Sri Lanka 2014

The second visit

Today we welcomed three bus loads of children from the centre at Modera for group work and games.

Mr Pool describes the day's activities.

The afternoon started with an attempt to play some games, there were varying degrees of success as the language and shyness was an initial problem (ask Alannah when she gets home)

We were treated to some carrom training, another game that they were far more skilful at than we were.

After a short while the smiles began to break through and all seemed to be having a good time.

Moving outside we ventured into other activities, some more competitive than others!

A fine drive from one of the Sri Lankans launched the ball into the lake, with no fear of the crocodiles the locals went in and retrieved the ball so the match could continue.

Freddie posed for a spot the ball competition, before being caught out.

Both teams came together for the post match photo, the score is best forgotten!

Seeking some firm of retribution the sport was changed to football. Here we faired much better and ran out a comfortable 2 - 0 winners. Yeah!

A great afternoon was had by all.

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A trip to Galle..

Apologies for the late arrival of this blog, it was posted but has been wandering around in space for a few days so I've sent it again!

After our visit to the turtles and tsunami memorial, so eloquently reported by Freddie, we travelled on to Galle for lunch.

We celebrated the birthdays of Nick and James by lunching at the famous Ramparts Hotel.

The waiters at the hotel are skilled in napkin moulding - a new lunch- time club perhaps?

As we were eating our lunch it seemed that the monks of Galle had decided to take their constitutional walk.

We all went for a walk along the ramparts.....at last a welcome breeze!

We also encountered some rain.....Chelsea and Alannah seem puzzled.

Quite bizarrely, a very brave gentleman gave us a display of his rock diving techniques. It was all we could do to hold William back - don't worry, we did.

Galle is a beautiful town.....quiet, peaceful and calm.

The Lighthouse

Of course, there were shopping opportunities. Alannah purchased some tea.....looks like you might be getting some Earl Grey.

A familiar looking postbox.

Faye and Ethan visiting the post office......The stamps to the uk only cost 10p. I wonder how long they will take to arrive?

We also saw a snake-charmer. Hollis paid him to perform....

Scary, how does that work?

Tuk tuks colour the streets, we hope to have a ride in one soon!

Here is the English church,

it dates from 1868.

Quite different to the Dutch one next door which was completed in 1755.

There was an impressive pulpit.

The streets of Galle are narrow and interesting and they all lead to the ramparts.

So we climbed up and sauntered back to the bus. We had to walk the plank at one point over a small ravine and Freddie fell in.

But that's a story for another day. He's fine.

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Unfortunately, despite all of our efforts, we were unable to book upper class train tickets to Kandy. As we didn't want to travel third class and the only other choice was to be on the bus for over 10 hours in total, we decided to explore Colombo instead. We had a great day.

We started out in Independence square....

....an important place for all Sri Lankans ....

Dedicated to the man who lead the country into independence.

This is when Ceylon was renamed Sri Lanka.

This all happened in 1948.

We then moved on to a beautiful city centre lake. This tree was by our bus.

In the middle of the lake was a peaceful temple, a gift from a disgruntled Moslem.

The statues were Thai style Buddhas.

We were lucky to meet a newly married couple who had come to the temple for photographs.

We wished them much luck and happiness.

Then onto the main temple of Colombo, where an enormous Buddha greeted us. There was a museum with a confusion of items which had been donated to the Buddha.

We did our best...

At the centre of it all as usual we were drawn to the beautiful bodhi tree where we rested for a while. The temperature was climbing, now around 95 degrees F

Another beautiful Buddha.

.... And more Thai Buddhas.

Next stop was Pizza Hut. Excellent service and food and the best air con for miles. We stayed for quite a while!

Next came a contrast, a Hindu temple in the back streets.

We weren't allowed inside though...

....so we moved on towards the beach for a stroll along Galle Face Green. This is a popular place for Sri Lankans to go for a break from the hustle and bustle of the city centre.

The temperature continued to soar, so we were glad of the sea breezes.

There was a small pier....

......where the breeze was even cooler.

We could look back on the high rise buildings of the city...

.. And watch excited Sri Lankan girls paddling in their saris.

Soon school was out and we were joined by the white uniformed children.

A variety of snacks were on offer but we weren't tempted.

The Green is a popular place to stroll...

.... so we joined in.

Our last stop of the day was at the main Hindu temple. We crossed our fingers and hoped they would let us in. We were in luck and what followed was magical. We were just in time for the dusk service and we reverently followed the congregation from station to station, observing the fascinating rituals...