September 23, 2018

I woke up this morning to find my poor little Putha hunkered down on top of the washing machine with blood dripping from his nose and mouth.  I tried to wash the blood off to figure out what is wrong.  His mouth is really swollen so either he got a porcupine quill in his mouth or he has lost a tooth.  His mouth is still too tender to have a look.  The joy of cats.

Here are some pix of happier times:

A snuggle of cats.  All but Baby having a snooze in my office.

The aforementioned Putha sleeping on top of me while Aya and Buddy snuggle together beside me.

Pre-injury Putha.  He has the cutest pink nose.  I hope he still has that when all the blood has cleared up. 

Nangi curled up with Buddy.  Aya keeps his distance.

The crisis with Putha did not dampen this morning's send off for Cory Sine who has been visiting for the last 5 days.  Cory is the eldest son of some of my oldest friends Brett and Pamela Sine.  He is touring Sri Lanka for 2 months and stopped with me to catch his breath at about the half way point.

Camera bag at the ready.  Cory is a wonderful photographer.

The Kawasakis had two birthday dannes, one for Ken at Vijiraramaya monastery where we go every year to offer danne and the other at their home for Visakha.  The one at home was particularly interesting as it was preceded by a class in which they identified 22 world disasters such as the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, etc.  They gave a brief description of the disaster.  The students had to read and understand the description and then had to match it up with pictures of each event.  A very powerful exercise for all of us but especially for the students who are all Buddhist monks and nuns.  This image of a slave ship was especially stunning:

Along with this one of crucified Armenian Christian girls:

It seems that the most horrible disasters are those the man perpetuates on his fellow humans.

The post class and danne blessing.  The usual chanting, but some new ones from the Chinese monks which were particularly haunting and one from Venerable Tenzin Lekron who is a nun in the Tibetan tradition (Mahayana) which was lovely.

One of the big highlights was the wedding of my friend Senani.  She was one of the teachers at the School of English with whom I became particularly close.  This is an arranged marriage which she is not keen on.  Despite being a well educated and modern young woman, she has been unable to resist the huge pressure from her family to marry.  Her groom is Ishan and seems nice enough, but not of her choosing.  The family must have spent close to LKR.1 million (C$7,000) on the wedding.  A huge sum of money here.  Held at the new Golden Crown Hotel in Ampitiya, it was a really well done affair.

I got there ridiculously early.  The invitation said 9:00am to 3:30pm with the ceremony being performed at the auspicious time of 10:18am.  I should have known better and arrived at 10:00.  As it was, I had to wait around, so I went for a coffee in the café.  Luckily, Senani and Ishan were having their photos done, so I got a picture of them on the spiral staircase leading up from the coffee shop to the mezzanine.

In the lobby.  She put a brave face on throughout the day. 

Thursdays seem to be particularly auspicious for weddings.  There were 5 of them going on at the same time.  Here are the wedding cars parked in front.

The hotel has a dancing fountain at the entrance.  It is no Bellagio, but not bad for Sri Lanka.

The entrance to the reception hall.

The view of the jungle from the hotel.

As always, there are Kandyan drummers and dancers present. 

Getting organized.  Senani with her father and brides maids on the right.

Senani and I before she tied the knot.

Both the bride and groom are ushered in by the drummers and dancers.  The groom goes first.  Here is the bride.

The ceremony takes place inside a pergola.

He gives her some saris, they exchange rings and there are a bunch of prayers said. 

Diluni, one of our students from the School of English who was in Senani's class attended on her own.  Very brave for a young Sri Lankan girl.  She asked if she could sit with me for protection.  Of course!  We were at a table with a bunch of teachers from Mahayama Girls' College where Senani went to high school.  One of them taught English literature, was lovely and spoke fluent English.  I had great table companions.

We were all starving, having eaten breakfast hours before any food made an appearance.  They did bring sliced apples, spicy mixture and juice to the tables, but not enough to stave off the wolves.  My English literature friend and I were particularly hungry when I smelled food.  There was a small buffet off to the side where a lot of men were hovering.  Just as one of the men was passing our table with a plate of food, my companion announced that that was the food for the men who would be drinking alcohol (read whiskey).  I replied that I planned to drink alcohol as well so maybe I could get us some food.  The young man passing by, came back to offer me food.  As it happens, that table had only meat and fish on it, so it was not for me.  However, he came back a second time to ask if I wanted any wine, a glass of which he promptly rustled up.  He was one of the few friends of the groom present and was very kind and polite.  Seems that the wedding is for the bride's side while the Homecoming is more for the groom's people.

After the ceremony, everyone goes to have their picture taken with the new couple.  My turn.

The wedding was followed the next day by lunch with my good friend Billy Tennakoon who was back visiting from a 3 year sojourn in the UK to establish residency for her children's university education.  It was lovely to see her and to catch up.

The other big highlight was a visit to my friends Simon and Pauline Lazenbatt at their fabulous home and guesthouse, Flamboyant Villas just outside Naula.  Their place is amazing.  Six star accommodation for 3 star prices.

A 17 acre property hat they have reclaimed from a brutal slash and burn clearing into a real jungle retreat.  Part of the forest walk.

The "Internet Café". My cost for my 2 night stay was helping them with their internet reception problems.  The tree house was built because this is the best place for internet reception at the moment.  I think we found a solution for the future.

Night view of Mongoose House which is the communal dining room.

My room was Elephant Villa.  Each room is uniquely decorated with care and exquisite taste.  Simon and Pauline have lived in Kenya, Saudi Arabia, China, England way back, and now Sri Lanka.  They are collectors and have furnished the villas with the treasures they have amassed over the years. 

Elephant Villa is one of 4 on the property. 

Pauline standing among the roots of a Kumbuk Tree

Mongoose House in the day.

Approaching the swimming pool from Mongoose House.  Coming back from a swim one morning, I caught the tail of a Flycatcher floating on the breeze.

This is the native paradise flycatcher, not be confused by what we call the visitor which comes from India and is mostly white.

The visitor 

The entrance to Elephant Villa.  All the front doors are antique doors and locks that have been restored.  A real unique touch.

The path to Elephant Villa

Dining room at Mongoose House 

Perfect for drinks.

The swimming pool is big enough to do lengths.  I swam both mornings.  It inspired me to rejoin the Citadel Hotel for swimming at home.  Am back to regular swimming and walking.  You will see why later.

My room

My bathroom.  Unfortunately, you cannot see the shower which has a huge 12"x12" rain shower head.  Two of the villas have bathtubs inside and outdoor showers attached.  Lots of privacy, so no worries there. 

Simon and Pauline have done all this planting themselves over the 11 years they have owned the property having bought a charred plot of land.  Almost all native trees including teak, and of course, flamboyants after which the property is named. 

The veranda at Mongoose House, the site of our first dinner.  Dinner was preceded by fabulous dry vodka martinis.  Plenty of wine was to follow.  We stayed up until 2:30 in the morning.  Something almost unheard of for me.  Tells you how much fun I was having.

Still my room.

In addition to the numerous dogs and cats that live and are nourished on the property, a large male elephant is a regular visitor.  It is part of his route between watering holes.  He came through during the wet season one year and made large holes in the mud.  Pauline got the holes filled in as a walking path.

Simon is very involved with The Arboretum in Dambulla where the famed cave temples are located. The Arboretum was established in 1963 by an Englishman, Sam Popham to plant and preserve trees that are native to this dry zone of Sri Lanka.  The 27 acres also is home loris and pangolin both of which you can see if you go on a night safari.  We did not go as my back was really giving me trouble from the long drive from Kandy and I couldn't do the 1.5 hour walk.  I did however see false vampire bats hanging out in a big round bat roost build beside the main building.

Not very attractive.  In reality they are tiny.

They cluster like this.  At the Arboretum, there were about five.  In order not to scare them, the torch has a red filter on it.  Seen like that, they look a flower blooming from the ceiling.

One of the lovely things you can do at the Arboretum is plant a tree.  For a small donation (I gave LKR.3,000 and was considered generous) you can plant a tree and be given a plaque with your name on it.

My tree with the planter in the sarong and the guide. 

My tree, Pauline, Mr. Planter, and me.  Now you can see why I have started swimming again.  Have really packed on the weight.  Time to get serious about diet and exercise.

Wielding the mamati.

Pauline making sure it has enough water.

The bulu apparently has medicinal qualities and is especially good for the skin.

Love!

May she thrive.  Now I have a great excuse to go back and visit.

A close up of Bulu.

I love seeing old photos of places I have lived or visited.  I came across this on FB of the iconic Queen's Hotel corridor in Kandy town.  The corridor is a covered sidewalk.  The story goes that the original hotel owners covered the municipal sidewalk without the permission of the municipality in order to add covered seating for tourists during the Perahera.  Needless to say, nothing was done about the illegal expropriation and the corridor is now a famous Kandy landmark.

Since my new maid, Poomani has been working for me, one of her duties is to water the garden.  As a result of her efforts, and due to unseasonal rains, the garden is really flourishing.

This is the garden in front of the kitchen at night.  It is really growing not only because of Poomani and the rains, but because we have diverted the grey water from the kitchen sink.

Daytime.  The large elephant ears belong to a caladium, the white flowers are bridal bouquet , the red is verbena.

There are also wild bird of paradise and the tropical bleeding heart that loves climbing over the frame for my ill fated pizza oven.

A hybrid bird of paradise planted by my landlady.  I call it Hu's flower as it first bloomed when my landlord Hubert Fernando died last Christmas.

Agave with common centaury in the foreground 

The common centaury flower.

This is galangal picked from our garden.

This is the lesser galangal plant.  My landlady was doing some gardening and was pulling this up as a weed when she discovered it was ginger.  She brought it to me and I was amazed to find that it is not only ginger, but galangal which is not really ginger, having a more citrusy and piney taste.  The Thais prefer galangal in their cooking and although it is not interchangeable with ginger, I like to use it instead of ginger.

The view of the garden through the kitchen window.  The vertical bars were on the original house to keep out two legged monkeys (humans) while the diamond bars are more recent for monkeys with tails.

Birds of paradise

 

I have run passion fruit and the tropical bleeding heart up strings to the kitchen windows.  They are thriving.