C
Claudia
Guest
Diese Manioc-Chips sehen gut aus. Die muss unbedingt mal probieren 
Newsletter aus Sri Lanka von Royston Ellis
- Ersteller Premasiri
- Erstellt am
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- kandy nureliya roystonellis
Premasiri
Well-known member
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Tropical Topics, Sunday 4 December 2011.
Sunny greetings from Sri Lanka where, actually, we’ve had an unusual amount of heavy rain for the past few days. “Good for the garden” I tell the tourists, but they don’t seem very happy…Neither is Ramesh, who’s in charge of the garden, as he has to sweep up all the fallen fronds every morning.
Mixed Grill Stakes
Behind the Nebula Supermarket in Aluthgama, the gateway to the south of Sri Lanka, is Pier 88, a licenced, open air restaurant on the bank of the Bentota River. As well as being popular with visitors and locals because of its reassuring river view, it has become the lunchtime hangout of resident expats, probably attracted by the reasonable prices as much as by the view.
There is good, New World wine by the glass at Rs300 (£ 1.71; US$ 2.72 ), a refreshing gin and grapefruit cocktail (Rs275) and a menu of cooked-on-demand snacks and grilled items. Thus I discovered a new entry in the stakes for Sri Lanka’s best mixed grill. Shown above is the current leading contender with chicken, beef, pork chop, sausages, mixed vegetables, grilled tomato and potato wedges topped with a fried egg at Rs950 (£ 5.42; $8.63). All prices are inclusive of tax and service charge.
Mystery Object
On impulse and because I was intrigued by it, I bought this object (for a cantata, not a song) at the recent auction of collectibles held in Colombo. It measures 16 x 35 inches, is made of durable, good quality leather, and seems to fold in the middle. One half is decorated with coins, mostly from Morocco with the newest one dated 1941. The other half contains a pocket. The flip side has two more deep pockets.
I wondered if it is part of something else, like a camel rider’s saddle although the coins can’t have been very comfortable to sit on. The auctioneer describes it on the invoice as “leather bag with inserted coins.” I have invested in a huge can of Brasso to get the coins polished.
Making Tracks
In bafflement I watched the rooting up of the concrete sleepers and lines of the railway track between Aluthgama and Galle in the south. I was baffled because more gravel was then dumped on the track, tamped down, rolled, and replacement concrete sleepers and lines were laid. This is to be the new high-speed railway line linking Colombo with Galle and the south.
And now the first train has used the new line. It consisted of a rake of wheeled hoppers filled with gravel that was dumped on top of the sleepers. It was hauled by this cute Y-class 0-6-0 Hunslett Shunting Diesel Electric Locomotive, No.694, part of 29 built and delivered in 1969. I’m awaiting the first high-speed train next year with some trepidation, hoping my old cottage won’t get the shakes.
Called to the Bar
Here is a real drinker’s bar, located in the heart of Colombo and accessible to the members (and their guests) of the Gymkhana Club, the oldest -- and possibly the best -- sports and social club in Sri Lanka.
The Club can trace its roots to the founding in 1836 of the Colombo Cricket Club (CCC) and although this lapsed for a few years it was revived in 1863. In 1894 the CCC moved to its present location in Maitland Crescent, combining in 1959 with the Colombo Hockey & Football Club (CH & FC) (founded in 1892) and the Queen’s Club (founded for Tennis in 1899) to form the Gymkhana Club.
This bar is on the first floor and the counter, with its sturdy stools made for broad backsides, has been the backdrop for many memorable evenings. It carries a plaque explaining that it was presented to the club in 1982 by former cricketer and past chairman, Mr Kumar Boralessa.
At the deep end, among the shelves of bottles, is a display cabinet containing the jacket, cap and tie in maroon, grey and white stripes, that belonged to D J O Grey, a member of the CCC who played for Ceylon from 1927 to 1946. It’s a fitting symbol of what a past club chairman described as the “importance of maintaining standards.”
Let’s drink to that.
That Object
While writing this I have heard from the former owner of the mystery object shown above that it is a leather satchel. He writes: “I acquired it in Fez in 1973. Originally it had a shoulder strap, but that was gnawed off by our unruly Dalmatian in Bangkok. It was a cash satchel for a seller of karkadeh (hibiscus flower tea) poured from a brass container with a long serpentine spout, which was carried on the back of the vendor.”
A What of the year?
From an Institute in North Carolina, USA, I have received a letter announcing that I have been nominated as “Man of the Year 2011” for “distinctive accomplishments in your field.” Oddly, I am told to choose my field.
I am also promised that I can have “a cherry wood finish and ebony plate with gold lettering…signifying your selection as a Man of the Year for 2011.” Whoa! – It’s “a” man of the year, then? There are others? How many?
And if I have really been selected, as the letter says, “after careful global study,” how come the Institute doesn’t know my field?
Alas, modesty forbids me accepting the award, even as “A” Man of the Year, so I shall not be wiring the requested US$295 to a bank in San Francisco for the plaque.
Perhaps the Institute would like to ascertain my field by buying a copy of my ebook Beat: The Collected Poems fromwww.roystonellis.com/shop? That’s only £2.99 payable through Paypal.
Beat regards
Royston
Noch ein Link und Photos vom Restaurant Pier 88 in Aluthgama
http://www.serena-villa.com/nebularestaurantde.html
LG Premasiri
Sunny greetings from Sri Lanka where, actually, we’ve had an unusual amount of heavy rain for the past few days. “Good for the garden” I tell the tourists, but they don’t seem very happy…Neither is Ramesh, who’s in charge of the garden, as he has to sweep up all the fallen fronds every morning.
Mixed Grill Stakes
Behind the Nebula Supermarket in Aluthgama, the gateway to the south of Sri Lanka, is Pier 88, a licenced, open air restaurant on the bank of the Bentota River. As well as being popular with visitors and locals because of its reassuring river view, it has become the lunchtime hangout of resident expats, probably attracted by the reasonable prices as much as by the view.
There is good, New World wine by the glass at Rs300 (£ 1.71; US$ 2.72 ), a refreshing gin and grapefruit cocktail (Rs275) and a menu of cooked-on-demand snacks and grilled items. Thus I discovered a new entry in the stakes for Sri Lanka’s best mixed grill. Shown above is the current leading contender with chicken, beef, pork chop, sausages, mixed vegetables, grilled tomato and potato wedges topped with a fried egg at Rs950 (£ 5.42; $8.63). All prices are inclusive of tax and service charge.
Mystery Object
On impulse and because I was intrigued by it, I bought this object (for a cantata, not a song) at the recent auction of collectibles held in Colombo. It measures 16 x 35 inches, is made of durable, good quality leather, and seems to fold in the middle. One half is decorated with coins, mostly from Morocco with the newest one dated 1941. The other half contains a pocket. The flip side has two more deep pockets.
I wondered if it is part of something else, like a camel rider’s saddle although the coins can’t have been very comfortable to sit on. The auctioneer describes it on the invoice as “leather bag with inserted coins.” I have invested in a huge can of Brasso to get the coins polished.
Making Tracks
In bafflement I watched the rooting up of the concrete sleepers and lines of the railway track between Aluthgama and Galle in the south. I was baffled because more gravel was then dumped on the track, tamped down, rolled, and replacement concrete sleepers and lines were laid. This is to be the new high-speed railway line linking Colombo with Galle and the south.
And now the first train has used the new line. It consisted of a rake of wheeled hoppers filled with gravel that was dumped on top of the sleepers. It was hauled by this cute Y-class 0-6-0 Hunslett Shunting Diesel Electric Locomotive, No.694, part of 29 built and delivered in 1969. I’m awaiting the first high-speed train next year with some trepidation, hoping my old cottage won’t get the shakes.
Called to the Bar
Here is a real drinker’s bar, located in the heart of Colombo and accessible to the members (and their guests) of the Gymkhana Club, the oldest -- and possibly the best -- sports and social club in Sri Lanka.
The Club can trace its roots to the founding in 1836 of the Colombo Cricket Club (CCC) and although this lapsed for a few years it was revived in 1863. In 1894 the CCC moved to its present location in Maitland Crescent, combining in 1959 with the Colombo Hockey & Football Club (CH & FC) (founded in 1892) and the Queen’s Club (founded for Tennis in 1899) to form the Gymkhana Club.
This bar is on the first floor and the counter, with its sturdy stools made for broad backsides, has been the backdrop for many memorable evenings. It carries a plaque explaining that it was presented to the club in 1982 by former cricketer and past chairman, Mr Kumar Boralessa.
At the deep end, among the shelves of bottles, is a display cabinet containing the jacket, cap and tie in maroon, grey and white stripes, that belonged to D J O Grey, a member of the CCC who played for Ceylon from 1927 to 1946. It’s a fitting symbol of what a past club chairman described as the “importance of maintaining standards.”
Let’s drink to that.
That Object
While writing this I have heard from the former owner of the mystery object shown above that it is a leather satchel. He writes: “I acquired it in Fez in 1973. Originally it had a shoulder strap, but that was gnawed off by our unruly Dalmatian in Bangkok. It was a cash satchel for a seller of karkadeh (hibiscus flower tea) poured from a brass container with a long serpentine spout, which was carried on the back of the vendor.”
A What of the year?
From an Institute in North Carolina, USA, I have received a letter announcing that I have been nominated as “Man of the Year 2011” for “distinctive accomplishments in your field.” Oddly, I am told to choose my field.
I am also promised that I can have “a cherry wood finish and ebony plate with gold lettering…signifying your selection as a Man of the Year for 2011.” Whoa! – It’s “a” man of the year, then? There are others? How many?
And if I have really been selected, as the letter says, “after careful global study,” how come the Institute doesn’t know my field?
Alas, modesty forbids me accepting the award, even as “A” Man of the Year, so I shall not be wiring the requested US$295 to a bank in San Francisco for the plaque.
Perhaps the Institute would like to ascertain my field by buying a copy of my ebook Beat: The Collected Poems fromwww.roystonellis.com/shop? That’s only £2.99 payable through Paypal.
Beat regards
Royston
Noch ein Link und Photos vom Restaurant Pier 88 in Aluthgama
http://www.serena-villa.com/nebularestaurantde.html
LG Premasiri
Premasiri
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- 8. Aug. 2009
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- 10.696
TROPICAL TOPICS, 11 December 2011 Greetings from Sri Lanka where the sun is shining and we are counting the days to a sunny Christmas. Cutting Edge Rural skills still exist in Sri Lanka, in this case an itinerant knife and scissor sharpener. Ajit, 13, turned up at our gate last Saturday morning offering to sharpen knives. He did three of them, plus a grass cutter and two pairs of scissors, on this ingeniously designed sharpener, with a small grinding stone he turned by hand as he sat on its box. The cost? Just Rs300 (£ 1.71; US$ 2.60).
Changing Colombo Colombo is moving up market, especially in the area of the World Trade Centre (WTC) whose twin towers and the Bank Of Ceylon head office loom over a trio of five-star hotels: The Galadari, The Ceylon Continental and the Hilton Colombo, and the less starry Colombo City Hotel.
Opposite the WTC a grand old building has been restored with tact (no air-conditioning in two of the high-ceilinged restaurants for instance). It was originally built in 1677 as a hospital for those serving in the Dutch East India Company. Over the centuries it suffered both neglect and restoration until being sealed off from the public as military/police bastion. There were efforts to convert it into a boutique hotel but it was eventually taken over by Colombo’s Urban Development Authority. The conversion to a mall of 12 shops and restaurants was undertaken by military labour directed by architect Murad Ismail (www.micda.com). Now it is accessible to everyone, with three top end restaurants (Harpo’s Colombo Fort Café, Work In Progress, and The Ministry of Crab) adjoining its courtyard.
That’s not the only indication of better times. That house of refined dining, the Chesa Swiss restaurant, has deigned, after more than two decades of evening exclusivity, to open at lunchtime too. A Gift of Cheese I love it when visitors from overseas drop in to my cottage bearing gifts. Often they are bottles of Islay malt whisky bought duty free. John, who is actually a shareholder of the Scottish Malt Whisky Society, came from the UK last week bearing not a bottle of malt, but a ball of cheese.
His stunning choice was this farmhouse smoked cheese from Glynhynod Farm, Ceredigion in Wales. It is one of several splendid cheeses produced in the Teifi Valley (www.teifivalleycheeseproducers.com) by dedicated cheese makers. In 2007 it won a gold award as one of the best cheeses in the world. Its taste is wonderfully smoky with a lingering finish. If that sounds like a malt whisky, see next week’s newsletter for comments on a malt whisky tasting hosted by John. Incidentally, a new duty free shop selling alcohol has opened in the arrival lounge at Sri Lanka’s international airport. This competes with the existing one and it means more choice for passengers. It’s worth visiting both of them to buy hard-to-find liquor but, alas, no cheese. Dated No one commented on my “deliberate mistake” in Newsletter No.85, dated 27 November 2010. It should, of course, have been 2011. Apologies to the archivists. Win A Round-The-World Jaunt I avoid competitions where the prize is an Economy Class ticket as I don’t think I’d like that. So this competition, just announced with a prize of free BUSINESS class flights for two around the world AND hotel accommodation, sounds appealing.
To enter the competition, participants need only to sign up, either via the Star Alliance or the Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) Facebook page (facebook.com/staralliance or facebook.com/globalhotelalliance). The competition began on Thursday 8 December and is running for only eleven days. Each day, participants are asked to guess a new destination based on clues made available on both the Star Alliance and GHA Facebook pages. The lucky winner will be able to put together a Round-the-World trip for two people with business class flights on Star Alliance's airlines and luxury hotel accommodation at GHA member hotels. If you win, I’d like to come too. Maldives revisited. Since my first visit in 1984, I have visited the Maldives 79 times. (I know that because I record all my flights in a Passenger Flying Log Book I bought at Gatwick Airport in 1982.) I often stay at Kurumba because of convenience as it is the closest resort to the airport and to Male’, the capital of the 1,190-island archipelago. Kurumba is the first resort in the Maldives both chronologically (it was the first to open, in 1972) and in terms of stylish accommodation and service. On my visit there last week I was lucky enough to stay in a villa which had a swimming pool (and day bed and waterfall shower) in a private courtyard accessed from its entrance lobby or from the bathroom.
I met a couple, Liz and Steve, who were on their 12[SUP]th[/SUP] visit to Kurumba. Having stayed in resorts in the Caribbean and elsewhere in the Maldives, they said they returned to Kurumba so often because of the warm hospitality and friendship of the resort’s staff, and being able to laze on the beach without disturbance from pedlars. They were full of praise for Abdul Samad (seen with me here), now the resident manager, who started his career at Kurumba in 1982.
At the resort’s Sand Bar I tried a delightfully refreshing cocktail with the name Sailor’s Forte. It consisted of “vodka, Blue Curacao built over ice, topped with bitter lemon and served long” and cost US$ 6. Sunset free.
Historical Maldives The Maldives has a fascinating history stemming from its fervour for independence. The national hero is the young man who led a seaborne guerrilla campaign to oust the occupying Portuguese in the 16[SUP]th[/SUP] century. His life and courage are commemorated in my novel “The Maldives Avenger” available as an eBook from www.roystonellis.com/shop at £2.99; payment by Paypal.
Sunny regards Royston
Auch von mir liebe Grüsse Premasiri
Sunny regards Royston
Auch von mir liebe Grüsse Premasiri
Premasiri
Well-known member
- Registriert
- 8. Aug. 2009
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- 10.696
TROPICAL TOPICS, 18 December 2011.
Greetings!
Just a week to go to Christmas, celebrated in Sri Lanka as elsewhere with present giving and receiving, festive meals and much drinking, even by those who are not Christian born. We had our staff lunch party by a swimming pool on Friday; full report in next week’s newsletter.
Grown in Sri Lanka
These plump strawberries were grown in Sri Lanka, at the Jagro StrawberryFields in Nuwara Eliya. That hill station begun by the British in the 19[SUP]th[/SUP] century is 1,884ms (6,182ft) above sea level and enjoys cool nights, warm days and occasional wet weather (is that why the British colonials loved it so much?).
The strawberries seen here (250g; enough for a delicious dessert for four after a Sunday dinner of local roast pork knuckle enjoyed in the garden) cost Rs 380 (£ 2.17; US$ 3.30).
Malt Whisky Tasting.
Last week, John (visiting from Wales), invited me to a mini Scotch malt whisky tasting at a Scottish mutual friend’s house. It was mini because there were only four of us present to taste four cask-strength malt whiskies, and because the mini tasting bottles of 100ml limited us to just 25ml of each malt.
John is a shareholder of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (www.smws.co.uk) that produces for its members a small quantity every month of malt whisky drawn from a single cask. Commercial single malts are produced by blending the contents of casks from a single distillery, hence the “single” appellation, but they are still a blend, created to match the demand (nose & palate) of ecstatic customers.
The society only ever bottles single malt whisky from single casks, hence every bottling produces a whisky with a unique nose, taste and length. I discovered that one of the joys of tasting is to read the experts’ comments as a guide to what to expect. One cask malt was described as “wasabi peas, lemon Lemsip, Castrol GTX, and upturned fishing boats.”
The malt I liked best was described as having a nose of “elastoplasts, charcoal, leather,” and “tobacco, walnuts, TCP, coal-dust and tar.” I relished its powerful smokiness and found hints of scorched bacon in its taste. These cask malts are only identified by a bottling number but John revealed that I had fallen for a Laphroaig that had spent 20 years in an ex-sherry butt and was 59.6% vol.
For revenge, when John next visits, I shall organise a tasting of Sri Lanka’s national drink: arrack.
Holiday Reading
For something different and mind-opening this holiday season, I am reading a book that asks the question: “Do you know that your social rank influences your sex life?” Its opening line tells me that “your sex-life is like your food supply: there are constraints on its quantity and quality.”
Fear not, this is not one of those lurid, how-to-do-it manuals but a scientific treatise comparing humans with animals and explaining how each human is a version of a Compulsive Dominant (COM-DOM) or a Superior Subordinate (SUPER-SUB). And sometimes, according to circumstances, we can be both; and even being subordinate has unexpected benefits.
The book has lots of questionnaires and is absolutely fascinating in its revelations about human behaviour. It’s good holiday reading as it requires the reader’s full attention so as not to miss any of its thought-provoking gems. Called Sex, Food and Rank, (http://www.friesenpress.com/bookstore/title/119734000001754519) it is by a distinguished Professor Emeritus of the University of Victoria BC, Canada, Dr Derek Ellis.
The caption on this photograph, which appears if you Google “Derek Ellis Fonds,” says: “Professor D V Ellis in 1959 was the first Canadian biologist scuba diver.”
Ellis? Does the author’s name sound familiar? It should do: I’m proud to say he’s one of my two elder brothers. This photo of the young (minded) trio of brothers was taken at a garden party reunion in England with Derek on the left and Patrick in the sun hat.
Art
My taste in art seems to match my enjoyment of cheese and whisky – I like bold, even brash, paintings that convey a mood or inspire desire. So when I saw this painting at an auction of hotel artefacts last week, I outbid three others (who wanted it to help them sell coffee) so I could have this one to liven up a wall at home. Now, I suppose, I’ll have to buy an espresso machine.
Party Time
Chaaya Tranz is the name of a re-designed hotel in the west coast resort town of Hikkaduwa, which the hotel’s owning company, Keells, would like to see becoming the Ibiza of Asia. Together with many of Colombo’s “In Crowd,” I attended the opening party earlier this month, only to be caught on camera by a young lady from Hi TV.
You can see the brief interview 3mins 20secs in on this clip. The gentleman in a sarong and trilby seen later is Channa Daswatte, the brilliant young architect who masterminded the transformation of the property that I was calling Try-A-Chance by the time the evening finished.
http://www.dailymirror.lk/hi-tv/157-hitv/15212-hitv-the-launch-of-chaaya-tranz-hikkaduwa.html
Beats to Hippy
The bohemians of the 1930s gave way to the Beats of the 1950s and the Beatniks of the 1960s and, lo and behold, the Hippies of the 1970s. It was the arrival of hippies in Sri Lanka that led to the development of Hikkaduwa and its nickname of Hippy-kaduwa.
For beat poetry pre-hippy days, go no further than www.roystonellis.com/shop where you can buy -- for a mere £ 2.99 with payment by Paypal -- your own copy of my eBook: Beat: The Collected Poems, which has a generous forward by Jimmy Page (he of Led Zepellin).
Beat Regards & Merry Christmas
Royston Ellis
LG Premasiri
Greetings!
Just a week to go to Christmas, celebrated in Sri Lanka as elsewhere with present giving and receiving, festive meals and much drinking, even by those who are not Christian born. We had our staff lunch party by a swimming pool on Friday; full report in next week’s newsletter.
Grown in Sri Lanka
These plump strawberries were grown in Sri Lanka, at the Jagro StrawberryFields in Nuwara Eliya. That hill station begun by the British in the 19[SUP]th[/SUP] century is 1,884ms (6,182ft) above sea level and enjoys cool nights, warm days and occasional wet weather (is that why the British colonials loved it so much?).
The strawberries seen here (250g; enough for a delicious dessert for four after a Sunday dinner of local roast pork knuckle enjoyed in the garden) cost Rs 380 (£ 2.17; US$ 3.30).
Malt Whisky Tasting.
Last week, John (visiting from Wales), invited me to a mini Scotch malt whisky tasting at a Scottish mutual friend’s house. It was mini because there were only four of us present to taste four cask-strength malt whiskies, and because the mini tasting bottles of 100ml limited us to just 25ml of each malt.
John is a shareholder of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (www.smws.co.uk) that produces for its members a small quantity every month of malt whisky drawn from a single cask. Commercial single malts are produced by blending the contents of casks from a single distillery, hence the “single” appellation, but they are still a blend, created to match the demand (nose & palate) of ecstatic customers.
The society only ever bottles single malt whisky from single casks, hence every bottling produces a whisky with a unique nose, taste and length. I discovered that one of the joys of tasting is to read the experts’ comments as a guide to what to expect. One cask malt was described as “wasabi peas, lemon Lemsip, Castrol GTX, and upturned fishing boats.”
The malt I liked best was described as having a nose of “elastoplasts, charcoal, leather,” and “tobacco, walnuts, TCP, coal-dust and tar.” I relished its powerful smokiness and found hints of scorched bacon in its taste. These cask malts are only identified by a bottling number but John revealed that I had fallen for a Laphroaig that had spent 20 years in an ex-sherry butt and was 59.6% vol.
For revenge, when John next visits, I shall organise a tasting of Sri Lanka’s national drink: arrack.
Holiday Reading
For something different and mind-opening this holiday season, I am reading a book that asks the question: “Do you know that your social rank influences your sex life?” Its opening line tells me that “your sex-life is like your food supply: there are constraints on its quantity and quality.”
Fear not, this is not one of those lurid, how-to-do-it manuals but a scientific treatise comparing humans with animals and explaining how each human is a version of a Compulsive Dominant (COM-DOM) or a Superior Subordinate (SUPER-SUB). And sometimes, according to circumstances, we can be both; and even being subordinate has unexpected benefits.
The book has lots of questionnaires and is absolutely fascinating in its revelations about human behaviour. It’s good holiday reading as it requires the reader’s full attention so as not to miss any of its thought-provoking gems. Called Sex, Food and Rank, (http://www.friesenpress.com/bookstore/title/119734000001754519) it is by a distinguished Professor Emeritus of the University of Victoria BC, Canada, Dr Derek Ellis.
The caption on this photograph, which appears if you Google “Derek Ellis Fonds,” says: “Professor D V Ellis in 1959 was the first Canadian biologist scuba diver.”
Ellis? Does the author’s name sound familiar? It should do: I’m proud to say he’s one of my two elder brothers. This photo of the young (minded) trio of brothers was taken at a garden party reunion in England with Derek on the left and Patrick in the sun hat.
Art
My taste in art seems to match my enjoyment of cheese and whisky – I like bold, even brash, paintings that convey a mood or inspire desire. So when I saw this painting at an auction of hotel artefacts last week, I outbid three others (who wanted it to help them sell coffee) so I could have this one to liven up a wall at home. Now, I suppose, I’ll have to buy an espresso machine.
Party Time
Chaaya Tranz is the name of a re-designed hotel in the west coast resort town of Hikkaduwa, which the hotel’s owning company, Keells, would like to see becoming the Ibiza of Asia. Together with many of Colombo’s “In Crowd,” I attended the opening party earlier this month, only to be caught on camera by a young lady from Hi TV.
You can see the brief interview 3mins 20secs in on this clip. The gentleman in a sarong and trilby seen later is Channa Daswatte, the brilliant young architect who masterminded the transformation of the property that I was calling Try-A-Chance by the time the evening finished.
http://www.dailymirror.lk/hi-tv/157-hitv/15212-hitv-the-launch-of-chaaya-tranz-hikkaduwa.html
Beats to Hippy
The bohemians of the 1930s gave way to the Beats of the 1950s and the Beatniks of the 1960s and, lo and behold, the Hippies of the 1970s. It was the arrival of hippies in Sri Lanka that led to the development of Hikkaduwa and its nickname of Hippy-kaduwa.
For beat poetry pre-hippy days, go no further than www.roystonellis.com/shop where you can buy -- for a mere £ 2.99 with payment by Paypal -- your own copy of my eBook: Beat: The Collected Poems, which has a generous forward by Jimmy Page (he of Led Zepellin).
Beat Regards & Merry Christmas
Royston Ellis
LG Premasiri
C
Claudia
Guest
Die Erdbeeren sind aber ganz schön teuer, oder?
2,55 Euro für 250 gr - die sind bei uns billiger in der Saison
2,55 Euro für 250 gr - die sind bei uns billiger in der Saison
Premasiri
Well-known member
- Registriert
- 8. Aug. 2009
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- 10.696
TROPICAL TOPICS, Sunday 25 December 2011
Sunny season’s greetings from Sri Lanka to all readers around the world.
Made in Sri Lanka
It’s not a traditional tropical Christmas treat but I was hugely impressed by this simple Cheese Spread made in Sri Lanka by Kotmale Dairy Products (www.kotmale.lk). I had never heard of this flavour of spread until I picked up a jar from the back of the chilled display cabinet in my local supermarket and read the label: “Cheese Spread, Chillie & Maldive Fish.”
For Sri Lankans, Maldive fish (that is dried, boiled, smoked fish from the Maldives) is an essential part of a successful curry. As are chillies. Add both to cream cheese (ingredients: cheese, fresh cream, citric acid, permitted stabilizers & emulsifiers [E331, E339, E471, E306, E304], salt, permitted preservatives [E202]) and you have a delicious dip. I served dollops of it on chunky cucumber slices for a super, spicy, moreish cocktail canapé. (The 175g jar cost Rs300; £ 1.71; US$ 2.60.)
Chilly Garlic
I know the pun is outrageous but irresistible, given that this is what residents of Haputale in the chilly hill country devour in the cold weather: deep fried (or baked) garlic bulbs sprinkled with salt and chilli powder. Something worth trying at home this Christmas? – as long as all your guests sample it too…
Pool Party
We decided to celebrate the season with a party around the huge (and very deep) swimming pool at Villa Ranmenike, a peaceful (except when we’re there) hotel, in a delightful tropical garden inland off the road to Galle, after Ahungalla. It is owned by Elfriede, a charming and generous lady from Switzerland, who let us frolic to our heart’s content.
We were looked after by Channa and Angelo who served us graciously with platters of garlic prawns and devilled beef washed down with drafts of good local dry gin from our own self-service bar.
Neel, seen here with our friend Duminda who owns Madu Ganga Villa, a nearby riverside resort, arranged a huge cauldron of village-cooked Mutton Biriyani for lunch.
In the middle of the festivities, the Horizon Cottage team and their friends posed in the pool. Left to right are Ramesh, Andrew, Dasa, Neel, Chaminda, Ranga, Mahee, Kumara, JJ and Sarath.
The party ended with someone very unceremoniously pushing me into the pool. Whoever did that will not be on next year’s Christmas card list!
Sri Lanka’s top attractions.
There has been much excitement in the press about the arrival for the first time ever of 800,000 tourists in one year in Sri Lanka. I was intrigued, too, to see that a government minister has stated something that I have long been telling potential tourists: Sri Lanka is not just a beach destination.
This, he says, “is because Sri Lanka's main historical and wildlife attractions have begun to draw more visitors, weaning the island away from being mainly a beach tourist destination.” He points out that numbers of tourists are visiting the Pinnawela elephant orphanage, Sigiriya (a rock fortress) and the Temple of the Tooth.
There is no mention of the fabulous vistas, the Hill Country attractions of colonial bungalows and tea-growing hillsides, and the rattling railway journeys, and all the other fascinating things to see, as revealed in my Bradt Guide to Sri Lanka, available from http://www.bradtguides.com/Book/198/Sri-Lanka.
Especially for Christmas & New Year the publisher is offering a huge discount of 35% if you order from the website before 31 December 2011, quoting WEBDEC35.
http://webwizard-lk.us2.list-manage...10b5838f6d283d4cf2&id=1f122daae8&e=27485df5f1
Christmas Greetings from business & public relations manager Neel; house & transport manager Kumara; garden manager Ramesh; webmonster Andrew; cats Lena and Ollie, and yours truly,
Royston.
and too from Premasiri
Sunny season’s greetings from Sri Lanka to all readers around the world.
Made in Sri Lanka
It’s not a traditional tropical Christmas treat but I was hugely impressed by this simple Cheese Spread made in Sri Lanka by Kotmale Dairy Products (www.kotmale.lk). I had never heard of this flavour of spread until I picked up a jar from the back of the chilled display cabinet in my local supermarket and read the label: “Cheese Spread, Chillie & Maldive Fish.”
For Sri Lankans, Maldive fish (that is dried, boiled, smoked fish from the Maldives) is an essential part of a successful curry. As are chillies. Add both to cream cheese (ingredients: cheese, fresh cream, citric acid, permitted stabilizers & emulsifiers [E331, E339, E471, E306, E304], salt, permitted preservatives [E202]) and you have a delicious dip. I served dollops of it on chunky cucumber slices for a super, spicy, moreish cocktail canapé. (The 175g jar cost Rs300; £ 1.71; US$ 2.60.)
Chilly Garlic
I know the pun is outrageous but irresistible, given that this is what residents of Haputale in the chilly hill country devour in the cold weather: deep fried (or baked) garlic bulbs sprinkled with salt and chilli powder. Something worth trying at home this Christmas? – as long as all your guests sample it too…
Pool Party
We decided to celebrate the season with a party around the huge (and very deep) swimming pool at Villa Ranmenike, a peaceful (except when we’re there) hotel, in a delightful tropical garden inland off the road to Galle, after Ahungalla. It is owned by Elfriede, a charming and generous lady from Switzerland, who let us frolic to our heart’s content.
We were looked after by Channa and Angelo who served us graciously with platters of garlic prawns and devilled beef washed down with drafts of good local dry gin from our own self-service bar.
Neel, seen here with our friend Duminda who owns Madu Ganga Villa, a nearby riverside resort, arranged a huge cauldron of village-cooked Mutton Biriyani for lunch.
In the middle of the festivities, the Horizon Cottage team and their friends posed in the pool. Left to right are Ramesh, Andrew, Dasa, Neel, Chaminda, Ranga, Mahee, Kumara, JJ and Sarath.
The party ended with someone very unceremoniously pushing me into the pool. Whoever did that will not be on next year’s Christmas card list!
Sri Lanka’s top attractions.
There has been much excitement in the press about the arrival for the first time ever of 800,000 tourists in one year in Sri Lanka. I was intrigued, too, to see that a government minister has stated something that I have long been telling potential tourists: Sri Lanka is not just a beach destination.
This, he says, “is because Sri Lanka's main historical and wildlife attractions have begun to draw more visitors, weaning the island away from being mainly a beach tourist destination.” He points out that numbers of tourists are visiting the Pinnawela elephant orphanage, Sigiriya (a rock fortress) and the Temple of the Tooth.
There is no mention of the fabulous vistas, the Hill Country attractions of colonial bungalows and tea-growing hillsides, and the rattling railway journeys, and all the other fascinating things to see, as revealed in my Bradt Guide to Sri Lanka, available from http://www.bradtguides.com/Book/198/Sri-Lanka.
Especially for Christmas & New Year the publisher is offering a huge discount of 35% if you order from the website before 31 December 2011, quoting WEBDEC35.
http://webwizard-lk.us2.list-manage...10b5838f6d283d4cf2&id=1f122daae8&e=27485df5f1
Christmas Greetings from business & public relations manager Neel; house & transport manager Kumara; garden manager Ramesh; webmonster Andrew; cats Lena and Ollie, and yours truly,
Royston.
and too from Premasiri
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TROPICAL TOPICS, Sunday 1 January 2012
Here’s wishing the thousands of people around the world who see this newsletter every week, a Marvellous New Year – and perhaps a trip to Sri Lanka, too.
Grown in Sri Lanka.
Mushrooms! I adore them especially when enhanced with butter and chopped garlic. There are several varieties grown commercially in Sri Lanka, including the tasteless oyster mushroom, the broad abalone kind, shitake mushrooms (although only available here dried, as the fresh ones are exported) and these button mushrooms.
They are grown at a facility known as the Dangaspitiya Industrial Park, Kohilegedera at Kurunegla in the centre of Sri Lanka by a company that boasts an Australian collaboration and is known, more romantically than its location, as Nature Harvest Mushroom Lanka (Private) Limited. There is a website at www.mushroomnh.com with some special Sri Lankan recipes.
These button mushrooms are sold in Colombo supermarkets in cardboard panniers containing 250g of mushrooms, for Rs300 (£ 1.71; US$ 2.60). A recipe leaflet that comes with the box gives ideas for Mushroom Curry in Coconut Milk and Mushroom Mellung. The latter involves a mix of sliced mushrooms, red onions, green chillies, garlic flakes, pepper corns, turmeric powder, ground Maldive fish, roasted mustard and cumin seeds, grated coconut, and tomato, all tossed in coconut oil. Plus salt to taste. I think I prefer mine grilled.
Hill Country Breakfast
I wanted to feel cold at this time of the year, so I spent a night in my favourite hill resort of Haputale. I wasn’t disappointed as the cold was bitter and damp, with a heavy mist closing in before dark and not lifting until late the next morning. I stayed at High Cliffe in a room above the bar on the wrong side of the railway track with a view of the town.
I’ve written about the bar before (Nos. 45 & 75) but had never eaten more than a scrumptious snack there. The cook, Kumar, produced the perfect hearty breakfast for the cold climate: curry of local beef that was the best I have ever tasted being packed with flavour, enhanced with a dash of coconut cream, and tender to boot. (Wrong analogy probably as it was as tender as a banana, not as tough as old leather.) It was served with chunky seeni sambol, a powerful sweet relish of onion and chilli, and rice flour string hoppers, kind of vermicelli nests.
Final Curtain
Beryl Harding-Marsh (nee Seton)
24 April 1913 – 25 December 2011
We met in Indonesia in 1997 when she was 84 and travelling alone on the Caledonian Star, a small cruise ship on which I was the Guest Lecturer. The ship called at Galle, the old southern harbour of Sri Lanka, and Beryl fell in love – with the country, its people, and the contrast in the way of life compared with her genteel retirement in Andorra.
Beryl’s third husband, Pat Harding-Marsh, a retired auctioneer whom she had married when they both lived in France, had died a few years before.
Over the years of our friendship, companionship and travels together, I discovered that, as Beryl Seton, she had been a famous musical comedy actress, singer and dancer who first appeared on the London stage when she was 12.
She worked with Noel Coward, starred (in 1947) in Finian’s Rainbow in the West End with Alfie Bass, and was a vivacious Aladdin in pantomime with Norman Evans as Widow Twankey. She is in the centre of this photograph with Norman Evans on the left.
When she was 40, she declined the role of Snow White (“I’m too old!” she told Bernard Delfont) and retired from the stage to become an artiste’s agent. She turned down Elton John (“The fat boy,” she called him) but her clients included David Hemmings and Donald Sutherland. Not only was she charming, beautifully mannered and genuine good fun, she was discreet and never spoke much about her past, preferring to enjoy life in the present.
She stayed many winters with me in Sri Lanka, finally settling here in 2008. In spite of being confined to a wheelchair from that year onwards, she continued to live life to the fullest, dressing for cocktails and dinner every night, and refusing to give up smoking. Here she is at our pool party, 16 December 2011.
On Christmas Day she was so happy receiving friends, exchanging presents, being entertained by Sasindu, the two-and-a-half year-old son of my house manager Kumara and his wife, Kanchana who was her nurse, sharing champagne with Neel, laughing with Ramesh, picnicking at our beachview bar, talking about her friend Sarah in Andorra, and planning to buy a painting by Jill, a friend of hers in Australia.
Like the real star she was, she made her exit while on a high, dying peacefully in her sleep on Christmas night, age 98. Her scores of young friends in Sri Lanka are devastated, knowing we will never have the privilege of meeting someone like her again.
Royston Ellis.
Rest in Peace Lady Beryl....sie war so eine aufgestellte Frau, auch in ihrem hohen Alter. Sie konnte so herzlich lachen. Habe ihr immer Gauloises bleu ohne Filter gebracht, die liebte sie.
LG Premasiri
Here’s wishing the thousands of people around the world who see this newsletter every week, a Marvellous New Year – and perhaps a trip to Sri Lanka, too.
Grown in Sri Lanka.
Mushrooms! I adore them especially when enhanced with butter and chopped garlic. There are several varieties grown commercially in Sri Lanka, including the tasteless oyster mushroom, the broad abalone kind, shitake mushrooms (although only available here dried, as the fresh ones are exported) and these button mushrooms.
They are grown at a facility known as the Dangaspitiya Industrial Park, Kohilegedera at Kurunegla in the centre of Sri Lanka by a company that boasts an Australian collaboration and is known, more romantically than its location, as Nature Harvest Mushroom Lanka (Private) Limited. There is a website at www.mushroomnh.com with some special Sri Lankan recipes.
These button mushrooms are sold in Colombo supermarkets in cardboard panniers containing 250g of mushrooms, for Rs300 (£ 1.71; US$ 2.60). A recipe leaflet that comes with the box gives ideas for Mushroom Curry in Coconut Milk and Mushroom Mellung. The latter involves a mix of sliced mushrooms, red onions, green chillies, garlic flakes, pepper corns, turmeric powder, ground Maldive fish, roasted mustard and cumin seeds, grated coconut, and tomato, all tossed in coconut oil. Plus salt to taste. I think I prefer mine grilled.
Hill Country Breakfast
I wanted to feel cold at this time of the year, so I spent a night in my favourite hill resort of Haputale. I wasn’t disappointed as the cold was bitter and damp, with a heavy mist closing in before dark and not lifting until late the next morning. I stayed at High Cliffe in a room above the bar on the wrong side of the railway track with a view of the town.
I’ve written about the bar before (Nos. 45 & 75) but had never eaten more than a scrumptious snack there. The cook, Kumar, produced the perfect hearty breakfast for the cold climate: curry of local beef that was the best I have ever tasted being packed with flavour, enhanced with a dash of coconut cream, and tender to boot. (Wrong analogy probably as it was as tender as a banana, not as tough as old leather.) It was served with chunky seeni sambol, a powerful sweet relish of onion and chilli, and rice flour string hoppers, kind of vermicelli nests.
Final Curtain
Beryl Harding-Marsh (nee Seton)
24 April 1913 – 25 December 2011
We met in Indonesia in 1997 when she was 84 and travelling alone on the Caledonian Star, a small cruise ship on which I was the Guest Lecturer. The ship called at Galle, the old southern harbour of Sri Lanka, and Beryl fell in love – with the country, its people, and the contrast in the way of life compared with her genteel retirement in Andorra.
Beryl’s third husband, Pat Harding-Marsh, a retired auctioneer whom she had married when they both lived in France, had died a few years before.
Over the years of our friendship, companionship and travels together, I discovered that, as Beryl Seton, she had been a famous musical comedy actress, singer and dancer who first appeared on the London stage when she was 12.
She worked with Noel Coward, starred (in 1947) in Finian’s Rainbow in the West End with Alfie Bass, and was a vivacious Aladdin in pantomime with Norman Evans as Widow Twankey. She is in the centre of this photograph with Norman Evans on the left.
When she was 40, she declined the role of Snow White (“I’m too old!” she told Bernard Delfont) and retired from the stage to become an artiste’s agent. She turned down Elton John (“The fat boy,” she called him) but her clients included David Hemmings and Donald Sutherland. Not only was she charming, beautifully mannered and genuine good fun, she was discreet and never spoke much about her past, preferring to enjoy life in the present.
She stayed many winters with me in Sri Lanka, finally settling here in 2008. In spite of being confined to a wheelchair from that year onwards, she continued to live life to the fullest, dressing for cocktails and dinner every night, and refusing to give up smoking. Here she is at our pool party, 16 December 2011.
On Christmas Day she was so happy receiving friends, exchanging presents, being entertained by Sasindu, the two-and-a-half year-old son of my house manager Kumara and his wife, Kanchana who was her nurse, sharing champagne with Neel, laughing with Ramesh, picnicking at our beachview bar, talking about her friend Sarah in Andorra, and planning to buy a painting by Jill, a friend of hers in Australia.
Like the real star she was, she made her exit while on a high, dying peacefully in her sleep on Christmas night, age 98. Her scores of young friends in Sri Lanka are devastated, knowing we will never have the privilege of meeting someone like her again.
Royston Ellis.
Rest in Peace Lady Beryl....sie war so eine aufgestellte Frau, auch in ihrem hohen Alter. Sie konnte so herzlich lachen. Habe ihr immer Gauloises bleu ohne Filter gebracht, die liebte sie.
LG Premasiri
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- 8. Aug. 2009
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TROPICAL TOPICS, Sunday 8 January
Sunny greetings from Sri Lanka.
Made in Sri Lanka
Regular readers will know of my passion for spicy, hearty breakfasts. I like a volatile curry to kick-start my day (especially if the night before has been a heavy one). Since I am trying to follow a gluten-free diet, I avoid the local bread made with wheat flour (although it’s delicious since it’s baked in a wood -fired brick oven) and look for alternatives to use to mop up the sauce.
Reading the ingredients on packets in the local supermarket, I discovered this “Thosai Mix.” Weighing 400g and costing Rs80 (£ 0.45; US$ 0.71), this has as its ingredients Ulundu flour, rice flour and rising agents. Ulundu flour turns out to be made by grinding White Lentils (orid) into a fine powder. Pale white in colour, Ulundu flour is also known as Orid flour.
It’s manufactured and produced in Sri Lanka by a local company. Kumara made piles of these crepe-like pancakes by adding four cups of plain water and the rising agent and leaving the mixture to stand in a covered bowl for half an hour. He also added a dash of salt, chopped onions and curry leaves.
The mixture was then slowly fried in a non-stick pan with the merest drop of coconut oil. Superb.
Prickly start
“Pinch, punch, first of the month,” I said to myself as soon as I awoke last Sunday, 1 January, adding: “White rabbits,” as is customary.
Then I went out into the garden as the thud of distant fireworks exploding heralded the New Year dawn. It was 5.45am and cool, with a mist hovering over the sea. I walked up to the beach view bar and sat quietly, taking in the freshness of the early morning.
I sensed a movement and turned sideways to find a large porcupine was strolling nonchalantly across the lawn towards me from the southern thicket. I didn’t know what to do. Do porcupines attack? What sort of omen was this for the start of 2012?
I held my breath. To my relief, suddenly the porcupine sensed my presence, turned and trotted back the way it had come. This was the first living creature I saw in 2012, surely lucky as it could be considered Sri Lanka’s version of the Black Dragon, whose year this is, in Chinese symbols.
Farewell Beryl
Thank you to the scores of people (some who didn’t even know her) who sent emails expressing condolences about the passing of my old friend, Beryl Harding-Marsh. A few of these appreciations appear in the comments section of last week’s newsletter (No. 90).
Beryl didn’t want any fuss for her funeral but did want a jolly wake afterwards. Since funerals are a very important part of Sri Lankan culture, we had to adapt her wishes to local custom. To have buried her without some sort of ceremony that her friends and neighbours could attend would have been regarded locally as being disrespectful to Beryl.
I decided to go along with Neel’s advice and he and Kumara and their friends arranged a dignified, even joyful, ceremony in the garden of the burial ground in Bentota, near where Kumara, his wife and son, whom Beryl doted on, live.
Over 100 people gathered in the muted sunlight among the tropical shrubs and flowers as three monks in their bright saffron robes, chanted and then spoke about Beryl’s life and her support for others. A village elder gave an address in Sinhala and I made a brief speech in English expressing gratitude to all (some came from the hill country, others from the deep south and the far north) who had taken the time and trouble to attend.
A tomb had been built as Beryl’s last resting place and, after she was put in it, I joined in the traditional walk of her close friends three times around the grave. Then some 60 of us gathered at the Silk Route Restaurant (one of her favourite places for an evening out) for snacks and drinks to commemorate her life.
It was a beautiful occasion, not sad at all, as we all felt buoyed by knowing Beryl and felt that she would have approved.
Driving Time
If you don’t know Sri Lanka and are planning to tour the country by car, a useful tip to remember is that distance here is measured by drivers in hours, not the official kilometres. For instance, I live 68km from Colombo which, in conventional terms, should mean a journey of about one hour. Here it takes at least twice that.
Why? Because the standard of driving is somewhat unconventional. Someone once asked me on which side of the road vehicles drive in Sri Lanka. “Both,” was my answer. I’ve heard someone say that some drivers here think the white line in the middle of the road is for them to use as a track for the right wheels.
In any case they overtake inside on the left and, confusingly, often use the right turn indicator as a signal that it’s safe to overtake, not that they are turning right.
So travelling takes more time than you expect. But now the Southern Highway has opened and suddenly it’s possible to travel 50kms in half-an-hour. However, since it takes 45 minutes to get on to the highway from the centre of Colombo, and 30 minutes through rural byways to get off it, basic journey times to and from my home are only slightly reduced.
By the way, visitors should never drive themselves. Vehicles with a driver cost less to hire than self-drive ones. And local drivers know the techniques.
Electronic Travel
The Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) document required by all visitors to Sri Lanka (except those with Maldives or Singapore passports) for presentation at the immigration counters on arrival, was introduced on 1 January 2012. Click on http://www.eta.gov.lk/slvisa/visainfo/center.jsp?locale=en_USto find out more.
Beat regards
Royston
LG Premasiri
Sunny greetings from Sri Lanka.
Made in Sri Lanka
Regular readers will know of my passion for spicy, hearty breakfasts. I like a volatile curry to kick-start my day (especially if the night before has been a heavy one). Since I am trying to follow a gluten-free diet, I avoid the local bread made with wheat flour (although it’s delicious since it’s baked in a wood -fired brick oven) and look for alternatives to use to mop up the sauce.
Reading the ingredients on packets in the local supermarket, I discovered this “Thosai Mix.” Weighing 400g and costing Rs80 (£ 0.45; US$ 0.71), this has as its ingredients Ulundu flour, rice flour and rising agents. Ulundu flour turns out to be made by grinding White Lentils (orid) into a fine powder. Pale white in colour, Ulundu flour is also known as Orid flour.
It’s manufactured and produced in Sri Lanka by a local company. Kumara made piles of these crepe-like pancakes by adding four cups of plain water and the rising agent and leaving the mixture to stand in a covered bowl for half an hour. He also added a dash of salt, chopped onions and curry leaves.
The mixture was then slowly fried in a non-stick pan with the merest drop of coconut oil. Superb.
Prickly start
“Pinch, punch, first of the month,” I said to myself as soon as I awoke last Sunday, 1 January, adding: “White rabbits,” as is customary.
Then I went out into the garden as the thud of distant fireworks exploding heralded the New Year dawn. It was 5.45am and cool, with a mist hovering over the sea. I walked up to the beach view bar and sat quietly, taking in the freshness of the early morning.
I sensed a movement and turned sideways to find a large porcupine was strolling nonchalantly across the lawn towards me from the southern thicket. I didn’t know what to do. Do porcupines attack? What sort of omen was this for the start of 2012?
I held my breath. To my relief, suddenly the porcupine sensed my presence, turned and trotted back the way it had come. This was the first living creature I saw in 2012, surely lucky as it could be considered Sri Lanka’s version of the Black Dragon, whose year this is, in Chinese symbols.
Farewell Beryl
Thank you to the scores of people (some who didn’t even know her) who sent emails expressing condolences about the passing of my old friend, Beryl Harding-Marsh. A few of these appreciations appear in the comments section of last week’s newsletter (No. 90).
Beryl didn’t want any fuss for her funeral but did want a jolly wake afterwards. Since funerals are a very important part of Sri Lankan culture, we had to adapt her wishes to local custom. To have buried her without some sort of ceremony that her friends and neighbours could attend would have been regarded locally as being disrespectful to Beryl.
I decided to go along with Neel’s advice and he and Kumara and their friends arranged a dignified, even joyful, ceremony in the garden of the burial ground in Bentota, near where Kumara, his wife and son, whom Beryl doted on, live.
Over 100 people gathered in the muted sunlight among the tropical shrubs and flowers as three monks in their bright saffron robes, chanted and then spoke about Beryl’s life and her support for others. A village elder gave an address in Sinhala and I made a brief speech in English expressing gratitude to all (some came from the hill country, others from the deep south and the far north) who had taken the time and trouble to attend.
A tomb had been built as Beryl’s last resting place and, after she was put in it, I joined in the traditional walk of her close friends three times around the grave. Then some 60 of us gathered at the Silk Route Restaurant (one of her favourite places for an evening out) for snacks and drinks to commemorate her life.
It was a beautiful occasion, not sad at all, as we all felt buoyed by knowing Beryl and felt that she would have approved.
Driving Time
If you don’t know Sri Lanka and are planning to tour the country by car, a useful tip to remember is that distance here is measured by drivers in hours, not the official kilometres. For instance, I live 68km from Colombo which, in conventional terms, should mean a journey of about one hour. Here it takes at least twice that.
Why? Because the standard of driving is somewhat unconventional. Someone once asked me on which side of the road vehicles drive in Sri Lanka. “Both,” was my answer. I’ve heard someone say that some drivers here think the white line in the middle of the road is for them to use as a track for the right wheels.
In any case they overtake inside on the left and, confusingly, often use the right turn indicator as a signal that it’s safe to overtake, not that they are turning right.
So travelling takes more time than you expect. But now the Southern Highway has opened and suddenly it’s possible to travel 50kms in half-an-hour. However, since it takes 45 minutes to get on to the highway from the centre of Colombo, and 30 minutes through rural byways to get off it, basic journey times to and from my home are only slightly reduced.
By the way, visitors should never drive themselves. Vehicles with a driver cost less to hire than self-drive ones. And local drivers know the techniques.
Electronic Travel
The Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) document required by all visitors to Sri Lanka (except those with Maldives or Singapore passports) for presentation at the immigration counters on arrival, was introduced on 1 January 2012. Click on http://www.eta.gov.lk/slvisa/visainfo/center.jsp?locale=en_USto find out more.
Beat regards
Royston
LG Premasiri
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C
Claudia
Guest
Ich lese den Newsletter immer wieder gerne!!!
Lustig finde ich, dass es nun ein Beach Restaurant namens Kunterbunt gibt.
Lustig finde ich, dass es nun ein Beach Restaurant namens Kunterbunt gibt.
C
Claudia
Guest
Premasiri
Well-known member
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Hallo Claudia, leider hatten wir keine Zeit das Restaurant Kunterbunt zu besuchen....
leider kommen die letzten zwei Newsletter ein wenig spät....sind gestern Nacht nach Hause gekommen.
TROPICAL TOPICS, 22 January 2012.
Greetings to readers around the globe from the Maldives, the dazzlingly beautiful archipelago in the Indian Ocean, where I am currently on a cruise through the islands. Full report next week.
Gone
Last Saturday I went to the auction of old (not antique, just much used) furniture from the Bentota Beach Hotel under the aegis of Navinda Samerawickreme of www.sandslanka.com.
I had my eye on a polished, granite top teak table of which there were at least 50 identical ones on offer. I thought it would add a touch of distinction to my beach view garden bar.
My theory was that, since there were so many tables available, prices would start high and then drop as all those who wanted tables bought them, leaving the other tables to go for a song. The first one went for what I was prepared to pay, just Rs10,000. Aha, I thought, I’m in luck! The next one sold for Rs12,000 and then the price inexplicably climbed to Rs17,000 per table.
Auctions in Sri Lanka are unpredictable affairs. Items aren’t brought onto a stage and held up for the audience of bidders to see. Instead the auctioneer walks around the items on display and the crowd of buyers follows him. Often it’s impossible to see what’s being sold and, since the bidding is fast and furious, it’s often difficult to keep up.
Lots of other items were auctioned before the remaining tables were put on sale. Other people must have been thinking the same as I did because – instead of prices dropping -- there was a frenzy of bidding at the end by people who handn’t managed to buy one, and the tables soared in price to more than Rs20,000 (£ 114; US$ 175) each. That was double what I was willing to pay, so I contented myself with these two cute granite topped stools at Rs2,500 (£ 14.36; $ 21.92) each.
Koluu’s Way
Koluu is a real Colombo character; huge in girth as well as mirth and talent. By profession he is a self-taught cook; by inclination he is a drag artiste whose dress sense puts Colombo’s society dames to shame as he delights audiences with his quick wit and ample charm. He began his career by baking and catering for Colombo’s fun lovers, eventually working as an itinerant chef in Europe for nine years.
He loves to eat good food as well as to prepare it and, as one of his European diplomat employers puts it in a new book, Koluu, My Way – A Collection of Recipes, he produces “a mixture of the best the east and west can give.” (published by: www.btoptions.com)
The book is a hefty 160 pages with 140 recipes illustrated with gorgeous photographs, that make you hungry just to look at them. The recipes are disarmingly simple, although I have yet to try my favourite dish by Koluu, Spinach Roulade, as it suddenly says, “Peel off paper and spread the cheese mixture,” without having mentioned paper before.
Okra is called Ladies Fingers (surely that should be Lady’s Fingers?) in Sri Lanka. It grows in Dominica, too, where it is known as Gumbo. I was never comfortable cooking and eating it there, whether it was in a stew or fried in batter, as it seemed rather tasteless. Koluu’s recipe for the dish shown here, Fried Ladies Fingers Salad, is simple and zesty.
“Ingredients: 250g ladies fingers, 200g big onions, 30g chillies, 1.5 tsp lime, 1.5 tsp salt, 2 tsp Maldive fish, Vegetable oil.
“Method: Cut ladies fingers into slices and deep fry. Chop the onions and green chillies finely and mix with Maldive fish, lime and salt, Add the fried ladies fingers and mix. Serves 4.”
Loving snakes
Regular readers know we sometimes have encounters with snakes – even cobras -- at home. Now the tourist season is upon us, itinerant snake charmers have turned up on the beach to startle visitors with their performing reptiles. I didn’t want to watch this man but, by doing so, I was able to overcome the repulsion I usually feel at the sight of a snake.
However, the cobra is a highly venomous snake, responsible for a large number of deaths annually. It’s easily identifiable by the two eye-like black spots on its hood. According to A Photographic Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Sri Lanka cobras “occasionally enter human habitation in villages and towns… A hooded cobra swaying to a snake charmer’s ‘been’ (flute) is a sight long associated with Sri Lanka.”
Discovering Sri Lanka
Here’s a date for your diary if you are going to be in London on 21 March 2012.
I have been invited by the Royal Geographical Society to give a presentation on Sri Lanka at the society’s magnificent London HQ (1 Kensington Gore, SW7).
I shall be flying to London for three days especially for the event. It’s funny how circumstances conspire to get me to London in March. It happened last year when my portrait was hung at the National Portrait Gallery. Actually, March isn’t a bad month: I know it’s going to be cold in England then and consequently clad myself in the very warm, long underwear I bought in Chile some years ago.
Nice to see that the admission fee includes wine; I hope I get some too.
Tickets: RGS-IBG members £10, non-members £15. Price includes wine and an information pack.
http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/Talks+discussions+debates.htm
Beat regards
Royston (at sea).
TROPICAL TOPICS, Sunday 29 January.
Sunny greetings from Sri Lanka and from the Maldives where I spent the last week on a cruise through the islands on board the 20-cabin cruiser, Atoll Explorer.
Breakfast
Sri Lanka has some great breakfast dishes giving the “Full English” a robust challenge but I think I met my match with this buffet breakfast that was offered every morning of the cruise.
Prepared by buffet chef Chaminda who hails (as do the other three cooks and the barman on board) from Sri Lanka, it is adapted from the huge buffet offered to guests at Kurumba, the 40-year old resort under whose aegis the Atoll Explorer operates.
Tired of omelette every morning, I asked Chaminda for a variation and that’s what he is doing here, by frying bacon in the pan first and then adding two eggs and some chopped onions and mushrooms to the fry-up. I helped myself to baked beans and tomato and cheese as well; then I slept it off on the sun deck.
Exploring The Atolls
“Divers should avoid swimming in the shark’s mouth or getting hit by the fish’s tail, which could indeed cause some damage to the person,” warned the compendium in my cabin on Atoll Explorer. Quite.
Since I don’t snorkel or dive I denied myself the pleasure of plunging into the water off the dive boat to frolic with whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) even though the compendium assures that these huge fish (they can grow to 40 feet long and to a weight of 47,000 pounds) “pose no threat to swimmers, snorkellers or scuba divers” and that “whale sharks are quite playful.”
The encounter with whale sharks was the highlight of the cruise and happened when the boat was anchored off the farming village island of Ariadhoo, where we had a BBQ one evening and a picnic lunch on the beach. Other highlights were the Night Fishing Expedition (we caught three fish) and simply lazing on and swimming from beaches on uninhabited, desert islands.
On the second evening there was a special Welcome Back dinner and I was alarmed to discover when I stumbled back to my cabin that night, that it had been turned into a miniature botanical garden. The bed was decorated with leaves and flowers wishing me “Welcome Back.” (I previously cruised on the boat in 2005.)
The vessel’s cabins could politely be described as cosy. They are small but shipshape, with everything in its place. Incredibly, the beds are dreamily comfortable with lots of plump pillows and, since the ship anchors off different islands at night instead of sailing, the gentle swaying and splashing acts like a lullaby, and is extraordinarily soporific.
We visited the village island of Maamigili which has some 3,000 inhabitants and a row of desperate gift shops trying to sell imported souvenirs to visitors who want something Maldivian (I bought some locally produced tins of tuna fish). At the village school (education is in English medium) I was astonished to see a lesson on the black board about the Kinetic Theory of Matter, such a contrast to the simplicity of island life I expected.
One evening the officers and Maldivian crew treated us to a performance of the rather turgid drumming and chanting known as Bodu Beru and some meglomaniacal dancing.
Fellow passengers were Britons nearing retirement age, a lone Yorkshireman in his 70s who’d been holidaying on the ship for three months, a Pole with an automatic fishing rod and an underwater movie camera the size of a mini submarine, a German couple who kept to themselves, and a group of enthusiastic Swedes.
As could be expected, I made the boat’s bar my headquarters (well, it has free Wifi as well as complimentary classy cocktails served by Samith from Sri Lanka [seen here]) and thoroughly enjoyed being footloose. (www.atollexplorer.com)
New Immigration Form
Die gleiche Karte gibt es im Flugzeug von Zürich nach Colombo....
On the flight back from Male’ back to Colombo I was given this new immigration form. It is captioned “Only for Foreigners/Dual Citizens” and refreshingly requires a minimum amount of information. The small print, however, says: “Strictly adhere to the purpose of visit indicated. This is a legal document. False declaration can lead to penalties including confiscation of goods, fines, prosecution, imprisonment and removal from Sri Lanka.”
New Option to Jaffna
Jaffna, that formerly beleaguered town and peninsula in the north of Sri Lanka, has become even easier to visit now. Instead of the hard slog of a 12 hour-drive from Colombo or being cramped in a Russian aircraft operated by the commercial arm of the Sri Lankan Airforce, there’s a new option.
Expo Aviation, which runs the superb Expo Aviation Margosa guest house (see Newsletters 82 & 84) in Jaffna, has begun to operate a brand new Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft between Colombo’s suburban airport of Ratmalana and Palaly, Jaffna, twice a day. The aircraft has 12 leather-upholstered seats, individual reading lights, air-vents, and is also equipped with a drop down monitor that screens silent movies.
Taking just over one hour, the flight, is promised as “invigorating and comfortable” with the added bonus of two flight crew members to take care of passenger safety and comfort. (http://www.expoavi.com)
The Maldives Avenger
The heroism of the young Maldivian who led a seaborne guerrilla campaign against the occupying Portuguese in the 16[SUP]th[/SUP] century is the theme of my swashbuckling novel, The Maldives Avenger, now available to download as an eBook at £2.99 from http://roystonellis.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=50
Beat regards,
Royston Ellis.
LG Premasiri
leider kommen die letzten zwei Newsletter ein wenig spät....sind gestern Nacht nach Hause gekommen.
TROPICAL TOPICS, 22 January 2012.
Greetings to readers around the globe from the Maldives, the dazzlingly beautiful archipelago in the Indian Ocean, where I am currently on a cruise through the islands. Full report next week.
Gone
Last Saturday I went to the auction of old (not antique, just much used) furniture from the Bentota Beach Hotel under the aegis of Navinda Samerawickreme of www.sandslanka.com.
I had my eye on a polished, granite top teak table of which there were at least 50 identical ones on offer. I thought it would add a touch of distinction to my beach view garden bar.
My theory was that, since there were so many tables available, prices would start high and then drop as all those who wanted tables bought them, leaving the other tables to go for a song. The first one went for what I was prepared to pay, just Rs10,000. Aha, I thought, I’m in luck! The next one sold for Rs12,000 and then the price inexplicably climbed to Rs17,000 per table.
Auctions in Sri Lanka are unpredictable affairs. Items aren’t brought onto a stage and held up for the audience of bidders to see. Instead the auctioneer walks around the items on display and the crowd of buyers follows him. Often it’s impossible to see what’s being sold and, since the bidding is fast and furious, it’s often difficult to keep up.
Lots of other items were auctioned before the remaining tables were put on sale. Other people must have been thinking the same as I did because – instead of prices dropping -- there was a frenzy of bidding at the end by people who handn’t managed to buy one, and the tables soared in price to more than Rs20,000 (£ 114; US$ 175) each. That was double what I was willing to pay, so I contented myself with these two cute granite topped stools at Rs2,500 (£ 14.36; $ 21.92) each.
Koluu’s Way
Koluu is a real Colombo character; huge in girth as well as mirth and talent. By profession he is a self-taught cook; by inclination he is a drag artiste whose dress sense puts Colombo’s society dames to shame as he delights audiences with his quick wit and ample charm. He began his career by baking and catering for Colombo’s fun lovers, eventually working as an itinerant chef in Europe for nine years.
He loves to eat good food as well as to prepare it and, as one of his European diplomat employers puts it in a new book, Koluu, My Way – A Collection of Recipes, he produces “a mixture of the best the east and west can give.” (published by: www.btoptions.com)
The book is a hefty 160 pages with 140 recipes illustrated with gorgeous photographs, that make you hungry just to look at them. The recipes are disarmingly simple, although I have yet to try my favourite dish by Koluu, Spinach Roulade, as it suddenly says, “Peel off paper and spread the cheese mixture,” without having mentioned paper before.
Okra is called Ladies Fingers (surely that should be Lady’s Fingers?) in Sri Lanka. It grows in Dominica, too, where it is known as Gumbo. I was never comfortable cooking and eating it there, whether it was in a stew or fried in batter, as it seemed rather tasteless. Koluu’s recipe for the dish shown here, Fried Ladies Fingers Salad, is simple and zesty.
“Ingredients: 250g ladies fingers, 200g big onions, 30g chillies, 1.5 tsp lime, 1.5 tsp salt, 2 tsp Maldive fish, Vegetable oil.
“Method: Cut ladies fingers into slices and deep fry. Chop the onions and green chillies finely and mix with Maldive fish, lime and salt, Add the fried ladies fingers and mix. Serves 4.”
Loving snakes
Regular readers know we sometimes have encounters with snakes – even cobras -- at home. Now the tourist season is upon us, itinerant snake charmers have turned up on the beach to startle visitors with their performing reptiles. I didn’t want to watch this man but, by doing so, I was able to overcome the repulsion I usually feel at the sight of a snake.
However, the cobra is a highly venomous snake, responsible for a large number of deaths annually. It’s easily identifiable by the two eye-like black spots on its hood. According to A Photographic Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Sri Lanka cobras “occasionally enter human habitation in villages and towns… A hooded cobra swaying to a snake charmer’s ‘been’ (flute) is a sight long associated with Sri Lanka.”
Discovering Sri Lanka
Here’s a date for your diary if you are going to be in London on 21 March 2012.
I have been invited by the Royal Geographical Society to give a presentation on Sri Lanka at the society’s magnificent London HQ (1 Kensington Gore, SW7).
I shall be flying to London for three days especially for the event. It’s funny how circumstances conspire to get me to London in March. It happened last year when my portrait was hung at the National Portrait Gallery. Actually, March isn’t a bad month: I know it’s going to be cold in England then and consequently clad myself in the very warm, long underwear I bought in Chile some years ago.
Nice to see that the admission fee includes wine; I hope I get some too.
- Wednesday 21 March 2012 from 7pm to 9pm
- Discovering Places travel evening
Tickets: RGS-IBG members £10, non-members £15. Price includes wine and an information pack.
http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/Talks+discussions+debates.htm
Beat regards
Royston (at sea).
TROPICAL TOPICS, Sunday 29 January.
Sunny greetings from Sri Lanka and from the Maldives where I spent the last week on a cruise through the islands on board the 20-cabin cruiser, Atoll Explorer.
Breakfast
Sri Lanka has some great breakfast dishes giving the “Full English” a robust challenge but I think I met my match with this buffet breakfast that was offered every morning of the cruise.
Prepared by buffet chef Chaminda who hails (as do the other three cooks and the barman on board) from Sri Lanka, it is adapted from the huge buffet offered to guests at Kurumba, the 40-year old resort under whose aegis the Atoll Explorer operates.
Tired of omelette every morning, I asked Chaminda for a variation and that’s what he is doing here, by frying bacon in the pan first and then adding two eggs and some chopped onions and mushrooms to the fry-up. I helped myself to baked beans and tomato and cheese as well; then I slept it off on the sun deck.
Exploring The Atolls
“Divers should avoid swimming in the shark’s mouth or getting hit by the fish’s tail, which could indeed cause some damage to the person,” warned the compendium in my cabin on Atoll Explorer. Quite.
Since I don’t snorkel or dive I denied myself the pleasure of plunging into the water off the dive boat to frolic with whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) even though the compendium assures that these huge fish (they can grow to 40 feet long and to a weight of 47,000 pounds) “pose no threat to swimmers, snorkellers or scuba divers” and that “whale sharks are quite playful.”
The encounter with whale sharks was the highlight of the cruise and happened when the boat was anchored off the farming village island of Ariadhoo, where we had a BBQ one evening and a picnic lunch on the beach. Other highlights were the Night Fishing Expedition (we caught three fish) and simply lazing on and swimming from beaches on uninhabited, desert islands.
On the second evening there was a special Welcome Back dinner and I was alarmed to discover when I stumbled back to my cabin that night, that it had been turned into a miniature botanical garden. The bed was decorated with leaves and flowers wishing me “Welcome Back.” (I previously cruised on the boat in 2005.)
The vessel’s cabins could politely be described as cosy. They are small but shipshape, with everything in its place. Incredibly, the beds are dreamily comfortable with lots of plump pillows and, since the ship anchors off different islands at night instead of sailing, the gentle swaying and splashing acts like a lullaby, and is extraordinarily soporific.
We visited the village island of Maamigili which has some 3,000 inhabitants and a row of desperate gift shops trying to sell imported souvenirs to visitors who want something Maldivian (I bought some locally produced tins of tuna fish). At the village school (education is in English medium) I was astonished to see a lesson on the black board about the Kinetic Theory of Matter, such a contrast to the simplicity of island life I expected.
One evening the officers and Maldivian crew treated us to a performance of the rather turgid drumming and chanting known as Bodu Beru and some meglomaniacal dancing.
Fellow passengers were Britons nearing retirement age, a lone Yorkshireman in his 70s who’d been holidaying on the ship for three months, a Pole with an automatic fishing rod and an underwater movie camera the size of a mini submarine, a German couple who kept to themselves, and a group of enthusiastic Swedes.
As could be expected, I made the boat’s bar my headquarters (well, it has free Wifi as well as complimentary classy cocktails served by Samith from Sri Lanka [seen here]) and thoroughly enjoyed being footloose. (www.atollexplorer.com)
New Immigration Form
Die gleiche Karte gibt es im Flugzeug von Zürich nach Colombo....
On the flight back from Male’ back to Colombo I was given this new immigration form. It is captioned “Only for Foreigners/Dual Citizens” and refreshingly requires a minimum amount of information. The small print, however, says: “Strictly adhere to the purpose of visit indicated. This is a legal document. False declaration can lead to penalties including confiscation of goods, fines, prosecution, imprisonment and removal from Sri Lanka.”
New Option to Jaffna
Jaffna, that formerly beleaguered town and peninsula in the north of Sri Lanka, has become even easier to visit now. Instead of the hard slog of a 12 hour-drive from Colombo or being cramped in a Russian aircraft operated by the commercial arm of the Sri Lankan Airforce, there’s a new option.
Expo Aviation, which runs the superb Expo Aviation Margosa guest house (see Newsletters 82 & 84) in Jaffna, has begun to operate a brand new Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft between Colombo’s suburban airport of Ratmalana and Palaly, Jaffna, twice a day. The aircraft has 12 leather-upholstered seats, individual reading lights, air-vents, and is also equipped with a drop down monitor that screens silent movies.
Taking just over one hour, the flight, is promised as “invigorating and comfortable” with the added bonus of two flight crew members to take care of passenger safety and comfort. (http://www.expoavi.com)
The Maldives Avenger
The heroism of the young Maldivian who led a seaborne guerrilla campaign against the occupying Portuguese in the 16[SUP]th[/SUP] century is the theme of my swashbuckling novel, The Maldives Avenger, now available to download as an eBook at £2.99 from http://roystonellis.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=50
Beat regards,
Royston Ellis.
LG Premasiri
Zuletzt bearbeitet:
Premasiri
Well-known member
- Registriert
- 8. Aug. 2009
- Beiträge
- 10.696
TROPICAL TOPICS, Sunday 5 February 2012
Greetings to readers everywhere. It’s my birthday on Friday 10 February and I shall be celebrating it away from home in a bungalow in the chilly hill country of Haputale.
Art Fair
Colombo’s annual Kala Pola (Art Fair) was held last Sunday with paintings and some sculptures exhibited on both sides of one of the city’s main thoroughfares. Although the road wasn’t closed to traffic, pedestrians had right of way and made the most of it, happily strolling up one side of the road and down the other, enjoying the sunshine, the street snacks, and the art.
This year there were 300 mini-marquees erected so the exhibitors had shade for showing their paintings. More people than in previous years turned up, not just Sri Lankans (including many resident overseas) but lots of foreigners too, evidence of the changing character of Colombo.
It was gratifying to see the number of people proudly bearing paintings they had purchased, again a change from other years when sales seemed sluggish. Prices for good work, however, surprised me.
The young artist who painted these two pictures that attracted me, one of the inside courtyard of an old house, the other a bar scene, asked for Rs25,000 (£ 143; US$ 227) each.
The high standard of art was pleasing. While some paintings were amateurish daubs, unimaginative copies, and student exercises, there was some charming and impressive work, including this rural scene
and a stunning still life.
This amusing sculpture was not for sale but was created by the staff of the Cinnamon Grand temporary streetside café.
Changing Colombo
After the art fair I took John, a friend of mine for 50 years who was visiting from England (he’s in the background in this photo), to the newly opened (see Newsletter 87) old Dutch Hospital complex in Colombo for lunch.
Instead of lunching in the restaurant proudly run by Sri Lankan Airlines catering service offering airline food (a curious concept), we tried a trendy-looking new café off the courtyard. Here we encountered a situation typical of new cafés, restaurants, guest houses and hotels in Sri Lanka. While the infrastructure, design, décor and cooking were top notch, the service was so inexperienced, by people pretending to know what they were doing and clearly didn’t, it was beyond a joke.
John told me he has encountered clueless service everywhere in Sri Lanka. Is it because of the boom in people eating out, resulting in not enough properly trained staff to meet the demand?
Interesting was the pricing. At the café in the Dutch Hospital complex a glass of Chilean wine cost Rs750 (£ 4.28; US$ 6.81) tax and service charge an extra 24% ; whereas a glass of the same wine at the Barefoot Garden Café on Galle Road was Rs450 (£ 2.57; $4.09) including tax and service. There was a jazz band playing in the sunshine there the whole afternoon too -- and we had strawberries and cream for tea! (Rs500.)
Colombo has changed not just because of the number of new buildings going up and the foreigners strolling the streets, but in traffic too: it’s not only heavy, it’s also affluent. We were astonished to see two new beautiful Porsche cars steering carefully through the stream of reconditioned Japanese vehicles.
Scrabble in Sri Lanka
View PDF
From my friend Yasmin, who did much in her career to add sparkle and charm to the city’s five-star hotels where she worked in public relations and management, comes news of an intriguing event: Colombo’s Scrabble Bash. It’s being held on Saturday 25 February from 9.30am at the Lanka Alzheimer’s Foundation (110 Ketawalamulla Mawatha, Colombo 10) in support of Yasmin’s favourite charity, for which she works tirelessly.
Holiday Budget
A Press Association report reveals that a basket of typical holiday items, including drinks and suntan lotion, was less than £ 28 (Rs 4,900; US$ 42.24) in Sri Lanka according to a survey by the British Post Office Travel Money. The same eight items, including a three-course evening meal for two, were as much as £113 in Barbados.
Without knowing just what were the eight items, it’s impossible to say if that holiday budget is wishful thinking. Sri Lanka, new visitors be warned, is NOT cheap. I wonder where it is possible in Sri Lanka to get a tourist-standard three course meal for two for £28 (including the tax & service of 24%), let alone a further seven items?
Bar Report
One amenity lacking on the west coast of Sri Lanka where I live, between Colombo and Galle, is a decent cocktail bar, or even an indecent one. Not like Negombo, on the west coast north of the airport, where there are several lively cocktail bars with counters and bar stools for dedicated drinkers, and a lively promise of fun.
Even Hikkaduwa, supposed to be a happening resort (it began life in the 1970s as a hangout for hippies) has not surfed into a contemporary world with a bar offering thirsty holiday makers who aren’t confined to package hotels, a merry evening. The best is Refresh, where – although cocktails are available at Rs890 (£5.08, US$8.09) each, plus 10 service charge -- drinkers have to sit at tables in the restaurant instead of congregating around a jolly bar counter.
Even so, Neel and I enjoyed Blue Margaritas. (But we could only have afforded one between the two of us if we were trying to live within that Post Office budget!)
http://webwizard-lk.us4.list-manage...6e93dd63ff010484a1&id=674b0ca533&e=ca5bada1c1
Beat regards
Royston Ellis
Best regards too
Premasiri
Greetings to readers everywhere. It’s my birthday on Friday 10 February and I shall be celebrating it away from home in a bungalow in the chilly hill country of Haputale.
Art Fair
Colombo’s annual Kala Pola (Art Fair) was held last Sunday with paintings and some sculptures exhibited on both sides of one of the city’s main thoroughfares. Although the road wasn’t closed to traffic, pedestrians had right of way and made the most of it, happily strolling up one side of the road and down the other, enjoying the sunshine, the street snacks, and the art.
This year there were 300 mini-marquees erected so the exhibitors had shade for showing their paintings. More people than in previous years turned up, not just Sri Lankans (including many resident overseas) but lots of foreigners too, evidence of the changing character of Colombo.
It was gratifying to see the number of people proudly bearing paintings they had purchased, again a change from other years when sales seemed sluggish. Prices for good work, however, surprised me.
The young artist who painted these two pictures that attracted me, one of the inside courtyard of an old house, the other a bar scene, asked for Rs25,000 (£ 143; US$ 227) each.
The high standard of art was pleasing. While some paintings were amateurish daubs, unimaginative copies, and student exercises, there was some charming and impressive work, including this rural scene
and a stunning still life.
This amusing sculpture was not for sale but was created by the staff of the Cinnamon Grand temporary streetside café.
Changing Colombo
After the art fair I took John, a friend of mine for 50 years who was visiting from England (he’s in the background in this photo), to the newly opened (see Newsletter 87) old Dutch Hospital complex in Colombo for lunch.
Instead of lunching in the restaurant proudly run by Sri Lankan Airlines catering service offering airline food (a curious concept), we tried a trendy-looking new café off the courtyard. Here we encountered a situation typical of new cafés, restaurants, guest houses and hotels in Sri Lanka. While the infrastructure, design, décor and cooking were top notch, the service was so inexperienced, by people pretending to know what they were doing and clearly didn’t, it was beyond a joke.
John told me he has encountered clueless service everywhere in Sri Lanka. Is it because of the boom in people eating out, resulting in not enough properly trained staff to meet the demand?
Interesting was the pricing. At the café in the Dutch Hospital complex a glass of Chilean wine cost Rs750 (£ 4.28; US$ 6.81) tax and service charge an extra 24% ; whereas a glass of the same wine at the Barefoot Garden Café on Galle Road was Rs450 (£ 2.57; $4.09) including tax and service. There was a jazz band playing in the sunshine there the whole afternoon too -- and we had strawberries and cream for tea! (Rs500.)
Colombo has changed not just because of the number of new buildings going up and the foreigners strolling the streets, but in traffic too: it’s not only heavy, it’s also affluent. We were astonished to see two new beautiful Porsche cars steering carefully through the stream of reconditioned Japanese vehicles.
Scrabble in Sri Lanka
View PDF
From my friend Yasmin, who did much in her career to add sparkle and charm to the city’s five-star hotels where she worked in public relations and management, comes news of an intriguing event: Colombo’s Scrabble Bash. It’s being held on Saturday 25 February from 9.30am at the Lanka Alzheimer’s Foundation (110 Ketawalamulla Mawatha, Colombo 10) in support of Yasmin’s favourite charity, for which she works tirelessly.
Holiday Budget
A Press Association report reveals that a basket of typical holiday items, including drinks and suntan lotion, was less than £ 28 (Rs 4,900; US$ 42.24) in Sri Lanka according to a survey by the British Post Office Travel Money. The same eight items, including a three-course evening meal for two, were as much as £113 in Barbados.
Without knowing just what were the eight items, it’s impossible to say if that holiday budget is wishful thinking. Sri Lanka, new visitors be warned, is NOT cheap. I wonder where it is possible in Sri Lanka to get a tourist-standard three course meal for two for £28 (including the tax & service of 24%), let alone a further seven items?
Bar Report
One amenity lacking on the west coast of Sri Lanka where I live, between Colombo and Galle, is a decent cocktail bar, or even an indecent one. Not like Negombo, on the west coast north of the airport, where there are several lively cocktail bars with counters and bar stools for dedicated drinkers, and a lively promise of fun.
Even Hikkaduwa, supposed to be a happening resort (it began life in the 1970s as a hangout for hippies) has not surfed into a contemporary world with a bar offering thirsty holiday makers who aren’t confined to package hotels, a merry evening. The best is Refresh, where – although cocktails are available at Rs890 (£5.08, US$8.09) each, plus 10 service charge -- drinkers have to sit at tables in the restaurant instead of congregating around a jolly bar counter.
Even so, Neel and I enjoyed Blue Margaritas. (But we could only have afforded one between the two of us if we were trying to live within that Post Office budget!)
http://webwizard-lk.us4.list-manage...6e93dd63ff010484a1&id=674b0ca533&e=ca5bada1c1
Beat regards
Royston Ellis
Best regards too
Premasiri
C
Claudia
Guest
Die Collage finde ich besonders gelungen, aber sie stand wohl nicht zum Verkauf.
Premasiri
Well-known member
- Registriert
- 8. Aug. 2009
- Beiträge
- 10.696
| |||||
|
C
Claudia
Guest
Die Internetseite zu den Boutique-Hotels ist wirklich sehr interessant.
Ich hatte mich schon manchmal gefragt, was dies eigentlich für Hotels sind.
Tatsächlich bin ich jetzt auch noch dahinter gekommen, dass ich letztes Jahr
in Bangkok in so einem Hotel gewohnt habe.
Ich hatte mich schon manchmal gefragt, was dies eigentlich für Hotels sind.
Tatsächlich bin ich jetzt auch noch dahinter gekommen, dass ich letztes Jahr
in Bangkok in so einem Hotel gewohnt habe.