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September 24, 2005
map
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Here's a crude map and sketch of my route.
Posted by tyler at 03:31 PM
September 08, 2005
what to do
Aruguam Bay, Sri Lanka
Total KM 7719
"May I please see a menu?"
"No menu." There was a brief silence before he continuted. "Tsunami," he paused mid-sentance and placed his hands together and then quickly seperated them, throwing his hands to either side as if clearing a table. He then finished what he was saying by adding "everything." I later learnt that construction was finished on his restaurant/home in April, 4 months after the December 26th Tsunami ravaged South Asia. It was now September with still no menus in sight.
After I finished my meal, the owner - whose name I cannot recall - came and sat down, stole one of my cigarette (halep yourself, mate)and laid into his sales pitch. It was so blatantly obvious right from the get-go, you could tell that their was going to be a request for me to pay one of his bills or to buy him a frying pan. In the end it turned out that he wanted me to loan him some money or go into buisness with him, it was impossible to discern which. He wanted to build some bungalows out back of his restaurant, only a few feet from the beach. All he needed was $5000 US.
The previous morning Hakeem, the Muslim roti seller down the road, had told me his story about what he lost in the Tsunami. He handed me a pair of photo albums to look through, they contained pictures of the devistation, taken a day after the incident. Aruguam Bay, on Sri Lankas east coast, suffered massive devistation from the Tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean. Lives were lost, homes and buisnesses were rippied from their foundations, drinking wells were contaminated - some lost more than others. Hakeem lost a brother, sister and some nieces and nephews in the natural disaster, but his wife and children escaped with their lives and the clothes on their back - nothing more. Everything else was washed away.
Hakeem is now renting a small house that he has turned into a restaurant and on the surface it would appear that he is back on his feet, but if you dig down a bit, you will discover that he is barely standing. Before the Tsunami he would serve around 30 travellers for breakfast, now he's lucky to have 5 people come in and eat his delicious banana rotis. Hakeem isn't sure he'll be able to pay all his bills this month. He didn't ask for it but I gave him my advice anyways. I simply stated the obvious, the tourist to restaurant ratio here is about 3:1 and the surfing season is coming to an end shortly so there will be even less customers come November. Sure, people will eventually start returning in greater number than present, but will they ever reach the volume that was there pre-tsunami? Now, with the assassination of the foreign minister on August 13 and a State of Emergency declared, people will be even more reluctant to visit the teardrop shaped island that is Sri Lanka.
Hakeem doesn't seem to notice all of this, or maybe he just chooses not to. To me, he seems like a desperate man, comparable to a drunk wanting "just one more drink" after the bar is already closed. He thinks that if can get all his bills payed and keep things open for another month, things will turn around. When he pulled out his electricty bill he didn't come out and say it, but his eyes and facial expressions spoke louder than words - don't you want to help me?
But I can't, I couldn't.
Posted by tyler at 02:42 PM
September 03, 2005
beach bum
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Total KM 7297
This bike ride of mine is supposed to be from Singapore to England, but as you can see, I'm now in Sri Lanka and if you know your geography it's obvious that I've deviated from my route. I left my trailer and most of my gear in North India and took a rather pleasant 41 hour train ride (with my bike) down south, from where caught a flight to Sri Lanka to visit a Taiwanese friend whom I had worked with at a school in Taiwan.
I'll be in Sri Lanka for all of September and it is going to be a little bit of a vacation for me - see a friend, relax a bit, wait for a new bottom bracket to arrive and wait for things to cool down a bit before pedalling across the desert in Pakistan. It's not going to be all sit on the beach sipping on cocktails though. I would like to ride around a good chunk of this tropical island, and given the fact that it's only about the size of Ireland, I should be able to see a lot of this place and still be able to spend some time relaxing.
Posted by tyler at 07:35 AM | 3 Comments