Polonnaruwa

Between the 11th and 13th century Polonnaruwa was the island's medieval capital. There are well preserved ruins of Palaces, Bathing Pools and Stupas.

Kannimaduwa

Buddhists, young and old, show their devotion at Temples.

In other words, take off your shoes before entering the Temple

Anuradhapura

The first capital of Sri Lanka dating to 377BC, a UNESCO World Heritage site famous for its gleaming white Dagobas ( large bell-like Temple structures) which house Buddhist relics.

Our accommodation in Sigiriya

Elephant orphanage in Sabaragamuwa

Negombo Fish Market

Local guide explaining the drying process

Back breaking work of turning the fish over

Blue Marlin and the ever present wild dogs

Crab, glorious crab

Actually I'm not an expert on Crab and wasn't looking forward to having to dismantle one for its meat but Mb had been told of a Colombo restaurant, Ministry of Crab, which is highly ranked in a survey Asian restaurants and which is booked out daily. Mb made our reservations two months ago and when we arrived there last night we encountered a more casual venue than I was expecting but one with loads of atmosphere.

I enjoyed the quality of the dishes we ordered if not the work needed to get at the meat in the main courses. I suppose I'm averse to getting my fingers sticky and messy.

The open kitchen

Crab and avocado salad

Crab pate, the glass jar contains treacle which you pour over the pate

Chilli Crab

Crab Curry

Unexpected rest day

We arrived in Colombo on schedule just before midnight last night and were safely at our hotel around 1am. We arranged to arrive 24 hours ahead of the others on our tour partly to get over the travel but also to meet a prearranged dinner reservation at the highly recommended (by friends) Ministry of Crab Restaurant.

Our plan was to use the extra daytime for personal investigation of Colombo but in the event we discover that our hotel is about 35kms from the centre of Colombo and our naive visions of doing the universal 'Red Bus' city tour dissipated. Never mind, our hotel is a mini resort of sorts and a pleasant way to spend a lazy day.

Glimpses of the inviting pool from my room.

The net covering the balconies apparently is to prevent crows and other wildlife entering guest rooms

The hotel is located on the beach front. I guess the body of water is the Indian Ocean.

My room is on the top floor just to the right of the staircase.

Mb and I will dine tonight at the aforementioned restaurant. Our tour begins in earnest tomorrow.

I'm on holidays

Flying out today with Mb on a holiday. From Sydney to Singapore and on to Colombo tonight.

Airport peak hour

I collected Cz and Cw from the airport this morning on their return from Canada. Their flight landed ten minutes later than the predicted time on the Flight Radar 24 App principally because the flight was made to do a circuit south of the airport ahead of landing.

Once landed the plane was made to wait nearly twenty minutes on the tarmac before pulling into its gate. I thought the App had frozen when monitoring this but it turns out the plane was blocked from the gate by a late departing flight.

This delay cost me an additional $19 in car parking fees.

Never mind. I had a bit of fun. I displayed my friends' names on my iPad in the manner of Hire Car drivers waiting for their customers, much to my friends' amusement.

MIA

I've been missing in (blogger) action for the past couple of weeks; indeed on and off for months.

Over the past ten days or so I have been diverted with three house guests visiting from warmer climes in Australia.

This was not an imposition. On the contrary. So pleasant was their presence and so relaxed did I become by the time of their departure on Thursday that I lost complete track of the days. As a consequence I kept thinking it was a Monday (not Friday) back at work making me look and sound like a goose to patients several times yesterday.

Well I better get back to normality because I have cinema and theatre visits to record and overseas trips to make.

Yes, there are four - count them, one...two...three...four - booked for the next twelve months or so.

First up in just two weeks time are first time visits to Sri Lanka and the Maldives travelling with Mb. Later, at Christmas, a solo, R&R stay in Honolulu. In mid-2019 another solo trip, albeit with an escorted group; a tour from Montreal to New York City. Followed a couple months later with visits to Spain, Portugal and Morocco with Mb and Cz.

App tracking

I download Apps to my smart phone and tablet on a whim. Some, like NextThere, which tells me when a bus I'm waiting for is due, are very useful. Others, that I won't name, prove useless and remain unloved on my devices until eventually I delete them.

One of my loved Apps is FlightRadar24 which tracks commercial flights all over the world and provides me with hours of mindless entertainment when I am in the mood.

I see various flight paths to/from Sydney Airport from my apartment and often will open the App to identify passing planes and their routes.

Occasionally, like yesterday, I monitor a particular flight carrying friends. Cz and Cw flew to Vancouver yesterday and on and off for the best part of 12 hours I checked the passage of their flight. From ascent, I watched whilst the plane was still low over Sydney inner suburbs. Hours later after a cinema visit I tuned back in to see them somewhere over the South Pacific Ocean. Another couple of hours later and their flight was passing by the Hawaiian Islands and later still, at my bedtime, the west coasts of the United States and Canada appeared on screen as the flight was within 90 minutes of arrival at Vancouver.

You can do all this for free.

Traffic control at the airport

(News Corporation)

I dropped Cz and Cw off at the airport this morning for their flight to Canada. Traffic at the various terminals continues to be problematic especially at peak times. Marshalls wave lighted batons in a vain attempt to stream traffic but are ignored by taxi drivers who then trap other motorists thus exacerbating the logjam.

One taxi driver somehow managed to trap four cars in one go; two kerbside cars attempting to clear the area and myself and one other car waiting to replace them.

R&R

A birthday passed by recently and now I am less than a year from becoming a septuagenarian. (Look it up.) Perhaps it is showing. I'm feeling more tired than I have been accustomed to at the end of a day's volunteering.

Yesterday after my day at the nursing home I decided with no substantive planning to book myself a week's R&R at some tantalising destination. Honolulu came to mind.

I have visited Honolulu at least six times but the last visit was more than 35 years ago. In all those visits I ventured little beyond Waikiki Beach other than for transport to and from the airport. I hadn't even visited Pearl Harbour.

I checked the flights and checked my preferred hotel and with little more than thirty minutes spent online a week's holiday in Honolulu over Christmas has been booked.

Easy Peasy.

My night on the Seine

Andrew has written about his lunch cruise in Paris which reminded me of my cruise on the Seine.

I was travelling with two friends, sisters, and our stay in Paris was at the tail end of a month visit to Europe extending from Prague overland to Budapest then by rivers to Amsterdam and overland again to the French capital. I suspect the two sisters were thoroughly sick of each other's company by then even if I was still having a ball.

One of our last touristy activities was billed as a romantic evening dinner cruise on the Seine. We piled onto the river boat with high expectations. The evolving coolness between the sisters was now so evident that no-one else in our touring party sat anywhere near we three.

The cruise got underway in summer's bright late afternoon light. Dinner was served as we puttered down river; afternoon light still blazing. The sights were indeed splendid, if not yet romantically lit, but with two companions no longer speaking the general mood had turned decidedly chilly. After a time the riverboat turned about and headed back the way we came; still in bright light.

As we approached the wharf where we had boarded I assumed we would continue up the river in the other direction. After all the day, although late, was still bright. The romance of evening, I felt, might thaw the sisters out and lift the mood.

Not on your life. We tied up at the wharf and were quickly shuffled off to allow the next load of tourists to have their romantic cruise. No doubt their's, unlike our's, was eventually an evening cruise.

Beware the 'romantic evening' promises when travelling at the height of Europe's summer daylight saving hours.

The Hydro

Photos from a day trip to the nearby Blue Mountains; in particular the Hydro Majestic Hotel where as a child, more than 55 years ago I spent a number of holidays with my mother and grandmother. The hotel seems have gone through various boom and bust periods. I believe it is currently under foreign ownership.

Santa Monica

Palm Springs

Our accommodation in Palm Springs

The pool area

The surrounds

Blue sky, cool weather

Shopping at Palm Springs

Shopping at Palm Spring