ramblings from the girl with a tomato face and honey-making hair
maybe NWA had it right all along???
let me take a minute now to talk about men with guns. now, in canada my dealings with police and military were pretty uncommon and rarely deviated from me serving them some sort of delicious baked treat. in contrast, while travelling in asia, i see men with very snazzy uniforms and large guns pretty much everyday. sometimes they're just hangin' out, sometimes checkin' my passport, sometimes searching buses, sometimes telling me not to walk somewhere, sometimes driving me to the outskirts of bangkok to find my camera, sometimes yelling at me for photographing them (ok, that was stupid... but i forgot that you're not supposed to!), sometimes searching me and eben's bags on the train for no reason, sometimes incompetently pretending to investigate eben's money loss, sometimes beating a guy with a baton for bothering me for money (i will elaborate on this soon)... and god knows what else. anyway, let me just say this: beaurocracy and weapons should not mix! but let us move along, shall we?
so i left eben in kandy and headed to a hill town called ella. the train was like a magical fairy ride through cloud forest, passing fields of wild orchids and misty tea plantations. i spent the first part of the trip seated next to a stupid young man who wanted to follow me to ella but i ditched him and ended up sitting in the train guard's room with a better view through the open doors than anyone gets in first class compartments! lovely.
ella itself is tiny but i arrived at a very busy time. there was a huge celebration going on for a new buddha they had built and were just about to "open" (paint on) the eyes. it was a very happy time marked by a constant flow of white clad pilgrims and loudspeakers blaring buddhist music outside of my hotel room 24 hours a day. between intermittent checks on the new buddha i wandered around in the hills and tea plantations for two days. i climbed a mountain from which you can see the hills spilling down all the way to the ocean. on the top i encountered two sri lankan boys and although they spoke no english we managed to jam together (harmonica: natalie rogers, vocals and rock hit with sticks: random sri lankan kids). on the way down i encountered a tea plantation worker who decided to be my unwanted guide (this happens often)... anyway, long story short, someone told me that i should inform the police about him because he might trouble other people. stupidly i did. the police made me march back to the mountain in the pitch dark to help them find the guy. they brought him back to the police station where the chief of police hit him with a baton and locked him up for the night! i freaked out and screamed at the chief of police but he just did not understand my anger! i went back in the morning and demanded they release the guy (he was only annoying, not at all dangerous!). they did, but the police chief still thought everything was great, justice served. it was horrible. i decided that i should probably leave town that day. as i waited for the bus, many tiny bees attacked my head trying to make some delicious hair honey. i took this as a good sign that i was leaving.
the bus bumped me down to the south coast in a matter of a few hours. as we got towards the beach, my stomach turned into a gigantic knot. rows and rows of destroyed, abandonned buildings gave ample evidence to the many lives lost and ruined by the tsunami. i went to a small place called tangalla, hoping for some relaxation after the police problems in the hills. no dice.
the tsunami, tiger trouble and the fact that it was off-season made the place a ghost town. my arrival was big news- there's a traveller (!) and it's a woman (!!) and she's alone (!!!). i had not been in town 5 hours before a fight for my love broke out between some local men. despite the stupidity of that situation, lots of good came out of it.
i was helped by a 20 year old guy named Mahesh who works at one of the hotels in high season. there he works 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for four months and makes $50 american dollars for the whole shebang. after high season, there's nothing for the rest of the year. this is considered a good job. he invited me to his house and there you can see a stain, about neck height, where the tsunami water reached. the place has two rooms and a kitchen shared by him, his grandparents, mother, sister, her husband and his 4 year old cousin. the place is a constant whir of noise and activity. i only spent a few days with mahesh, getting burnt on the beach and eating his grandmama's delicious dahl, but it was fantastic. o and here's a surprise! he's a vegan! he didn't even know that there was a word for it, he just made this decision after seeing all of the animals suffer and die during the tsunami. what a crazy kid. i had to leave today because he was getting way to attached to me and telling me that he loves me. i don't doubt his sincerity, but i know he is just confused. i'm a link to a world totally inaccessible to him right now. he wants to move to europe but has no idea how. he told me that he loves sri lanka but he hates sri lanka people. he hates the government, hates the police and hates that there is always trouble. we spent most of our time playing in the ocean, bittersweet activity for him, as he loves the ocean but cannot see it without remembering tsunami time.
i'm in galle now, feeling a little happy, a little sad.
let me take a minute now to talk about men with guns. now, in canada my dealings with police and military were pretty uncommon and rarely deviated from me serving them some sort of delicious baked treat. in contrast, while travelling in asia, i see men with very snazzy uniforms and large guns pretty much everyday. sometimes they're just hangin' out, sometimes checkin' my passport, sometimes searching buses, sometimes telling me not to walk somewhere, sometimes driving me to the outskirts of bangkok to find my camera, sometimes yelling at me for photographing them (ok, that was stupid... but i forgot that you're not supposed to!), sometimes searching me and eben's bags on the train for no reason, sometimes incompetently pretending to investigate eben's money loss, sometimes beating a guy with a baton for bothering me for money (i will elaborate on this soon)... and god knows what else. anyway, let me just say this: beaurocracy and weapons should not mix! but let us move along, shall we?
so i left eben in kandy and headed to a hill town called ella. the train was like a magical fairy ride through cloud forest, passing fields of wild orchids and misty tea plantations. i spent the first part of the trip seated next to a stupid young man who wanted to follow me to ella but i ditched him and ended up sitting in the train guard's room with a better view through the open doors than anyone gets in first class compartments! lovely.
ella itself is tiny but i arrived at a very busy time. there was a huge celebration going on for a new buddha they had built and were just about to "open" (paint on) the eyes. it was a very happy time marked by a constant flow of white clad pilgrims and loudspeakers blaring buddhist music outside of my hotel room 24 hours a day. between intermittent checks on the new buddha i wandered around in the hills and tea plantations for two days. i climbed a mountain from which you can see the hills spilling down all the way to the ocean. on the top i encountered two sri lankan boys and although they spoke no english we managed to jam together (harmonica: natalie rogers, vocals and rock hit with sticks: random sri lankan kids). on the way down i encountered a tea plantation worker who decided to be my unwanted guide (this happens often)... anyway, long story short, someone told me that i should inform the police about him because he might trouble other people. stupidly i did. the police made me march back to the mountain in the pitch dark to help them find the guy. they brought him back to the police station where the chief of police hit him with a baton and locked him up for the night! i freaked out and screamed at the chief of police but he just did not understand my anger! i went back in the morning and demanded they release the guy (he was only annoying, not at all dangerous!). they did, but the police chief still thought everything was great, justice served. it was horrible. i decided that i should probably leave town that day. as i waited for the bus, many tiny bees attacked my head trying to make some delicious hair honey. i took this as a good sign that i was leaving.
the bus bumped me down to the south coast in a matter of a few hours. as we got towards the beach, my stomach turned into a gigantic knot. rows and rows of destroyed, abandonned buildings gave ample evidence to the many lives lost and ruined by the tsunami. i went to a small place called tangalla, hoping for some relaxation after the police problems in the hills. no dice.
the tsunami, tiger trouble and the fact that it was off-season made the place a ghost town. my arrival was big news- there's a traveller (!) and it's a woman (!!) and she's alone (!!!). i had not been in town 5 hours before a fight for my love broke out between some local men. despite the stupidity of that situation, lots of good came out of it.
i was helped by a 20 year old guy named Mahesh who works at one of the hotels in high season. there he works 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for four months and makes $50 american dollars for the whole shebang. after high season, there's nothing for the rest of the year. this is considered a good job. he invited me to his house and there you can see a stain, about neck height, where the tsunami water reached. the place has two rooms and a kitchen shared by him, his grandparents, mother, sister, her husband and his 4 year old cousin. the place is a constant whir of noise and activity. i only spent a few days with mahesh, getting burnt on the beach and eating his grandmama's delicious dahl, but it was fantastic. o and here's a surprise! he's a vegan! he didn't even know that there was a word for it, he just made this decision after seeing all of the animals suffer and die during the tsunami. what a crazy kid. i had to leave today because he was getting way to attached to me and telling me that he loves me. i don't doubt his sincerity, but i know he is just confused. i'm a link to a world totally inaccessible to him right now. he wants to move to europe but has no idea how. he told me that he loves sri lanka but he hates sri lanka people. he hates the government, hates the police and hates that there is always trouble. we spent most of our time playing in the ocean, bittersweet activity for him, as he loves the ocean but cannot see it without remembering tsunami time.
i'm in galle now, feeling a little happy, a little sad.
posted by natalie at 5:58 AM
2 Comments:
Nice idea with this site its better than most of the rubbish I come across.
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I say briefly: Best! Useful information. Good job guys.
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