Amazing antiques in 400-year-old Galle Fort, beautiful beaches at Unawatuna, Mirissa and Tangalla, whale watching, leopard and elephant spotting, tasty rice and curry, buddas and the lovely Samarakkody Family. Ayubowan!
Photo highlights of our Sri Lanka trip here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simoncrerar/sets/72157623199762259/
We began our fortnight in Sri Lanka with a wonderfully decadent weekend at the truly stunning Amangalla in Galle Fort, almost certainly the very best hotel we have ever stayed in.
Si & Chelle at Amangalla
Amangalla photos here on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simoncrerar/sets/72157623199812471/
Story here: The Butler’s Guide to Galle
http://www.travelintelligence.com/travel-writing/amangalla-the-butlers-guide-to-galle
We then spent the next 10 days checking out a number of beach resorts along the beautiful south coast, plus chasing blue whales offshore and leopards inland.
Wijaya beach, Unawatuna
We finished off with a delightful dinner with our new friends, the Samarakkody family…
Dinner with the Samarakkody's
Unawatuna, Mirissa and Tangalla all had their positives, but despite their lush white sands and fringing palms, we struggled to imagine ourselves working there. The coast was really battered by the tsunami and much of the redevelopment is rushed and ugly (and sometimes actually in the Indian Ocean!)
The 400-year-old Dutch colonial Galle Fort is packed with incredible antique shops, stunning properties and a wonderfully vibrant and varied community of locals and interesting expats, but we fear it could be a little insular for us at this stage in life.
Plus the political situation would make it very hard for me to work openly as a journalist.
Our fortnight in Sri Lanka coincided with the country’s first election since the brutal ending of the 26-year-long civil war last May. Was a rather turbulent time to be in country.
The incumbent president Mahinda Rajapaksa won re-election after a bitterly contested race, amid accusations of vote rigging, pre-election violence and serious electoral irregularities.
Virtually every Sri Lankan we spoke to voted for the opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka, so all were rather surprised that Mahinda, the man whose family and friends hold 80 percent of goverment posts, romped to an apparently convincing victory. Echoes of Saddam-era Iraq’s 99 percent positive turnouts. Mahinda is looking east, not west for friends, allowing China to build a huge deepwater containter port and naval base, and apparently basing his presidential style on a Cultural Revolution-era Chairman Mao. All a little discomforting.
Avoiding election riots, Rachelle hooked-up with a women’s cooperative and is exploring incorporating some of their work into a forthcoming collection. I filed a photostory for The Sunday Times Magazine, and will forward details when it is eventually published.
Sporadic updates on our culinary adventures here
http://sauceandnosh.com/
2 Comments
All highly interesting, but back to real life, did you and the Sammarakkody family watch the derby? 34 years and that’s a fact. Go on United!!
Only joking, keep sending the updates, it allows me a few moments to dream. Take care
Sizzly
Ah, the election and the Chinese. The latter first, the Chinese have got lots of loot. Is the naval base at Trincomalee, one the RN’s?
As for the election, if you can remember that far back, it was hard to find anyone who voted for Margaret Thatcher but unless you believe that those elections were rigged, lots of people did. Likewise, lots of enthusiastic NuLabour Blairites are backtracking these days