.........and Gardens. A Visit to Lunuganga.

After spending Saturday at the temple we booked our tuk tuk to take us to Lunaganga Garden. Our original plan had been to visit Brief Garden but Adrian told us that Lunuganga was even better.

Adrian giving good advice

So Brief Garden was shelved and at nine o'clock on Sunday morning the three of us squeezed into the tuk tuk. Our driver had been arranged by the school so that we would pay local prices not the tourist one. The deal was 1700 LKR about €10. For this the driver would bring us to the garden, wait while we did the tour and then take us home again.

We had a brief stop on the way at this river. We were told there are crocodiles in it but thankfully all that was to be seen this morning were a couple of boats and this man selling his catch.

River looks very peaceful.

When we arrived at the gardens there was little sign of life. This was the country house of Geoffrey Bawa. He started his career as a lawyer but went on to become a very famous Sri Lankan architect.  The gardens were his first love and he experimented here with different types of plants. The gardens were begun in 1947, and Geoffry continued to work on them until his final illness in 1998. After he died in 2003, the property was left to the Lunuganga Trust, who opened the gardens to the public and the house is now a boutique hotel.

The Bell

When we arrived the gates were shut and though there was little sign of life there was another tuk tuk and a car parked outside. Our driver got out and rang the bell perched high over the gate. This was the first of many bells dotted about the property.

 A young man arrived to let us in. He told us we could not see the "house" as the hotel was full but he would give us a guided tour of the garden.

Waiting patiently

Our guide

It was a wonderful tour, we saw many types to trees, lots of water lilies, they are the national flower of Sri Lanka in addition to some of the local wildlife.

The waterlily,  the national flower of Sri Lanka

We also crossed paths with an Australian couple who exchanged words with Sue about the cricket. Australia has obviously beaten England recently.
In addition to this, they gave us the contact gap details of a wonderful lady who organises walking tours in Galle. We plan to go there the weekend after next.

The photos will do the rest of my talking.

Outside the Garden Room

The Glass Room

This used to be a barn and the small building in front was a hen house

Another of the guest rooms.

This room is on three levels!

How many English women does it take to ring a bell?

Jack Fruit. Years ago a hotel we stayed in in Bangkok had notices in the lift forbidding bringing these fruits into the hotel. evidently they smell very bad even though they taste good.

The Water Garden...more seats and bells. 

One of two water monitors that dropped in for a swim.

Back on dry land

The dog cools off. He sat down in the water for several minutes.

Rice 

Bamboo

Lots of shady walks

Spider webs dotted the grass.

The fruit of the Balsa tree. Evidently, one side is poisonous and the other side edible for the birds!

A frog pops up to say hello

Spot the iguana

Found him

A kingfisher sits in a tree.

Red rice

Old Rubber trees

A horned Pan

Pretty Ferns

The cannonball flower. It smells even better than it looks.

I never saw cotton grow in a pod before!

Ringing the bell again. Where is that cup of tea?

Sue when asked to strike a pose. The hakka maybe?

Leaf of the Breadfruit tree, it made a great fan.

Or used to guide the plane into land.

Mangrove

Older Mangrove

The door to the Cinnamon House

This iguana not to happy with being disturbed.

So he decides to go home.

Going...

going...

Almost gone.

Every cow we see here seems to have its own private egret to keep the bugs off.

The main house.

The house faces this view one way

Frangapani tree

This is the view on the opposite side.

Paintings on the outbuildings

This path was made and planted to reduce the road noise

Interesting toilet

I love old pots.

 This is the base of a huge mahogany tree.  Time to leave now.

Temples......

Friday was a Poya day in Sri Lanka. Poya is a full moon day, considered the most auspicious of the four phases of the moon by practising Buddhists here in Sri Lanka. The word poya comes from the Pali and Sanskrit words Upa + Fast, meaning a day of fasting.

It is a day when the sale of alcohol and meat is banned island wide. If you wanted alcohol on Friday in the hotel you had to buy it on Thursday and drink it in your room on Friday. Meat was served in the restaurants however.

There are 12 or 13 Poya days in the year. It is the day that practising Buddhists go to temple to make offerings and to pray. They usually wear white or light coloured clothes.

We decided to go and visit the small temple close to the hotel. We changed into white clothes and set off. It was nice to get out for a walk. A tuk tuk driver followed us up to the temple and kindly took time to explain a little of what we were seeing. 

Inside the temple

Decoration on the walls

Beautifully painted ceiling.

He also told us that three young boys that we saw there were going to become monks next week. Interestingly, at the back of the temple in the main building, there was a figure from the Hindu religion. According to our guide, a Sri Lankan King married an Indian Princess and as a result statues from the Hindu religion were added to the Buddhist temples so she could worship in the same place as her husband. Our visit was before the Poya ceremonies, so the temple was quiet The main service would begin that evening at 18.30

Room for Hindu God in the Buddhist temple

The following day on the recommendation of Adrian, we set out to see the temple of Kande Viharaya. It  is located in Aluthgama  This temple got its name "Kande Viharaya" from its location on top of a hill. It was built in 1734 and became the regional Buddhist centre. 

Kande Vihayara, a busy day at the temple.

Offerings made to Buddha

The Stupa - this literally means heap. It is a shrine usually holding Buddhist relics,
 most often the ashes of monks

This Bodhi tree has a history going back to more than 300 years. 

The Bodha Tree. This one has an octagonal building around it each side depicting scenes from Buddha's life.

The Samadhi Buddha statue was constructed in the recent past, the foundation stone was laid in 2014. it is visible from a long distance. At 160 feet, it is the biggest statute of Buddha in Sri Lanka.
New Image House is located under this statue and depicts many stories and incidents related to the life of Buddha. 

This statute of Buddha is reputedly the tallest in Sri Lanka.

Inside the "New Picture House"

New Picture House

The Three Musketeers....eh....volunteers!

New Picture House

I'm not sure someone didn't paint this guy!

The call to prayer?

Answering the call.

The steps up to the temple complex.

It is usual to purchase fruit or flowers as a gift to temple

Our Tuk Tuk. - this is our main means of transportation

All Inclusive, A Little slice of Heaven or of Hell?

We are booked into the Cinnamon Bey Resort Hotel in Moragalla Beruwela for 28 nights.

We are staying on an all inclusive basis.  This is my first time holidaying on this basis. Having seen a lot of debate as to whether all inclusive packages are good for the local economy, it is interesting to find myself staying on such a package. It is not something that I would ever have booked of my own accord but it is part of the volunteering package. So the question is, is it a little slice of heaven or of hell?

The poolside bar and ice cream emporium.

The Cinnamon Bey is a hotel is situated on the beachfront at Moragalla. It is built on the site of two former hotels that were destroyed by the tsunami in 2004. The hotel is fenced off from the public beach with security guards on the gate.  Why?  As soon as you step onto the beach there are ladies trying to sell you sarongs. They will chase you up and down the beach and "want to be your friend" in the hope of selling you something. They fill you with stories about being poor but in reality they are making 1000 Sri Lankan Rupees on each sarong they sell. Presuming they sell 10 a day they make a profit of 10,000 LKR. In comparison travel reps earn approximately 1000 LKR a day. 

So the tendency is to stay in the hotel garden away from the hassle. You'd think I would be used to it fro Turkey. But I know how to handle it there.

Sarong ladies waiting outside the fence.

The garden from my balcony.

The view from the balcony.

The hotel rooms are spacious. They have a large ensuite, with the toilet separate from the shower. This would be great for a couple sharing. The bed is turned down every evening and tonight there was a flower left on it.

Chaise longue on the balcony

The toilet  is separate, to the left, shower to the right. All of this is behind lattice screens

Flowers left on my bed, they got moved to the table, note the ant on upper left flower.

Looking at the garden from my balcony the place definitely looks like a little slice of heaven, the palm trees swaying in the breeze and the waves breaking on the coral reef outside.

The coral reef.

All inclusive means that we can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner in the Bufe restaurant, the main hotel restaurant. As the name implies it is an all you can eat buffet.  With a huge variety of food, some of which is cooked in front of you, it takes a lot of will power not to overindulge. As an alternative, we can have a set two courses in some of the other restaurants, Mezze, Fire, Rock Salt ....... also all local alcohol and soft drinks are included. Dangerous!!

These are just some of the hot options for breakfast.

Cooked to order

The healthy option.

The most dangerous part of the breakfast buffet for me.

A bulbul gets in on the act.

View from the breakfast table

Bufe restaurant

We were given a lovely blue plastic band to wear for the 28 days and nights. Adrian, our local rep suggested putting it on our room key ring. A good suggestion as I can only imagine the wear and tear I would subject it to in the coming weeks. Also every time I'd step out of the hotel I would be a marked woman. And of course, being as fashion conscious as I am, it doesn't match all my outfits. How shocking!

But is all inclusive a little slice of heaven? After a couple of days in some ways it feels more like a trap or a prison. My Irish phone doesn't work here. Is that the reason the Sri Lankan government give out free SIM cards at the airport? The internet is very erratic, early morning and late evening seem to be the best time to get a connection, sometimes there is no connection at all.  Apart from the fact I am an internet junkey, it makes it difficult to stay in touch with Mum back home. I am used to ringing her on Skype twice a week. I got through to her phone twice but each time it was impossible to hear her. The signal kept breaking up. It made me feel quite isolated.

When you walk out of the hotel you need a tuk tuk to get to the nearest village or town and you have to barter like crazy. Again you would assume I would be used to bargaining from all my time in Turkey, but in a new place it takes time to learn how the "game" is played locally, so the tendency is to avoid it like the plague. You need to know where you want to go and approximately how much it should cost.

It is strange not to pay for anything in the hotel. If, for example, you order fresh orange juice or non local alcohol which is not on the all inclusive package,it is added to your final bill. This again could be dangerous especially when staying for 4 weeks. It could be hard to keep track and your bill could come as quite a shock.

For me, if I was here simply for a holiday, I would find the all inclusive basis very prescriptive. When I used to take package holidays, the joy was in being able to go out and wander at will and choose from a vast variety of restaurants each night. When you have paid for the all inclusive package the tendency is to stay put.

Trouble in paradise? A couple of these guys had a feast on my legs. Don't put the sunbeds in the shade under the trees!

I am looking forward to starting in the school on Monday, it will be nice to leave the cocoon and find our way about. Even from these few short days I know that all inclusive holidays are not for me, unless it was a week somewhere warm and sunny in the midst of a very bleak winter!

Sunset on Moragalla Beach.

Have you stayed in an all inclusive hotel and if so, is it your idea of heaven or hell?

Knickers Monica!

Before having a sleep, I decided to unpack the bags, something I am usually slow to do when I arrive home. I had spent so much time packing this one it was time to put it and its contents away and forget about it for 4 weeks.

The first thing I noticed was that the combination lock was gone and the loops I had put it through were bent. Oh oh. I opens it up to find it had been rifled, the contents of my sponge bag and make up bag were everywhere.  But nothing seemed to be missing except the lock. This didn't happen in Colombo as the bags came straight off the plane. It must have been in Sharjah, even though they were just transferring the bag. It don't think it was in Istanbul as my bag was just leaving there.

Of course the upshot of the chaos my bag was left in was the jar of nail varnish remover broke and the acetone ate my sponge bag. My sponge bag, a lovely shade of chocolate brown, was a gift from my Mum a couple of years ago and I am very fond of it. Not any more. It had dissolved in places and of course, in the process destroyed my  brand new white knickers. They now have serious brown stains, that soap and nail varnish remover have failed to eradicate. It looks like I had a serious case of Delhi Belly before I even got there. I have no recourse but to put those knickers in the bin.

But wait, if I put them in the bin, I could be the subject of serious gossip among the hotel staff for the next week or so about my obvious lack of control. So an alternative plan to dispose of them is required. Any suggestions? I was discussing this very topic with my friend Pearlie Queen this morning and she thought I should hold onto them in case Delhi Belly really does strike.  I probably should have couriered them to her, as she was shrieking laughing so much that she might have need of them herself. Her cat ran to hide under the bed.

So in an effort not to get my knickers in a twist, should I toss them and cope with the sidelong looks of the housekeeping staff or as Pearlie insists hold on to them for a "rainy" day?