Monday 4th June 2012 - Colombo, Sri Lanka

I made sure that this morning I woke up super early so I could pack my things up and head to Anjali's house. I jumped in a tuk tuk and was taken past amazing houses and big important looking buildings guarded by security and police. We then pulled up to a big green gate that was on the same road as all these mansions and embassies - Anjali's house! I called Anjali to let her know I was outside the gate. She opened the gate and was wearing a vibrant white summer dress that was covered with pink flowers. Her smile was beaming as she opened the gate wide to welcome me into her garden. My first thoughts were "wow!"  There was a massive white house with a large driveway and a beautiful green garden that was lined with gorgeous bright flowers and different trees. I can't lie I felt a bit like a tramp walking into this amazing property with my big chunky backpack and grubby self especially given that I had been staying in basic guesthouses for the past 3months, but I thanked her as she led me into the house. The house was huge and absolutely beautiful! It had black granite flooring and white walls throughout with antique looking wooden furniture. There was a statement winding staircase which led up to three massive rooms, each following the decor of the rest of the house. I was shown to a room downstairs and told "this is your room". I had a room! Woohoo!  My room was a large room, again following the decor of the rest of the house, and had an attached modern bathroom with a shower that had hot water!!! I was in heaven!  Anjali asked me if I wanted a smoothie and then made me a beautiful mango smoothie before offering to take me out and an about.  The deal was that she was actually 43-years old but looking absolutely amazing for it! She was brought up in L.A in Beverly Hills but was born in Sri Lanka because her mum had come to visit Sri Lanka when she was 3-months pregnant but had a horse riding accident and had to be put under bed arrest until the baby was born to ensure the safety of the bubba. She used to work in the US Government for the ministry of justice. She was now "retired" but running regeneration projects across the globe on the side both through her foundation (non profit) and privately. She comes from a very well known and wealthy family - on her father's side her great grandfather was a former prime minister and the street that she lived on was named after her mother's side of the family (I am not 100% sure what they did). And here I was in this lady's house! It actually wasn't her house but her recently passed grandmother. Anjali's mum had inherited the house after her mum passed so Anjali and her mum had booked a two-week trip to Sri Lanka to sell the house - that was a year ago. Anjali's mum decided she actually didn't want to sell the place but then went back to L.A leaving the burden on Anjali. Anjali has spent the majority of the time restoring the house but even though the house is now finished she can't leave it because someone may take over the house if she leaves it alone. The house was previously taken over by a former minister and his mob with machine guns! She and her family had to negoiate to get these people out of her house. Her mission now is to find trustworthy staff to look after the house so she is free to leave at her will. The problem is that she has had many different people looking after the place but they have all screwed her over. If you haven't noticed already she is extremely kind (she took me into her house!) and was brought up in the states so she is used to talking with her staff about hers and their personal life, paying them well and building friendships with them. Anjali has said that you can't do that in Sri Lanka because from her experience people have seen this as a sign of weakness. Some people look at foreigners really badly and assume that they are rich so it doesn't matter if they con them or steal from them. From my previous posts you may see that this is true especially in the case of Sri Lankan men and their views and opinions of foreign women. So Anjali had a guy that was doing construction on her house and she made friends with him and used to take him out to all these nice places because she wanted to show him another side to life. He was a married man and Anjali had even met the wife and taken them both out so had obviously trusted his intentions with her. However this guy ended up trying to attack Anjali in her own house and now calls her threatening her.  Also she had many housekeepers but all of them stole from her. She paid for some of their children's education, bought computers for them, gave them cash advances, paid for weddings and even had worker's families move in with her to support them but each and everyone of these people cheated her in some way.  Anyway, as you gathered we spent a lot of time talking today! The talking was all done in many different luxurious places that Anjali decided to take me to.  The first place was the Cinnamon Grand hotel. She walked me around the place showing me the various restaurants including one that was built outside and made to replicate a traditional Sri Lankan village and cooked the food in pots on fire. The hotel was so grand and absolutely stunning! The next place we went to was the Gallery for lunch. The prices were nuts and cost more than I usually spend in a week on food but I had let Anjali know the situation and she had said that she was paying. I felt extremely bad but what could I do because there was no way I could afford to take a bill like that! The Gallery was a very upmarket cafe which attracted the middle and upper class and mainly served European fusion food. I had ordered butter chicken curry, recommended by Anjali and honestly it wasn't that great. I would have definitely preferred to eat in one of these cheap "hotel" cafes and paid a lot less but what to do?!  Anyway the next stop was Cinnamon Lake, another hotel with multiple restaurants but located by a big lake. We stopped there and had virgin mojitos whilst watching two men in a traditional looking longboat fishing using a net. The venue was gorgeous and got better as the sun went down as the lights reflected off the lake and the swimming pool making everything look stunning.  After drinks we caught a tuk tuk back to Anjali's and talked and chilled.