Which is to say, we’ve hired a scooter. To zip around and see some stuff in the old locale. Just for the change, like. And a very nice morning we’ve had.
First off, it’s the freedom. It’s very hot, and just the sheer joy of swooping along in the open air is well worth the price of admission (hardly hard, at £6 a day). And also, though we’ll never tire of the beach, after a week or two it’s nice to get back to a bit o’ the old culture, innit.
Like the Hindu temple, which provided today’s star pic, though no others, since photography inside was forbidden. Along with shorts, women’s shoulders, eating, or drinking alcohol, coming in having eaten meat, ladies at their time of the month, and God knows how much else besides. As I said to Virle, why is it that these religious places are always so plastered with prohibitions? You’d think God might have more on his mind than the occasional flash of kneecap (after all, He created them), but hey ho, each to their own. And I wouldn’t dream of flouting the prohibitions – their gaff, their rules – though a local was video’ing away with no obvious qualms.
In truth, the temple wasn’t all that. It all felt a bit shabby and unloved. Though I have to say I do love the pragmatism: big, bright, presumably sacred wall paintings, but we need a mains socket, hand me the hammer. And the broom cupboard will be fine in that corner. No standing on ceremony; life goes on. There were also some lovely spotted deer, and a wonderful view over the sea, whence whales are apparently sometimes to be seen. Though not today now there’s a surprise.
The pic of Virle wasn’t taken at the temple (surprise surprise) but at our next venue: Kanniya hot springs, which proved to be very worthy of their name. A somewhat strange place, once again decidedly delapidated, and on first sight evoking the ‘that’s it?’ we’ve come to recognise from some of our many sightseeing adventures. But in the event it proved to be weirdly wonderful. We got changed in the shabby changing rooms, then simply went between the seven different ‘wells’, supposedly at slightly different temperatures, though to us they all felt blimey that’s hot, pouring buckets over ourselves (and in my case going for the immersion, despite Virle’s ‘I’m not sure you’re allowed to do that’ Is there a prohibition sign? Well then). Sounds totally counter-intuitive, given the heat of the day, but it was actually surprisingly refreshing, and Virle also felt she got some benefit from the promised medicinal mineral qualities.
Then off to our third destination: Welgam Vihara – an ancient Buddhist site, mostly ruins in the jungle since being pretty much laid to waste in the 11th century. The Buddha in one of the pics is apparently moonstone, all detail eroded by the passage of 2,200 years. There wasn’t really that much to see – it’s kind of in the nature of ruins – but it was so peaceful in among the trees that we just sat on a wall and enjoyed the quiet and watched the butterflies.
Then back on the bike, and return to the ranch by way of some very off the beaten tracks, including a bit where we came up a rise and suddenly found ourselves on a track alongside a lake – all reeds and waterlilies and the odd bunch of cows munching their way placidly along the banks. Lovely!
Then back to the beach for an afternoon swim, Virle leaving early for a pedicure, me following on half an hour later, musing over the three distinct groups of locals: young lads in the water, early teens give or take, lithe and skinny and wiry; another big group of young men playing something loosely based on volleyball, with lots of pushing and shoving and uproarious laughter, all in great shape – lean, muscular, ripped to the max; and a third group, in their mid-20s to maybe late-30s, playing a similarly riotous game of beach football, all, or pretty much all, with a physique much like the one they had a decade or two earlier, plus a massive pot belly. Sri Lankan food will do that to you. It’s delicious, for sure, but an awful lot of it is basically carbs and fat, and they seem to eat an awful lot of it.
We plan to join them in an hour or so, in the company of the second T20 semi-final: India v England. ‘Way the lads!