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Trincomalee (part3)

Monday, September 27th, 2004

The hostel was not as bad as I had feared. At dawn, I spotted only one geriatric cockroach which was slowly crawling towards the next room. It swayed and weaved because it was missing two legs on one side so it may well have flown during the night — I had felt something whizzing past my ears just before falling asleep. I could not afford to worry about that now and left the thing alone. If I killed it, it would only attract others.
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Trincomalee (part2)

Saturday, September 25th, 2004

As we approached Trincomalee, the vegetation thinned and the landscape became more arid. On either side of the road, large swathes had been cleared of shrubs and trees as an anti-ambush measure during the long war between government troops and the LTTE , the ‘Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’. Now, with a ceasefire in place for almost two years, the plants were slowly growing back. A few remaining large trees stood out, many of them in the grip of the banyan fig (Ficus benghalensis), their trunks encaged by the roots of the parasite who was slowly strangling them.
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Trincomalee (part1)

Friday, September 24th, 2004

This is a brutally honest blog entry, but then it is a brutally honest blog :} — based on the actual travel journal. So here goes:

I awoke from colourful dreams, swimming with whales and dolphins in an ocean world straight out of the Nemo Universe. It made me wonder whether our drinks had been spiked.

John didn’t stir as I kissed him good-bye.
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The snake

Thursday, September 23rd, 2004

Not surprisingly, we needed to recover from our little stroll. My feet had swollen overnight, much to John’s alarm who thought I had contracted a tropical disease. I told him that it was probably filiariasis which can make them swell to the size of elephant’s feet, that it is incurable and that if I had it, he would get it too. I think he believed me until the same thing happened to A a few days later.
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Stray Dogs and Drunken Geckoes

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2004

I blinked into the blazing sunlight and surveyed the lush tropical greenery from the bedroom window. We had arrived. Time to explore. John wanted a day of rest, but I was having none of it. “We have come half way around the world”, I scolded “and over the next few weeks you will lock yourself away to work on your software. Fine. I’m going to find the whales. But at least let’s go for a quick walk!” So, reluctantly, he trudged along.
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On the Road again

Tuesday, September 21st, 2004

It is disappointingly easy to adjust to being back. Already, the journey seems like a colourful dream. Now and then, when I close my eyes, I see flashes of sunlight so bright it is dazzling, silhouettes of palm trees against a blue sky, radiant white teeth flashing a smile, the bright colours of a sarong against chocolate brown, muscular legs — there were some fine specimens among those men… But when I open my eyes again to the familiar gray of the Scottish sky, it is as if I had never been away.

*****
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A picture in 60,000 words

Sunday, September 19th, 2004

I have decided to serialise my travelogue on Sri Lanka: ‘The Whales of Trincomalee’ in this blog. Let’s face it; it will never see the light of day as a book.
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