In nearly a fortnight I have only encountered 5 visiting birders. 4 Ausssies and a German. That might change a bit when we go to some of the endemic rich areas in the second half of our trip. I have really enjoyed the birding, especially in wetlands and forests. Every morning I have got up at dawn to be around for peak bird activity. One morning I paid about £10 to be accompanied by an in house hotel naturalist for 2 hours. His advice was to treat birding as a meditation, to watch for the shadows, to stay still for 10 minutes, and don't worry about trying to identify everything. Much of my birding has been within 200 metres of our various hotels and guest houses, sometimes lurking furtively around the air conditioning plant and compost bins. Sue is invariably having a lie in when this is happening. I haven't seen anything rare yet but the highlights have been three sightings of Indian pittas, a gorgeous
Orange headed thrush, the bee eaters, sea eagles, a brown owl, the amazing primary school child designed stork billed kingfisher, the Asian open bills, the Indian roller, the red wattled lapwings. Brahminy kites are as frequently seen as their red cousins back in Blighty. They make the most pathetic sounding noises. Their collective name should be a whinge of Brahminy kites.
We have been to most of the major sites in the cultural triangle. This is where most of the tourists gather. But there are so many sites to visit that some are honeypots and others are very quiet. I have heard several British tourists complain about "temple overload". Hashtag first world problems. However in mitigation for these whingers, the heat can be sapping if you don't start your day trip early in the morning and the local driver guides hired by tourists can often be heard delivering their standard patter for what must be in many cases the 100 th or more time, which can be a bit dull sounding . You can see the eyes of the tourists glaze over as they are bombarded with umpteen facts about some ancient Buddhist king from 900 years ago. As you might tell, ancient ruins ain't really my thing, but I have been impressed with what I have seen, especially the iconic giant carved in one piece stone Buddhas at Polonnawaru. When the lonely planet guide mentions the "profound spirituality" of such places, I have to say my experiences of such, in such places is easily destroyed. For me it only takes a handful of hawkers, or a snake charmer having to tap his reluctant cobra on the head to get it to perform, to undermine my feelings of spirituality.
We have met some lovely tourists, but of those we have spoken to in some depth, I have been particularly impressed with the Aussies, some of the Germans and French. Some nice brits too, but we do let the side down. I think it's because some of the British tourists in January are primarily chasing winter sun and don't have much of a clue about where they are visiting on their whistlestop tours. The Aussies at this time of year obviously don't need to travel to chase the sun, so they are here for the culture. Some of the brits we have met hate curry, which must be awkward for them here. Tea is served with hot milk, often uht, which is another bone of contention. A typical January British tourist here might be a retired offsted inspector from somewhere like Harrogate, ready and willing to put a hotel in "special measures" if only they had the power to do so. Sri Lanka needs the income from mass Chinese tourism, a big growth sector. Without wish to indulge in racial stereotyping, shall we just say that attending hotel buffet frequented by a coach load of 20 somethings from Beijing is quite an eye opener.
I know some you might say "you should see India if you think Sri Lanka is rough and ready and chaotic", but I am still
getting my head around all those corrugated iron clad buildings you see everywhere. When my son was young, we used to have a competition on Fenland car trips to see who could spot the most derelict sheds and either side of the road. Sue would be the judge whenever there was a shout of "ramshackle!". If we did that here, e.g. on our four hour bus ride from polonnawaru To kandy the scores would be tied at 10,000 all. In fact the game should be reversed to count the substantially constructed buildings that are well maintained. The four hour bus ride by the way cost us less than the bus ride from our house in Peterborough to the city centre (3km).
Food wise, we are very fond of the Vardies. Deep fried flying saucer shaped spiced lentil cakes the size of a flattened egg and costing about 10 p each. I call them "Jamies" after the footballer Jamie Vardy. I have said many times that if I were president of the uk republic- Kim-Jon-Dave - I would shut down all the burger and kebab outlets and force them to reopen serving only dhall. Here I am in dhall heaven and have eaten this wholesome food every day. Here though it is served mostly cold or lukewarm, which I do not totally approve ofa
No comments:
Post a Comment