Saturday 28th April 2012 - Colombo, Sri Lanka

I was woken up this morning by a knock on the door from Shana. He was holding a piece of paper which he handed to me. He had met a lady at the airport the night before who was also heading to Nilambe meditation centre. When he found this out he immediately thought of me and told the lady that maybe her and I could travel together. He gave me her details and told me to call her. Apparently she is also staying in Colombo and heading to the centre tomorrow like me.  I wasn't sure what to do today but because I was still feeling ill I didn't really feel to do anything too strenuous. Shana recommended that maybe i try the beach at mount lavinia - sounded like a great idea!!  I checked my email in the morning to see if I had received an email from Upul at the meditation centre advising me on an actual time to go to the centre. I was relieved to see that he had finally replied advising me to go there tomorrow between 2-4pm.  Mount lavinia was only like a 10-minute tuk tuk ride from Shana's. To get to the beach though you had to cross over the railway track - I am not talking over a crossing, just open railway tracks. It was a long yellow sand beach lined with a few palm trees. The water wasn't clear and had really strong waves  because of the monsoon season but it really was a beautiful beach. I was immediately approached by a little kid trying to sell me incense while indicating with his hand that he was hungry.  I was standing to take a photo when a man approached me about renting a sun lounger for only r.100. I went with him and his little entourage pulled out the lounger, a cushion, umbrella and a table. I sat there writing my blog and after maybe an hour i was approached by a man with a monkey. It was such a hot day and this evil guy was walking his poor monkey along the beach trying to get tourists to touch it. Out of nowhere an older man from the restaurant I was renting the lounger from came out and squared up this monkey guy whilst speaking sinhala. The monkey man didnt look very happy but it was clear that the guy from the restaurant was trying to look out for me which was cool. The monkey man stood there cussing for a couple of minutes waiting for me to sympathise or something and then left. Then the younger guy that had sold me the lounger earlier came out and asked me if I liked monkeys. I told him I did but I wasn't interested in the guy with the monkey. I asked why the other guy had for angry and he told me that these guys rip off the tourists. They tell you to touch the monkey and then say 1000 rupees. I thanked him for looking after me.  A bit later there were a group of teenagers on the beach and there was one girl that looked like she had fainted. Her friends were trying to help her up but the guy from the restaurant told me that she was drunk. The girl looked so young and was stupidly trying to go to the sea even though she couldn't even stand. I jumped up really concerned and tried to buy some water from the restaurant for her. The guy at the restaurant said that lime juice would be better and got it for her. Her friends were looking after her so it was cool. They dragged her away from the sea and laid her on one of the sun loungers. whilst I was sitting up concerned about this girl, one of the boys with the group sleazily started trying to chat me up. I paid him little attention as he stood in front of me trying to make awkward conversation and then came the older guy from the restaurant again protecting me. The guy walked off apologising. I felt like some kind of protected member of royalty or something.  I spoke to the younger guy from the restaurant as he was trying to help the girl. He asked the usual questions about my stay in Sri lanka and I told him I was going to a meditation centre tomorrow. Once he realised I was interested in Buddhism he told me about a festival that was happening at his temple today with lots of traditional dancers and elephants. It sounded really cool and went on all day. He asked me if I wanted to go. I said yeh sure, just give me the address and I will make my way a bit later but then he said he was going in around two hours and I could go with him. I trusted his intentions given how nice him and the other guy had been to me so agreed to go, I thought it would be really nice.  Our transport was his motorbike! It was really cool sitting on the back of his bike dodging through all the traffic. After about half an hour we arrived at a house where he stopped and beeped his horn - it was his wifes house and he was picking up his son. His wife was stunning and so was their little boy - he had the longer most beautiful eye lashes and the cutest little face. He refused to smile at me until he saw a camera and that was it, a big smile!!  His wife smiled and said hello to me and put the baby (he was two-years old) on the bike infront of Rajitha. We drove around for a while trying to find the parade and then when we did we parked up the bike to watch everyone go by. There were so many costumes and people of all ages - I was the only tourist though which was kinda cool so all the kids were waving and smiling at me. Rajitha pointed out a man to me who was walking in the parade and told me it was his dad - they made no acknowledgement to eachother though, apparently they don't speak. Rajitha told me he would tell me the story later. After the parade Rajitha took me back to his wife's house and I met her mum - it was all a bit awkward though. We left after 10-minutes then I discovered what the awkwardness was. Well for starters it's a bit strange that a married man would just turn up to see his wife with a random lady on the back of his bike but actually the bigger problem was that her mum didnt like him. Rajitha and his wife had been together since school but she was Christian and he was Buddhist. Both set of parents disapproved and his parents stopped talking to him altogether, hence why his dad ignored him. Her mum didn't like him but Rajitha's wife still lived with her with their child. They were raising their child as Buddhist and his wife had converted but didn't want to move in with him. The place he was working was her uncle's place - that was who had been protecting me all day, and Rajitha was sleeping there in the restaurant.  It didn't make any sense to me because they were childhood sweethearts first of all which is surely something to approve of as a parent, and second of all there was a baby involved now. Surely that is enough reason to build a bridge and get over it!  Anyway, Rajitha told me he wanted to move to England to work - without his wife seeing as she doesn't seem to want to be with him. I felt sorry for him. I told him I would see what I could find out about jobs in England but to be honest it's a bit of a sticky situation to be getting myself involved in. He was a really nice guy though and didnt want any money for taking me to the parade. He dropped me to get a tuk tuk and that was it. I arrived back at Shana's and went to sleep.