Mirissa – It’s a hard life
Bumper edition today, folks! The reasons are threefold:
1. I’ve been lazy since I’ve got here and now I’ve found a good cheap internet cafe
2. It’s Friday and you wouldn’t be doing much work anyway – am I right or am I right?
3. I want to update all my Sri Lanka things before I get to China on Sunday and the only thing I will be allowed to write by the government firewalls is “China is a wonderful country, you should come now and spend all your capitalist dollars”.
Sooo… where was I? Oh yes, in Ella. The guy who ran my guesthouse, the wonderful, benevolent, rotund Mr J, was born in Mirissa, so he was really helpful in getting me down to the south coast. I thought I’d have to take another epic journey and change buses many times over, but apparently not so. There was one that stopped in Ella that went all the way down there. I might have to stand for the first few miles, but once we got to the next town I would get a seat for sure. This didn’t bother me – listen, I climbed Adam’s Peak yesterday! Yes, the real one!
As I sat waiting for the bus (given a different time by everyone I asked, so I plonked myself by the roadside and played the waiting game), I chatted to various locals, bizarrely, about Princess Diana, or Lady Di as they call her here. I tried to get onto my complex theories, developed over many hours discussion with my mum, about her state of mind and how innocent (or otherwise) she was, but it turns out this doesn’t translate well – all I got in response, every time, was a smile, a nod, and “She was beautiful lady. Very good’. Mum would love it here. I also got chatting to a great German couple, Petra and Detlef, who were heading down in the same direction as me.
The bus rolled in finally and it was the usual story – get yourself, and your huge bag, into any available space. Detlef ended up hanging out of the door (he said he preferred it…), and Petra and I were clinging on for dear life inside, hoping that our bags were ok, jammed out of sight somewhere. It got to the stage where I’d lost all feelings in my arm, was using the man in front of me as a brake, and felt like I was surfing on a bus. The driver was of the kamikaze variety, and it was with no small amount of terror that we noticed he and another bus driver seemed to be having a race round Sri Lanka’s winding roads. I was very glad I couldn’t see out of the front window. Suddenly, we heard a metallic clang, and then a few minutes down the road, we got the strong smell of petrol. Something definitely wasn’t right, and the bus soon pulled over.
As we were near the door, we jumped off to stretch our legs and see what was going on. Detlef, an engineer, saw the diesel, saw the hole in the diesel tank, and delivered his verdict of “yes, it’s completely broken”. I was thinking that myself, but when someone who knows what they’re talking about says it, somehow it becomes worse. We were all completely incredulous when, the next minute, a French girl jumped off the bus and lit up a cigarette, a couple of yards from a huge pool of diesel. We shouted over to her that there was diesel on the ground, and maybe she should get herself and the ciggie away from it. “Oh, I’ll be fine”, she said. We took a couple of nervous steps away in the other direction.
One jammed bus pulled up, and some of the passengers got on, but it was too crowded to even contemplate. We were deciding whether or ot we should flag down a taxi to take us further down south to a bus station, when luckily another bus came soaring down the road. We flagged it, it screeched to a halt, and luckily it was going our way. This time we soon got a seat, wedged on the back row like the troublemakers in school, occasionally flying up off the seat when we went over a bump, and making all the locals laugh with our shouts of surprise at the hairy moments. Petra and Detlef got off before me, heading for a secluded bungalow near Tangalle, but they were following me to Mirissa in a couple of days, and we agreed to meet up there.
As soon as I got to the tiny village of Mirissa, I dumped my bag in my room, ran the 10 steps down to the beach with its white sands, palm trees, and crystal clear turquoise water, and pretty much didn’t move from there for the next two days. There’s not a lot to do in Mirissa, except relax with a book, chat with the other folk here (a particularly laid-back set of people), and get very, very brown indeed. I set about it with gusto, and could have happily stayed there for a very long time.
Tags: Sri Lanka, Travel
Suzanne
Hi there Suze – I was delighted when I read your open sentence – a bumper blog edition……..great.
In reply:-
(1) It’s good to be thrifty.
(2)Ah-hem – there are some of us who work hard on Fridays, and in my case especially Fridays, as this is the day that everyone decides to be ill and visit the surgery with something which won’t wait until after the weekend.
(3) China is a wonderful country so go spend your hard-earned pounds (especially in Silk Street Beijing but don’t mention you are related to Irene or I). The 2000 steps you’ve recently climbed will be good training for when you tackle the Great Wall – provided of course you go for the more remote, difficult section and don’t opt for an easy route.
I’m delighted to hear that (Saint) Princess Di is still held in such high esteem in Sri Lanka…….and why not? (Replies on a post card please).
I wasn’t surprised that your (stereotype) French co-traveller decided to flout the rules and light up a cigarette. The French always do but how does a stereotype become a stereotype?
Enjoy your day on the beach. I might head off to M&S tonight for a bit of retail therapy. It won’t be the same without you (but my M&S charge card bill will be much less than usual).
Miss you and love you lots.
Mum
Hey Suzanne,
What joy. I got in tonight and thought I’d see if you’ve left us a blog recently and lo and behold you’ve left five. They’re very funny – it sounds like you’ve had some great experiences – even if some are of the type that you wouldn’t want to re-live….
All is well here, at last finished canvassing for the local elections – almost every night for the last six weeks!! My candidate was elected with an increased majority although having canvassed for 13 hours on polling day in 25degree heat I didn’t really need to wear my rosette as my face shone line a berry. I don’t do celebrity gossip but on the political front John Prescott has had an affair with his diary secretary (Is power really THAT attractive?) and Andy Burnham has just been made a Health Minister. Dull but true.
God Bless,
Elephant Apple.xxx