thava eka sayanak: bicycle rental

i rented a bicycle yesterday to visit the sites in polonnoruwa. i was so nervous (remember kos?). anyway, just wanted to tell you all that i rented a bike and i didn't crash it. yep, amazing but true. it was super fun.

also, i woke up this morning to a peeping tom. a man had pushed aside the curtains in my room and was watching me. creepy! i told the woman at the guesthouse and she apparently found out who it was and told him off (i kind of doubt that's true, but whatever). oh well, time to leave. not such a fan of being watched while i sleep. nope. the worst part is: i was sleeping naked. i've been really trying to pare down on all the junk i'm carrying, so i no longer have pajamas. i think i'll have to start using at least a t-shirt again though... you know, just in case.

Now I Can See

Don't you hate it when you wake up and you don't know where you are?

I woke up blind, naked and alone(thank god!) to someone rapping on the door saying "Marie, Marie... I need to get something. Marie?!"

"Uh... just a minute"

I hopped out of bed and quickly put in my new contacts so I could see. No longer blind. Then I threw last night's clothes back on. No longer naked. I unlocked and opened the door. No longer alone. There's a storage cupboard in the room I slept in, I don't know what he needed... some toilet paper? Meh, who cares?!

Last night I was locked out of my guesthouse and I [stupidly] didn't have the number, nor could I seem to rouse anyone. I had to go sleep at another guesthouse, luckily they took pity on me and gave me a staff room for almost free. Of course, I didn't have any of my sleep stuff with me, and as you probably know: I'm really really blind. I had to throw my contacts away, but thankfully I usually keep a spare pair in my purse for times like this.

Now tonight I've decided to change guesthouses to that one (except I'll get a proper room, not a storage/staff room). The old couple at this guesthouse, in their limited English, seem to be insisting I don't go. I know these places are rivals... god, there is so much gossip here. Sometimes SL just feels like one giant high school.

I had an impromptu (and awesome!) surf lesson yesterday from a real teacher. I say real, because it turns out the guy I took a lesson from before doesn't even really know how to surf, or teach for that matter. Fraud! I felt like a bit of a tool that I'd been hustled so well by him. The same guy, Indi, who I hired as a guide. It turns out he's quite a liar about everything. He's 35 not 29, which makes sense since he looks more like 35. And he has 3 kids, not 1. Strange when you meet people like that. Not that I really care, but still, I suspect he was telling me these things because he thought I would find them more attractive. A futile effort.

Honestly though, I was not surprised to find out he was a liar. I already felt like most of what he said to me was complete bullshit. I often would say to him "boru" and it seems I was right. I'm kind of glad I was right. I like being right. haha. It tells me my intuition is still working.

Ugh, I should pack so I can move. I'm so lazy. Harima kameli. And it's so hot. Goduk rasnay.

One more thing. I just went outside to see Khalu the cat. Behind him, passing him by about 2 feet was a giant monitor lizard. Yesterday there was a monkey in the yard with a dog. Today there's a lizard and a cat. See what I mean? I don't need to go on any safari!

Kiri Kella

They've been calling me kiri kella (milk girl), but now I'm a little more rosa (pink) from the ride this afternoon.

Khalu katta! he said to me.

searching my brain for sinhala words I knew khalu was black, but what is katta. he points to his mouth. aha... but why? we had just finished eating and i had washed my hands and mouth... oh, and then i dried my face and hands with the newspaper they'd given me. ink, khalu ink all over my face. what a mess. koheda mage oluwa?! (where's my mind?!)

learning some sinhala is really paying off. i made friends with the woman, sawandi, who owns the rice and curry shop. she speaks a little english so we roughly exchanged stories over a walk to the temple and down to the beach with her 5 year old daughter. she is 28 and she has two daughters, one is 11 the other is 5. she left her husband because of too much arrak. i can see that this is a big problem here. i've run into a few crazy arrak drinkers already. i wouldn't want my partner to be slugging the stuff.

they stood on the beach and watched as i took a swim. they can't swim, but there is a huge push from the government, ever since the tsunami in 2004, to get everyone to learn. or so i've heard. still, they didn't join me in the water.

kiri kella in the water. dumburu kello (brown girls) on the beach.

i went on a safari yesterday in the yala national park. it was exceptionally expensive for what it was, which was really just some crazy driving while you sit in the back of a pick up looking for animals. it's incredible we saw anything at all with all the noise we made. we saw some elephants, wild boars, deer, birds, crocodiles, but nothing i hadn't already seen just from being in a car or on a scooter riding around this country. seems to me you don't need to be on a safari to see these animals here. it was fun anyway, but i wouldn't do it again. the driver of our jeep drove like an absolute maniac. when we stopped i told him "oyata pissude" (you're crazy). he laughed loudly, more from surprise at my sinhala than anything else; i'm sure he's been called crazy many times. he taught me the sinhalese words for the animals. i've forgotten most of them, but i think a peacock is monera, a squirrel is lena and an elephant is aliya. if i remember correctly, that is.

everyone loves to be my teacher. mama kamathi iganne ganne sinhala. i like to learn sinhala.

this morning i was having breakfast with sawandi and indi (my guide who i've hired for super cheap. super cheap because he likes me, sometimes too much). they were speaking in sinhala, and i actually picked up some words here and there. it was exciting, but i also felt bad. i understood when sawandi told indi that she's afraid (mata bayay) and i knew she was trying to assess her situation. sri lanka is not a good place to be a single mother, mind you, i reckon it's a better place to be than some (like egypt or even india would be worse).

so this is less of a recount of what i've been up to and more of a sinhala lesson. i can't be bothered to go into what's gone on the last couple of days... i want to write about the family trip i took with upul, but i'm too lazy.

one more story. yesterday i wanted to be alone so i took a walk along the beach. i really wanted to swim, but when i got to a place where it was safe to enter there was a guy masturbating, a little set back from the water, but i didn't think stopping would be a good idea. he called out to me, but i pretended not to see him and moved on. then as i was heading back to my guest house i was harassed by a group of drunk men. "koheda anne?" (where are you going?)

i don't know how to say home in sinhala, so i just smiled and pointed vaguely "over there."

one tried to touch my chest under some pretext of trying to teach me the sinhala word for heart. "epaa" (don't)

i fled quickly in my flite flip flops waving at the drunk stumbling man "bye bye"

"karunaakara yanna" (please go).

the woman who runs the guesthouse saw me coming. saw me rushing so. i told her i'd met some naraka kollo (bad boys) on the beach.

tsk tsk kiri kella, you shouldn't walk alone on the beach, even in the day. all the boys go crazy for the sudu kella (white girl). parissamen. take care.

Cricket Fiasco

After my escape from Hikkaduwa I went to Galle. I arrived in the morning, a little frazzled from my encounter with the Austrian and hungry. I got off the bus and found a little bakery to have some breakfast and make some calls to guesthouses so that I could secure a room. I found a room for a reasonable price and then I caught a tuk-tuk to the place.

The guesthouse was simple, but quaint, with all the rooms overlooking a lush courtyard. I was exhausted, so I took a nap before deciding to take a look around on foot. I barely made it around the corner before a man on a scooter stopped beside me and started chatting to me. I immediately got a nice vibe from him. He had seen me in the guesthouse as he had the room beside mine. The man, Upul, owns a small piece of land on top of a hill just out of the city in amongst all the rice fields and he was going there to watch the sunset. He asked me if I would like to join, and I accepted. The idea of going somewhere peaceful and quiet was much welcomed. I was happy to find that he was also very chatty, so all I had to do was sit back and listen to him.

We had a nice chat, watched the sunset and then went back to the guesthouse where I had a much needed early night.

The following day, Ikzath from Colombo came to visit me in Galle. We took the bus to Unawatuna where we swam and ate and then he took me back to Galle before heading back to Colombo. It was nice to be visited; it made me feel like less of a stranger in this land.

When I got back to the guesthouse I saw Upul and his brother, Sandun. I told them about how I was planning on going to Hambantota to watch the world cup cricket match between Sri Lanka and Canada (Canada has a team?! Yes, yes we do... news to me too). Upul and Sandun were driving to Kataragama the next day to visit their family and it turns out that Hambantota is on the way, so they offered me a lift. It seemed like the universe was giving me a lift, so of course I accepted, and boy am I glad I did!

The next morning we all left in a van for Kataragama via Hambantota. On the way Sandun and Upul showed me a few sites and we stopped for a coconut. It was super fun. In Hambantota we found a guesthouse for me in a slightly dingy, but acceptable place. The cost was more than it was worth (1500 Rs with cobwebs above the door and no mosquito net), but I took it anyway. I left my passport with the woman running the place and Upul and Sandun drove me to the cricket match.

When we got to the stadium I suddenly got cold feet about going to this match alone. I barely wanted to get out of the car, but I knew I had to... Upul could see I was concerned and said that if I had any troubles to call him. He said, if he wasn't too far away, he could pick me up and I could go with him to his family's home in Kataragama. I was grateful, but doubted I would take him up on the offer, and off I went into the mass of men...

The walk to the entrance was quite far and it was scorching. On the way I asked some people about how to get tickets, but it seemed that either no one spoke English, I didn't need a ticket (?), or there was no way to buy one. I was certainly confounded by the time I made it to the first security check where they took away my cigarettes and lighter (with a smile... it was a new pack and it looked like they would enjoy those cigarettes of mine). I tried telling them I didn't have a ticket, but they spoke no English and just ushered me through. Amidst a huge crowd of people I noticed that someone was, in fact, checking tickets, but I managed to stay in the centre so that I could go undetected.

Once past the first check, there were some lineups to get into the standing room only (which is where I figured I should go), but they were checking tickets there, so I just slipped under the bar behind the person checking tickets. I mean really, are they going to stop the only foreigner? Maybe, but they didn't. And that was it, I was in... except I don't know anything about cricket, and I was on a patch of lawn surrounded by SL dudes, many of whom were already drunk. It was intense, not the game, but the people, and I think I lasted about 20 minutes before I realized that there was no way I could stay.

I called Upul and he said he could meet me at the guesthouse. Bless him!

Well, it took me half an hour just to find the exit. I staggered around sweaty and unhappy looking for any way out, until I found one nice police guy (the only one it seems) who walked me all the way out to the bus stop. All the other cops I asked for help from were real jerks, so it seems SL is similar to Canada in some ways. Then I caught some weird free bus which didn't take me to where I wanted to go... anyway, long story short, Upul ended up having to come and save me from some small village bus stall where I was stranded. Seriously, what would I have done without him?!

He drove me back to the guesthouse so I could pick up my bad and retrieve my passport. I asked the woman if I could just pick up my bag, and that I'm sorry I'm not staying blah blah blah... but she said I had to pay the whole fare for the night. I thought that was a little ridiculous, so I asked if I could have at least some discount. She called her manager while I went up to the room to get my bag. When I came back down she said the manager said I could have 500 Rs back, and she handed me my passport with 500Rs in it. The thing is, I had never paid... so here I was getting 500Rs from her, instead of paying 1000Rs. I really didn't know what to do, so I took the money and left. I actually felt really bad about it... but what would you do?! And you have to think fast.

Okay, enough for now... I'm drinking a beer while I'm writing this and I think I may be too tipsy to make much sense soon.