On the final day of our stay at the Blue Magpie Lodge in central Sri Lanka, we visited Duwili Ella Falls The path down to the stream is steep and a garden lizard with a bright red head watched us trying to negotiate it. Further on, concrete steps and a metal hand…
“That’s a Kangaroo Lizard” the guide whispered, pointing at a small brown lizard on a tree trunk. Otocryptis wiegmanni with long hind legs, is a small ground-dwelling lizard of the rain forest. The female is brown in colour and the male has a garland of emerald round its neck. We were in the Sinharaja Rainforest…
We spent a weekend at he Blue Magpie Lodge in Kudawa, Sri Lanka, using it as a base for visiting Sinharaja Forest. We left Colombo at dawn and drove to Ambalama – a roadside cafe in Hanwella, for a fine Sri Lankan breakfast of freshly made hoppers – pancakes made with rice flour and coconut milk…
On our final day at Jetwing Surf, Hiran Cooray and Len Porter of Jetwing led a dawn beach walk to Pottuvil Point and back We took nothing from the beach and left only footprints in the sand.
In Sri Lanka, ‘Tank‘ refers to an ancient irrigation reservoir. The first Tank was built in 4th century BC and over the years, successive kings constructed nearly 2800 of them in the dry zone of the country to retain rain water for paddy cultivation. The bund was built with compressed earth and the inside…
The oarsman beached the boat. It was painted blue and the man was wearing a blue sarong. Three young women in blue traditional dress stepped out of the dugout canoe. They were wearing white necklaces and had white flowers in their hair. They carried wicker baskets full of hoppers, milk-rice, fish curry and Sri Lankan sweets to…
We left Jetwing Surf at dawn and drove to Kumana National Park. The big coach crawled past Arugam Bay, Panama and Okanda on mostly dirt tracks. At the entrance to the park, a fleet of jeeps was waiting to take us on safari. The jeep drivers wore bright coloured cloths, blissfully unaware of the safari…
It was already dark when we reached Jetwing Surf. From Pottuvil on the east coast of Sri Lanka, a fleet of Tuk-Tuks ferried us to the little seaside hotel – the coach could not negotiate the narrow roads. With twenty cabanas in a seven acre coconut grove, Jetwing Surf looked pretty. We checked-in, sipped chilled…
The rough sea tossed the gilded canoe on to the stony beach and the terrified young woman stepped ashore. Devi – the only daughter of King Kelani Tissa who ruled the southern Sri Lankan kingdom of Kelaniya, was sacrificed to appease sea gods during the first recorded tsunami of the island in the second…
If you are in Sri Lanka and travelling from Monaragala to Pottuvil, stop at the village of Galabedda to see a small but remarkable archaeological site – Biso Pokuna The dirt track led uphill through a paddy field. The only noticeable structure was a raised granite bathing pond. Water, probably channeled…
Matara is a quaint seaside town hundred miles south of Colombo. The roadside Shrine of Our Lady of Matara facing the Indian ocean houses a 400 year-old statue of the Virgin which Catholics claim, is miraculous. It was found floating in the sea in a wooden crate by fishermen of Mirissa who handed it…
The coach sped along the Southern Expressway. We ate stuffed roti and egg buns from the picnic box and sipped mineral water from glass bottles. It was six thirty in the morning. The motorway service station was packed. The sun was beating down and men and women were eating breakfast in shady corners. There were queues…
This year we celebrated Christmas at Nick & Renu’s house in London. Rani & I drove down from Harrogate on the 23rd and Dilu, Nadja, Alma & Lottie came over from Germany. It was three days of foodie fun That evening, Renu cooked sausages in onion sauce and mash with lots of cream…
Is there anything new to say about the Great Wall of China? You already know that many of the 400,000 – give or take the odd soldier and peasant, that died building the 22,000 kms long wall from the seventh century BC to 1878 are buried within the wall, and in 2007 a British couple…
“A square foot of property in Beijing costs 54,000 Yuan” Kathy said. That is about £6500. The average size of an apartment is 100 square feet and a young couples would struggle most of their life to pay the mortgage Not everybody in Beijing is keen to live in high-rise apartment blocks. Many…
