Roll Forever

Rust Ramp, Portland.

Hikkaduwa Perahera

As I left Hik to get the bus I ran into the local once a year street carnival.
I walked through the cars and people to get a photo at the head of the parade.
All the traffic was backed up so I walked the kilometre into town past the whole procession.
Due to the holiday the bus service was greatly reduced and it took me an hour to catch a bus back to Colombo. Even after getting on the bus there were carnivals all along the route that slowed down the bus and it took me ages to get back.

Buddha's Birthday

This was actually several weeks before I left Sri Lanka in May when the Buddhists celebrate Buddha's birth, death and enlightenment. It's a big public holiday where there's free food available and everyone is out celebrating.
Banana Man had to work though.
I'd never seen so many Sri Lankan's on the beach! It was even more startling as the holiday season was over so there were no tourists and the week before the beach had been empty.
Beach side parking under the coconut palms.

Countdown to Departure

This was the first of several last drinks that I'll be having over my last 2 weeks in Sri Lanka.

The engineering department came out to drink to my departure. I think I've definitely lightened up a bit since I've been working with these guys and girls in Sri Lanka.

Baz & Viv

Another tropical sunset. We'd stayed in Hikkaduwa for the first couple of days, hopped down the coast to Unawattuna and ended up in Mirissa. I'd managed to catch a few waves at each spot but was having an ongoing battle with various reefs that kept trying to tear chunks off me. Out of the water I was limping but in the water I was ok. The waves weren't pumping on this day but I'd had a good surf right out front of the hotel the day before.

Baz and I ventured up onto parrot rock, which was situated bang in front of our hotel.
I may be starting to suffer from too much good living and I think my corpse makeup is beginning to run (I haven't gone goth, it's just a liberal coat of zinc oxide to protect myself from the sun). Boards on board after getting back from Wellagama. 2 boards on top and 3 people inside. Baz was keeping up appearances but I'm still in my knackered rash vest (surf top).

Baz bringing the message to Sri Lanka, Hope not Hate. Baz made a new friend who supplied us with low buget local food for breakfast and a packed lunch (curry and rice) for our journey back to Hikkaduwa.My sense of timing is impeccable and somehow I managed to take this photo (it's actually at night) just as the lightning lit up the sky/beach. Lightning or not it wasn't distracting Viv from her meal.

Hikkaduwa was super quiet but the sun was still out most of the time and I'm getting as much sun as possible before I have to come back to the UK. My friend Gamini is coming with me to the East coast for 1 week to show me the surf spots before I have to leave.

Mowlam Family goes elephant hunting

After mum escaped from hospital and everyone was reunited we loaded up and headed out looking for big game.

Dad spotted a likely suspect and set about trying to lure his prey.
From a different angle maybe we were the ones that should be watching out.

On second thought perhaps we should just be friends.
I always think the babies look like little old dudes; must be the wrinkles and thinning hair. Actually come to think of it I also think human babies look like little old people for the same reason. Stampede, everyone get out the way!

Post elephant relaxation time. How about a nice cup of tea? So it's off to the tea factory for some of Ceylon's finest.We had the factory tour and finished off by tasting the produce. The day was a big success and it was nice to have mum back with us again.

Rock-climbing

This was my third time climbing Sigiriya so the photos will have to do most of the talking.

We gave the guides the brush off and headed up the rock at our own pace. This winding staircase always spooks me out but at least there are some topless girls at the top.We somehow acquired a young guy to act as a sherper and it was funny watching him try to push my dad up the steps.That wasn't so bad. Storm clouds gathered but we were down before the rain. Blogtastic. Cobra plus python plus end of the day equals wasted photo opportunity.

Monkeys in the trees

I guess monkeys aren't really going to be chilling anywhere else but I was short of a title.

Took pop and sis to the cave temples on our two-day whistle stop tour. Apparently in the old days when the farmers didn't have to harvest their crops they spent their down time painting the insides of the cave temples.
There were a couple of gargoyles incorporated into the walls outside.

The fronts to the temples were built after the original Buddha statues and paintings were created, but still a fair few hundred years ago. Prior to that it was just the-drip line protecting the paintings inside the caves from water egress.

A tourist couple sat on a Buddha statue sometime in the seventies and the monks had to repaint him as they considered the statue desecrated. I'm not sure what happened to the tourists but they may be looking at new lives as cockroaches if Karma has her way. It's very disrespectful to have a photo taken with your back to Buddha.

Temple of the Tooth

I always find it a bit disconcerting when a place of worship is a tourist attraction, especially as Buddhists worship at all times of the day and there are always lots of people praying outside the golden tooth chamber.

I can't remember all the constituent parts but the creature above the door has the head of crocodile, nose of elephant, ear of pig, body of fish and tail of dragon; I may have made some of that up and I can't remember whose legs he's got.

The chamber containing the golden tooth of Buddha is only open at certain times and the tooth is never seen inside it's multiple caskets.

Museum Buddha.

An approximation of the traditional Kandian palace in the background was created from concrete in Independence Square (see previous post).