Time to bget on the road again. - Doha, Qatar
Doha, Qatar
Hello and welcome again to my ramblings about my rambling and there is already so much to tell.
Firstly, apologies to those of you who keep in touch with me per internet as I have had a little difficulty in that area. My hotel on the outskirts of Colombo has internet but, despite my best attempts, I cannot get my netbook to interact with it. I have determined that it is not a problem at my end as I successfully connected elsewhere last night which was a great relief. As long as I know that my trusty little Samsung has not given up the ghost I shall be happy enough. I do not like to keep pestering the delightful staff here about it so I shall just write offline as I am doing now and post as and when I have the opportunity. Due to this method of blogging, I hope the few faithful readers I have will bear with me if they see occasional remarks such as (LINK) or (843) which are instructions to myself to insert hyperlinks or images as appropriate. Obviously, I shall proofread but undoubtedly the odd one will slip through the net. Another small caveat is that this machine does not have spell check and typing on a relatively small keyboard, especially with a thumbnail the length of mine will lead to undoubted typographical errors. Again, my apologies.
OK, that is the logistics dealt with I think and so on to the narrative about a trip which has already proved to be interesting to say the least. A dear friend of mine constantly informs me that I don't go on holidays or trips, I have adventures. Another dear friend is fond of repeating a phrase I use about my travelling which is "it could only happen to me"! In the mere six days I have been here in Sri Lanka, both statements have been proved to be completely correct. I was thinking of starting off this entry by saying that in a short space of time X,Y and Z had happened to me but that would spoil the surprises so I am afraid you are just going to have to plough through my often banal prose to get to the vaguely interesting bits.
As Julie Andrews famously sang in the film "The Sound of Music", let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. The start of this adventure was a very dismal London with the UK suffering the worst weather for decades and in the grip of the usual post Christmas / New Year depression. Time then for my annual Southern migration, but where to go? As always it was a case if so many places and so little time. I had toyed with the idea of a return to the Philippines, a place I love dearly, but the effects of the appalling typhoon Haiyan (or Yolanda as locally known) coupled with the specific damage wrought by the catastrophic earthquake on Bohol a short time before suggested to me that the infrastructure probably was not conducive. I had actually made enquiries about going there to volunteer immediately after the typhoon but the bureaucracy involved in that made it a non-starter. As always, Vietnam was another contender for the Fergy treatment. It is a country I have heard so much about and have come tantalisingly close to visiting on several occasions and is still very much on my wish list. There were other places obviously. I really have not seen anything like enough of central and South America with a single trip to Ecuador many years ago my sole experience of that continent. For reasons I have never quite understood, something continually draws me back to Asia as some of you already know and thus it was that I started looking at it again.
Asia, good idea but where? I wanted to go to a country I had not been to before and had long had a hankering to visit Sri Lanka so I started looking at that as an option. Why Sri Lanka? I have no idea. I had only the vaguest idea about it but something about the "teardrop" island just appealed to me. As most of you will know, I contribute to an excellent travel website called Virtual Tourist (XXXXXX) which is a sister organisation of this blog site. I love being on VT and have had some great travel experiences through it. I have also made a lot of wonderful friends, both virtually and in the "real" world and several of tham had extolled the virtues of this realtively small and untouristed country. My Danish mate Claus Andersen a.k.a. the Biking Viking cycled round here last year and spoke very highly of it. My South African mate Jo (XXXXXX), whom I knew from VT activities in London lives out here now and I do hope to meet her at some point. I have already mentioned Treshi (XXXXXXXXX), a VT member who lives in Colombo and whom I also plan to meet, not least because I have to deliver a somewhat belated Christmas card from my friend Shaz (XXXXX) in London! My UK friends were telling me to get on the road again. I cannot believe it myself but apparently I get grumpy in the winter if I do no travel and my travel friends who know my likes and dislikes were telling me that this was an excellent destination so it seemed an obvious choice.
Having made the decision, I had to go about the logistics of the trip. My mate refers to me as "lastmimute.com", a reference to a website address as I always leave everything to nthe last minute and so it proved for this trip. I must say that I do not like planning months or even years in advance as some people do, I just like to get a flight ticket and visa, buy a guidebook, throw a few things in a bag and see where the road takes me.
So let's recap that last sentence. Someone had erroneously told me that a visa on arrival (VOA) was possible for UK citizens. Wrong! About a week before I was due to fly I checked online and found out that I would need a visa before I travelled. I duly took myself off to the Sri Lankan High Commission (XXXXXXX) in Hyde Park Gardens where I was dealt with by the very helpful and friendly staff. Just as well I went the day I did as the processing time for the visa meant I would pick it up the day before I flew. Leaving the High Commission, I walked through Hyde Park on a gloriously crisp winter day heading for Trailfinders (XXXXXXX) on Kensington High Street. I always go there for my vaccinations and find them to be very good. I wasn't sure what I might need. I spoke to the lady at reception there who informed me that they were extremely busy and I wouldn't be seen until sometime after three in the afternoon. I checked my watch and it was not even midday yet! I had also arranged to meet my mate at 1400 so it was really a non-starter sitting about there half the day. As it turned out, when I checked onine as to what was needed, I found out that I was covered anyway. Just as well I didn't spend hours waiting to see the Dcotor to be told I didn't need anything. As always, ther eis the issue of malarial prophylaxis. I do not take any. This is a matter that really raises tempers in the travelling community. Yes, I know the pros and cons inside out and the arguments have been well-rehearsed. I know the risks and I also know tha appalling time malarial medication gave me before. I have been castigated online on various forums (fora?) about this but I am old enough to make my own decisions and it is my choice not to take them. End of story.
I mentioned a bag and that was another matter that needed attending to. My venerable old one had finally just about died on my trip to Malta last year so it was back to my local market in Whitechapel where I parted with the princely sum of £17:50 for a little roll-along soft case which is lying on the floor beside me as I type this. I had debated buying an expensive case that will undoubtedly last a lifetime but I reckon that the outlay isn't really worth it. If I get a couple of long trips out of this then it will have paid for itself. There is also the possibility of your baggage getting lost (of which more later!) and you will never be recompensed the replacement cost. I should tell you that the new kitbag was purchased the afternoon before departure as indeed was my guidebook, lastminute.com indeed! For a guidebook I chose "The Rough Guide to Sri Lanka" which I purchased in the wonderful Stanfords bookshop (XXXXXX) in Covent Garden which is where so many of my trips start. I have long since fallen out of love with the ubiquitous Lonely Planet guides for various reasons which I need not go into here. Thus far, the Rough Guide seems to be a good choice.
Clutching my new bag, guidebook and with my newly visaed passport safely in my pocket, I headed for home. I decided to pop into Murphy's, my local pub, for a quick drink and to say goodbye to my friends there which turned out to be a big mistake! Well, never a mistake to hang out with your mates in Murphy's but you know what I mean. One thing led to another as it inevitably does and I ended up getting home after midnight without a thing packed and no intention of starting at that time of night. Oh well, nothing for it but to get a decent nights sleep and an early start. I had already put in place a couple of "failsafe" early morning calls so sleeping in was not going to be a problem.
I have gone on here rather a lot and we have not even got to departure day but it is now about 1000 and I want to get back into Colombo for more sightseeing. I really fancy a visit to the Railway Museum today which I didn't quite get round to yesterday. Better I go and see some things than sit around in my admittedly very pleasant room and write about things. One final thing is for me to wish a slightly belated happy birthday to my brother as I know he pops in to read this now and again. I hope you had a great day and didn't get up to anything too raucous. Let's be honest, I am supposed to be the party animal in the family!
I'll try to post this later and add a couple of general images before getting down to the trip proper and what a trip it has been thus far! Sorry if this has been a bit of a tease to read and with no images but I will try to keep this blog up as I go with lots of things to look at, so stay tuned.