Since Trincomalee, I have to admit not all that much has happened. As ashamed as I should be to say this, we have relapsed into a state similar to that of holiday in the UK - watching a few films, going on cycle rides and strolls, and having a few beers/arrack in the evening. I couldnt say that we have integrated into the culture here, for the reason of the observer effect mentioned in a previous blog, but I would certainly say we have become accustomed to the ways of the country. I have said throughout the trip that as soon as I was fully comfortable with the country, it was time to go home, so in many ways this is good as it is coinciding well with the end of our trip. Even though we are feeling much more at ease here, there have still been some events of note since Trinco, which I at least found fun or interesting.
Firstly, in wildlife watch, we have finally seen a live snake - we saw it slithering towards Kandy lake on one of our common walks of its perimiter. I thought I identified it as a small scale viper, although this might be me being melodramtic, and thus should not be taken as verbatum! In other news, we saw a pair of porcupines on leads today being taken for a walk by a local. They were being walked just like any dogs would be in the UK, and what was weirder was that nobody else seemed to take much notice of it - I suppose that they all must just know this person as porcupine-woman and are used to it.
The wildlife here also seems to show a inclination towards powerlines, as we realised that all of the bats that we had seen hanging from power lines didnt seem to move at all from day to day, and were in fact fried bats who had been cooked over the period of a few days by the electricity. Similar fates seem to befall monkeys here, as we saw a blackened monkey running on its hind legs as it clearly could not put its front paws onto the floor. We dubbed the monkey "burny", and assumed that its condition was due to the power lines. This was however questioned when we saw that locals were throwing the equivalent of french bangers at monkeys to keep them away from their house, so "burny" might in fact be "explodey"... either way it isn't a fantastic effect that humanity is having on wildlife.
This poweline vs animal struggle is by no means a one sided battle, with both sides taking regular casulties. We have had a number of monkey-related power cuts during our stay, although these seem far more accepted than power cuts are in the UK. The family purely gets out the candles, lights them and then gets on with their evening. Two nights ago myself Ben and Sophie ended up playing pictionary by candlelight which in my opinion was brilliant fun, and much better than mindlessly watching a film for the evening.
Another thing that we entertained ourselves with was attaching ourselves to a Vet Surgeon for the day, observing operations on Dogs, and the different methods used here for the procedures. Firstly of note is the somewhat more "trial and error" method of anesthesia. The dog undergoing a spey was knocked out by some thiopentone, and then just left. Only when the dog had her eyes open and was twitching (with half of its uterus out of the incision on the table) was more thiopentone adminstered. This combined with a "take it all out and have a good look around" approach to surgery made for in my opinion a justification of the 500 rupee (3 pound) charge for the procedure. I didn't have the heart to ask what the survival rate was.
Finally of note was the experience of cycling in Sri Lanka, which I attempted for the first time yesterday. My overshaddowing observation is that it isn't safe. I have cycled in Cambridge for 3 years, and am thus used to busses passing within a foot of you on a regular basis. I am however not used to making physical contact with busses as they overtake me around a blind corner towards oncoming traffic - that was new! The build quality of the bikes out here seems to leave a bit to be desired too. The bike was shiney and looked new, but after cycling about a mile down the road, the front brake cable had come detached and the suspension had loosened so that my pedals were about an inch off the floor as I cycled. However the topper came half a mile later as the left pedal took leave from its attachement to the bike, and decided that it would much prefer to be lying on the road. After walking the 1.5 miles back to a garage, I got the various maladies corrected and decided that busses are cheaper, better and safer than cycling, and put the bike back in the shed, with no intention of taking it out again - unsurprisingly.
I have finally gone to Pinnawalla Elephant orphanage, although I feel that it warrants its own blog, so here endeth the 15th lesson.
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