Friday 19 February

Slept well - up with the larks and packing myself back into suitcase and bags (boring but necessary!) 

It's a 4.5 hour drive to Anuradhapura, the most ancient capital of Sri Lanka, and I want to go along the coast road up to Puttalam (not on the beaten track). My driver, Nimal is humouring me as he usually goes another way! 

It's a great idea except that today, there is a convoy of trucks taking huge metal silos North to a plant and the loads are so huge that they don't fit under the electrical wires strung across the road! So the trucks are stranded every 100 yards with men using long poles to push the wires up and over the protuberances! The traffic builds up behind each of these scenes - Great!

At Chilaw, we've had enough and I suggest we take an inland route, along which we view these interesting wayside stalls selling highly coloured mats.   Using my trusty map I guide Nimal to Wariyapola then Padeniya and there we catch a North bound highway straight to our destination. Nimal admits he has never used this road before and is happy to explore if that's OK with me. We quickly come to understand each other and get along fine. This road seems littered with archaeological sites and definitely worth a second look (next time!).

Arrival in Anuradhapura at 1 pm in the intense heat, check in to the Hotel Randiya and have an hour's kip before the long afternoon of sightseeing ahead.  A nice old colonial style hotel.

Regroup at 2 pm and head off to lunch at a small local roadside place. Highlight of the meal is the SL specialty dessert -  Wadalappan - a crème caramel made with cocount milk, that  therefore I CAN eat (DF and GF)! Yippee!    There we meet up with Kapila, (see pic right),  who will be my site guide for all the ancient sights today. He proves to be exceedingly well versed in all matters archeological and historical and also a pleasant companion.    Anuradhapura is a very widely spread out site and requires transport and a knowledgable scout. We start at the Archeological Museum where I buy an all sights Cultural Triangle ticket (US$50) which saves a lot of time and hassle over the next few days. 

The museum is worth the visit and prepares the ground for what lies ahead. It contains all the small pieces - jewellery, crockery, tools, some statuary that were found during the excavations. They reveal the complexity of the civilisation and the cosmopolitan origin of its visitors (Romans, Chinese etc)

Jetvanarama Dagoba is our first stupa, 70 m high with a rather endearing broken spire. In its pristine shape, in the 3rd C, it was said to have been the third tallest monument in the world, after two Egyptian pyramids. I admit it is difficult to fully appreciate this today.

Next to it, and perhaps easier to fathom, is an 8 m doorway which would have led to a large Buddha image. You can see from the picture on the right, the scale of these constructions! Just imagine the wooden doors that would have hung from this frame. The halls around this precinct were designed to serve 3,000 buddhist monks in their heyday.

The Sacred Bodhi Tree is central to Anuradhapura in a tangible spiritual sense. It was brought over from India as a small cutting by Princess Sangamitta (Buddha's daughter) over 2000 years ago. Incidentally, this makes it the oldest documented, recorded and guarded tree in the world. You can see it here propped up with "gold" tines and props.

It sits beside the brilliant white Ruvanweliseya Dagoba in a pleasant green park. In the intense sun this is an eye-dazzling structure. 

This park is dotted with oddities such as this ancient medicinal stone bath. Doctors would fill this bath with medicinal concoctions and get their patients to lie down in them for their treatment.

This is an enlarged photograph of the crystal which sits in the very tip of the spire on top of the stupa.

The elegant "twin ponds" Kuttam Pokuna were the bathing tanks for the monks. Water entered the larger one and flowed into the second one through an underground pipe.

Every palace or temple has a moonstone at its entrance. It can be quite a plain structure but as testimony to the relative importance of some of the buildings, the moonstones are carved more or less intricately.     The Moonstone at Mahasena Palace, is regarded as the finest of its genre.      Here in concentric circles we can see refined carvings of the spiritual bestiary of SL Buddhism: elephant, horse, lion and bull on the outer circle and geese on the middle ring.

The Samadhi Buddha Statue (4th C) is not far away in a woody clearing. It is regarded as one of the finest seated meditating Buddha statues in Sri Lanka.

The  after a short wander through refreshingly cool woods we arrive at  Abhayagiri Dagoba under renovation. You can see through the scaffolding at the top the vegetation growing happily on the rock structure. This needs to be removed regularly or the bricks become loose and start to fall away. 

Just as all important buildings have a moonstone, so they have on either side, two guardstones. And these also vary from plain unadorned slabs to highly decorative artefacts. The Ratnaprasada Guard Stone is regarded as the most finely carved in all of Sri Lanka.

Camera Battery ran out before the end of the day - Thuparama Dagoba I did see,  and finally in the dark

Issunuweriya Rock temple - my favourite. Built into a rock cluster, it is less grand but more evocative. Not to be missed is the climb up to the top of the highest rock for great views over Tissa Wewa. Mine were at dusk! Not possible to photograph but etched on my memory instead!

The day felt like a great achievement and could not have been possible without a car and a guide to pilot me round efficiently from one site to another. We could have done with a few extra hours but we would have been even more exhausted! As it was we saw the most important sights. I felt delighted with the day.

After such an entrancing and stimulating tour, it was home to the hotel to rest weary bones and recharge camera battery! Sad to say, the evening was lack lustre: a very disappointing dinner in the hotel - dreadful Western menu and done very badly - soup from a can and tasteless, and the rest fried to cardboard texture. Oh well! It's only for one night!

Thurs 18 February Sri Lanka

Easy flight - got a better seat on plane due to some confusion about my online booking. Got Fast-tracked for check in and immigration. This always helps! A smooth journey.

Arrival at Colombo was easy. Modern air terminal, clean and well organised. Calm atmosphere. No chaos and panic anywhere. Thing I notice most is - it's CLEAN!

My luggage arrived. I am quietly amazed and jubilant - no unnecessary delays. My previous experience has removed all complacency I might ever have had about baggage handling.

Irage (relative of my guide) is my driver and he is there in the Arrivals Hall with a small calm group of other drivers. There is no sense of crush or panic or hustle and this is most welcome.

Am constantly making comparisons with my arrival in Trivandrum 2 months ago. Sri Lanka feels like a fully developed nation compared to Kerala. The car passenger loading area feels just like Heathrow. Yes, there is ducking and weaving of cars and mini vans, but mostly it feels efficient and safe.

Colombo airport lies 65 km North of the city and the closest decent place to stay is Negombo Beach -10 km away. There is a cluster of tourist hotels along the beach which faces the West - and the setting sun! The sea is usually rough due to a brisk breeze and not terribly conducive to swimming but the views are good.

On the way, Irage finds me an HSBC bank which allows me to get equipped with local currency. HSBC, I am later to discover, has a good coverage in most places in Sri Lanka. Unlike India.

I have pre-arranged Paradise Beach Hotel and just as well, as it's fully booked. My room is large and airy with kettle and tea making facilities, a desk, wifi, TV and air con, balcony overlooking the pool. This bathroom could be updated but after India this is not a major problem for me. Most of all it has everything you need in it and it's CLEAN!

That, to me, is the most striking impression of Sri Lanka. The roads are clean, there is no rubbish hanging around everywhere, pavements are in good repair. Shops are tidy and identifiable. By that I mean you can actually tell what a shop sells from the outside instead of having to peer inside to find out. People seem to take pride in cleaning up their little patch of land and keeping it that way.

Traffic is well behaved and there is no constant hooting! Maybe this is just because this is NOT Colombo! Culture shock - and I am enjoying every minute of it.

Paradise Beach is just what I have been dreaming of. and I don't take long to settle in. First objective - POOL TIME!   Swimming then lying in the sun then more swimming and reading. This is BLISS!

It's midday and there are very few people round the pool. I watch many lazing about under the shade of the palm trees that extend to the boundary with the beach. There are a few vendors waiting to sell anything to anyone who ventures one step outside the hotel precinct.

The beach doesn't look particularly inviting at this time of day, there are boats pulled up on the sand and locals wandering around with umbrellas. The sun is strong and pounding down mercilessly. I'll wait till later - sunset perhaps?

My first lunch in SL is rice and curry - and it will be this same menu every day for the next week or so. Always copious and varied, according to each area, local veg specialty and chef, of course.

Afternoon passes quickly and lazily. I do wander out to the beach and check out the denizens and the boats. There are stray dogs around and I am wary, boys playing cricket and I am riveted by their after-school energy.

Back to the room for emails and laundry, and a rest before supper. I am meeting my guide driver Nimal for the first time tonight.  At 6.30 pm we are to go over the itinerary and accommodation. I will be spending the next 7 days with him. I want it to go well.

As it happens we hit it off very well, Nimal's English is excellent and he has a good sense of humour. He has travelled a lot, lived in Germany and the Middle East and worked in the hospitality industry. He knows about service and what Western clients expect. He seems too good to be true. We talk of many things. The chemistry feels right. I send up thanks for this blessing.

After supper of yet another rice and curry, I get this strong feeling of the lull before the storm. I am preparing not only my mind but also my "stuff", repacking and sorting through things so that I am ready for the 8 am departure tomorrow. Another early start!

Mon Tues Weds 15-16-17 Feb

Three days to go before my departure on holiday to Sri Lanka. Much to do!

Work as usual and on the way there is plenty to distract.

Yet another Hindu temple is holding its  festival and decorations are going up hardly 50 yards away from those put up by the nearby temple last week (and taken down)!

Such a contrast to the drab dusty street!

At work there is a calm atmosphere, we are reviewing the work that has been done and what needs to be done, but we are in a bubble of time.

Sister and I are both reflecting on the journey we have shared together, the friendship we have forged and are both resigned that other forces have been at work and we have not made the progress we had hoped for. She is more teary eyed than I as, understandably, she is left "in the stew" and I am moving on. We talk of possible future plans and volunteers who are in the pipe line but nothing is certain.

I make a point of visiting the embroidery workshop and buying some samples to take home as gifts. Sr. Celine is delighted to show me the humble surroundings (R) where such beautiful work is packaged.

She has been responsible for many of the intricate designs and the colour schemes and training the ladies in the fine work. She shares with me her sadness that this form of work is becoming outmoded now and not so much in demand.










I meet with the prime movers amongst the ladies who do a lot of the organisation and supervision work within the charity and many of them make little speeches. All this in Malayalam, their language which I have not yet mastered but can now comprehend sufficiently.

I am deeply touched by their show of acceptance and appreciation for the work I have done back stage. though not terribly visible they have understood that my efforts have strengthened Sr. Mercy and given her hope. I promise them I will not forget them and will come back some day. I hesitate to say more.

My packing is going well. I am packing for two separate purposes: one bag to take to Sri Lanka and the other to take home to the UK. It will stay behind under my bed till I return from SL. I want my stuff out of the way in case another volunteer arrives and needs to move into my space. Also I need to know the "bad news" - whether I can get all my stuff into the one case! Yikes!  I can foresee a problem on that front, but it will have to wait!

The other volunteers: Cara, Poppy and Lucy are keen to give me a send off so on my final night we decide to go for a quick "drink" at the Indian Coffee House on Shangamukan beach. No alcohol, but a variety of fruit juices and coffees.

Babu sadly cannot be with us as he has a meeting, but Usha his trainee coordinator is happy to accompany us and offers to take her scooter. It is decided that I am to ride there and back with her.

Needless to say  - I am in heaven!

Sun 14 February

I am up with the larks today as I need to dress up in a Kerala settu mundu and attend a Hindu baby's "templing" ceremony.

Before I go I need to buy an arm's length of strung jasmine flowers for my hair.


Dr. Veena, my Ayurveda doctor, has invited me to attend the Hindu equivalent of a christening. It's called "chorre oune" and literally it means "first cooked rice". I meet her at her house and she fixes up my outfit so I look right! The settu mundu is actually a gift she gave me on my last day, so I am delighted to be able to wear it (with the correct colour of sari blouse) to show my appreciation.

Friends and family have gathered for the event, celebrated in a charming Devi temple tucked away in a residential area not far from their home.

I am honoured to be invited. Normally Hindu temples are out of bounds for non-Hindus.

Behold the classic Indian baby - Gowri - a nickname for the goddess Parvati.

She is 6 months old and until today has never set foot in the temple before. Today she will eat her first solid food and become
fully 'human'. It's almost as if she were still a 'deity' in some respects and therefore shouldn't attend the temple.

The ceremony will mark the beginning of her eating solid food at home as well.

And she is such a "polite" infant, never crying or making a noise. Here she is sitting on her grandfather's lap on the floor of the temple, wrapped in a cloth of "gold".

(R) She has just had some cooked rice inserted into her mouth against her will and she is not keen to swallow at all!

This is repeated time and time again, as every member of her family takes a turn at 'feeding' her. She remains calm and respectful, humouring this strange insistence she has a taste of chili, cooked rice and chopped banana....


It all happens early in the morning before the day is too hot and the temple gets too busy. It's a very happy time and I get given a full tour of the temple (no photographs allowed). I cause a bit of a sensation with the other devotees.

By the time it's all over, I am too late for Mass. I nip home and change and head off to visit Sr. Annie at the nursing home. Thankfully she is much improved since last week. At her bedside I meet another fascinating person - James Shelton.

We get chatting and he and his wife invite me back to their place for lunch. I get to meet their children and I listen to some English reading. Another happy episode.

Oh and I forgot to say, James has a motorcycle and offers to drive me all over.

I am a bit reticent because of the seeming  inconvenience to his family, but he insists that because I am a friend of Sr. Annie's and because she was so good to him, he would like to offer some kindness in return.  Eventually we decide he will take me to the Boat Club!

This turns out to be a large park by an estuary with an astonishing array of sculptures.

The day is hot and not that comfortable for wandering about a park but it certainly bears remembering for another time.

The ride on the motorcycle is of course the highlight of the whole adventure for me!

Sat 13 February

Still in Kanyakumari. Breakfast in the bazaar at a cheap and cheerful place recommended by our Rough Guide.


We think we might try to gain access to the Kanya Hindu temple but give up - too many beggars and  too many pilgrims queue barging.

We notice another HUGE queue for the ferry and thank our lucky stars we did that yesterday.

Decide to walk over to the massive Catholic Church and are slightly disappointed by its promise of external beauty and less than inspirational interior.

Never mind, I am sure it looks lovely full of beautiful sari clad ladies at prayer.

The memory of the tsunami is never too far away. We make our way back through the fishermen's housing nearby and  down to the actual seaside.

Lots of colourful boats - and some bear the names of various funding agencies such as TEAR Fund.

Also one seems to be a donation from a Tsunami fund. Can you make out the weather beaten lettering on this one?

We make our way to the stone jetty and cannot resist a walk across the huge armour rocks to the very end. We sit for quite a while staring out at the bay of Bengal and watching the fishermen. The backdrop is of the rocky outcrops we visited yesterday.

This trip seems to be about extremities! Going to the end of things and places!

Lucy and Poppy look lovely in their bright skirts against a muted background.

We are drawn to the church swathed in scaffolding which we saw yesterday and wander through more fishermen's housing to reach that - a brand new church being built! Quite exciting! 

There cannot be many countries in the world where anyone is building churches any more. Certainly not in the West. Pity!

It's quite reminiscent for me of the renovation work I was involved in at St. Anne's Church in HK all those years ago.

We quite rapidly run out of steam and things to see. It's time to go home.

Lunch at The Seaview Hotel restaurant - blissful air-conditioning as the day is so much hotter than yesterday!  Then make our way to the bone shaker bus. Train service on Saturday is not good!

The ride is surprisingly smooth and cool. And I get a lot of pictures of the Cardamom Hills, something I missed on the way down, sitting on the wrong side of the train!

These are the tail end of the Western Ghat mountain range which runs down the extreme East side of Kerala and forms a natural border with Tamil Nadu.

We are on a road which girdles the Southern extremity of the hills and where the ancient bare stones seem to tumble down to nothing into the coastal plain. 

The pics are all taken from a moving bus so they are mostly hit and miss.

Pleasing views of plantations of banana, coconut and the odd lotus pond and watercourse in the foreground.

Before we know it we are approaching Trivandrum. It has been a three hour journey but full of distractions and sights to see.  We are quite proud to have done the local thing!

Babu comes to collect us and we are home in comfort in no time!  A good sense of achievement and a great two days!

We know we have Sunday free to relax and regroup before the rush of next week. 

To my surprise, Valsa, my tailor lady awaits me as I come in the door. She has stitched all the churidars and the sari blouses and they are perfect. 

I am particularly pleased as I need the burgundy sari blouse for tomorrow morning! But that is another story!

Fri 12 Feb - Public Holiday

Today is the Hindu festival "Shivarathri" so we have the makings of a long weekend. We all take the day off work and pack our bags.

A trip is a must and we have set our sights on the furthest Southern tip of the Indian continent -
KANYAKUMARI, over the border of another Indian state - Tamil Nadu.

There is something compelling about the furthest or the highest point of land that demands a visit by the questing traveller, and this is no exception. The travel guides promise there are things to see and do, and a train ride to get there, so we are off!

Babu drops us at the back entrance to the station which is a sneaky thing to do as there are NO queues for tickets and virtually no traffic. It's a good start.

Our Mumbai Express is half an hour late arriving but we are patient. It unloads most of its passengers so we have a whole sleeper section to ourselves.

In a mere two hours we arrive at our destination. There is a stiff sea breeze and the sky is cloudy, which turns out to be a blessing as we spend the rest of the day outside and don't get scorched.

We walk into town and find our budget accommodation - the Manickham Hotel. We are on the ground floor with rooms at  Rs. 550 (£8), as the floors rise they charge an extra Rs. 100. The rooms are basic and functional. They also seem relatively safe - an important detail for 4 ladies.

After a quick lunch, we head for an inviting ferry out to a rocky island where there is a memorial monument to the wandering monk Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902).


His period of wandering or "prabrajya" all over India is documented in some well preserved letters where he details his spiritual growth. He developed a synthesis between the tenets of Hinduism and concepts of social justice.

While visiting this part of India, he is said to have spent 3 days alone on this rock meditating on the message he was to deliver to an important comparative religion meeting in Chicago.

The place is windswept and packed with tourists, yet affords beautiful views and even quiet spaces. We met some lovely groups of Indian families on pilgrimage here from huge distances..

The second rock holds a colossal statue to the memory of the Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar. It is known as India's "Statue of Liberty".

After the rough crossing back to terra firma, we proceeded to the bathing ghats at the very tip of the promontory and waited for sunset sitting on a wall.
We were stared at and photographed many times.

We are not alone. There must be over two thousand people here today and there is a carnival atmosphere in the air. vendor selling every imaginable food and trinket.

There are bathers (mostly male) fully clothed and cavorting about in the surf. This very spot is a confluence of three seas - the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. It boggles the mind just to think of this.




We get tired of sitting around and decide to go The sunset is not looking too promising at this point - the cloud cover is 80% and we cannot see the sun at all. Nobody seems to mind a bit.



We decide to go walkabout and explore a few more of the monuments which litter this area.






The memorial to the victims of the Tsunami monument is original and I quite like it. I think it is actually quite tasteful and discreet, though the travel guide book describes it as blasé. What do you think?

We make our way to the Gandhi memorial, which we intend to climb and from where we hope to view the sunset if there is one.

The ground floor of this Orissan style temple contains a rock, the plinth of which used to contain the Mahatma's ashes.

There is a hole in the ceiling through which the sun's rays penetrate on 2nd October - Gandhi's birthday - and fall on the stone. Ingenious.

We do climb the structure and there is a great view but the cloud cover has not shifted and we lose interest.

 Just as we are going down the stairs I look back to check we haven't left anything behind and the whole sky instantly flushes pink.

It is miraculous and stunning. We all retrace our steps and prepare for the light show.

Sunset extraordinaire

Getting better all the time!

It was well worth the wait!

After dark, we wander back through the bazaar and come across a lovely antique shop. Unusually, it is manned by an Italian, "Justo", who came to India years ago as a self-professed hippy, married a local and now is a well established tradesman.

He has a marvelous collection of mostly North Indian artefacts and I am very attracted by some wooden handblocks, a fine buddha's head and other curiosities.

He says he has closed his books for the night, so if we want to come back tomorrow we can chat further and maybe buy something. This removes the pressure on is and the girls feel free to come in and look at the nice pieces.

Justo shows us his top selling item - an antique brass lamp and demonstrates the method of lighting it. He turns the lights out and....


The effect is magical!