some of the ditches you run through aren’t just rain water… When the van drove up Ravi unrolled the window and someone saw Cher and yelled “who brought an UNMENTIONABLE here”. Well, Cher was as you can imagine less than impressed… I don’t think I’ll be going on another run with that group… there is a Wednesday group that I’ve heard is quite a lot better. In fact we were at an American Thanksgiving party last night and they were talking about the running club and how unfriendly the one group is. I just found them juvenile and misogynistic and it wasn’t pleasant. The runs were good, just the after run part wasn’t.

So the rains were so bad they completely flooded the city of Colombo. The road in front of our building became a lake about 3 feet deep and was stalling cars. The canal outside our office breeched and flooded out the houses across from the university. They say that 20 000 people were flooded out of their homes and were in temporary housing, hopefully they won’t have to wait over a year to get back into their homes like the tsunami victims!

While Wayne and Delcie were here we discovered that Royal Bank cards don’t work well internationally. They require a six alphanumeric code while all the ATM’s here are set up for a four digit numeric code. Our ScotiaBank card hasn’t had a problem at any of the banks so we assumed it would be easy for anyone else…. Well… First we discovered Wayne and Delcie couldn’t get money and then we discovered that our ScotiaCards weren’t working anymore. We would make a withdrawal and nothing would happen after entering how much money we wanted other than a “contact your branch, process unavailable” message… So we went from bank to bank trying to get money for a few weeks. We always try to use the Sampath bank as they have a high limit for withdrawal and we get dinged $5 each time we make a transaction, but eventually we started to try other banks. As it turned out each time we tried with Sampath Bank the transaction would take place in the account but no money would come out. So, when we saw our bank report it stated we had been withdrawing $500.00 every few days and twice on one day! Of course you think there is no way that the bank is going to say yes, we have your money sitting here come and get it… well I started the process and then couldn’t remember which times we actually did get money and where that was so that complicated things even more… Well the bank was great, they said they would look into it and get back to me within 30 minutes. Sure enough they did and although the money isn’t back they say it will be shortly! Also the rupee has dropped considerably the last few days due to a few political issues so we may actually even break even with the $5 service fees for each transaction!!

Trip with Wayne and Delcie

sri_lanka
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

Trip around the south…

As many of you know Cher’s parents came for a short visit. We took advantage of a Poya weekend and a day off work and went on a long road trip. We started Friday afternoon and headed south. We stopped in Kalutara where Cher and I have stayed a few times to drop off a wedding gift for our friend Sanka and it was pouring rain. The roads were flooded and we got soaked just getting in and out of the van to drop off the gift. I was a little worried as I got bit by a few mozzies in the few minutes we were out and this is where Sanka got Dengue fever a few weeks ago. We headed to Bentota and started to look for a room, we stopped at a few hotels and they were either musty or full of mildew or wanted a couple hundred dollars a night. We eventually found a place that nice and wasn’t dirty. As we were parking I saw an elephant walking down the street carrying a load of branches so I grabbed Delcie and Wayne and they saw their first Sri Lankan Elephant working. The next day we went for a long walk in the morning sun along the beach. It was really nice and we saw an elephant carrying a couple off to get married down the beach, it was rather pleasant. After breakfast and another walk and then a sea bath (where I was stung by jelly fish – ouch!) we headed south again. We were planning on staying in Unawatuna where I stayed with Denis back in early July but the hotels were rather full and the “Beach Resort” was more like a hostel that would have been fine if we were backpacking and didn’t mind eating from a kitchen full of rats, cockroaches and other crawleys…. After walking along and looking at some other places we decided to continue on south. We ended up in Tangalle(a) and thought we had found a nice place called the Eva Resort. After showing us a few rooms we were quite happy and I asked how much they wanted for the night. With our residency permits they still wanted $170.00 a night for each room. I argued that this was outrageous for where/what it was and we left. We quickly wondered if this was a mistake as the rest of the places within 20 miles were all either full or not as good as sleeping in the van! We ended up staying in what the Lonely Planet describes as a “monstrosity” of a building. It was a concrete “boat” hotel (botel??) that was very strange. We were the only guests in a 100 room hotel and the view was incredible, it was just an eerie place (see photos). We went for a short walk the next morning and could see lots of tsunami damage and met a nice family on the beach. There was another family who had turned one of the boats destroyed by the tsunami into their residence on the beach. I was taking photos of it when I realized it was now a home. We left Tangalle and headed for the east coast and Arugam Bay. On the drive we saw monkeys and water buffalos and then a couple of wild elephants. Wayne jumped out of the van and was taking photos while I was filming from the safety of the van. He started to get closer to them when we realized he likely didn’t know they often kill people so we called him back in to the van. Delcie was trying to call the insurance agency to see if he’d be covered but couldn’t get a cell signal.. just kidding Wayne :-) We finally made it to Arugam Bay and shocked our driver by accepting the first room we stopped to see. After the Tangalle incident I think he thought we would look at every hotel in Arugam Bay before settling on none and having to drive through the night to another city…. The beach was incredible but the whole town had a very sad feeling to it. There were soldiers on the beach going from fishing boat to fishing boat collecting their “tax” I suppose. In the end they had a whole sack of fish. We headed for Nuwara Eliya and this was an incredible drive. We left the coast and headed back into Hill country which is where all the tea is grown. It was raining and dark when we arrived at the Grand Hotel. It was a bit expensive but well worth the stay, an incredible hotel built by the British in the late 1800’s. It was just incredible and so cold we needed the fireplace in our bedroom! The next morning in the sunshine we all went for a walk through the plantations up into the hills. It was so nice to only hear the wind and smell fresh air. We headed back to Colombo and had an enjoyable drive through the tea plantations and past spectacular waterfalls.

. It was a great trip and we only had to drive on the same road for a short distance between Arugam Bay and Nuwara Eliya. An incredible trip!! See the rest of the photos on my Flickr site…. Rob

Jungle Run

Well I finally went on a Hash Harriers run. I'd heard about the group through a friend at SFU (Jill J. at LIDC) and she said I should run with them. I had looked them up but their website was old and out of date so I thought they were gone. I met a guy at the gym and he mentioned I should join him. Well what an adventure. I got picked up after work and off we went to a suburb of Colobo and parked off the side of a side road where there was a 15 foot cliff, oh, no, that was in Stockbridge MA... Anyeay, it was off in the jungle among the rice paddy fields. So off we went and it was MUDDY, very muddy. The run is sort of a run sort of a scavenger hunt as you follow piles of confetti and every now and then they mark a turn around spot where you have to go back and find a hidden new route within 100m. The run took us through the paddies, through the jungle, through peoples yards and down streets, driveways and back lanes. It was great. Running in the padies is a bit hard though as the trail is about a foot wide with water on either side and as more people run along it they start to collapse. Within 5 mintues I had stepped into mud up to my knee and was soaked. At one point there was a jump off a wall and across a ditch about 8 feet high. I tried to jump down with minimal impact and ended up falling back over the edge and down into the ditch. Luckily it wasn't too full but I was now soaked. Finally the group started to split up and so I stuck with the biggest group and followed them back to the vehicles. It was good but I was worried as it was getting dark and my ride was missing. I was worried that he was out looking for me and as it got later I worried more. Finally he showed up but had to run as he was late to pick up his son so there I was with a group of strangers... They then did the circle ceremony which was very strange indeed. It was all men and they took turns telling crude jokes and stories and toasting and singing to each other. It had started to rain and after two hours of standing in the POURING monsoonal rain my ride was ready to go. Luckily the rain had washed all the crap off me and I was cleaner but a lot colder. I was frozen. I didn't think hypothermia was possible in Sri Lanka!! Only me! I wish I had Cher take a picture of me when I got in but I headed right for the bath... Maybe next time....

Root Canal

Root Canal
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

The last few weeks I've been having trouble with my teeth. The day we were flying out for the Maldives I realized I likely had an absess and sent our friend Ravi out to get antibitotics on the way to the airport and started those right away just in case. Well I made it through the trip without too much pain but knew I had to see a dentist soon. I took some photos of the tooth in question to email my dentist and then called him last night to see what should be done. He said I should get it looked at right away so this morning I went to a private hospital where they have every type of doctor you can imagine. The dentist took an xray ($2.50) and agreed that I had a problem that had to be dealt with immediately. So, he started to drill. Immediately. No freezing, not even the numbing gel they use before the needle to freeze!! The pain was so intense I thought I was going to be sick. It finally ended and I now have a temporary filling in the side of my tooth and have to go back in two weeks when he can spend more time with me. So, my advice...get any dental work you might need BEFORE you come here :-) Other than that the dentist was great... Rob

Our Trip to the Maldives

PA150014
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

Well I finally made it to one of my "have to get to" destinations, the Maldives. I tried to get here a few years ago when I was working in India but just couldn't make it. It was a fantastic trip. The flight was only and hour and was really good, Sri Lankan air is quite nice, we got a full meal on a 55 minute flight, top that Air Canada! The plane was really nice to and had the new touch screen monitors for each passenger. One new thing I hadn't seen before were the inflight cameras, one pointing forward and one pointing down, quite fun to watch the landing from three different perspectives (the window, Cher's monitor and mine). We had a water bungalow which was at the end of a long pier. Each bungalow was very private and had a huge balcony with stairs leading down to a smaller balcony with a fresh water shower and stairs into the water. Just standing on the deck you could see hundreds of fish of all sizes, it was amazing. The snorkelling was awesome except Cher was attacked by a Titan Trigger Fish, quite a nasty character really. It bit her hand and then kept following her. I had to get in between her and the fish and kick at it for it to leave. The fish was about a foot and a half long but also very big and had huge ugly protuding teeth. I also saw turtles and lots of eels, some very large with heads about the size of a miniture schnauzers head - not nearly as cute though mom... I also found that near the reef there were lots of sharks, some as big as 5 feet. Our neighbour called me the shark hunter because I could always find them Our neighbour and his wife were from Taiwan and were really nice, we enjoyed snorkelling with them. He had an underwater digital camera so maybe he'll email me photos of the sharks. I also did two dives and those were amazing! Coming home was a bit interesting. It started raining as I was finishing my last snorkel and boy did it rain! The boat ride from the resort to the airport was fine, it was a large speed boat with 40 airplane seats. We were kept nice and dry and it wasn't too rough. We arrived at the airport (you come and go by boat) and went through the process to get to the gates where it was REALLY crowded. The roof was leaking and the whole place was flooded. About an hour after our flight was to leave I overheard someone from the airline talking with another passenger and went over to eavesdrop. It turned out they had cancelled our flight so we were boated over to the main city and put up for the night. It was an interesting experience. Well must run, hope you are all well. Things are getting interesting with the election here. It is scheduled for the 17th of November. They found a small gun near where they were searching people who were attending a presentation by the oposition party leader. I wonder if it was just something someone carried and didn't want to get caught with or if it was meant to be used... Bye for now... Rob
PS
There are some more photos on my Flickr site....

Sir Arthur

Sir Arthur
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

Today Cher and I raced to the Dive store in Colombo for the third try and again missed it. The store, owned by Sir Arthur C Clarke, is located in a nice part of town and in his house/compound. The compound is surrounded by a 12 foot wall with another 5 feet of electrical fencing. The huge steel gate rolled open after I rang the bell and the same security guard who turned me down the other days again told me they were closed. I tried to explain that it was actually 4:58 and there were still two minutes before 5. Finally the manager showed up and asked what I was looking for. I explained that I needed a prescription mask and that it was a heavy prescription (-10.5). He asked me to follow him up to the office so off we went. When we passed the doorway the name said Arthur C. Clarke and I wished I had a camera as I was trudging through HIS house. We finally went up some stairs and into an office and there he was, Sir Arthur C Clark, sitting there in a wheelchair! I walked over to shake his hand and he was so friendly. We chatted about diving with contact lenses and about how he had thought of the prescription mask 50 years ago. He was a truly charming man. I was kicking myself for not having my camer there and for not bringing Cher into the office with me. Sir Arthur then left and Cher showed up as she had come looking for me. I told her she had just missed Sir Arthur and the manager said "oh, you'll see him on your way out, would you like a picture with him?". I said I didn't have a camera and he said not a problem, he did! So, here is a photo of the three of us chatting :-)

Trip to Trincomalee

Well we made it to the east coast finally. Now I've seen all four coasts as well as the central island. Still lots to see but I think I've been fortuante as a lot of people from Colombo have never been to either Jaffna or Trincomalee from what I hear. It was a wonderful trip that started before 5 AM. We drove as the sun rose and had a spectacular view of the country. We saw a troop of monkeys cross the road and a peacock sunning itself in the morning sun.

There were a few highlights to the trip though, first was the beach, absolutely incredible but absolutely empty. The ocean was so warm and full of great fish. We snorkelled on an island that we took a 40 mintue boat ride to and had a blast playing in the ocean. There weren't too many people there just one or two other groups of people. When we arrived Cher was literaly swarmed by this group asking to have their photos taken with her. It was a bit overwhelming but they were so happy and having such a fun time it was infectious. The tsunami has wiped out all the hotels in the one area and there is nothing left. We were told not to take our cameras to this island which was a real shame as it was so beautiful. I did take some video though and will try to post it. Unfortunately I have this stupid damn PC and not my Mac... On the way home Cher spotted two wild elephants on the side of the road so we stopped and watched them for a bit, truly amazing!

We would love to take Wayne and Delcie there in a few months but there are a lot of travel bans on and it is apparently on the do not go list for Canadians. We did go through a lot of checkpoints for the military and the police. I felt just as safe there as I do here - if not more, but we'll see if we can find a spot where we're all covered by insurance....More photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robmctavish/

Our pet lizzard is back...

Well, you know you're a tad lonely when you're excitement for the day is feeding the ants at lunch and when your pet lizard shows back up in your bedroom. A few weeks ago the tiny lizard in our bedroom disapeared and we feared the worse, Fluffy was dead. Well today the little guy showed back up, he looks a little skinny so maybe he's been trapped somewhere without food... At lunch Cher and I head out of the office to sit outside by the canal. There is an army of ants that are running about on the stoop that enjoy our crumbs. We watch them carrying away the food and have a grand ole time - how much more exciting can life get!!

Bathroom Humour

Cher thought this was a "bloggable" moment... This morning I was suffering from a small GI problem and grabbed the basket* and went running off to the washroom. The cleaner was hosing out the washroom, literally, this is how they clean it each day, so I headed on floor down only to discover that both washrooms on the second floor are for Ladies. I ran down to the first floor and into the washroom just in time. Well the tank over the hole in the floor was overflowing and wouldn't turn off so I had a spray of water falling on me as I did my business, all the while trying to hike my pants up from the flowing water. The door was oddly chewed away at the bottom, reminding me of one of my mothers dogs from years ago who chewed threw a door when she was left in a room one day. I was curious who or what had chewed away 8 inches of solid wood and whether it lived in the hole I was using. not a pleasant thought. After all was done I pulled the string to flush the toilet to discover that the porcelain around the edge of the bowl was all chipped away so that when the water came down it flew up and at me and all around. I was trying to jump out of the way but there was nowhere to run! I came back up to the office with my pants soaked from the knees down and my shoes full of water. Charles thought it was quite humourous and Cher just smiled and said "good blog story"... probably getting even with me from Wednesday when she fell off the tread mill and couldn't get back on to it and I said the same to her...

At least we're providing humour for the locals and our team mates....

*We have two little wicker baskets to take to the washroom with you. They contain a bar of soap, a wash towel and the TP as these are not included in the washrooms here. When you go off to the washroom there is no privacy in where you are going. When Laura first arrived I would play the song by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs - Little Red Riding Hood - I think she was really impressed...

We have an internet connection at home!!

Well it only took three months of daily phone calls, but we have a connection!!

Slower than our ADSL, but faster than a 4.8K connection through dial up!!

Marc had mentioned that over 500 images was too much to go through on my Flickr site, you can always view the sets instead, they're at http://www.flickr.com/photos/robmctavish/sets/

These are a small collection of the images to give you a flavour of Sri Lanka :-) Rob

Russell Crowe and the phone incident...

I’ve never been a huge fan of Russell Crowe as a person and his last outburst where he threw the phone kind of sealed the deal for me. However recently I’ve had urge to rip phones off walls and throw them at people too. Trying to do business with the telecom companies here is an absolute nightmare. Dealing with getting our HUGELY overpriced connection to the office was bad enough but now getting a connection to the house has caused even more grey hair. It’s tough because you’re dealing with one person and they work for a monopoly so there is nothing you can do but grin and bare it. I’ve been waiting for my internet connection since June and the last few weeks I’ve been promised every day, yes yes yes sir, it is coming today, we had a small technical problem but it is taken care of now, today for sure, I promise… let me call you back in half an hour sir…. I’m now calling him from a different number every hour as he has call display and doesn’t answer my calls. Talk about frustration

More from the Kandy Perahera

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Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

Hi Cara, I saw your comment, and yes, those are large fish hooks in the mans back. These people would then pull the people holding the ropes and stretch the ir skin. I wonder if it is the same people each night for the ten nights of the fesitvals!

Trip to Kandy for the Perahera

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Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

Trip to Kandy…

Well Cher has written a lengthy description of our trip to Kandy so I won’t repeat too much of what she has said, even though I haven’t yet read it (she’s typing away in bed beside me). I took a lot of photos but from our vantage point it was difficult as the flash was too weak and the darn elephants wouldn't stand still long enough for a long exposure photo - even when they did stop they would sway to the music, quite the dancers but I wouldn't want them to step on my feet! And since I can’t talk about work at all (a few people have noted that I don’t mention work in my blog, sorry, my contract states that I can’t discuss work at all for a year or something – strange, mind you what I’d love to say…. Contact me privately and maybe I can talk a bit about it, very interesting to say the least.

Things are getting back to normal in Colombo, not that there was much changed after last Fridays LTTE killing spree, 12 people were killed in all that night in Colombo supposedly by the LTTE. The papers are full of stories about the LTTE killing guards and sentries and being caught all over the country from Kandy and Jaffna to Colombo. Apparently they are filming various houses and military installations, IMHO they are just stirring the crap. If they were really going to do anything would they stand there with a video camera? Two things are in the paper almost every day, people being “hacked to death” and grenades being either found or thrown into crowds or at police and soldiers. I have to wonder where all these grenades come from, have you ever heard of a grenade being found in Canada?! Mind you, when I was on my leadership course in ’93 we got our flack vests for the live fire exercise and found 3 or 4 grenades in the pockets. It was funny because we kept filling the amnesty boxes across from our barracks and would call Range Control to come empty the box after every field exercise. When we found the grenades we put them in the box and then called them and watched from the window as they opened the box and were a tad surprised by what they found!!

It was a quiet weekend, Cher and I did some errands on Saturday and then had a quiet evening at home. Sunday we went for a brutal workout with our new personal trainer Suranga. He abused us both for two hours, all for 6$... We came back and recovered for the remainder of the day!! I’ve put some of the weight back on that I lost when I was really ill in May. I’m still down between 16 and 18 pounds though, sorry mom!! :-)

Tonight we are going for dinner with Laura at the Cricket Club, should be nice. She’s enjoying being free this weekend after being locked in her house all last weekend! She leaves for Canada soon and we’ll miss her :-( When she gets back we’re hoping to travel with her as she wants to see more of the country, like us.

I should run, talk to you all soon, don’t hesitate to write comments to the blog, I sometimes wonder if anyone reads this… Sorry for the long length…

Rob going to pick up Cher

Rob going to pick up Cher
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

As you're likely aware Cher has arrived!! Yay!! This was me with our GREAT driver Ravi leaving at about midnight to go and get Cher. Ravi brought the Land Rover which is really nice and fun to drive in, almost as good as a tank (I'd love to have one of those here!!!). Cher has a blog as well and is a much better writer than I am so check out her blog!! It's at: http://cherinsrilanka.blogspot.com

Cher giving out candy

Cher giving out candy
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

Well, it has been a while since I wrote, my apologies. I've been getting ready for Cher to arrive and have been busy with work...

Interesting times here. As you're likely aware the foreign minister was assasinated on Friday night. Cher and I took of right after work to visit a resort south of town about 45K. We woke up early as Cher had only been in the country a day and was a bit jetlagged. I was flipping through the channels looking for news in English when I saw the news footage of what turned out to be the assasination. I recognized the house they were showing as it was on the street I run down each evening and was also the house next to where Laura had just moved into... I found the BBC and heard the "Top Story" of what had happened and promptly called and woke up Laura - for some reason she thought I was joking, not sure why, I'm the most serious person I know... Anyway, it was a sad event but I couldn;t help but chuckle at the situation Laura was in - sorry Laura!!

Here is how I relayed it to Shaheen...

There were actually 12 assassinations on Friday night, but of course the one is getting all the media attention. There is a bit of a funny story here though, if one can find humor in such a tragedy. Friday morning our regular driver Ravi had to take another group down south so we had a replacement driver, Gamini, the father of our office assistant. We always cringe a little when we get Gamini as he can’t handle the clutch that well. Laura refers to driving with him as “Mr. Toads Wild Ride” from Disneyland, however I feel a lot safer on any carnival ride than I do with Gamini behind the wheel! Anyway, on the way to pick me up (first) the van broke down, putting Gamini about half an hour behind as he had to return to the office to get another vehicle. I was waiting outside my apartment waiting and eventually he showed up and we left to pick up Laura who happens to live two doors down from the foreign minister. Typically she walks up to the front of the foreign ministers house to wait for us as it is easier for the van to not have to turn around on a dead-end lane. So Friday morning we are half an hour behind and when we arrive she is surrounded by police and soldiers and is in the act of explaining why she is there hanging out. We sort of laugh at the situation and leave, only to hear that later that evening the guy is assassinated! I was down south at a resort with Cher and turned on the news. It was in Sinhala but I recognized the house and when I turned to the BBC we heard the news. We weren’t sure what a state of emergency was but learned that it meant nothing to us in the south. We later heard from Charles that it was situation fairy normal in Colombo too, just lots of checkpoints and searches. 2 people were assassinated behind my apartment as well and I’m trying to figure out who they were and why they were killed. What scares us a bit is that it is reminiscent of 1983 and there is a lot of propaganda on the streets in the way of huge posters saying that the LTTE needs to be crushed etc.. I also heard a news story stating that the assassinations may have been carried out or supported by the military, this scares me even more than the LTTE as it would mean a coup may be in the works. We’re all safe and things are quiet at work.

My trip to Hikkaduwa

Not exactly Bo Derek
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

I had a good weekend away, very relaxing and enjoyable. I went with Laura to a town called Hikkaduwa down south near Galle. We stayed at a resort that was sort of like a Club Med minus a few stars. It was a large hotel with about 160 rooms and a spa. You could do the whole inclusive package or variations of that, we did the B&B option but ended up eating all but one meal at the hotel anyway. Just before sunset Laura went up the beach to watch the sunset and came back to tell me that she thought there were sharks in the water. I headed down to the beach and since there is only one real way to tell I nicked my toe with a pin and stepped into the water – just kidding mere  I saw the fins and they didn’t look right and the shadow were the wrong shape. I realized they were very large turtles! So we went swimming with them for a while and that was real fun. We were going to head down to the city of Galle on the Sunday to look around that town and also to have a better chance at getting a seat but the lounge chair had a good grip on us and we stayed at the hotel. Rather than getting onto an already full train and standing for two hours we decided to try the bus system. The first bus that stopped pulled Laura on and was shoving her back into the crowd as I jumped on. I saw the look of horror on her face and made the driver stop to let us off, no way I was standing on a bus for three hours!! So we waited until a quieter bus came along and got seats. It was a great ride until about ¾ the way along the driver pulled over and the conductor kid got off with a hose in his hand and a container of fluid…. He had to bleed the brakes and do something under the bus, then of course the driver needed to test the brakes at various speeds… it made for an interesting few minutes. On a side note that relates in a way…on Friday our driver had to go do a job in the interior so we were given another driver. Now you may recall we sort of fired the other temporary driver we had last time Ravi needed a day off so we were hesitant to see who we got. We ended up with the father of our young office person (she reported to the manager we got rid of so she’s more than a secretary but not really the manager either….). Well poor Gamini was injured in an LTTE blast and has a damaged left leg which makes using a clutch rather hard, almost impossible I would have to say. So the ride was described by Laura as “Mr. Toads Wild Ride”, and wild it was!! Nice nice man, he should stick with the automatic vehicles though… Back to the bus ride… It was actually quite comfortable and it dropped us off right at the end of our street so it was a 7 minute walk home and didn’t cost a dime. The three hour ride cost us each 90 cents. Train fares went up yesterday without any warning and people are irate, they fares are going up by 50%! Our trip down south cost 64 cents for the train fare, 6 cents for the bus from home to the train station (door to door), then we split a three wheeler from the train station to the hotel 25 cents each, the hotel room was rather expensive and cost us 24$ including breakfast. We at out for lunch and dinner at 7$ each and bought a few bottles of water for 20 cents each. I also had a cool drink at the pool for a dollar. All told the whole weekend cost less than $40 and most of that was the hotel. There are rooms that range from 5$ and up in Hikkaduwa and I might try a place that’s a little cheaper next time. You can always pay about 3$ to use the pools of the big resorts too so that’s an option…

My trip to Kandy

Big Drop
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

I wasn't feeling well Saturday so I stayed in town but wanted to get away Sunday so I headed to the train station after breakfast to see where the trains would take me...

As the train pulled into the station a mob literally sprinted for the train and I realized either run or stand for four or five hours so I sprinted down the track but noticed that the crowd was all congested around the first two cars so I managed to move around behind them and went to the five car or so and board the train. It was a third class carriage so I headed unobstructed through the train towards to second class carriages where all the mayhem was. I grabbed the first two seats I saw in the carriage as people were starting to crawl in the windows and get through from the other carriages. I sat down and held both seats while the people fought and pushed for seats, leaving me with my two seats alone. I then noticed a lady I had heard yell “Oh Sh$t” when the crowds started to run and pointed to the seat to see if she wanted it, she was quite happy to have a place to sit. She was a grad student from Tulane University working in Galle and on her way to Kandy to take a course. We had a nice chat for the journey about NGO’s and developing countries as she’s also worked in Gabon with the Peace Corps. Arrived in Kandy in the early afternoon and sought out a bit of food first. I bought some pastries from a bakery and had to laugh at the “bag” I got with the pastries, it was two government documents recycled by gluing the three sides into a bag. I opened the bag and could see that a couple of companies had imported some fabric and how much they paid in duties etc.. I wonder if it’s like a lottery and if you get documents with your name on them you win something. Laura wasn’t too happy with the FOI/POP issues. I rented a tuk-tuk for an hour and had him drive me around town to see the sites and was surprised how small Kandy was, it is a lot smaller than Colombo. Like Vancouver it is is limited in how much it can grow as it is surrounded by large hills and a lake. The hills are beautiful and lush green forests grow up the sides only interrupted now and again by a hotel or house that commands the view. Some places are perched on the side of the hill with the use of stilts and I wonder what it is like in the rainy season with mud slides. Parts of the rail journey are also like that. On the one side of the train is a steep rock cliff going up and on the other side it falls away a few feet away from the train. It provides you with an incredible view of the paddy fields down below and into the distance. In a few places there are waterfalls that fall along the tracks however these are often used by the locals for bathing and cleaning and the area was often quite littered which was a shame.

I was told the train left at 4:10 and raced back to be there in time to get a seat and was happy to see the train sitting there quite empty when I arrived. I fell asleep waiting for the train and it slowly filled up. At about 5:30 I was still waiting and could see sparks coming from under the train where they were welding or grinding something, I hoped it wasn’t the brakes as it was a 300 to 400M drop we would make over a short length of the trip just outside of Kandy. The train finally left at 6:30 and I got home rather late and sore, but an enjoyable day away from the city.

Today we were told that he study centre at Batticaloa is quite active regardless of the strike so it was suggested we go for a visit. Hopefully that will work out, I will have seen the north/west/south and east coasts as well as the central region J That’s it for now, Rob

Not my hotel - not even close

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Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

Laura and I decided to head south for the weekend to Bentota and explore osme of the resorts. We had a wonderful weekend away, it started a little shaky but was great. We arrived at the train station at about 6:45 and bought our tickets. The ticket person said track 5 and then the person checking tickets said track 5 as well so off to track 5 we went. I knew that the train to Galle which I had taken the two previous weekends also stopped where we were going and noticed that it left from track 6. We saw it pull in on time and I thought hmmm, I should check so off I went and was told that no, I needed the train on track 5. Anyway no train showed up on track 5 so we had a look on the train to Galle and there were no seats by this time so we waitied. Finally a train showed up on track 5 so we got on. It was obvious that it was a different train and was set up for commuting. Sure enough it stopped halfway to where we were going (Bentoto) and we had to get off. We asked and the next train wasn't until 9:30 (the express to Galle)… So we hung out in the small dirty town for a few hours getting covered in flies… Anyway, we jumped off the train when it stopped and we literally got off the train in front of the stairs to our hotel. We sort of laughed before we saw the stairs with the sign saying it was our hotel as the rooms were ten feet from the tracks. Guess where our rooms were… It wasn't too bad though. The rooms were clean and really nice. We were woken up at 5 by this roar that made me think oh ^%& I hope that is a train and not a tsunami (the water was on the other side of the tracks). Then at
6 the train blew its whistle waking us up again, other than that it was fine. We spend the day Saturday visiting hotels telling them we were planning trips for a group and would like to check out their facilities, it was quite fun and we did some good research!! There are some really nice hotels but you pay up to 130 US a night in the off season. We also were able to walk through some of the hotels that were really hit by the tsunami and decimated, very sad. On Sunday we had breakfast at the hotel, went for a walk to some more resorts and then took a tuk-tuk up to some beautiful gardens about 10 K away from town.
It was funny, we got there and we were the only people there so it was really quiet. We had just entered the gate and I was looking at a nice flower when Laura started to choke and look quite shocked and was pointing down the path. I looked up to see a HUGE monitor lizard, about 5 feet long and larger than a dog. It was strolling down the path away from us. We both got our cameras out and when to chase it down. It was strange it had just disappeared. I still don't know how something that big could just disappear like that. The gardens were magnificent. The designer, who was an artist, worked on them from 1929 to 1992 when he died. There were ponds and fountains and showers and statues, it was truly spectacular. Eventually one couple showed up but it was deserted. So peaceful and serene. I can't wait to take my mother there if she visits and I think Wayne and Delcie will like it when they come. After we left the gardens we visited a few more resorts and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the trip back. Both train rides I rode on the outside step, something I've always wanted to do. It was rather exhilarating and I knew if I wanted to do it I needed to before Cher arrived and wouldn't let me :-) I took some photos of the tsunami hit areas but missed the worst of it and couldn't bring myself to photograph the scene it was so sad. We made it back in about 2 hours which isn't bad considering how different it is from Colombo! I can't wait to go back. I think I will take Cher there for the first weekend she is in town. It was so beautiful and peaceful at the smaller resorts like Club Villa (see photos on my flickr site). I can't wait to take Cher there for the first weekend she is here, I just don't know which palce to go to. The larger resorts are nice, I liked the Lanka Princess best, but the smaller ones are really nice too... We'll see....

Unavatuna trip

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Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

My trip was quite nice. I went with a Denisfrom work down south again and as usual it was an interesting train ride down. The train tracks are rather worn and the train cars themselves date back at least 50 years so the springs are shot. The ride reminds me of those mechanical bulls you can ride, except those are a bit tamer! I now know why nobody rides on the roof, they wouldn't be able to stay on!!

We got to the hotel and it was quite nice. It was raised up on the rocks right on the ocean but also had a rock feature between the ocean and the hotel that came up to about the second story. Our rooms were on the third floor (all rooms were actually on this floor - "all" is really only 4... The first floor was living quarters, the second floor was a large eating area and then the four rooms on top. The rock feature in front of the hotel protected them from the tsunami, however their grounds were flooded. Right below the room s the waves would crash into the rocks and send up great waves of spray about 20 feet in the air. About every few minutes you would get a huge wave and it would spray a good 40 to 50 feet high. Then about 10 seconds later you'd get the spray in your face if you were standing on your balcony. It was quite awesome.

Once we got settled in we went for a walk to the main beach, about five minutes away. Along the way we ran into a group of large monkeys and a medium sized monitor lizard. Some photos are posted on my flickr site (see previous post for URL). I did capture the end of a big wave on the video camera, I'll try to get a video clip posted somewhere as well later.

We went swimming at the beach and the water was quite nice. As it is monsoon season the water is quite a bit cooler but still really nice. Even refreshing almost. We walked down to the far end of the beach and had a nice meal on the beach, it was rather pleasant. We then headed back to the hotel and then walked to "Jungle Beach", which is trail accessible beach that is literally a beach in the jungle, very nice and a great place to swim. There was a group of young Dutch women teaching a couple of local girls how to swim there and other than them it was empty. On the way back it was an interesting trek through the "jungle" and we got a bit lost but you can always hear the roar of the ocean so you can't go too far wrong. It was an adventure. After we got back we showered and took some naps and then headed out for dinner. We had a buffet at a beach resort which was a bit pricey, about 6$, but hey, we splurged. We then headed back and it was pretty dark and the roads are all sort of road/trail with lots of damage from the tsunami. We wanted to get a to larger road where we could get a ride but as it had rained really hard during dinner the roads were pretty washed out. We came around a corner and could hear a vehicle when I saw something moving ahead of us in the shadows. It then moved to where it was silhouetted against the headlights from the car and was a large dog, a very large dog. It moved around the corner and something in my mind was telling me something was different about the way it moved, not in a dangerous way, just different. Denis had noticed it too but didn't say anything, he'd had a few beer with dinner and thought it was the effect of those that was confusing him. Anyway we rounded the corner and bumped into the "dog", it mooed at us and we both broke into laughter as it was a medium sized cow... How brave we were... The owner of the hotel passed us on his way home and gave us a ride back so that was nice. We headed to bed and I was asleep within minutes after all the swimming and walking and sun only to be awoken with a crash about an hour later as a gust of wind hit us moving at least 100K. A storm hit with an incredible crashing of waves and wind and rain. It was incredible. I had been sleeping with the patio doors open but the rain was coming in sideways so I shut them and enjoyed the sounds of the crashing waves and of the rain hitting the building. About an hour later I was woken again as the storm turned up another notch. I had cringe at the thought of all the people down the road still living in tents and wondering what it was like there. I got out of bed around 2 to film some of the trees on the back of the hotel but missed the rain and some of the bigger winds, it was still awesome though. When we woke up it was still stormy so we had a nice breakfast of fresh fruit, coffee and toast with jam (fresh home baked bread, my first since I've been here). We decided to head out on the 10 AM train as it was going to rain for the day. We fought our way onto the train and eventually found two seats between two windows. The train ride journey is 160K and sitting by a window is almost a must. The two seats in front of us were being held by two bags and when the people arrived I asked with a hundred rupee note in my hand if they wanted to switch. The wife didn't notice the money and indicated no, she wanted the window, the husband saw the note and couldn't pick her or the bags up quick enough. So we switched and I added another 100 to make them even happier. The ticket (2nd class - no 1st on this route) cost 93 Rupees so they got a free ride plus some money for snacks and we got our seat. One US dollar is about 101 rupees to give you an idea of the money I was throwing around like Rockafellar... Our room was 1500R including breakfast. The ride in a three-wheeler from the train station to the hotel was 150R, all in all a fairly cheap trip. Oh, I took a local bus to the train station from in front of my flat to the train station for 6R too...

All in all a great trip for about 30$ total! Can't beat it! Post your comments or email me, I have a feeling nobody reads my posts as they are too long... sorry. With the poor connectivity I tend to post less frequently but longer posts....

Today is a HUGE rally here in Colombo, they expect a million people. Should be interesting even if they get half than many people together!

Take care... Rob

The Apple

The apple…
I needed to get some groceries tonight but didn’t have enough time after work and before dinner to do my run and also do a shop so I decided to combine the two tasks. It’s cooled down considerably with the monsoons so it is bearable to run in the evenings now. The temperature is around 30 to 32 and the humidity is 70-95% according to the news tonight. That sounds hot but really it’s a lot cooler than it was and feels cool enough to use the geyser in the mornings (that’s the hot water tank that hangs above my tub, you turn it on a few minutes before the shower to get hot water). Anyway, I took the list of groceries from Susanah and along with my visa went for my run. I typically run in the military secured area behind the apartment as there isn’t a lot of traffic. There aren’t enough roads to make a good run without either lapping the route several times or else going out onto a busier road for a couple hundred metres so I often do a bit of both, loops and busy streets for a short distance. Anyway tonight I was trying to plan the time so that I would end up at the food store after 45 minutes so I ended up doing a loop past this one spot about three times. There was a lady sitting on the sidewalk begging and each time I passed her she held out a hand for something. I indicated I had no money each time and kept running. I finished the run and headed to the store with my list and bought three big bags worth of groceries and started to walk home. I soon realized that I was going to have to pass the lady I had told three times that I had no money with my arms full of food. I didn’t want to try to explain that I had paid with visa or pull out my card for someone to grab so I took an apple out of the bag and had it ready for her. As I neared her I could see that she saw me with the bags and was dealing with the dissonance of what I had said and then walking along with bags of food. As I was reaching into the bag to proudly pull out this ice cold big juicy apple she smiled simultaneously with me producing the fruit. Just as I handed it to her I noticed she had a toothless smile that was changing to a frown of displeasure at the useless piece of food. It was rather awkward and I didn’t have anything else I could give her easily so I left feeling pretty horrible. Lesson learned, always carry small rupees!!

On Strike

DSC04185
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

Well the university went on strike this week. The black flags you can see represent the striking workers. Strikes here are very different. There are no picket lines set up and the workers still get paid. They just don't show up to work. They shut off our water and power every now and again but there isn't a real urgency to get things solved. Very interesting...

Friendly Vendors

Friendly Vendors
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

More photos available on Flickr
here

So the government sort of collapsed today. It’s a long story but the short version is this.
Billions of dollars in aid money has been given to Sri Lanka for the Tsunami recovery – yes, the one that was almost 6 months ago – but it won’t be handed over until the government agrees to a plan of how the money is going to be distributed. One party who hold a number of seats in the government threatened to resign if the President signs the agreement as they believe it will both add huge funds to the rebel government in the north and also acknowledge that they are a formal government. So the President is caught between saying no to billions of dollars or potentially throwing the country into a civil war. Things were very quiet last night as most people expected a curfew would be imposed so they stayed off the streets. There are even more military and police than usual and everyone is a little tense. The party who are pulling out control all the trade unions so they are threatening to shut off the water and power to the country. Interesting times to say the least. Today the Universities were also on strike for a completely different reason. Sad. Interestingly, when unions strike here they still get paid for the days they are on strike. I should add that we’re very safe so that isn’t a concern at all. I think there is a lot of fear mongering going on by all parties involved. The government wants the public to think that if there is huge problem that it is the fault of those who resigned. The President released a statement that was strongly worded, stating "The Marxists "will have to bare the responsibility for any adverse repercussions this decision may have on the country,". Then those who resigned want the public to believe
that the President has put the country in jeopardy by negotiating with the LTTE. It's a mess.

The Canadian Consulate in Colombo is in a luxurious house in a swanky part of town. I’d heard and then experienced first hand that the people who run the social club are a bunch of idiots, embarrassing really. We went to a social last month at the house. I had heard from another Canadian working in Colombo that you could use the pool so I asked who I had to speak to about finding out the rules and times etc. I was directed to the chair of the social committee who is the wife of some third rate civil servant. So I introduced myself and then asked what the rules were for using the facilities (a huge air conditioned gym and then the pool). This social committee (anti-social committee) chair then gets all puffed up and starts telling me about her life in Colombo and how she lives next door but has her driver drive her next door when it is really hot out blah blah blah. I may have gotten off on the wrong foot when I mentioned what a waste of time that was as every car has to be searched inside and out (mirrors on poles looking under the car). Anyway, she went on to tell me all about how you had to ask the right person because the facilities were for Consulate staff only. She went on and on about how you had to sweet talk the right person blah blah blah and that they might consider letting a non-staff member use the pool – not the gym, just the pool. I wanted to say something that ended in YOU, but was a bit more polite. I refused to kow tow to some non-consulate staff member who thinks she wields all the power of who can use the pool so I played dumb and didn’t ask her. I changed the subject to ask about a Canada Day party and was told it was only for staff and their families. Can you believe that! Oh I was mad. Still am! They
are off my Christmas list! AND when I open the Tim Hortons here I will NOT
give them free refills in their Tim Mugs! I may try to show up at the gate with my military ID and see if they’ll let me in. I’ll let you know if it works… I may take an Oh Henry bar or two with me (Thanks for the good idea Carl!).

Anybody reading this?

Hi there, if anyone is reading this ever drop me a note - you have my email address likely :-) Just curious.... Rob

Shopping Spree Winner!

Shopping Spree Winner!
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

I was at this new mall near where I live today because
there was a grand opening celebration. Last night when I was at the
grocery store the manager told me to come back today as there were
going to be contests and prizes etc.. So I ended up there and entered
two contests. The first was to count the fish in four of the five HUGE
fish tanks they have. The tanks are about 10' X 10' X 5' and have
varying sized fish. Counting them was a bit problematic as there are a
lot so without the help of Sophie (mom and dad used to have a schnauzer that loved fish in ponds and tanks) I made my best
guesses and submitted my entry. I also entered a contest where you are
given a list of grocery items and you compete against one other team
to see who can get the most items. My number was drawn so down I went
(the party was in the food court on the 5th floor and the grocery
store is on the first floor). So my competition was two young ladies
who were eager shoppers. They were racing around the store working
together but the manager was helping me out as much as he could, it
was being filmed by the local tv station so he had to be careful!
Anyway, I ended up with 8 of the 20 listed items and they ended up
with 7. But then I learned that it wasn't a competition just with them
but you had to be the overall winner to win. I was let down. I hung
around anyway to hear the results of the fish count and found I had
lost so I decided to get a freshly squeezed mango drink. I only had a
1000 Rupee note on me and the juice place couldn't change it so I told
the guy to make the drink and I would get change from the grocery
store on the first floor. I was waiting at the elevator when the news
anchor got off, she asked where I was going as I should stick around…
So I waited only to learn that I wasn't the third place winner, or the
second place winner, but THE winner!! I won 2000.00 Rupees PLUS all
the 8 items! Not to mention all the glory of beating the locals in
their own shop J The news anchor made a big deal that a foreigner had
come in and cleaned up. Lots of fun! I walked for miles today to go to
the tourism board to find out about trains out of the city only to
find the office closed – they advertised it being open until noon on
Saturdays… Anyway, that is my day so far!

Playful elephants

DSC03465
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

what a day… Got up and headed north into the Hill country
today. Sadly I discovered it isn't named after the Hill family and
there were no "Hills" to be found… We drove for about 2 hours in heavy
traffic towards Kandy. Traffic was particularly heavy due to the four
day Poya (full moon) weekend. This is the most significant Poya of the
year and is also called the Vessak. It is the clebration of the birth
and death of Buddah. As we headed north it was interesting to see
multiple trucks loaded with the identical assortment of furniture,
typically a wardrobe, a dressing table with a tall mirror, a few
plants, a tall fan, and a dresser. Ravi explained that it is the
wedding season and the trucks were taking all the dowries to the
families and that they had very standard items such as what we were
seeing. Another interesting thing about the road is that you come to
small villages that have specialty items such as cashews (mmmmm), cane
weaving, and blow up toys (like you see at a fair, but all sizes up to
small inflatable boats and pools). Rather than distributing their
specialty it is all lumped together into a stretch of half a kilometer
so that when you get out of your car you are bombarded by 10 shop
owners within the 100 meters of where you stopped. I'm not sure why
they wouldn't spread out and diversify. Once we got to the Elephant
orphanage we had missed the procession down to the river but saw large
piles of evidence all along the road/trail down to the river that
there had been grass fed elephants in the area very recently… Once we
got to the river there were about 40 to 60 elephant ranging in size
from babies to very large males. There were two huge bulls who were
chained to the shore as they were "in musk" and had to be kept away
from the others. We watched them cleaning each other and playing and
having an all round great time. One quite sad thing was the elephant
from Jaffna who had lost her front leg just below the knee. I'm
surprised she survived at all and I suppose she has a fairly good life
now but you can imagine how hard it is for her to walk with all that
weight and no front leg. I'm surprised they haven't made a
wooden/titanium leg for her, perhaps it is just too much weight… Later
they led the elephants away to be fed and brought down a very large
and old male with large tusks. He is completely blind and had to be
led on a chain, again very sad to see.



We had lunch at the orphanage and I tried grilled cashews for the
first time, very dangerous indeed! So good! Charles ordered a beer but
was told that it was Poya and no alcohol could be served so he ordered
water. The waiter came back a few minutes later and offered "tea" in a
teapot and all. He declined but it was interesting…



It was a wonderful time but the drive was hectic and we saw a bus get
run off the road (he was driving like an idiot himself) and almost go
over into a rice paddy, scary! I think I might take the train next
time I go up that way. We were told that we should go on to Kandy as
well but really it was a long enough day as we got back to Colombo
around 4 in the afternoon.



Vesak is quite interesting too. All the streets are decorated with
Buddhist flags and lights and fancy lanterns made of crepe paper and
wicker. I'm going out on a Vessak tour tomorrow with Kumari to see all
the lights and lanterns, apparently it is quite a spectacle.