Chris Saul's Blog

Tuesday January 16, 2007

Humpty Dumpty Holland lady

Mrs Saul and I spent New Year's in Aluthgama in Sri Lanka. The Terrena Lodge looked after us extremely well, making sure we had a very relaxing few days.

The highlight of our visit was a trip in a small boat up the river. I was intrigued to see this statue of a European at the temple we visited on the way.

Apparently it's of someone called 'Rhys Davies', a British man who gave some money to the temple.

Our guide during the boat trip kept us updated on who lived in the houses and who owned the hotels we passed. Most seemed to belong to European women who had married local men. This was related as 'this house belong German lady, got married Sinhalese boy'. The best was when we were told 'this house belong humpty dumpty Holland lady, got married Sinhalese boy. Humpty Dumpty Holland lady very jealous if Sinhalese boy looks at other lady, as humpty dumpty Holland lady has short arms and legs and humpty dumpty body'. Sadly we didn't see the lady in question.

Sera, our river guide, was excellent, naming all the wildlife we saw and telling us about the different symbols we saw at the temple. He also sang us one of the temple poems.

During the rest of our holiday, I began to see why so many European women had married local men. Everywhere we went we saw middle aged German women with young Sri Lankan 'beach boys' half their age. I'm used to seeing similar age gaps with Western men and younger women from the Philipines and elsewhere, but it was unusual to see it happening the other way around.

When Sera had warned us about the 'beach boys' I had an image in my mind of Brian Wilson and co serenading unsuspecting tourists on the beach, before overcharging them for an 'I heart Sri Lanka' t-shirt. The boys in question were usually dreadlocked Sri Lankan equivalents of British or American surfer dudes, who appeared to be able to say 'how are you' in fifteen different languages.

Security was much tighter than during our last trip. Our taxi from the airport was stopped and searched on the way to the guesthouse, as well as on the way back to the airport. Our driver back to the airport was very cross that we were stopped, saying that usually he just had to switch on the internal light to show that Europeans were in the car and he'd be waved through. We were at pains to say that we didn't mind and that we understood. He was concerned that more of that type of behaviour would simply do more to discourage what tourists were still visiting.

Other Sri Lankans we spoke to were angry at the decision of European governments to mark Sri Lanka as a potentially dangerous holiday destination. They said it was unreasonable as the only place that trouble was occurring was in the North. I can understand their sentiments, but during the week after we left a bomb went off on a bus in Colombo. So far tourists don't seem to have been targeted, but I suppose that could change.

The conflict and its economic side effects are tragic - the hotels around us should have been full, but everywhere seemed half empty. This meant it was nice for us, as there were no crowds and no need to wait for anything, but there was clearly capacity for many more visitors.

Whether it has economic causes or not, I couldn't help feeling that in terms of tourism the areas we saw could really have done a lot better. Aluthgama has several five star hotels around it for example, but little effort seems to have been made to make tourists want to walk through the town centre and buy things in the shops. Covering open drains and clearing rotten rubbish heaps shouldn't be an expensive task and would surely help stimulate the economy with visiting tourists' money. As it is, a short walk through town discourages you from returning.

The beaches were beautiful though. For a relaxing break, it couldn't be beaten. I'm sure we'll go back.

A set of the better photos, all of which are courtesy of Mrs Saul, are here.

Unlucky number plate

This isn't the most auspicious of number plates -

RIP doesn't stand for 'Rest In Peace' however, it stands for Riwalpindi. The streets of Karachi, where I saw this car, are mainly filled with old Japanese models. Riwalpindi apparently still has lots of British models going strong, so I'm hoping to wangle a trip there during my next visit to see what I can see. I wonder if they'll have any Austin Maestro's still on the road? Somehow I doubt it.

The right not to fly through the windscreen

When I was in Istanbul last September I commented in a post that a lot of the taxis seemed brand new, which meant that their seatbelts were all working properly.

A few months on and it seems that, for no apparent reason, most drivers have tucked the clips under the back seats so passengers can't belt up properly. This seems utterly bizarre to me - the clips don't get in the way and the belts are still there, so surely it makes sense to leave things in place so that passengers can use them if they want to?

None of the drivers who picked me up wore their belts, but I think they're excluded from recent seatbelts laws. I can't imagine why though.

Come on taxi men of Turkey, let me choose whether or not to ruin your windscreen or not!