My alarm went off at 02:00 and I was able to get a cup of tea and watch the news before my wakeup call arrived bang on time at 02:30. It took just 10 minutes to check out and arrange a taxi to the airport; the taxi service being free for residents.

 

The staff behind the desk at the Taj tried to convince me I was going to the airport too early. However, I insisted on leaving at 02:40 and was at the airport for 02:50. The airport was open but quiet. I was able to walk straight up to the check in desk and check in my luggage. I filled in my embarkation form and the queues were only a couple of people deep where you hand your embarkation form in. I headed straight up to the Palm Strip restaurant and bought a carton of orange. It cost just over 200/ - they do take SL Rupees. Be aware that some shops in the airport do not.

I have to say the breakfast this morning, which arrived promptly at 06:45, was a bit grim. My choice of beef curry proved to be uninspired as the beef was as tough as old boots. I contented myself with eating the milk rice with sauce from the curry poured over it. However, the King Coconut and tea were excellent.

I went downstairs around 07:15 as I needed to checkout as tonight I was booked into the Taj Airport Gardens, a hotel much closer to the airport. It took around 10 minutes to complete the formalities.

Martyn picked me up at 07:30 at the TransAsia. The journey into work today revealed a lorry had turned over on its side and crashed into a house at the side of the road. Whether anyone was hurt we couldn't make out as we drove passed.

In the morning I briefed the local IT team on the new server and .NET 2005 plans and then Saman took me to the new factory we have just purchased. It is also located at Katunayake, a short drive from our two other Katunayake factories (CMK & CMG). The new factory is huge. It must be as big as all of our other three SL factories put together. However, there is a lot of work to do before it can become operational.

Around 12:00 I made the short 45 minutes drive to our Wathupitiwalla factory (CMW). Martyn had kindly agreed for me to use his driver for the trip. The road between Katunayake aqnd Wathupitiwalla was still a nice quiet run. I still can't get over the traffice lights at the crossing of the Kandy Road at Nittabuwa. It has transformed what was previously a death defying experience! It was great to see some old friends and work colleagues such a Damika, Mervyn , Bandara and Kalum as well as Gareth, an expat I had met when I worked out in Morocco. Since my last visit here most of the office staff have moved from our Wathupitiwalla factory into our new Katunayake factory and so the upstairs area was practically deserted. I proved the Skype was working at CMW and found out from Kalum a few issues with the scanning system which I will correct next week. I managed to call in the works canteen for lunch and anjoyed some fish curry accompanied by rice, beetroot and salad. Around 15:15 we made the trip back to CMK.

Martyn dropped me off at the Taj around 18:15. I checked in within a few minutes, arranging for a wakeup call at 02:30. taxi to the airport when I came down to check out. After dropping my stuff off in my room (414) I walked down to the main road (a walk of about 0.5km) as I wanted to see if I could get some Zesta green tea from the Food City that is located just by the entrance to the Taj. I was in luck and I bought four boxes, each with 25 tea bags. These cost 125/- each.

Once I got back to the hotel I decided to grab something to eat. I thought I'd try and get some of the excellent samosas that are on the bar menu but which, sadly, they seem to seldom do. There were no mutton Samosas avaiable but the vegetable ones were. Howver, they were different to the ones they used to do as the old ones were huge and you got two of them. The new ones were much smaller and you got six. To be fair though they were swtill very tasty and I ordered a second lot after the first :) I also had a Lion Lager to accompany the meal. Whilst eating I watched some of the SL vs Pakistan cricket and chatted to one of the other guests and his wife. I called it a night at 20:15 as I wanted to get a few hours sleep before my wakeup call. I left the England vs West Indies cricket match on the TV as I dozed.

 

Breakfast arrived in my room promptly at 07:00. Slight mistake in bananas arriving instead of banana milkshake but I had ordered tea as well so I wasn't too bothered. The chicken curry and string hoppers were excllent and I polished them all off.

 

Martyn picked me up from the hotel. We had arranged for 07:30 but Martyn was already in the lobby when I got down at 07:20.

The canteen had curried pork, which I think is one of the best meals they do. I managed to have a quick chat on the phone to my old boss in Sri Lanka, Jawaid, who has since left the company.

 

Martyn dropped me back at the hotel and as England were playing the West Indies I decided to pop down to the Cricket Club Cafe to watch the match. AS yesterday I grabbed a Bajaj outside the Trans Asia and agreed a fee of 250/- to get there. The CCC had not changed at all and one of the waiters still remembered me from my time as a "regular" here. I grabbed one of the round barrel tables in the main bar, ordered my "usual", a Lion Lager and my old favorite the Chilli Crab. The menu appeared to be the same to the one I remember from when I used to live here. Unfortunately Lords was affected by bad light and so the players were off the pitch so I just read a newspaper I had brought from the hotel and soaked up the atmosphere. Shaun Walsh (the CMI CEO in SL) and Paul Gregory (who was the CEO when I first moved to SL) turned up a bit later on and joined me for a couple of drinks and a most enjoyable chat.

 

We called it a day around 23:00 and I hailed a Bajaj on Alfred House Gardens, agreeing a 250/- fee back to the Trans Asia.

I decided to grab an orange juice, a cup of tea and some samosas from the breakfast buffet. Crystalene had arranged for a driver to pick me up from the hotel and he arrived right on time at 07:30.

 

Most of the day was spent getting the new server up and running. I did get to try the canteen food again.

Crystalene arranged for a driver to drop me back at my hotel and we left around 18:00, getting back in Colombo just before 19:00.

I had a quick shower when I got back to the room, filled in the request form for breakfast in my room for Thu morning and decided to re-visit Sakuras, a Japanese restaurant I used to frequent often with my wife, Helen, when I previously lived in Sri Lanka. I walked down to the entrance to the Trans Asia and took one of the Bajajs waiting outside. Although the driver didn't know Sakuras I mentioned the MacDonalds on Galle Road (Just 2 minutes walk from Sakuras) which he did know and I agreed to a fee of 250/- to get there.

 

Sakuras itself had changed little. Even most of the staff I recognised. However, the menu had changed. The main menu now has 101 items, all still with pictures, but Sushi is now only listed on a separate menu. There is also an accompanying sheet with English descriptions of the dishes. I sat at the bar, ordered a bottle of Lion Lager, some Sushi and Kappa Makki. As always, the meal was excellent. I paid by master card. I walked up to the top of the street where Sakuras is situated and agreed a fee of 250/- with a Bajaj driver waiting on the corner of Galle Road (the driver started at 300 I went to 200 and so we met in the middle). I got back to the hotel around 21:00, ordered a 3 coins beer on room service and rang my wife, Helen.

Martyn, an ex-pat who runs the cutting room operation and is currently in charge of IT in CMI SL, dropped me off at the hotel. This time I had a front facing room (528) from where I looked over the sports ground opposite towards the sea, which was visible about half a km away. One difference I noticed i the room from last time I stayed here is they now have a card you can put on your bed to say you don't need the linen changing. All part an eco drive. Whilst I had seem this practice in some hotels I had stayed at in the interior of Colombo it was the first time I had seen it in Colombo.

 

I had picked up a leaflet from the check in desk that showed that there was an Indian buffet on at the Saffron Restaurant at the Trans Asia at the moment. As I had never been to this restaurant before I decided to give it ago and I was not disappointed. When I arrived around 19:30 the restaurant was fairly empty and I was easily able to grab a table. I ordered a bottle of the 3 Coins Irish Dark and once it had arrived at the table I investigated the buffet. The waiters were extremely helpful explaining what dishes were what and I went up several times to try the different dishes on offer. I ordered another Irish Dark and read a Travel Sri Lanka magazine I had brought down from the room.

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.

So my last day in Sri Lanka. I woke up pretty early, around 06:00 and manage to get out on the balcony as the sun came up. The dawn chorus of bird song was truely magnificant. I then messed around on the computer for a few hours, having my now standard cup of green tea.

 

Around 14:00 I made a move up to Odells via Bajaj and had a late lunch at Nihonbashis sushi bar (I wish I tried this place a lot earlier in my stay in Sri Lanka as I must admit I'm really taken with it). I then managed to get 3 small locks for my suitcases from one of the small stalls dotted around De Soysa Circus.

 

I decided to walk back to the apartment at Alfred House Gardens to take in one last blast of Colombo. On my way back I passed the National Museum and so decided to call in as this was another thing I had never quite got around to during my stay in Sri Lanka. It costs 500/- to get in. I found the museum mildly interesting. Not anywhere close to my list of favorite places to visit but I thought it worth a couple of hours wandering around. My favorite exhibits were the water colours painted in the 1800s showing Sri Lanka as it was then.

 

 I walked the rest of the way home, savouring the unique atmosphere of Colombo, the constant honking of horns, the armed soldiers standing watch over the start of the rush hour traffic.

 

I showered at the apartment and then headed off to Majestic City to get a few DVDs my wife had requested. I managed to get 4 of the 7 she wanted and paid 180/- each for them. I had a last walk back up Galle Road as far as Alfred House Gardens, passed the Green Cabin that we never got round to eating at. I was only asked if I wanted a taxi by 3 Bajaj drivers - significantly down on the record of 12 or so during the 10 minute walk.

 

The rest of the day was spent doing last minute packing. This will be final entry on my Sri Lanka blog from Sri Lanka. The end of an era for me. I will make a few other entries from the UK.

 

I have mixed emotions. Very sad to be going but looking forward to seeing Blighty again. I certainly need the break at the moment. Ah, so many things I never got around to doing but then again so many things I did.

 

So a phone call to my wife Helen and then I'll pack the computer away and await the driver who is due to take me to the airport.

I managed to get myself a big suitcase to fit the remainder of the stuff at my apartment in. I opted not to take the car but grabbed a Bajaj. My first port of call was Odell's, a department store in Colombo. However the prices were around 16,000/- so after consulting Helen, my wife, about this via text messages she advised me to try Pettah. I caught a Bajaj right outside Odells and paid the driver 200/- to take me to Pettah. There I knew there was a road where most of the shops sold bags. I stopped off for a King Coconut drink from one of the sellers (15/-) and found penty of small shacks which sold bags. I found a suitcase I liked in the first shack I entered. The shopkeeper wanted 6500/- for it and I really hadn't the inclination to bargain so I paid him the money and hauled the suitcase in the direction of the Hilton. It took me 10-15 minutes to get there and was accosted by a number of Bajaj drivers who couldn't quite grasp why I would want to haul a suitcase around without their help!

 

The doorman at the Hilton was equally baffled as to why he couldn't get me some help with my suitcase. I managed to make it to the echelon bar where sadly they had none of their excellent strawberry pils on. I opted for the Hilton brew (150/- for half a pint) and sat and watched the Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh ODI cricket match for 30 minutes or so. It was a great shame they had none of the strawberry pils. Although the Echelon was not a regular of ours Helen and myself have had spent many happy hours here and I will have fond memories of it. I managed to change a 1000/- note for some smaller notes at the reception desk and then got one of the Take Me To The Hilton taxis. The taxi cost me 620/- as opposed to 200/- in a Bajaj but I didn't want the hassle of trying to fit the suitcase into a Bajaj.

 

About 10 minutes after I got back to the apartment I got a phone call from the security guards saying that the taxi driver had returned with my hat that I had, apparently left in the taxi! For this I was extremely grateful. It was my England 2003 tour of Sri Lanka cricket hat and I would have been a bit upset to have lost it!

The packers turned up bang on 10:00 (I am suitably impressed) and seemed a nice bunch of guys. There were three of them including the supervisor. In the great Sri Lankan tradition the supervisor's supervisor turned up to supervise them for a short while. They finished just after 13:00 which I thought was a pretty good effort. I gave them a 1000/- to split between them which I hope was a suitable tip.

 

The wooden elephant and mask had their photographs taken and then got packed. I gather there should now be no issue exporting them to the UK. When they are finally unpacked I'll upload a picture of them so that you'll know what all the fuss was about. Possibly that will be a fitting final post to this blog!

 

I have to admit getting the packing done and out of the way has been a huge relief and a great weight off my mind. It is now also starting to really hit me that I am actually leaving SL. Up until this point I don't think I'd fully taken the fact in.

Luckily the shop I bought our wooden elephant is only a 15 minutes drive from our factory in Katunayake so I travelled up to Negombo this morning to try and contact Sharmalee, the shop owner, in the hope of getting a duplicate receipt issued. However, the shop was shut :(

 

I used this as an excuse for one final visit to Gemmas, a dutch coffee house, both Helen & myself had taken a liking to. Gemmas is only 5 minutes up the road from the shop (2 minutes walk from the Goldi Sands hotel, away from Negombo,  but on the landward side of the road) and somewhere we always dropped in when we were in Negombo. Last time we were there (about a month ago) we learned that Gemma's had changed owners. I am pleased to report that this has not affected the cafe in the slightest. I had a pot of local coffee and a Kroket (375/-) and both were excellent. The picture of Gemma, the cat the cafe was named after, has gone from the wall and there are a few other minor changes but nothing you'd notice without looking for them.

 

I called at the shop again on my way back to the factory but it was still shut! However, there was nothing to do but drive back to the factory.

 

Another conversation with Concorde, the shipping people, later and I think I maybe able to arrange for the elephant and mask to be shipped without a receipt as they are both obviously new and not antiques. Hopefully this issue is now resolved!

We are currently experiencing at Katunayake the first heavy downpour of the new rainy season. It has been relatively dry since xMas but today, around 16:30, the rain started and by 17:15 it was absolutely tipping it down. One thing I will say about Sri Lanka - when it rains it really rains! I shall put off the drive home as long as possible to avoid driving in the rain as already it is fairly dark and I would imagine there will localised flooding on the way back to Colombo. The rain has been accompanied by some thunder and lightning - and three times now I have almost leapt out of my skin the thunder was so loud! We also lost power to the factory for 10-15 minutes but power has now been restored.

I had a guy around this morning from Concorde, the shipping agency we are using to ship our stuff back to the UK. I was impressed as he was very un Sri Lankan in that he turned up at the agreed time (turning up on the agreed day is usually considered a bonus over here). We apparently do have a problem with two items we want shipped back. A painted wooden mask and a wooden elephant. I need receipts for both items and have receipts for neither. I don't think I ever had a receipt for the mask (we bought it from a roadside shack a couple of years ago at Hikkaduwa) I did have a receipt for the wooden elephant but gods knows what I have done with it. Its all been a bit chaotic the last few weeks and I've either filed it away somewhere unknown or thrown it out by mistake. I am going to call at the shop I bought the elephant at, on the way into work, in the hope they will write me out another receipt and this will suffice. The wooden mask looks like it could be staying in Sri Lanka unless Concorde can sort something out for me. It wasn't expensive but has some sentimental value as a memento of a super holiday down on the SE coast. The packers arrive tomorrow at 10:00 so bang goes my hope of a day at the elephant orphanage :(

I see that New Sri Lanka Peace Talks have begun. There doesn't seem to be much enthusiasm nor expectation for them at the factory where I work. Most people seemed resigned to at best the currently stalemate continuing and at worst Sri Lanka slipping back into war.

 

The BBC have posted a special report, Sri Lanka's only hope for peace, on their web site.

Another few steps closer to leaving Sri Lanka today. The air tickets to take me back to the UK arrived on my desk today and I have arranged for the shipping company to look at the goods I want shipped back to the UK. There may, apparently, be an issue with a couple of bronze buddha and some wooden ornaments we have. Not sure why as all (except the wooden elephant) are pretty cheap (3000/- max) and the bronze buddha hand and face we brought back with us from Thailand anyway. I'll see tomorrow what the issue is.

 

My digital camera stopped working today which is a bit of a blow. I have a Powershot A75. The picture has gone all blurry and tinged with purple. Looks like I may be calling in at the duty free electronics shops in Dubai! I had really hoped to take some photographs over the weekend and particularly of my work colleagues. Sadly that may now not be possible.

I managed to take a couple of pictures of lizards since xMas.

 

The first one shows a small (fist sized) lizard in a flowering bush at work. There were actually two of them but the other was very camera shy!

 

The second shows a larger lizard (4') crossing the road next to the airport at Katunayake. The things you have to watch out for on the road when driving in Sri Lanka!

 

There are some pictures I taken that sum up Sri Lanka perfectly for me. Attached to this post is one of them. The back of the bus has two pictures & captions. On the right you see some cuddly bunnies with the legend Picnic Tourer and you imagine a bus full of school children on their way for a school outing. On the left you see a picture of a matador with a bull and the legend No Fear. This is the b*st*rd behind the wheel!!!

 

Bus drivers in Sri Lanka are the scum of the earth. They indeed have No Fear. They also have no regard for all other road users, no comprehension of the laws of the road and no courtesy whatsoever. And I am being kind to them in those preceeding statements!!! 

 

 

Since arriving in Sri Lanka a couple of years ago I had accumulated a reasonable collection of takeaway menus. I don't order takeaway that often (maybe once a week) but find them invaluable, especially when I am ill (like I was last weekend) and don't want to go out to get something to eat. However, last weekend I went to order a pizza from Pizza Hut (which I prefer to Dominoes, especially now that Dominoes has stopped doing the excellent Jalapeno bites) I couldn't find a menu. In fact I couldn't find any of my menus, which were not where I had left them on the kitchen unit. I avoided a crisis by looking Pizza Hut up on the web, but can only assume that Sageetha, the maid, has either tidied them away or horror of horrors thrown them out! I left a note for Sageetha on Monday asking her what she had done with them but she left me a note saying she didn't understand my note. So today I asked, Blossom, the company secretary to write out a note for the maid in Singhalese asking her what had become of them. Sometimes even a simple thing becomes complicated in Sri Lanka! I now have the note in the bizzare looking (at least to me) Singhalese script and will leave it for Sageetha as she should be in on Wednesday to tidy the apartment up. At least on Sunday have aquired another takeaway menu for the Queen's cafe, the takeaway along with Pizza Hut, I use the most.