Kandy

Original posting 5 Mar 2012 from Kandy

We started with another home cooked breakfast at the Up Country, coconut roti with coconut sambal, this time not spring hoppers & curry. The train departed at 9.47 almost on time, the platform was full of both backpackers and locals but we managed to get seats in the second class for 340rp each, 3rd class was half the price and sported wooden seats compared with our comfortable ones, the fare for 1st class in the Observation car at the end of the train is 740rp regardless of distance, it could be Ella to Colombo or just to the next station. The fruit grower we had been talking to earlier had opted for the Observation car, he specialised in cider apples and black currents and was hoping for a goodly spell of cold weather back in Somerset.

We had heard that the train was express and would take only 4 hours to reach Kandy but in fact it took the 7 hours a separately rumoured. The views as expected were magnificent and I think Joan has a hundred or so to illustrate the beauty of the hills and the tea plantations which increased in density as we climbed from Ellas's 1040m to over 2000m at Nuwara Eliya.

Our nearest neighbours on the train were a family of very friendly Sri Lankans, one of whom told us that his brother was professor of anatomy at Aberdeen University, his English nevertheless was rather limited. They swapped seats to allow a window seat first on one side of the train and then on the other. For snack they produced a sort of sandwich with the filling between a folded banana leaf which were discarded to leave a thin filling slice which resembled a large slice of salami but tasted like a vegetable sweet meat, very acceptable.

Later in the journey a Czech by the name of Joe(seph) came to sit opposite me and talk. He explained that he had been two years in Cheltenham with the object of learning English in a

college, but in fact learned far more working in a five star hotel behind the bar or on reception. He was a giant of a man who was travelling with his wife who I did not meet and explained that d she was Slovakian and hat his brother in law was Hungarian. He had first discovered that various Hungarian sausages were well accepted and they had set up an import export business to take advantage of the tastes they had developed by marketing in pubs. We talked a lot about immigration, he said the influx of Hungarians was so large as to produce a backlash in Czech Republic, we contrasted the influx of Poles to Britain and their sudden repatriation who in his opinion had come over intent on making money to sent home, the Irish I was with in Canada did similar as I guess do most who go to work in the wealthy middle eastern states. He thought the Czechs like us did well from being outside the Euro especially when contrasted with Greece.

When we finally got near Kandy we found we had to change trains for what is only a 300/350rp tuk-tuk drive to Kandy. We waited 30 mins for the connection which presumably ran back and forth to Peradeniya junction. Given the reputation of Kandy for touts and hassle I told Joan that I would deal directly only with Tuk-tuk drivers. The first I approached refused to take us to Sharon Inn, our first choice on the basis they were not to be trusted which I took to mean they refused to pay him commission for the travellers he brought and walked away. The next one took us to Sharon Inn which we found full but on asking the owner phoned through to confirm a room at McCleod's Inn another popular choice, I forgot to ask him where it was, in fact I think it was just a little further up the hill, but by the time I had established its position on the map we were back down on the lake-shore and the tuk-tuk driver said it was 2/3 km away and so I elected to see the room of his choice for 3000rp which turned out to be excellent easy walking downhill to the lake shore but high enough for the large plate glass frontage of Swiss View Residence to have a fine outlook from the lounge, a large tiled room and a compact wash room with hot water and a comfortable bed.

Since then an interesting stream of guests have appeared, that evening a Finn living in Lapland and Yvonne a Chinese girl from just north of the border with Hong Kong, who had studied for a Master degree at Westminster who lived in Hatfield and had stayed another two years working in insurance. She was very outgoing and confident and her English was superb. In this respect only she had made much more progress than friend Michael (Dang Zhong) who went on to spend two years at Loughborough University where I think there were too many Chinese students for the good in that respect. Recently Rachel's John told me there were 250 Chinese on his course at Swansea. Whilst we were here in Sri Lanka we had an email to say that Michael had just married Alice, who he twice brought to our house, in Hong Kong (her home). They they were currently holding a second ceremony in Xi'an, Michael's home town, where they now had both got jobs. Makes us want to go back to China and see them. All Joan could say was 'That's Lovely' with tears wetting her cheeks. Michael was an extraordinarily good friend, both when travelling with us and Andreas (now sadly dead in New Zealand) and Lina (Lithuanian). Like all Chinese he had adopted an English name his being chosen to associate him with Michael Jordan the basketball player.

THE TOOTH TEMPLE

CONVERSATIONS at SWISS VIEW RESIDENCE
Kindle which Joan said she would never like proved her wrong and she is now enjoying Brixton Beach a novel about a grandchild now living in Brixton who called her first house Brixton Beach in memory of her grandfather's life. It has obviously been very interesting especially in regard the history of The Tamil/ Singhalese conflict which it blamed on the British who brought them in to work on the tea plantations and gave them better educational opportunities and I read they formed the largest part of the British Civil Servants in Ceylon. Into those thoughts came new arrivals Fergus and Kate an English couple in their early fifties, he broadcast for the BBC World Service and travelled a lot for his job including help train new staff at Al Jazeera. Kate introduced herself as a gardener, now employed by the National Trust and charged with the task a of restoring a walled garden in North Wales. When she reached 40 she decided to do her own thing and left her presumably responsible job with BBC4. We chatted whilst sharing their beer and then split up because they had decided to go to a Muslim restaurant to try Kutti roti whilst we were returning to our well established White House (maybe British involvement since they ask for feedback on a UK website) they can me in for desert and I think realised we had made the best choice.

Fire Look Out

Our discussion with Fergus and Kate, who had just arrived, soon identified that we had both been to the same Forest Sanctuary Udawattekele a few hours apart, just a few people bothered though it was delightful. The 4km circuit was very cool thanks to the immensity of the trees. We also found that we had both deviated to follow a path to the viewpoint only to find out after a long slow climb that it was a fire watch location which we could not ascend because there was no longer a complete wooden ladder to the first floor though there was a ladder to the top by which a group of youths, who had confirmed its existence and that we were heading in the correct direction, had scaled and greeted us with 'You won't be able to get up'.

The White house is fundamentally a bakehouse with a huge range a of freshly cooked bread and cakes. We first went in their to buy bits and pieces for a continental breakfast, there are 40 or so seats at tables of four down one side. At the end they serve a small but well presented canteen of Sri Lankan food and are open from 8 till 10 pm. We ate there for breakfast yesterday and were surprised that our order of two Kutti rotti and helpings of potato curry and dahl curry and spicy coconut a sambal was considered breakfast for one (they asked if we wanted a second plate) and priced at only 100rp. We will be back there for breakfast tomorrow. In the meantime we have eaten two evening meals in the restaurant upstairs which operates for evening meals till 1pm and is perhaps open earlier in the day. Air conditioned, nicely laid out with attentive service and a menu which includes European and pastas, A large Chinese menu we eat from last night and an equally large taste of India we eat from the day before on both occasions we stated with a beetroot and orange salad, differently presented by two chefs. The Chinese we had was sweet and sour prawns (Joan's favourite though we agreed the Rest house at Hambantota was far superior and an Aubergine dish plus Kashmiri Pillau rice. The night before was excellent Garlic Naan Roti with Allo Pallak (potato and spinach) and Vegetable Kadai. We were served by a young man very fluent in English so when we ordered a Wattalapam he asked if it was for sharing, I told him I was not sure if Joan would be prepared to share, when it arrived he pointedly put it in front of me and I hugged myself to indicate I would not share it, on which we all broke out in laughter. It's not often foreigners know the language so well as to play to our sense of humour.


BOTANICAL GARDENS at PERADENIYA

Today we accepted a 300rp tuk-tuk ride to the Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya (the Rail junction) before breakfast. It was simply a magnificent example of landscape design which goes back far before the pre British days. I've said it before I guess but this was the best example of a garden ever and that includes Kew and Munnar in India. Apart from trees, lawns (not our kind of grass) and flowers, there was magnificent display of flowers in the orchid house, a sign like the rest of the gardens of an incredibly high standard of management, though surprisingly little was seen of people actually working.

Parkland

Joan having taken over the Kindle (at my request) I cannot get access to finish the book bought in preparation for I leading the discussion on Casino Banking but didn't have time to even start. This very scholarly analysis points a finger directly at 'Limited Liability' for investment banks and Hedge funds which run on incredibly small equity (around) 3% and the other 97% of their funds is borrowed. Limited liability means that they can afford  to take huge risks knowing at the worst they are responsible for 3% in bankruptcy and the other 97% risk is for their creditors and ultimately as we have seem that means the tax payer. In the meantime the Hedge funds aim for 25% per year gains and the investors put that huge gain into much safer havens to guard against the rainy day. He showed the particular vulnerability of the US mortgage industry in that the borrower could s discharge his entire responsibility by returning the keys to the mortgage company with no further obligations for repaying da debt, encouraging the same reckless speculation as the gambling financiers.. One of the strangest facts is that the German banks were the biggest buyers of the toxic CDOs (collateral debt obligations) thinking they were backed only by house mortgages - which was far from the case, in the event German banks came out a OK as they had insured themselves against loss with the huge American insurance firm AIG who had to be bailed out by the American tax payer.

Tomorrow we are off north to Dambulla not knowing in which place we will end up looking for a bed, and then aiming for the ancient cities in the highland starting with Sigiriya, then Polannaruwa and finally Apuradhapura. A tall order for us in five nights so something may have to give. We'll see.