Pictures From The Mount Lavinia Walk

12 Kilomter Walk to Mount Lavinia

When we lived in Montevideo we enjoyed long walks along the rambla, which was a very wide boardwalk that went along the river for 22 kilometers. Sometimes we would walk to Ciudad Viejo (The Old City) about 11 Kilometers, it was such and easy walk we sometimes walked back. Have lunch there, visit the flea market, listen to the musicians and maybe have an ice cream while people watching.

We had talked about walking to Mount Lavinia, it's about 13 Kilometers away (About 8 miles), it was just a matter of doing it, well today we decided we would do it.

So we packed up some beach gear and sprayed on the suntan lotion. I put on my hiking boots and my Baghdad hat and we hit the door at around 10:30, it was already scorching hot.

Our first goal was Marine road, Marine as in ocean. This road runs along the ocean and has much less traffic than the main road through the city. It was difficult just getting to this point. We were dodging buses and trishaws, other people. Probably the worst part is the bus horns. The bus horns just cut right through you.

We stopped twice for coconuts along Marine road, they are very refreshing when your hot. Speaking of hot my t-shirt was just drenched in sweat, soaked. I had a towel around my neck that I used to constantly wipe the sweat off with.

Back to the main road and the traffic had really picked up. Along with everything else Colombo has no real sidewalks to speak of. There is no just "walking" your going around cars and poles, and holes and on and on.

Our next goal was the overpass, I considered that the halfway point although it is much past that.

It wasn't long after we passed the overpass did I see our first official sign for Mount Lavinia and we found the sign for the beach road.

We walked down the beach road and kind of haphazardly made our way to the Mount Lavinia Hotel beach. We had to pay 600 Rupees apiece (About $5.50) to use the beach, but that was okay as we got a nice lounge chair and cabana, towels and use of the showers and the pool.

The beach there is not much to speak of, in some ways it's rather dangerous as you have these big crashing waves that come down just a few feet from the beach and the water is very deep. I kept getting knocked down just trying to enter the water, in the end I only went out a few times. The pool was much more relaxing.

There was no question how we were going to get back, grab a trishaw. We found a driver to take us back, didn't even negotiate, tossed out a price and he accepted (Never in Colombo).

We had not gone very far when we came across a police checkpoint, no big deal, they asked the driver for his identification and we figured we would be on the way. Next thing I know a face is leaning into the trishaw asking me for identification. I hate to say that I was a bit shall we say, upset at this. I handed him my identification card when I hear the word passport, I would have hit roof if they asked for my passport. When I handed them my card I told them where I worked which should have been end of story but the next thing I know another guy is on the other side of the trishaw and he wants to see my identification card. now I am really mad. I hand it to him then grab my company ID card and show it to them, they finally hand them to me and smile and say "No problem" and we are on our way again.

We stopped and got a big Indian dinner and some ice cream for take away. The food went down quickly and sleep will come upon us soon,

Pictures in another post.

Lost in translation

One good thing about living in Sri Lanka is that most people speak some degree of English, except the guards here at the apartment. We had a frustrating incident when we ordered Pizza Hut delivery. I called down and told them to let them up, the guard calls me and tells me they are in the lobby, so I told them to send them up, minute goes by the guard calls again, I tell him to send him up. Finally I go for the door ready to go down only to see the elevator door open and the Pizza Hut guy walking my way, shaking his head and chuckling about the guards.

Fast forward to tonight, we thought we would do the home delivery thing again. This time Chris calls down to tell the guards to let them up, she gets off the phone and she was pretty frustrated.
She said the guard didn't speak any English.

I decide to go down to both guard tables and tell them to let the delivery guy up. This turned into a pretty frustrating experience to the point I just buried my face in my hands and went back to the apartment.

I have zero confidence that these guys would be of any assistance in an emergency.

Brings back memories of the compound guards in Saudi, but they were much worse.

Fun With British Electrical Plugs

Electricity Sri Lankan style, British style plugs. Big old 3 prong connectors. Some jacks look like the one above, others have 3 round holes. Now most 220 voltage appliance that you purchase have the European style plus on them, that being 2 round prongs on the end. The Brit's had to make everything difficult and up it one prong. So there are two ways of utilizing a two pronged device, purchase an adapter. There are many different flavors of adapters, most also accept U.S. style pronged devices as well. The other way, my favorite, is to stick a screwdriver in the top hole simultaneously pushing the plug into the bottom two holes. It seems preposterous. Chris thought I was crazy, she swore she would never do it but she has become old hand at it. I was introduced to the screwdriver method in Baghdad by a coworker. Iraq uses British style plugs as well.

We have learned to bring or own adapters both traditional and round holed when we go out of town. Although most places have courtesy adapters to use, it saves us a call and you never know what shape they are in.