Well, at least according to the cranky man in charge of the guesthouse I'm staying at. Granted he had a point, when I asked him about the 1,000 rupees deposit for a safety box, he said despite the fact that we've our own keys to the rooms etc, better safe than sorry. It's true, in this place I'm now staying at, "Sharon Inn," you need to close your windows at night not only because of the mosquitoes, but moreso because monkeys will enter and trash your place. Cool. I hope I see a monkey tomorrow, though out the window, not in my room.
As you can probably tell, I've moved to another place here around the lake in Kandy. It's less than half the price of the other place, and additionally I have wireless in my room! Wow! I want to stay here longer now that I've discovered this. After all, two nights is less than one night at the other place. It's not cheap, at 2,200 rupees, or roughly $19 (maybe less, I underestimate the dollar's value while traveling on purpose)...but it's decent.
It's been a day of strange serendipity. I'll start at the end before working my way through the beginning. The guy I met yesterday ended up coming by my guesthouse for dinner (I texted him earlier and reserved us spots). The food here is apparently quite good, and with good reason. We had a vegetable soup to start, then 12 very well done vegetable dishes served buffet style, along with chicken curry and then a dessert of some ice cream. The meal was 825 rupees, or less than $8. While eating, I asked Richard if he's had an amazing number of Sri Lankans give him their phone numbers and tell him to call if he needs help. I'd say I have at least 20 Sri Lankan numbers in my phone, if not more, from the last three days. What's also strange, as a sidenote, is that none of these travelers have seemed to pick up on the sim card thing, which has seriously saved me a bunch while here. It's immeasurably helpful to be able to call someone to double check things, get back in touch with people, find housing, or whatever else. I helped Mike Stables (yeah, not Staples) get a sim card this morning. He had already spend about $2,000 (yes, dollars!) on phone calls back and forth with his family at home. I've spent $10 on the sim and minutes, and have more than half of my minutes left still...I've called the States multiple times, and have called and texted freely (without hesitation, not for free) locally. Anyway, Richard told me he had not received more than one number from someone in the last 10 days, and that was someone who asked him to give him their number while he was at the train station. So, I was going to say Sri Lankans are very very friendly and helpful, and I'll still say that, but with some question. Not only have I received dozens of phone numbers, but I've been invited at least three times a day to someone's house or offered a free lift to some location that the person "happens" to be traveling to. I've not accepted, of course, but I do sort of with (in this one instance) that I had another person traveling with me...I mean, I'd probably take some of these offers, if they still came.
In general I was pretty much eaten alive today by mosquitoes. I have at least three on my forehead, a few on my cheeks, three on my back, three on my right leg, four on each arm, perhaps more. I'm starting to lose count. I put on mosquito repellant, but they don't care! Meanwhile, others remain unbitten. Why?!
Okay, now back to the start of the day. That began with breakfast: papaya, pineapple, watermelon, tea, some fresh juice (papaya?), then rice noodles, sambol, a condiment made with pounded chili, and curry.
When I went back to my room after breakfast, I found beautiful smelling flowers spread nicely across the bed (I forget what the flowers are called, but they are what they make leis of in Hawaii). It was very pretty, though I was a bit weirded out by having had one of the hotel workers adorn my bed with flowers and smile at me knowingly after I walked out. Perhaps they do that to all guests, it's a nice touch.
For the next while I worked on logistics (yuck), trying to figure out the day's activities and my next guesthouse stop. I did a bit of reading and decided on the "Sharon Inn." Mike Stables had checked with hotel staff on my travel schedule and gave me some warnings about the places I had been looking to visit. "If my daughter wanted to go there..." He offered me a ride with him and his driver to Arugam Bay, which is where he was headed to give out the cricket equipment. He was very nice about it, said he didn't want to impose, but wanted to give me the option. I very much appreciated his kindness, which reminds me, I must email him. Anyway, I forgot to mention earlier that in the middle of the night I'd had some fireworks/circuit issues within my room and so had been unable to charge any of my electronics. Everything was dead. I needed a new phone charger and adapter. I headed out to a local phone store to buy the charger, and while there I met "Shan" (pronounced Shawn), who was visiting his friend on his way to work (supposedly). He was in a dress shirt and pants. He helped me with my purchase, and then walked with me to the electronics store and helped me get an adapter (which, btw, shorted after I popped it into the socket at the Queens). The hotel staff gave me another adapter, and I've stolen that away with me -- though, technically, they said I could keep it...I'm not sure they realized I was checking out. Anyway, Shan took leave to go to work and gave me his contact should I need any help.
Upon my return to the hotel I headed out with Mike again to help him sort out his sim card situation. Then I left for the "Muslim Hotel" for lunch. The place has a reputation of being respectful to women and providing cheap meals. I had some curry and vegetables with rice, plus two delicious beef samosas (they were all out of the other things I wanted by that point). A mother and her two children (boy and girl) sat at the table with me, and the girl stared at me so much that she kept forgetting to eat. Her mother would continuously tell her to stop staring, or eat, or something, because then she would turn back to her food. Huge silver platters were continuously brought out to tables covered with different fried and stuffed items. These dishes are called viddai, and apparently people only are charged for what they eat. I wish I'd known that then. At the table right next to me sat a man who seemed very familiar. He had just walked in. He saw me, and said, "hey, Tami!"...and I stared...It was Hamid, from Colombo! The man who had helped me find a net cafe in the rain that first day and had given me his number if I needed any help.
Well, he ended up walking out with me from the restaurant, and told me I should stay at his place. I thanked him, but said I already had another place lined up. He told me to call him at 5 p.m., once he was done at the mechanic. He had been in a car wreck (way too common here), and then was headed over in the direction I would eventually be traveling. He offered to tour me around, I declined.
I took a 150 rupees tuktuk to my guesthouse, got settled there, and then decided to walk back over to the city center, about 20-30 minutes of a walk around the lake, maybe longer. The guesthouse is up a very long and winding set of hills, among other guesthomes as well though. The walk was very nice. I saw a pelican along the way, cleaning up his dirty feathers. Once I got to the city center I decided I needed to buy some lighterweight pants than the jeans I was wearing. It's a bit chillier in the hill country, but still hot and humid, but also very wet, drizzly and rainy. I ended up finding some nice pants and a linen skirt (I know...but it's hot!). I don't know if I'll ever wear the skirt, G-d knows I have enough mosquito bites on the normal exposed areas, I don't need them anywhere else...Even better, because the pants were a bit big for me, they threw in a belt (which I needed desperately for my jeans!)...so that was a decent deal. I had to go to the bank to get money to buy the clothes in cash. Of course, as I head over to the bank it starts pouring. I take cover with four or five guys, and we all chat casually under the overhang of a random business. I decide to try and buy an umbrella, but the store owners try and rip me off (the guys priced it for me prior), and so I end up walking out into the now drizzle. It was maybe overpriced by about 80 rupees, but it was more the principle/attitude than the actual price. Much later that day (after the rain was all over, of course) I bought an umbrella for 290 rupees (the other one was priced at 350). Anyway, when I get to the bank, I get a phone call from Shan. He told me he was off work and meeting with friends. He asked me what I was up to. I told him. I got off the phone to use the ATM, and then he called me again. By then it had started raining again, so I was again stranded under a store overhang. He told me he'd come meet me. That he'd just parked his car in a carpark (go figure...). I thought he'd be coming by with an umbrella or a car, but nope, it was just him. He'd told me on the phone he'd just been to a salon and had a very different hairstyle. To be honest, I didn't quite remember or notice. Okay, well I gotta get some rest, so though there's no real tension to this "cliffhanger"...
To be continued...
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