10 Things You Will See At A Beach In Sri Lanka

1. A dog

2. A beggar

3. Women selling handmade beach covers and blankets (covers, throws etc)

4. Men selling handcrafted items (masks, Buddhas etc.)

5. Tout's

6. Beach boys/Sea urchin's

7. Beach cabana's

8. A washed up coconut

9. A surfboard

10. Restaurants with signs in German and German flags outside.

Serendipidity

Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated.

"The word derives from Swarnadip, the Sanskrit language name for Sri Lanka,"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity

And here I am, yet another chapter in the Doc Report begins. Follow me if you will from Sarajevo, Baghdad, Jeddah, Montevideo and now the tropical island of Sri Lanka.

I arrived this morning around 0230 local time via Sri Lankan Air. And lest I forget a friendly Ayubowan to all!
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ayubowan

My journey started on from good ol' Norfolk, VA (ORF) to the ever so popular New Yorks JFK and onward to London, Heathrow via Delta Airlines. Had a bit of a problem in Norfolk as the ticket agent was convinced I had a 3 month visa for Sri Lanka, I told her it wasn't a problem but she had to check with her supervisor. I managed to stay awake and fairly comfortable the flight "over the pond" watched two movies. The last leg to Colombo was a solid 10 hours and 45 minutes. Thankfully I had a window row to myself so I could stretch a little. The flight attendants were super friendly and wore really neat traditional style clothing as uniforms.

Someone from the work was there to greet me and being so late at night there was no traffic and didn't see the city.

First impressions of my new apartment? Let me put it this way, WOW!.
At least 1 1/2 times the size of my apartment in Montevideo. Any of the guest bedrooms here is the size of my master bedroom in Montevideo and each guest bedroom has a full bath, which are larger than the master bath I had in Montevideo.
My master bathroom is huge as is my living room. The best was waiting for me as I opened my patio door, do you hear it?
The Indian Ocean, probably 100 yards away. Okay I can't swim there but the waves crashing do provide a wonderful backdrop.

There are a few quirks as can be expected, oh maybe like railroad tracks also in front of the apartment and before the beach. As I tried to sleep last night I heard "HONNNNNK HONNNNNNK!!!", my brain asked, "Was that a train?", yes all hours of the night and day, speaking of one....

I woke up this morning and ventured out into my new world. Uhm, I'm not in Montevideo anymore! All I have to do is go to the sidewalk, turn right and walk about 5 minutes, there I am at work!

It's hot and humid, no make that, it's VERY hot and humid! I am sitting at my porch right now, the sun is down and it's 82F.

As soon as I get some batteries for my camera I'll take a few pictures of my new surroundings.

Until then.

Finicky stray cat

"Tawny" our beach cat (Because Chris found her on the beach) is so funny
because although she was stray for who knows how long, she will not even
take a sniff of "human" food, not a bite, not a lick. She'll come
running at the sound of a pouch being opened though! What I don't get
is how a cat that spent who knows how long living on the beach, eating
who knows what, can be so finicky!

at the beach

Now that the Doc Report has gone blog, I can do some neat things.
Case in point, I'm relaxing at the beach and this entry comes via my
Blackberry : ). But -hate typing on this thing!