Cultural trip

Kumudhini my Tamil teacher, the patience of a saint! and above just to wind up you vols in less fortunate locations the view from my sunlounger of the pool I had to myself after climbing Sigiriya. Very nice it was too.

Sigiriya Palace

Sigiriya the rock, the light strip along it is the mirror wall, you walk behind it on your way up. the middle photo is the lions feet, the bottom of the final climb to the top, lastly the view from the top with Kandy in the far distance. You can also see the bathing pool on the top, totally spectacular.
Both Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya are world heritage sites, Sigiriya being for me the most amazing. There is a huge lump of rock in the middle of a plain on top of which a palace was built. There are only ruins left but they are spectacular and apart from the top cover many acres with water gardens walls and moats. The climb to the top is quite hairy, especially a spiral- staircase climb to see fresco's, must be a hundred feet up the side of rock face. You have to get there early as once the sun and temperature rise climbing gets too difficult. We set off at 6.30am, I was the first person up to the fresco's but overtaken by a Sri Lankan family to the top of the rock. Still had the place more or less to myself for a while. When it was occupied it must have been truly spectacular and the views from the top across the plains are magnificent.

Polonnaruwa Palace

These are photos from Polonnaruwa, they don't really do it justice.
Polonnaruwa is another palace complex with lots of temples and statues again covering acres of ground. We set off a bit late for this one and taking your shoes and hats off to go into the temples became a problem as the ground got very hot, I thought I had burned my feet at one point.

Jeep Safari Polonnaruwa

The jeep safari, I had to crop this as I had a lot of bonnet in photo.
The nearest we got to an elephant, there were lots honest. Lastly the Polonnaruwa guest house, and yes it is as good as it looks, I will try and put a shot from the hotel across the lake on. Will take any visitors there for a weekend it's grand.

My home in Trincomalee

My house in Trinco (next to a military base!!)

Trinco view

This is the bay across the road from my VSO house. It is the southern bay of 3 and quite shallow.

I didn't get chance to take a lot of photos on my visit, just time to check house out.

I will post more photos when I move up to Trinco.

Great sailing area but no sign of a sail yet!

Trinco Loo

The Throne, important detail.

Princess Suzanne please note!!!

Trinco house

Above left pic of bedroom 1 as yet house not furnished, top right is kitchen and direct left is view across living room. The door at far end of living room goes into kitchen, door on right of living room goes into bedroom 2. Bedroom 1 is to right of where I took photo. there is another bedroom/dining room off the kitchen too.

I didn't get to live in this house as trouble started with the LTTE and it was considered too dangerous, you should be prepared to be flexible as any situation can change. So it is perhaps best not to get too enthusiastic about your planned placement.

Lake Lodge Hotel, Colombo

This is Lake Lodge in Colombo where I am learning Tamil. I have a pleasant and coolish room. It's 30-40 degrees C at the moment so nowhere really cool unless you have air con, I don't.

The thing about Colombo is there is no centre, the city sprawls along the Galle road running North to South and inland to the East.

The Galle Face hotel, one famous old colonial style hotel and the place to go and watch the sunset and be seen in, isn’t far from our hotel but well above VSO budget.

The main mode of transport is the trishaw or tut-tut as in most of Asia and in the heat is the best way to get around, as ever the negotiations for cost of trip are interesting, works out about 50 rupee a kilometre, about 25p(£1=RS180) but it doesn’t matter how many are in, so with 4 of us crammed in it’s a bargain!

We get breakfast at the hotel, banana, eggs as you like them, toast and jam and tea or coffee. Most people drink tea with masses of sugar and I mean masses, small cups and 4+ spoons of sugar and still have good teeth.

For lunch while training we get a local take away, it comes to the hotel and they sort it for us, costs 60 rupee each, it’s 3 packs of rice and 5 or 6 curries. You put the rice in the middle of your plate and surround it with a few curries, then eat with your fingers of one hand. You have to mix the food into a paste then make a ball and eat it, not that easy! I have been eating curry for at least 2 meals a day sometimes 3.

For dinner we sample the restaurants within walking distance, some expensive they cost RS 200-300 a head but we have found one at RS 100 a head including drinks. You don’t get alcohol so tend to drink ginger beer or water here.