I had set no alarm for Sunday morning as I was feeling pretty tired last night so it was just after 11:00 when I finally got up. I just grabbed a cup of tea for breakfast and decided to have a stroll around Colombo - a favorite passtime of mine when I previously lived here. I headed off towards Crescat (one of the more modern shopping centers in Colombo and situated next to the Cinnamon Grand), taking some of the back streets as they are much more interesting than sticking to the main  throughfares. I took some pictures of Beira Lake on the way. It was nice to see the Pelicans were still there. Sadly I found as I passed by that Mollies, one of our favorite bars in Colombo, had closed down. I had to ask a soldier the way at one point because a lot of the roads around Beira Lake were closed off to traffic. At Crescat I had hoped to buy some Mlesna green tea for Lina, a Sri Lankan friend of mine in the UK. However, although Crescat was open the Mlesna tea shop was not. Coincidentally I met Carl and Angie in Crescat. Angie suggested I try Odels (a department store) as they had a tea shop situated within it.

 

However, first I headed down to Keells, situated underneath Liberty Plaza, an older but bigger shopping center. This is where I used to do most of my shopping once Helen had left for the UK in Nov 2005. They have a good selection of teas but no Mlesna. However, I bought some Dilmah tea and some other Green teas for myself.

 

My intention had been to walk down to Shanti Vihar to grab some lunch. For some reason I was under the impression that Amarvathis was closed on a Sunday but I called in just on the off chance and luckily it was open. Amarvathis had been one of my favorite eating places in Colombo. Thankfully, little had changed and I had an excellent 14 dish Maharaja Thali (250/-) and a salt lassi (100/-). If you ask (which I did) they will also supply extra rice. I'd remembered to bring along the paper left outside my door at the hotel, a Sunday Observer and so I read this whilst eating.

 

Next was to try and find a jewellers. I had bought Helen, my wife, a ring with a Sri Lankan sapphire in when we were here but unfortunately the sapphire had fallen out when we were in the UK and its now lost forever. I had the ring and wanted to try and get a replacement sapphire fitted. However, I failed to find any jewellers open on Galle Road, presumably because it was Sunday. A word of warning here. We are not the only people to find that the setting of jewels in rings is not that good in Sri Lanka. A friend of ours who visited us also had a jewel fall out of her ring once she got back to the UK.

I called in at Majestic City next. This is the largest and probably the best shopping center in Colombo. My mission here was to buy some DVDs off a list supplied by my wife. I got about 75% of the ones she wanted. I paid 200/- each for the DVDs and got 1 free for evey 10 I bought.

 

It was a short walk to my next port of call, the CCC. When we lived at the back of the CCC, at St. James Court Helen and myself used to enjoy counting the number of Bajaj drivers who asked us if we wanted a taxi on the 10 minutes walk between Majestic City and our apartment. Our record was about 12 I think but today it was just 4. I called in at a cashpoint (there are several available on duplication road close to the CCC) to get some rupees out as the DVDs had cleaned me out. At the CCC I had one of their excellent smoothies (150/-) and a bottle of Lion (225/-) and watched some of the West Indies/India one day match on one of the many TVs dotted around the CCC. Feeling refreshed I set off to walk to Odels.

 

The walk to Odels took me up Duplication Road and the change in the road system became very apparent. When I used to live here Duplication and Galle Roads were both two way. Now the section between Bambalapitia junction and the Liberty Plaza junction is one way. North on Galle Road and south on Duplication Road. I was stopped by two policeman on the way. I am a little unsure what they wanted as my Singalese is non existant and their English was difficult to understand. After showing them my room key for the TransAsia I tried to offer to show them my passport and at that point they just waved me on. It took almost an hour to walk to Odels and I grabbed a fresh water melon juice (80/-) at a kiosk just outside the Odels entrance. Unfortunately the Odels tea shop only sold Dilmal tea.

 

From Odels I walked back up passed the Hilton Residences, passing Rohans (another excellent restaurant I found towards the end of my stay in SL). I again had to alter my route back being asked to cross to the other side of the road leading up to the Trans Asia by a soldier. All very different from my previous stay here. By the time I got back to the TransAsia,  at around 18:00, I have to confess I was pretty shattered so a shower was the priority. I rang my wife Helen and made a quick call to my father to let him know I was OK. Then Dave Rodgers, a colleague of mine, rang to let me know he had arrived. We arranged to meet up in the bar at 19:00. We decided to have a meal at Summerfield's cafe. It was a buffet and I had an excellent bean salad, Thai and Mutton curries and Wattatan to finish. At 21:30 we called it a night and I went to bed.

This morning opted for an extra 30 minutes in bed rather than breakfast and so I went to stand down in front of the entrance to the Trans Asia jut before 09:00 ready for my lift to arrive, which it duly did at the promised time of 09:00. It took just over an hour to get to our factory at Wathupitiwala; the traffic being suprisingly light. The day in the office was a mixture of frustration with setting up the scanning for next week and success with sorting out a problem dating back 10 months from my last stay in Sri Lanka and helping one of the local IT guys get at some data for the new invoicing system he is working on. I had lunch in the canteen. I left around 16:30 - the journey back taking longer than the journey in due to the traffic. I got in aound 18:00 and rang Carl to see if anyone was going out this evening. Fortunately they were and so I arranged to meet them in Cheers; a bar at the Cinnamon Grand - giving Helen a quick phone call first.

 

In Cheers I met up with Carl, his wife Angie and Gareth. We watched the Liverpool - Chelsea game, sank a few beers and enjoyed a meal. I got a Baja from the Trans Asia to the Cinnamon Grand and this cost me 200/-. Cheers has few discernable changes since I was last in Sri Lanka; A second big screen and a new menu.  In times gone by we generally came into Cheers for the the food. It was the closest we could get to English food in Sri Lanka. However, as I have been living in England the last 6 months I opted for the chicken curry  from the specials board. I have to say it was excellent.

 

Once the match was finished the others headed back to their apartments but I headed on down to the Cricket Club Cafe grabbing a Bajaj outside DeliFrance for 200/-. The traffic was queuing to get onto Galle Road as the police appeared to have closed access onto it. However, within only a minute or so the traffic was allowed back onto the road. The changes here were mainly in the staff, although a few of the waiters from when I used to come in here on a regular basis were still there and recognised me. One other noticable change was that the CCC now has Lion on draught and I am sure it never used to have.

 

After a swift beer I walked passed the old apartment and grabbed a Bajaj off Alfred House Gardens. It cost me 300/-. The Bajaj driver had to take a couple of  detours due to closed roads but it added little time onto the journey.

The morning started with me checking out of the Tamarind Tree. It was a very pleasent hotel but I had asked to be moved to the TransAsia in Colombo. Although the service was excellent at the Tamarind Tree I found it a nuisance that I couldn't make international phone calls from the room and the mobile coverage was very patchy. There was also no mini bar - not even any bottled water in the room. It was also very isolated. Nice if you wanted to get away from it all which I like for a couple of days but I soon get bored.

 

The day was spent at our Katunayake factory sorting out a few issues with the new implementation of the scanning system. As usual I had lunch in the canteen.

 

The evening was spent at the Taj Airport Gardens where we had a meal at the chinese restaurant. By we I mean Mark, Mario, Lucky, Isaac, Shaun, Carl, Emma, Gareth, Martyn, Jawaid, Paul, and two ladies who were new additions to the management team since I left and whose names I have to confess I have forgotten :(

 

Martyn gave me a lift to the TransAsia, the hotel I have been booked into for the weekend. I checked in, dropped by bags off at the apartment and tried to ring my wife Helen but got no answer so I decided to go for a beer in the bar in the foyer. This cost 420/-, quite expensive for a beer in Sri Lanka and reminded me why we seldom came to the Trans Asia when we lived in Colombo. Fortunately I managed to get hold of Helen when I got back to the apartment.

I struggled sleeping last night. Went out like a light aound 21:30 and woke up at 00:30 feeling fresh as a daisy. I read a book for an hour and it took me another hour to get to sleep. When my alarm went off at 07:00 I was knackered so I decided to miss breakfast and grab another 30 minutes sleep which I managed quite easily.

 

The driver was waiting for me outside at 08:00 and today we managed to get to the BOI at Katunayake via the most direct route on the main Nittambuwa to Katunayake road after the driver waved his pass and yabbled away in Singhalese to a couple of soldiers guarding a road block.

 

After a successful installation of my scanning software on the client PCs at our Katunayake factory in the morning I arranged for a driver to take myself and Kanishka, one of the Sri Lankan IT team to our Wathupitiwala factory in the afternoon. We had lunch first though and I went to the works canteen. The local staff seem to always insist on me having a china plate rather than the plastic ones usual in the canteen and although I'm not bothered I don't like to kick up a fuss. On offer today was prawn curry (something I had never seen served in the works canteen during my time as an expat here) along with some undefinable, but tasty enough, vegetable dishes and the obligatory rice. The local kitchen staff insisted on producing some non spicy chicken bits as well.

 

The afternoon drive from Katunayake to Wathupitiwala was, as usual, interesting. It is a fairly quiet road and one I always enjoyed driving in daylight hours; At night is another story. I got to see my first elephant since arriving. It was in the back of an open truck parked at the side of the road. Not a sight that common even in Sri Lanka! Another (as far as I know) Sri Lankan quirk I witnessed was a section of the road which had white flags placed down either side. This usually signifies the route of a funeral procession and I did notice the coffin lying on a table on a veranda where the white flags stopped. The crossing of the main (only) Colombo - Kandy road came as a huge shock. This area had been in various stages of chaos for I would guess a good 12 months before I left. However, not any more and the reason for the previous chaos was very much in evidence. Traffic lights! Before crossing the Colombo - Kandy Road at Nittambuwa could be a fairly hair raising experience. As there was seldom a gap of any significance in the traffic you had to keep edging out into the main traffic until someone with right of way finally lost their bottle and let you go. Now you just pull up to the lights, wait for the counter to count down and go when the light turns green. Sri Lankan drivers nowadays don't know how good they have it ;-)

 

Our Wathupitiwala factory has changed very little in the 10 months since I last saw it. Plenty of new people and a few minor desk changes but that was about it. Again it was great to see my old work colleagues. Shaun Wals, who runs our Sri Lankan operation has invited the expats and managers out to  dinner tomorrow evening at the Airport Gardens, an old favorite haunting ground of mine. As a visitor I got an invite too so I'm looking forward to that. I worked until 19:00 and then decided to call it a day. A driver was waiting to take me back to the Tamarind Tree at Katunayake.

 

This evening I had pumpkin and orange soup, a selection of curries (green ladies fingers, potato, and cashew, carrot and pea ) wih rice, pineapple and pappad and finally some chocolate sponge, coconut sponge and a small bannana; washed down with a three coins beer. The restaurant was a lot busier than last night and I guess around 20 people must have eaten there. The waiter produced my bill for yesterday's meal for me to sign along with todays. I'd thought it a bit odd I wasn't asked to sign yesterday as Sri Lankan's are generally sticklers for you signing for your bills. I have to say the service at the Tamarind Tree is excellent.

 

Afer dinner I went for a walk around the perimeter of the hotel grounds. Unfortunately a barred gate prevented me from making it all the way around but I managed a decent stretch of my legs. I am sitting out on the veranda whilst typing this up, although I won't be able to publish it as the hotel has no internet access.

Already, within 24 hours of being back in Sri Lanka I have noticed a big difference. The number of soldiers visible on the roads has increased dramatically. The main road between Nittambuwa and Katunayake is also closed just before the airport. To get into work from The Tamarind Tree hotel to our factory on the EPZ at Katunayake involved a detour around the perimeter of the EPZ and through Katunayake village itself.

 

The day at work was most enjoyable. The renovations at our Katunayake factory since I had last been here 10 months ago were impressive. I also had a look around the new factory we had purchased next door and already within 6 weeks the renovation work was starting to take shape. It was great to see so many of my old work colleagues again and to once again sample the delights of the works canteen. I managed to update the database structure despite some electrical problems that knocked the external network access out a couple of times along with the a/c unit in the office.

 

I got dropped back at the hotel around 18:30 The standard of driving has not improved since I was last in Sri Lanka!

 

I managed to get one of those electric mosquito repellent devices working. Not as straight forward as you would expect as the device left in my room had a two pronged electrical plug and all the sockets in the room were three vertical holes - a type of socket I had never previously encountered. However, a chat with the receptionist and a visit from a maintenance guy solved the problem with an extension lead with a three pronged plug and both three and two sockets on it.

 

I went up to the dining area around 19:10 but was told dinner was not served until 19:30 so I investigated the bar and decided to have a Lion Beer whilst I waited. The evening meal was excellent. There was soup, salad, 3 main courses and an assortment of sweets available on a buffet table. I had the onion soup, skipped the salad and went straight onto the Sri Lankan curry assortment. There was white and yellow (ghee fried) rice, chicken currey, Dal & two other dishes (I think one was called Rampala - the other was tempered beetroot). I finished the meal off with a brown, blamanche type sweet that I think is made from Jaggery. We used to have it sometimes in the canteen and I have acquired a taste for it.

I arrived back in Sri Lanka around 03:00 this morning. I flew from London, Heathrow direct to Colombo using Sri Lanka airlines. Work had provided a hire car for mr to drive from my home in Ripley to Heathrow. I set off around 04:45 and arrived at Heathrow around 08:15. The only real problem was at the Europcar depot where he terminal 4 ferry bus pulled up at the terminal 1, 2 & 3 stop. I was at the terminal 4 stop and it was only when the terminal 1, 2 & 3 ferry bus pulled up at the terminal 4 stop and I fortunately checked with the driver as I got on that I realised. Needless to say as I was getting on the wrong the bus the correct one pulled away. Why have signs clearly stating which stop is which when the bus drivers ignore them?

 

I have to say, apart from when I got upgraded to business class, I had probably the best flight I have experienced. I had two seats to myself as the airplane was only half full and the food served was excellent. I read Geoffrey Boycott's autobiography for most of the way over; a book I can throughly recommend to any cricket fan.

 

The Tamarind hotel had sorted out transport between the airport and the hotel and the drive is only about 10-15 minutes. Once I had filled in the obligatory signing in form at the hotel I was shown to my room. As I had no mobile signal I tried to dial out from my room but after trying unsucessfully a few times I contacted the reception and was told I had to ring from the reception to get an outside line. Fortunately it was only a few minutes walk and so I popped up and contacted my wife, Helen, just to let her know I had arrived. The charge was 180/- per minute. I arranged an alarm call for 07:30.

 

The Tamarind has chalet style rooms. The chalet I was in had a lounge/dining/kitchen area, a bedroom and a bathroom. Unfortunately there was no ceiling fan in the bedroom so I had to put the a/c on. Normally I don't bother with the a/c and just have a ceiling fan on - I never quite managed to sleep very successfully without one or the other - its simply too hot for me! I managed to get to bed around 04:30.

 

The alarm call was bang on time at 07:30 and I felt suprisingly refreshed considering I had only had a few hours sleep in the last 24 hours. I slipped up to the main building for breakfast and had a fruit juice, cup of tea and some vegatable and dhal curry. There was "western" food available too.

Its been a long, long time (almost a year) since I last updated my Sri Lanka blog. Since then I spent 5 months in Morocco and 5 months in the UK. The good news is that I am returning to Sri Lanka and the bad news is that it is sadly only for just over a week.

 

The company I work for, Crystal Martin International, want me to upgrade the factory scanning system I orignally wrote when I was living and working in Sri Lanka to the same version as I have implemented in Morocco and also to implement the system in our sub contract factories. Consequently I am arriving in Sri Lanka on Wed 17th Jan and leaving again on Thu 25th Jan.

 

I must admit I can't wait to see Sri Lanka again as Morocco was a huge disappointment and living in the UK again has lost its attraction after what I saw of South Asia during the two years I was living and working in Sri Lanka.

 

I gather I am staying in the Tamarind Hotel, close to our Katunayake factories (we now have two having opened another one since I left Sri Lanka), during the week but hopefully can get to a hotel in Colombo or Negombo on Saturday & Sunday night so I can see a few of my old haunts.

 

I've been following events in Sri Lanka quite closely since I left and the recent spate of bomb attacks have saddened me very much. There was a bomb blast on a bus at Nittambuwa, close to our Wathupitiwala factory which came as a shock. I used to fill my car up at a petrol station in Nittambuwa and have travelled through it on many, many occasions.