Fishing Club Christmas Party - 10th December 2005

The fishing club Christmas party was held at the DBU on Saturday the 10^th of December, and I think for perhaps the third time running I was invited to it. After a hectic day of running around getting ready for the SLAAPS Members’ Day the following day, plus a hair appointment at Salon Nayana in Bambalapitiya, where a person called Samantha proceeded to carefully ruin my hair, I was ready by evening, for once wearing a bad choice. The black strappy top I chose was a bit too glamorous for the occasion plus when I jived around the floor, I had to keep tugging at the top just in case it slipped out of place!!!!

They started off with items for the kiddies, they had musical chairs, and burst the balloon, pass the parcel and other little games for the kids. Somehow I couldn’t enjoy any of it, perhaps because Charmain also happened to mention that I should have worn something ‘more casual’ than the strappy top I was wearing with my black pants. Immediately I felt like an overdone Christmas tree, albeit in full black :(.

So a suggestion to see the upstairs of the DBU met with my first spark of enthusiasm for the evening. The lovely wooden stairway led up to the huge wooden floored, hall with a lovely wooden ceiling, where a bar stood in one corner, some pool tables in an alcove, and furnished with several groupings of comfortable chairs, even a dinning table with about six chairs (I think) around it. Little corner stools held tiny Christmas trees around the room while a recently bought stereo set provided background music. There was even a piano in the room, though pride of place was taken by a 10ft tall Christmas tree, beautifully decorated and lit up. That rather lit me up too for a little while.

Having admired it to my hearts content, we all trooped downstairs to literally ‘face the music’. There we sat, around the table, talking desultorily until I was saved by my phone ringing. Chandana! Thank goodness! It was so lovely to hear his voice. We chatted in our usual way about everything and everything, me giving him a very detailed description of exactly how bored I was and how sad I was to be missing the Miss World Contest that had gotten so much publicity in the recent past. I stayed on the phone for as long as I decently could, out on the lawn. I even called home, grumbled again, and then bravely went in again.

There was a little music for dancing provided by an atrocious singer and his band. Raffle tickets were sold, and Dorian bought me a set. He was lucky for the first time since I’ve met him I think. He won two gifts. One was a bottle of Scotch, and the other an intriguing looking parcel which we all took turns in guessing that it might hold some bottles of beer. Udesh and Chairmain also won a bottle of scotch I think and a bottle of Cinzano, while the other family at our table also won a bottle of wine. So it was quite a lucky table. Udesh’s son was also really sweet, romancing a little girl, and dancing absolutely stunningly. He will be a MAJOR heart-breaker given a couple of years!

The food was kinda ok though all the salads seemed to have gone off and the pinapple was bitter. There was of course my favourite chocolate mousse and some good caramel.

A bit more music and then it all wound up around 1.00 in the morning. People hung around talking a bit and then Udesh Chairman and their little son, who provided most of the entertainment for me for the evening, all dropped me home. Sadly enough I didn’t quite enjoy the event as much as I could have :(

SLAAPS Members’ Day on the 11th of December 2005

As usual we met up at the Bambalapitiya Flats. There were two huge, air-conditioned luxury buses waiting to take all 68 of us to the Club Palm Gardens Hotel in Beruwela. For once (?) I was early and even had time to do a leisurely walk to Chariot and grab a snack and a nice hot cup of coffee before going back to the flats. What a nice time we had greeting all our old friends, most of whom we see just once or twice a year at events like these. There was ample space in the buses for everyone and once on our way, breakfast was served. An ample breakfast too I might add, a couple of sandwiches, a roll and a pattie. There wasn’t the usual inelegant rush for seconds… the one serving kept everyone happy.

Soon we were at the hotel, everyone in a flurry registering and collecting their entrance gifts. Entrance gifts were handy pen-knives – the project chairperson Hyacinth’s idea. There were also little handbag sized bottles of ponds moisturizer, some sachets of dove shampoo and latte tea.

The member of the year was selected and a well deserving Iyne Gunawardena was selected. She got a heap of gifts and a huge electric oven from the Association. There were flowers, wine, clothes, shoes, a silver dish and lots of other things. She got quite a good haul of goodies!

The game Fly to your destination (four corners – a game originally introduced to SLAPS by our fun loving Rajini and which has taken on many faces since then). The game is simple, effective for getting everyone on the floor, and also lets everyone dance and enjoy the music. Four destinations, London, Paris, New York and Sydney were placed in four corners around the dance floor and when the music stopped, everyone had to fly to one of the destinations. The destination picked out of a hat, is out of the game until finally, just one person remains. In fact everyone enjoys the music so much that they would dance on the fringes of the floor and when the music stops, would fly away from all the destinations!

Then one of Margi’s innovative ideas – insert the mouse! Practically everyone wanted to give it a try. Luckily Naomi was wearing a beautiful scarf around her neck which we borrowed as a blindfold. There was a picture of secretary at her computer with her hand poised over the table. The idea was to pinpoint the location or ‘insert the mouse’ into the appropriate place. Gosh what fun we had with the mouse running all over the place, on the wall, under the table, under the table on top of the monitor, over the keyboard, under her skirt (gulp!) on various parts of her face and anatomy.

We were given some free time to browse through the stalls or use the pool – though I must say no one made use of the pool, perhaps because the sun was blazingly hot. Most people seemed to prefer sitting in the air-conditioned lounge chatting and catching up with old friends, or indulging in shopping.

Gammani Mendis as always provided excellent music and soon had everyone on the floor. He always seems to gauge the mood of the crowd and during a slow time I even saw a couple of girls slow-dancing!

Lunch was then served and a very good one it was too. There was a really good spread of delicious food and desserts. Marie as usual hunted a few of the choice cherries to share with me :)

After lunch was the ever popular talent contest. There were people singing songs, Claudette danced her famous oriental dance and won the first prize for it. There were skits, songs, Hyacinth modeling an outfits from one of the stalls, Damayanthi making her debut in acting out a drunk, Sharon doing a make-up demo and best of all (in my opinion) something way out of the ordinary… a magic show!! Elrea dressed up and did some great magic tricks though unfortunately he had to cut it a bit short, cos time seemed to be flying on swift wings.

The mix and match game another perennial favourite, started by Margi had absolutely every single member participating calling out trying to find the other three people who would complete her picture and win the prize for four. This game is always a sure winner… everyone has such a marvelous time!

Finally came the baila competition where six people were picked. The judges had done a great job, cos the winners were all excellent! The baila music of course had almost everyone on the floor, the beat is so irresistible.

Margi as always wanted as many people as possible to carry some little gift home with them, so all the extra items left over from throughout the years’ projects had been packed up and placed in a box. Numbers according to registration were drawn from a box and the person drawn had the chance to pick one of the gifts. There were nearly 30 such gifts. I had coveted a necklace which I managed to draw… along with enough good natured ribbing for my enthusiasm in getting it!!

Then it was cake and tea and bye bye or rather the vote of thanks followed by the National Anthem.

We were back in Colombo by 7.00 p.m. ending another lovely Members’ Day outing.

Well done SLAAPS!

Poya tomorrow

Poya day is coming up tomorrow. It promises to be yet another day to laze around with nothing much else to do but snuggle into bed with a good book, especially given that the Christmas weather has set in.

I just finished Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress. It was absolutely fantastic. He writes so well, you just can’t put the book down. The pictures he draws are vivid and exciting….. Pity I don’t have another book like that to read tomorrow.

Friends are like Angels

Oh today has been a GREAT day. It feels wonderful to know that people care about you or are thinking of you and today many people made me feel so good.

First there were a couple of calls wishing me a good day, then, an old friend dropped by to see me. It had been absolutely ages since we saw each other and I was touched that he visited, bringing along with him with a piece of wedding cake from his sis-in-law’s wedding on Saturday. We had a lovely time chatting about old times and catching up on what’s been happening in our lives.

Then Tusha called to say that she had saved me some birthday cake from my little friend Mela’s birthday yesterday. So there it was again, another box of goodies for me. They were vastly welcomed, for Tusha does wonders with cakes and goodies.

Shirley had written a lovely newsy email of what has been happening with her recently.

Then another friend called to invite me to a dance on Saturday. Shall look forward to that provided of course that there are no serious problems after elections on the 17^th.

So all in all I had one lovely, lovely day.

Where does the time fly to?

Where does the time fly to? It seems such a short while ago that we were celebrating the New Year 2005 and then suddenly, we are at the end of 2005. Looking back …… I feel as if time has flown and I have stood still….. can that be? Yet when I look around I see changes in the lives of people close to me. Some of the changes they are making in their lives will certainly affect mine, and somewhat selfishly I don’t want that to be so either. Certain good things in life should remain the same forever. There should be rule about it!!

Stamp Albums

Dorian brought along one of his stamp albums to show me over lunch today. It was a beautiful leather bound (I think) large album which held the most beautiful stamps of England. The stamps came in sets backed by the legend of each stamp. There were stamps of the Queen Mother, Prince William’s 21^st Birthday, Princess Diana, Camilla and Charles. There were sets of double deckers, trains, animals, Christmas stamps issued for each year, flora, art and many more all grouped together. Absolutely beautiful!

All Soul's Day

As is now a ‘tradition’ in our family, we all met up at the cemetery to ‘visit with’ our loved ones who have passed away– Aunty Beryl and Uncle Jewel. There was Aunt Joan, Dulcie, Aunt Lotus, Kumar, so many people. During the Mass we remembered the others whose graves we couldn’t visit, our Grandparents and Uncle Hillary in Nuwara Eliya and Aunty Hope in Mt Lavinia.

Ravi and his family clustered around Uncle Jewel’s grave placing flowers and candles not only at his graveside but on all the surrounding graves too – “Dadda’s friends” he said in his typical Ravi manner.

After Mass, with the rains still holding off, we wandered into the dusk to light candles at the gravesides. The cemetery looked peaceful and beautiful with candles casting loving glows upon the graves. Sunethra and Dad both had loads of candles left over, so we lit a few candles at graves where no-one seemed to have visited. No flowers lay upon some graves, where the grass grew high, indicating neglect or the lack of anyone to care for them.

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

Golden Gleams Ball 2005

That was the theme of the SLANZA Dance held on the 22^nd of October 2005. I was soo thrilled to be invited. We had a whole tableful of friends, and I was happy that Sushilla and I met up after a long while. She had permed her hair and looked gorgeous. I told her, she reminded me of a movie-star, though I couldn’t put my finger on which one. Well, several others had told her she looked like Diana Ross – I agree!

Ranjith picked me up first then we picked up Dorian and then Sushilla. Udesh and Chairmain, Pushpa and her husband, the little old doctor couple made up our table of ten. I love the little couple. She adores dancing and he goes along to please her. Such a lovely, lovely thing to see in a married couple….. and a couple that has been together for such a long time too.

The music was provided by Sohan & the Xperiments and Pearl. Both lovely bands. Sush first complained that they were playing too much slow music, but the songs were so wonderful! Dinner was a ‘sit-down’ and the food was wonderful… though perhaps the wines could have been a bit better.

Sush wore her new purple long gown. This was a first, I’ve always seen her in short little dresses. Dorian was effusive in his appreciation! But really, she did look lovely. I wore my new gold and black dress – to go with the theme J

Unfortunately no one at our table won any of the draws ….. sigh! But still we had a lovely, lovely evening. The dance was over by 4.00 a.m. and I was home before 5. What I liked about it was that we had gone to a dance… and they gave us ample time to do just that …. Dance. Loads of competitions and speeches didn’t interrupt the smooth flow of music…… and there was plenty of good music for dancing. The baila competition was held in double quick time, leaving everyone quite pleased, including the participants. There were lots of known faces there. Faizal Bonzo was the compere. Angela was there, as was Prince Ratnam and Kevin Nugera. The Burgher Association Dance was on the same day too……. Pity we had to choose! But still it was an absolutely lovely evening and I enjoyed every single minute of it J

Home Makers Haven

That was the theme for the Housewives Association Coffee Morning held on the 26^th of August 2005. Ruveena, Margi and I decided to go and have a look to see if we could pick up a few pointers from them.

There were quite a large number of stalls. Loads of time was given for shopping. This had a good and bad aspect to it. On the one hand, those who wanted to shop, did so to their hearts content, and I’m sure it warmed the cockles of the hearts of the stall holders as well! On the other hand however, those who had a leisurely browse through and finished, found themselves feeling quite bored.

Sensations, was a dance troupe with a difference. It was the first time I had seen them perform…. They were absolutely sensational alright.

Kevin and his partner performed three dance spots. Kevin was great but his partner lacks that sparkle so essential for a performer I felt.

There was a jewellery fashion show with top models showing off jewellery from a popular gold store.

There were a couple of skits by certain regions or sections of the HWA. Those I’m afraid I found rather boring and childish.

Keerthi Pasqual and his soothing voice wooed the audience for a good while. And then they had a few prizes on the raffles and entrance and that was the end of the show.

The coffee morning was held at the Continental Hotel and the hotel served the most delicious coffee, though the mistake of getting the people to go to the garnet room to collect it was horrid. There was a rush and stampede with everyone rushing to get at their food and drink which was served at lunch time! That is definitely NOT something that aught to be done at our coffee morning.

View of the towers

Beautiful orange coloured orchids

The dragon fruit (looks more like a fish than a dragon though)

Toll gate coming up!

The opened dragon fruit

Cultural Dance

View of the National Library

Music

Colourful cultural dance

Strange Meetings

On Saturday, the strangest thing happened. There was I feeling a bit blue and on my way to a SLAAPS meeting when the bus stopped at the halt after Ambagaha junction. Amongst the rush of people getting in, I noticed a lady who looked a bit like my Aunt Lotus, get in. I started to offer her my seat and then noticed another girl doing the same. The lady declined (very strange…. most people would plop into the seat without any appreciation or thanks). A couple of minutes later she got a seat. We both looked at each other several times and smiled and coincidentally both happened to get off at the same place – town hall. Since she was behind me, I gave her a bit of a helping hand off the bus. She held onto my hand.

We then got talking and exchanged telephone numbers when she suggested we keep in touch. Having parted I suddenly realized that there was a bounce to my step and that my heart felt so much lighter for the smile and touch of another person reaching out to me in genuine friendship.

The Splash 2005 – Otters Dance on 24th of September

The dance was held at the Colombo Plaza and I was invited! The driveway to the hotel was beautifully lit up in fairy lights and at the entrance of the ballroom stood a photographer who invited every couple or group who entered to pose for a picture.

Wine and hors d’qeuvres were served in the lobby before everyone was requested to make their way to their tables. There were sweet little bags in black with the theme of an otter couple in the Titanic pose in silver, as entrance gifts for the ladies. The gents received telephone indexes and souvenirs in the same theme colours, while the backdrop to the stage was a giant replica of the otter couple.

The bands Gypsies and Pearl were playing that evening. Both are wonderful bands. They also had Corrine and Ronnie Leitch perform guest spots. I like Corrine, she has a dynamism all her own and I envy her pert figure. I felt though that she should have done a few English numbers, cos she did some baila and left. Ronnie Leitch followed suite … all baila and some of his usual slightly off-colour jokes and comments which have long ceased to be funny. I feel he is best suited for stage shows where he has the crowd in fits of laughter. Faizal Bonzo was a co-compere. There was the usual scotch and wine at the tables. For the first time I tasted the cinzano limetto …. I liked it!

Dinner though was soooooo disappointing! They served it at around 12.00 and had such a small choice. There was rice and noodles and a vege lasagna and a few accompaniments No meat or cheese salads, no soup, no breads, no cold cuts. Hmmm guess the organizers picked the cheapest menu! Still I had expected better food from the Colombo Plaza. There was bread pudding….. yes I kid you not….. bread pudding, a trifle of sorts and slices of nice chocolate cake and choc/vanilla/strawberry ice-cream with fruit for dessert. Quite disappointing. For me the highlight of dinner time was the availability of the photographs. What lovely souvenirs they were. It was the first time I had been to a dance where such personal souvenirs were given.

They selected a Splash Queen and they had a baila competition which tired out both the competitors and the spectators, so loooong drawn out it was. I’m so glad that SLAAPS has done away with selecting of a queen. It makes the ‘also-ran’s feel quite bad. One of the selected ladies was at our table, and all of us were cheering her on. Very pretty she looked dressed in a lovely white Kandyan saree – striking was the word for it…. She was the only one in white. Anyway, I think her evening was rather spoilt. Of course the girls they did select were absolutely beautiful and deserved to win. But I felt a bit sorry for the girl at our table who determinedly tried too hard not to look disappointed!

I remember being to one dance where the selection was such gross favoritism that it had the audience screaming in protest. The presentation went on and I’m sure the poor winner felt small. I remember that one of the ‘contestants’ happened to be a model and a beautiful one at that. She was overlooked despite the cheering by the crowdand she WAS by far the prettiest. We felt they may give her at least a runner up place…. But no! The winner was a tall, rather hunched, dark homely looking girl won the prize, perhaps by virtue of being one of the organiser’s daughter!!! The first prize was a ticket to a destination in Europe and mutterings were that they wished to keep the winner within their group***!!??

The problem with this dance is that they just did NOT want to stop! The raffle draw was at 5.30 in the morning. So we danced on till morning. Sun was streaming out when we left the hotel, after Udesh insisted on having two whole helpings of kiribath served for breakfast. It was nearly 7.00 when I got home!

Spoons

On Thursday, we decided to make use of the voucher I had won at the Hilton Secretaries bash. The voucher was from the Spoons valued at Rs.5,000/=. I usually have a horrible feeling when using vouchers of any nature after my bad experience at Le Palace. Anyway, having booked a table for two earlier on, Sunethra and I walked in at about 1.30 both ravenously hungry.

We were led to a table and a waiter introduced himself as our waiter for the day, helped us select a four course meal and discretely merged into the background.

The food was excellent, beautifully arranged and obtrusively served. It was my first visit to Spoons and an enjoyable one it turned out to be…. one I would certainly like to repeat.

Once again Hilton comes up trumps.

The stunning view from the Communication Tower

Spinner-Genting Highlands (We actually went on this!!!)

Sri Lankan Airlines - for those deserving travellers!

The flight back from Malaysia was HORRIBLE. Too bad Sri Lankan Airlines for treating your clients as if they are a nuisance. My first grumble was that you could not summon the stewardesses. I tried the ‘stewardess’ button, but nothing worked. Then one gentleman a ahead of me called out ‘madam madam’ several times to be quite pointed ignored by the ‘hostess’. Desperately he stood up and beckoned her. This she could not ignore but came with raised eyebrows and a supercilious look on her face. Goodness, what has the hospitality trade come to? I don’t know what the gentleman needed, but he seemed to need it pretty desperately. I don’t think he should be judged by his nationality or dress. Too bad Sri Lankan Airlines too bad!

I also noticed a lady who wanted some water for her child. She kept pressing the ‘crew’ button, to no avail; she then started waving the feeding cup around hoping to gain attention. No such luck. Finally her husband stood up purposefully with the cup in his hand. Then and only then were they attended to. I think perhaps the white colour of his skin may have helped at that point, cos had it been an Asian I presume the gent would have had to find the water himself!

Requests for a drink of water and an extra bun met with cold indifference. Oh I was politely told they would be right back but they never were. Was it that they were understaffed???? Well, that certainly is not MY fault.

This is not the first time that I have experienced discrimination because I am a Sri Lankan flying Sri Lankan Airlines back to Colombo. For some reason the outgoing crew is always much much nicer and more ‘genuine’. I’m afraid I feel that the service of ‘Sri Lankan Airlines leaves rather a lot to be desired.

Farewell Malaysia... Hope to see you again!

Got up late. Lazed around, bathed and got ready to get back home. Kumudu had ordered a cab which was to pick us up at 10.00. We took some pictures and then all too soon it was time to leave. Packed ourselves and our luggage into the limo and were soon on way to the airport on our way home.

Another tip for those doing duty free shopping at the Malaysian Airport. Do NOT buy your stuff from the so called duty free shops before you cross the barrier guarded by security personnel. Those are ‘regular’ shops.

There was this place called the ‘Choc Stop’ where we had a bit of a bad experience. We bought some chocolate because we wanted to finish off all our coins and little notes. So we put all our change together and then added a $50 note to cover the price of it all. The ‘lady’ at the counter gave me $2 dollars change and went back to her books dismissively. Fortunately I handed the money to sister who was doing the transaction and she realized we had not got the balance from the $50 (which was $40!!!!). Cunning huh? Giving the change to the person not involved in the transaction. All the other party would see is that balance is being tendered. When my sister queried about the balance from the $50, the ‘lady’ took the money from the register and gave it to her with no apology. Later looking at the bill we found that she had not indicated on the bill that we had given her a $50 so that the only balance recorded officially was the $2. Future travelers beware; I get the impression that this is a regular scam, so experienced was the person at the counter and also the damning evidence of the bill not showing that a $50 had been tendered. Where do you reckon the balance goes (since it is not registered in their cash register)?? The people behind the counter know their customers are leaving the country and can easily be taken for a bit of a ride, if they are not vigilant.

So a word of advice to those wanting to buy duty free from KL; wait until you cross the barrier guarded by the security people and then you are in ‘duty free’ territory. How I wish someone had told me that earlier!!

Did some more shopping in the ‘proper’ duty free shops where they accept credit cards with no percentages taken for using your credit card. Took an aero train ride to our departure lounge and boarded our flight to get back home.

Day Eight we spent in Genting Highlands

Today was the day we had scheduled to go to Genting Highlands. We found a better way of doing it rather than through the normal tour booking through hotels. You need to get to KL Sentral, look for the Genting Highlands counter and then book from there. It costs only 25RM which includes the coach ride to Genting Highlands, the cable car ride, and the rides to the outdoor theme park. I thought that was about the most fabulous offer I had seen in KL.

Kumudu came along with us to KL Sentral and saw us onto the coach. We had a lovely long ride though the countryside to the Genting Highlands, to the cable car place, and then a long long cable car ride which by far outshone the ride to Santosa in Singapore. What a fantastic panorama spread below us while far above I could see this range of mountains whose tops were lost in the clouds. What a thrill to find out that was where were were going! Up into the clouds. Fantastic! I enjoyed the ride up.

Having landed on terra firma, we set out to explore the rides open to us and what a large number there was. We started off on the spinner which swung us up at roof level. I closed my eyes (in sheer terror of course) and then imagined I was flying! Lovely. That ride finished all to fast. Got off on wobbly legs and wobbled over to the double Decker delight which was a carousal. Sat on an unenthusiastic camel that wouldn’t move. Then went inside to see what rides we were missing! I don’t think we missed too much.

We went on the Mine Train which thundered its way echoing through the tunnels before bursting back onto the platform where adventurous souls awaited their turn.

We took a ride in the mini train which took us around the park and then got onto an antique car which took us the same way. We then did what was for me the most difficult of all , the corkscrew rollercoaster which once we were captive strapped in, took us all over the place including upside down with all of us screaming wanting to be let off (at least I wanted to be let off!).

After that I wanted to sit in a teacup for a soothing ride. I think the guy who was manning it liked the look of us and gave us an extra long ride! May have looked in need of soothing after our scary topsy turvy ride!

We used the peddle boats and had a wonderful time peddling across the little lake. I wanted to go on the motorized ones, but there was always such a crowd to get in that I was discouraged. We went up in the flying jumbo, the mata hari, and ‘experienced’ the space adventure which was supposed to give you the feeling of what happens when you get into a rocket or space craft! Not in the least impressive. Then we had a look at the space shot. I was NOT getting on that one! It was a tall tall post around which 12 people were strapped in and then lifted right to the top (I don’t know how tall it was, but I couldn’t see the top, it was lost in the clouds), and sent plummeting down to earth. I would have died of sheer shock had I got onto that one. No way… absolutely no way!

Walked around the shopping mall after that and went back to kumudu ‘s for a dinner of thosai hot off the griddle accompanied by a delicious chicken curry. Then off to pack for taking off home tomorrow.

Day Seven in Malaysia

We had asked the hotel concierge to book the Batu Caves tour yesterday, so having got up well in time, we were ready and waiting when our guide came to pick us up on time! We had muuuuuch better crowd on the tour this time. Both parties were picked up from the same hotel. There was a family from Zimbabwe and a mother and daughter duo from California. What fun we had. We visited the chocolate factory (the chocs are rather mattish and gummy……. not very nice) the leather factory, a batik factory, we saw the ‘famous’ rubber tapping demonstration. What a laugh that was!

Let me tell you WHY I find the rubber tapping demo a laugh. The vehicle is stopped by the side of a little ‘garden?’ which has all of about 2-3 rubber trees (I kid you not!). The tour guide then takes out a knife and carves a line in the already mangled tree trunk to show a thin trickle or seeping of ‘rubber’ milk and that’s it! Yup…. That’s it… the famous rubber tapping demo!

Anyway, finally we got to see the batu caves, which was the main reason why we took the tour in the first place. There were 220 steps to reach the lime stone caves. Various statues of Hindu deities dwell there, with Hanuman guarding the exit. There were loads of monkeys running around the caves unafraid of humans who were invading their space. The thing is the place is so very commercialized, you don’t get too much of a chance to appreciate the natural beauty of the limestone caves. On the way back we stopped at another batik factory where the family from Zimbabwe bought a lot of stuff and then it was back to the hotel.

We had arranged with Kumudu to go to her place that afternoon, but we needed to have our lunch, which we did at the Magu Shopping Mall just across the street. The food was clean and the atmosphere great, though it was a bit pricier than the normal places we had frequented. We managed to get a couple of pairs of shoes for dad and then back to the hotel we went. We were advised against leaving to Kumudu’s area, as there would be heavy traffic, so we walked around ‘our’ area a bit more and then took a taxi to Kumudu’s place. Being in the traffic was so frustrating, especially since the taxi meter keeps ticking away regardless of whether you are moving or not. We ended up paying one and a half times the price Kumudu had mentioned.

Casa Vista was a beautiful set of condo’s and Kumudu had made her home beautiful and cozy with samples of her art framed tastefully. After a warm welcome and a look at KL lit up below us, we had dinner and went off to sleep. She had made chapattis for us as a change from the usual Malaysian meals. Kumudu always was a good cook! There was chocolate mousse for dessert too.

Day Six in Malaysia

We spent a long long time looking for Su’s watch. We practically turned over ecerything in the room. Finally it turned up in her dressing gown pocket!! We left the hotel at around 10.30 a.m. after the usual breakfast. We walked to the win towers, but the tickets were over. People thronged the building and its environs. We took a few pictures and then decided to visit the Communication Tower. We paid 15RM each for the visit and were escorted every step of the way until we reached the observation deck. A fantastic view lay spread at our feet. Panoramic! Guess it would have been better in the evening though if we could have managed to catch a sunset and then the Malaysia put out her night lights. There is a free shuttle bus from the foot of the hill that leads to the tower. Thank goodness for that. A trudge in the hot blistering sun would NOT have been welcome. The air conditioned coach with a courteous driver certainly was welcome.

From there we went to Jamed Majeek in Little India and shopped. We tried a dish called Nasi Goren Kampung at one of the large shopping malls in Little India just across Petaling Street. Walked back to our hotel, first stopping at Giants were I discovered they had the Arnotte’s mint chocolate biscuits. I love the stuff.

Oh and the most horrid thing happened at Giants Mall. There was this man who persistently followed us around. Every time we turned a corner there he was, eyes practically on stalks. We walked in and around the supermarket, and just couldn’t shake the fellow off. Finally I walked up to one of a coffee shop and asked to be directed to the Mall security personnel. Once the security guy was pointed out to me, I purposefully walked towards him…… I was certainly going to complain. I remembered our guide from one of the tours commenting on the harsh punishments for rape. I hoped that harassment of this sort would be discouraged too. I’m probably right. I didn’t have to actually complain to the security, just the sight of me walking up to the guy sent our stalker racing out of the Mall, all across the street ignoring the blaring of horns of the cars racing past. Phew!

19th July 2005 – Day 5 in KL

Got up late despite of wake up call at 6.45 a.m. Rushed through breakfast and ended up being picked up only at 9.00 a.m. Grrrr. The tours or at least Tour 51 is NOT one I would recommend. We were picked up at the hotel by car and then taken to the Information Centre. Then we had this long wait and the tour that was supposed to start at 9.00 a.m. only took off at 10.00 am. That too, after much fuss and indecision about which bus the various people had to be loaded onto. Since there were about 7 of us for the Malaka tour, they put us into a gray van. After sitting around a while, another man came, off loaded us and put us into this ramshackle old van. What an inauspicious start off. Finally we got onto the real ‘tour’ it was about a two hour drive to Malaka with the guide doing very little ‘guiding’! Almost everyone was soon bored enough to fall asleep.

There was a couple from Australia, a lady secretary also from Australia and a very amorous couple from Saudi Arabia. As an aside I may add that I thought us Asians are conservative where our affections or rather demonstration of our affections are concerned, especially in public and I had heard that the Arabian countries are much more so. Maybe things are changing, for certainly I saw no such conservativeness where these two were concerned. Surprising too since the lady was all covered up in black with only her eyes showing through the veil. The veil of course came askew very soon in the excess of their demonstrations!!!! Raised eyebrows by yours truly!!

Then the guide woke up to say we were entering Malaka. Of course all of us perked up in spite of the weather. Our guide was optimistic that the rain would blow away, but sadly enough his prediction did not hold true. It only cleared up when we left Malaka – or perhaps we left the rain in Malaka for the sunnier climes of KL.

I don’t know whether it was the rain, or whether all tours to Malaka are a bit of a wash out – but for seeing another city – it was rather a waste of a day.

Anyway, we were shown a picturesque Portuguese village, a fishing village, a beach or rather, mud flats which passed as a beach. A curious thing was that most of the houses, especially the older ones, were built on stilts. The guide’s explanation was that it was a precaution against snakes and also to make the houses ‘portable’. What a sweet idea. You dislike you neighbourhood or want a change of scenery, you just pack up your house and literally move house!!!

We were shown a Muslim cemetery, where the tombstones over men were pointed and those over women were flat. Then there was the Chinese Cemetery which is built so that on certain days, the relations come and spend the entire day with their dead loved ones.

We also saw St Peter’s Church both the old and new and the place where his body was kept. The old church is in ruins and it was quite a dicey deal climbing up the stairway in the pouring rain balancing ourselves and our umbrellas.

We were given 45 minutes to visit the old church. Just below the church was a museum which I would have loved to have visited. Our guide never told us about it. As usual Sunethra and I wandered over (rather too late though) and discovered that the intriguingly shaped building was a palace/museum. The entrance fee was only 2RM. I’m sure the stupid guide could have let us go in out of the rain. Everyone would have appreciated that! My friend Kumudu told me that the museum was quite worth a visit. Of course this she mentioned after we came back, since she thought it would be included in the tour!

Anyway, after that we were taken to a lovely Chinese restaurant for a typical Chinese lunch. It was a lovely lunch indeed with water-melon for dessert and green tea to wash it all down with.

To finish off the tour, we were taken to the Jonkers walk in China Town and given half an hour or so to explore the rustic streets and mysterious Chinese shops. There was also a beautiful Chinese Buddhist temple to see.

After that we all piled back into the van and were driven back to the hotel. As far as tours go, it was rather disappointing cos’ we didn’t get to see much, perhaps partially due to the rain. Perhaps another tour operator may do better?

We had a brief rest and then visited the Sogo supermarket to do some shopping. We bought dinner at a hawker street place. It was a nice dinner of Spicy rice and chicken and soup (I can’t remember what it was called though) the owner was sweet! He went through a great deal of trouble doing a demo to show us what would go into the meal. We had him pack it for us to take back to the hotel to eat in comfort. We finished it off with peanut ice-cream from our forays into the supermarket. Today was a nice day cos we were not too tired out. We watched a bit of TV (the TV channels in the hotel need to be looked into – there’s quite a bit of snowing and only one or two channels show programs in English) and then went off to the land of nod.

Moonlight and Roses - 18th August 2005

That was the theme of the DBU get-together on Thursday the 18^th of August. The grand old hall was decorated with silver and blue balloons, while over the bandstand a dozen long stemmed roses hung suspended from the ceiling. Each table had a long centre-piece of silver cloth on which petals of red roses were strewn with a blue saucer holding a blue candle dusted with silver was shaded by a glass chimney. There were nearly 70 people present, all ready and waiting to have a rollicking time. The band Lazer was playing and they opened the evening with the tune ‘Moonlight and Roses’. They played a lot of romantic music and the dance floor was always crowded.

The caterers, Perera and Sons, had produced a wonderful menu for dinner which included seafood salad, lasagna and roast pork!!! For dessert there was my favourite chocolate mousse. I certainly enjoyed my dinner.

Then there was a game where a blue balloon was tied onto the wrist of each lady on the dance floor. Their task was to burst the balloon of the other ladies while preserving their own. No gent was allowed to ‘help’. Soon just two couples circled the floor each carefully preserving their balloon but not making any move to ‘attack’. Finally one person, yours truly, oh so gracefully allowed one of the organizers to burst the balloon and let the other couple win, otherwise we could have gone on all night! Am I not wonderful now??

The game for the gents was soo much more fun to watch. A dozen gentlemen were asked to get onto the floor, and a banana, dangling on the end of a twine was wrapped around their waists with the banana dangling a couple of inches off the floor. Placed on the floor, in front of each person, was a box of matches. Their task was to swing the banana and move the matchbox along the floor to the finishing line. Oh what fun we had with that! It was HILARIOUS!!! What moves!!! I must say all the gents on the floor were really great sports!

There was more music for dancing, waltzes, jives, cha-cha’s and baila and the ‘Moonlight and Roses’ ended by 1.30 p.m. with the band packing up to leave. What a lovely evening!

18th July 2005 our fourth day in KL

Kumudu woke us up in the morning with a telephone call and wanted us to go to the Information centre to plan out the rest of our tour. So after breakfast which had my favourite sandwiches again, we followed her advice and walked over to the information centre and collected a whole lot of information. We booked ourselves onto a tour to Malacca for the next day as well.

Then, after a bit of discussion we took the monorail to see the old railway station which is supposed to be a ‘must see’ with its minarets and arches and beautiful domes. I do agree. It IS a ‘must see’ for anyone who appreciates beautiful architecture (and who doesn’t?). It is lovely! No one would believe such a lot of loving detailed care has gone into a busy place such as a railway station.

Our next stop was the Mosque. It is stunningly beautiful and simple and clean. We walked around a bit but couldn’t go it because it was prayer time. Then following the advice of our Information Centre we went looking for the tram car stop beyond the mosque, only to find that is was not functioning. Now I’m not too certain whether it was a temporary thing cos’ Monday seems to be a day when everything goes dead in Malaysia, or whether the tram was permanently out. Anyway having taken the long way around we panted our way to the butterfly park. They wanted 15RM entrance fee and after a quick look at the other attractions of the area and having gotten some advice from a friendly cab driver, we decided to give it a skip. I must admit our previous experience of the butterfly park of Singapore was a huge put off for butterfly parks. Singapore was such a rip off. They had pinned dead butterflies in glass cases and called it the butterfly park!! Stunningly cunning. Of course the people here assured me it was not the case in Malaysia, but we decided to skip it anyway.

We continued on our way and found the Hibiscus Garden. Anyone even vaguely interested in flowers should definably visit the hibiscus garden. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Apart from its beauty, the entrance is free as well!!!

One of the very few grumbles I have of Malaysia is their despairingly bad directions. One would be better off without their sign boards. They are horrible!!!!! There should be a law against their sign boards! What a lot of walking we did following these darned sign boards, while had they been clearer, we wouldn’t have walked our legs off!

Anyway, I digress. Let me go back to the gardens now. The approach to the Orchid Garden is through the Hibiscus gardens. So even if you are only interested in the orchids, you need to go through the other or give both a miss. I for one thought it was really, really beautiful and well worth the visit. In the middle of the hibiscus garden is a building that for some reason reminded me of the tales of Caesars’ palace. A pink building covered in orange hibiscus (I kid you not – orange) which housed a stream of water running the length of the building with two ponds on either side with a few benches alongside to sit and relax on. Beautiful and so refreshingly cool!

The Orchid Gardens were stunning. I had never seen totally orange coloured orchids before. They grew in gay perfusion and made our visit well worth it. Sunethra went crazy over them. A friendly security guard went through great lengths to show us the only orchid, I think, which has a smell. We dutifully sniffed the orchid, which surprisingly didn’t look very attractive, but smelt delicious. We later noticed that there seems to be another entrance to the gardens close to the bird park. Anyone doing the Lake Garden Area should definitely ensure that the tram is running, have a very good map and have very good walking shoes!

We went looking for the Deer Park and came across the Lake Gardens. Oh it is so beautiful. There is actually a lake! (No that was not sarcasm – I find a lot of places are so inappropriately named, that it is quite a surprise to find that it is not so sometimes) Again the place seemed closed and all the peddle boats docked, but what a lovely, lovely place it was. This area reminded us of the English parks with lovely bridges and large areas of flowers growing in abundant profusion. We sat for a bit of a rest and to take in the beauty. A bunch of school boys were having fun chasing the ducks around the parkland and into the pond. The area seems very large and just the kind of place to spend an evening of relaxation. Too bad we didn’t have that much time to spend there.

And guess what we found near the park???? The tram!!! I was beginning to think that it was a figment of my imagination and that no tram existed. But there it was – PARKED! While my sister and I had to trudge our way around the area – PARKED! Totally unacceptable!

Anyway, we finally located the Deer Park which was next on our list of the Lake Garden Area. Once again entrance is free, and I am not surprised in the least! They should PAY those who bother going there! Ramshackle is the word that springs to mind. It is badly neglected and not worth the trouble we went through to locate it. There were a few spotted deer and this we saw from a high vantage point close to the Bird Park. It seems to be a favourite jogging track for the residents of the area, but certainly not an attraction in my view. I was a hot and tired after the long walk and was in no mood to manufacture any reason why anyone in their right minds (and we were not?!*$*#) should go there!

Our final short stop was the Planetarium. We didn’t want to go all the way in, mainly because it looked like another LONG walk to get there. But while passing the grounds we saw a duplicate Stonehenge! Of course I had to stop there then. We took a few pictures in the fading light, and saw a few more ‘duplicate’ star finding or star gazing places.

Somehow our walk brought us neatly back to the Mosque. So in we trudged to have a look at the inside. Once again we were given long blue robes and matching scarves to don. The cool marble floors felt heavenly to our bare feet. We wandered around enjoying the spacious serenity and coolness of the place and then decided to visit the ladies wash room before going back. How glad I was that I did that! It was the first time I had been in a washroom for Moslem ladies. There were rows of taps where one could wash one’s face hands and feet, there were shower cubicles and a separate area for the loos. It was very clean and quite …… well…… fascinating I guess!

We parted with our robes and bid farewell to the security people and found ourselves near Petaling Street. This was familiar ground, so we quickly found the monorail station to take the train back to our hotel to watch Desperate Wives on TV before dropping off to sleep after quite a hectic day.

Day Three in Malaysia - 17th July 2005

We woke up again to the bustling sounds of the morning traffic of Malaysia. Breakfast turned out to be not too different from the previous morning. There were some switches made. There was rice instead of the noodles and vegetable puffs instead of the spring rolls and French roast instead of the sandwiches which I liked so much.

We had a consultation with our concierge at the hotel and on his advice went to Medan Tuanku station and took the monorail to Imbi looking for DVD players and an XD card for the camera. We went to one of the computer places, but inspite of it being 10.30 a.m., it was still closed. So we didn’t get to look around the place, which was called computer paradise or something like that. I think they start work after 11.00 a.m.!!!

Anyway, we walked around another plaza and paid 175Rm for a 258MB DX Card. Much later I realized that I had not even been given a receipt for the payment I had made! Clever me!!

I wanted to see the Bukit Binthang area. We gave it special attention cos’ most of the b&b places advertised on the net come from this area and it is supposed to be a very touristy kind of place. It did seem lovely though perhaps a little pricier that the other places we’d been to. We managed to get hold of a phone card for 15RM and called home.

The next stop we wanted to make was China Town. So we found another monorail station to take us there. It turned out to be lovely! We first visited a Chinese temple just outside the station, where an old Chinese man tried to persuade us to worship at his temple and demanding a ‘donation’ of 5$. There were some statues that looked the teeniest bit scary so we backed out of there in a bit of a hurry especially since the old man was very insistent that we WORSHIP there.

Right next to or rather just below the temple at road level is another large ancient looking building to honour the dead. It had a beautiful, intricately designed doorway that beckoned to us very enticingly. It was a huge, lovely red door with dragons painted on in gold. Very inviting! We went in, looked around and took some pictures.

We then found our way to the famous Petaling Street. Walked the entire length of it, and went into a Mall across the street for lunch in the Food Court. Our lunch turned out to be lovely too. It was called Nasi Pataya. Spicy rice covered with an omelette which is then decorated with sauce and accompanied by a soup. It was lovely! Of course it does take a bit of time to communicate one’s wants to those at the food courts. I would point to a picture and want to know what went into the dish before I ordered it. Imagine if I get a snake or something equally repulsive!!!!! Yucks!!! Lots of people seem to favour steamed rice and with a curry or two to taking the more ‘exotic ‘ dishes.

We walked about a bit more and popped into McDonalds for mixed vanilla and chocolate ice-cream. We were quite tired and wound our way back through Petaling Street to the taxi stand. The street comes alive in the night. The roadway which only had stalls on either side and a few folding tables in the middle in the afternoon was packed with people and little stalls stacked one against the other which had sprung up in a couple of hours. They sold everything from shoes to clothes and most of all to watches of every style and colour one could think of. The taxi guy wanted 25RM back to the hotel. which we had been warned would be waaaay too much. So we walked back to the monorail station, and went back to our hotel for just 2.20 RM per person! The monorail runs till at 11.00 p.m. in the night….. thank goodness for that!

Our First Full Day in KL - 16th July 2005

I got up with this great feeling of excitement and expectancy. It was our first day in KL. Had a quick peek out at wonderful KL, showered and went down for breakfast around 7.30 or so. The breakfast was quite good. I was happy after the miserable experience we had at the Garden Hotel in Singapore! There was cereal, toast, some delicious sandwiches, spring rolls, noodles, rice with chicken curry, half-boiled eggs, some local soupy thing with rice and all the accompaniments (I never did try that out!) pineapple juice and tea and coffee to finish off. Very nice indeed!

After breakfast we found our way to the train station and went to Masjid Jamek which we later found out was actually walking distance away. Anyway, not knowing this, we took the monorail and went the one halt. Just outside the station was this busy bazaar full of street vendors. Leaving it behind we followed our map to find the Masjid Jamek Mosque. We were not sure whether we would be let inside seeing that we were two ladies and especially since yours truly was dressed in a sleeveless T-shirt. The security person turned out to be very sweet indeed. He led us over to a rack of long garments and scarves, had us don these and then gave us permission to walk around the mosque. The only thing that didn’t please me was his request for a 5RM ‘donation’! I saw two other European tourists having to dish out similar ‘donations’. Anyway, we had some fun taking pictures of the two of us in our very Moslem looking costumes.

We then found the SLT Ahd Samad Building which is some kind of a court house. Too bad it was the weekend, or else we may have been able to have a peek inside as well. The building itself is very beautiful. We walked along the entire stretch ending up near City Point which was a lovely lacey looking building. We crossed over and walked back past the Merdeke Square – Independence Square, where the tallest flag pole in Asia stands proud. We also visited the history museum in the same grounds. There was a club built in the English style, with a large lawn, bowers and graceful arches outside. What a lovely touristy area it was. There were large buses disgorging loads of eager tourists with their cameras. They were such a little time for taking photos before being shooed back to the buses; I was so glad we came on our own and could explore the place at our own pace and pleasure! The last in that area was a fountain in the shape of very large flowers. We took pictures there too.

We were soon quite hungry and thirsty after all this unaccustomed exercise in the hot burning sun. So we walked around until we came to the Magu Curry House. We were given a plateful of steamed rice with a range of curries to choose from. The curry which looked nice and spicy turned out to be like chutney… quite sweet and horried! Our over-eager waiter who was describing all the delicacies of his land even offered himself to take back with us!!!! His very kind offer was ……ahem…. regretfully……well… declined.

We then found our way back to the market place, tried out the sugar cane and rose water drinks and then after quite a bit of inquiring, found our way to the Indian Night market which only operates on Saturday nights. This I would recommend to anyone visiting KL. Don’t miss the night market in Little India. There is quite a price difference in the goods and there’s this wonderful ambience. What a pity it was our first night there, or else I would have bought a more things to take home with us.

Malaysians love their food. Everything smelt delicious. There were whole areas dedicated entirely to food of all types. We got some roast chicken for dinner and bought a swiss roll which looked heavenly and chocolaty. We tried out dried cherries and sweets and even had some bean curd and honey which looked like the Sri Lankan curd and honey…. Only it turned out to be a lukewarm, tasteless concoction….. Ugh. The ladies selling it were enthusiastic in its virtues of being good for the skin and so on. Well not for me!!! Thank you!

The sweets of Malaysia were very attractive in a multitude of shapes and sizes. Most of them were made out of creamed rice and flour. We pounced on some chocolate looking sweets only to find that most of them tasted the same - rather bland, cool and with no particular taste. The chocolate ones we pounced on with glee – well, they didn’t taste of chocolate in the least! There were loads of fruit, mostly sold by the kilo. Some of the fruit I had never seen before. What fun we had exploring the new tastes and sights of KL.

We had been out the entire day and were feeling pretty tired by the time we reached the hotel. We dined on roast chicken and with great anticipation opened up our soft and fluffy swiss roll. That turned out to be quite a disappointment for a sweet tooth such as myself. They use very little sugar indeed! I must admit I didn’t like it very much though it looked so appealing. Oh poor me!

Malaysia - here we come!!

We left Colombo at 7.10 a.m. on the 15^th of July 2005 on Flight No.UL 312. Mum and Dad came along with us to the airport to see us off. We landed in Kuala Lumpur at 10.45 a.m. (Colombo time) 12.45 noon KL time. They are two hours ahead of us. I must say the flight was a pleasant one with a friendly crew and decent food.

Having landed in the KL airport, we had to take the aero train to the baggage claim. That, I thought, was very impressive. Imagine having an airport large enough to have to take a train ride to get to the other end of it - Wow! Having cleared immigration quite easily we then proceeded to the taxi counter.

A note to other greenhorns such as ourselves who are too sure about how to set about this…. use the airport taxi counter located just within the premises. As you leave the main doors leading to the reception or waiting area, you find loads of touts for hotels and taxis and limos and so on. The people are dressed kinda officially and yell out quite imperiously making you feel that you have done something wrong and need to speak with them and clear it up… you will then find yourself pressured quite expertly into tours or whatever. We had this experience the first time we landed in Thailand, and learned never to respond to these commanding voices!

Anyway, we went over to the taxi counter where we booked a taxi to our hotel, the Grand Centrepoint Hotel. The taxi only cost us 67.40 RM. We then went out to the gate indicated and found another helpful individual out there to help us locate a taxi which took us to the hotel, if rather the long way around.

Grand Centrepoint Hotel, is not has grand as it sounds being a kind of budget hotel, but I was so glad to see it. My friend Kumudu had already booked us in for three nights, so in we went to register ourselves and then upto our room (No.503). What a lovely albeit noisy view we had. I could see the Sogo shopping complex straight ahead of us, and the Maju complex and University, then to my left, I could see the Communication Tower and the monorail line.

Practically as soon as we reached our room the phone rang. Kumudu had been worried cos’ we reached the hotel late. Anyway, she came along to see us to welcome us to KL and accompany us to the Sogo Shopping Mall from where she took a taxi home.

Sunethra and I wondered around, found a hawker street food stall and had our first Malaysian meal, Mee Goreng Mamak which cost all of 3.50 RM per plate. It turned out to be a mixture of noodles and various kinds of meat and fish and prawn. We walked around a bit more imbibing the atmosphere. We soon felt rather tired and went back to the hotel for a hot shower, hot tea and then to bed. Thus ended our first day in Kuala Lumpur.

This we dared not try out

Tree of Life – Kandy

Yesterday, being Poya, the chairperson of the next SLAAPS project, Anjalika, decided to visit the Tree of Life where we intend having our residential seminar on the 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd of July. Luckily for us, i.e. Margi and my wonderful tender self, she brought along her husband and son (as backup driver) in their pajero. The original plan had been to go down in an Intercity Bus and then use Trishaws for our running around. So that saved us a lot of hassle. Phew!

Acting as mom she had brought along toasties for breakfast, though we stopped at Pusellawa rest house for hot tea and sweets.

Our first stop was the Queens Hotel in Kandy. The hotel though a little shabby still maintains its old world charm. I liked the wooden polished floors, the huge windows tastefully curtained and the princess type wing backed chairs. The covers on the chairs were not in the best of repair, but the lines of the chairs are still beautiful with the huge table in the middle of the foyer holding an enormous urn of flowers. I like old hotels that are proud of their individuality and don’t rush out to give too much sumptuous plushness. It makes a refreshing change indeed.

The next stop was Salon Rosita to speak to the lady scheduled to do one of the lectures. Her salon proved to be a well equipped one, which made us wish we had more time to spend there!

Finally we made our way to the Tree of Life. At first glance it does not have a grand appearance. It is apparently and old estate bungalow converted into a hotel in a huge acreage of land including a tea plantation. Mr Paldano the General Manager met us and then gave us a tour of the hotel and its facilities.

The conference hall was large and well lit and immediately met with our approval. The tour of the rooms proved to be quite an experience indeed. Mr Paldano is quite the show man I think. He showed us several types of rooms and ended up with this magnificent suite where I immediately wanted to take up residence in!

Actually Margi and I had this steady stream of booking of rooms for every type, each one being better than the last we saw. They had several separate cottage type units too.

Anyone who wishes to book into the hotel, should definitely have a look at all their rooms before deciding. I presume there is an escalating price range, but explore you definitely should!

The views from most of the rooms is fabulous unless marred by the parking lot or entry way.

We also had a look at their Ayurvedic massage therapy rooms for which the hotel is famous. They had quaint little huts with massage beds and tubs for steeping in and finally, what looked like a coffin……. their steam treatment. That is defiantly one facility I intend to make use of!

We then sat down to lunch in the large dining hall. They had a good spread of Sri Lankan food and desserts. There was even karavila, del, mallung along with curried crab.

Finally, we reluctantly left the gracious hospitality of Mr Paldano of the Tree of Life to make our way back to Colombo, first stopping to buy fruit on the way. I’m sure all the participants of the seminar will love the hotel!

The Queen’s Ball on the 20th of June 2005

The day was celebrated by the SLUK Sri Lanka UK Society at the TransAsia Hotel. There were over 300 guests who were first hosted to cocktails and then to a delicious several course dinner.

During the entire evening the band ‘Friends in Harmony’ played some beautiful music with Clifford Richards singing plus doing the compeering. Now I feel that Clifford Richards sings beautifully, but I don’t think he should be allowed anywhere near compeering. One thing I’ve noticed about him is that he talks waaaaay too much between songs and most times, the people on the floor wait a minute or so and then walk off while he goes on and on and on talking.

Then by the time the next song is played, those who have walked over to their tables, don’t want to bother winding their way past tables and people to the dance floor again. Too too bad of him. I would NOT recommend him as compere to any dance. People like Faizal Bongzo know how to keep the ball rolling, and also know when to let a good thing be without interruption. I noticed that during dinner they played some tunes that had the feet just itching to dance. Some people did so too, but instead of playing on, the music was brought to a halt and those who had danced with so much gusto went back to their seats rather deflated.

Still, altogether, it was a lovely lovely evening. Gifts were given to the ladies after dinner which was a very thoughtful gesture indeed…. The gifts, as well as the fact that it was given later in the evening, so that one was not compelled to walk about dangling an evening bag in one hand and a bag of goodies in the other.

Udesh and his wife Charmain both won gifts off the raffles. There were many gifts and Charmain won the home shredder while Udesh won the first prize …. an air ticket to London courtesy Kuwait Airways.

The evening finished off with a few beautiful waltzes at around 1.00 p.m.

What a lovely show SLUKS put on.

Hilton Bash

On Saturday the 18^th of June, Hilton Colombo held its annual bash for secretaries. I was one of the lucky people invited to this fun filled day out.

We met up at 7.30 in the morning… yup, 7.30 a.m. at the Ill Ponte for breakfast. I was lucky that Kumari offered to pick me up at Rajagiriya, so we were well in time to be warmly welcomed at the entrance by the Manager Asoka and introduced to Chris and the Hilton team. We were then given ribbons of varied colours to put us into groups, duly name tagged and then led in to enjoy a lovely breakfast buffet. Many of the SLAAPS girls were there, so we were right at home.

After breakfast we were loaded into four large luxury coaches and driven to the Dolphin Hotel in Negombo, where we were welcomed with garlands of gokkola and araliya flowers and then led into to the lounge for a welcome drink.

Then on to our day rooms for a quick change to gear up for the games. The way to the rooms was ‘decorated’ with guys painted as gold statuettes posing all along the way. Of course all our girls had a wonderful time posing along with the statues who tried very hard not to smile!

After a quick change it was the games……And what games they had! They started off with the hotel entertainment crew doing a couple of dances for us including ‘Greased Lightening’ oh it was marvelous and had most of the girls trying hard to copy the sinuous moves made by the guys.

Then they played the Macarena for us all to try out. We must have looked a sight and a half with our arms waving about in every which way!

Next we had a treasure hunt. Little parcels of cookies had been hidden all around the hotel grounds. Soon all the girls were fanning out checking the loungers, the dustbins (??!!) the towels, the trees, the shrubs, the tall umbrellas and even ousting the guys behind the bar to rummage around the bottles and ice cubes! I think the only places not checked out would have been the tops of the coconut trees.

Wine, cocktails, beer, fruit juices, cold drinks and accharu was being circulated throughout the day for steady refreshment. They had a long red marquee under which were loungers with pillows and roll cushions thrown in for anyone to sprawl in and talk, there were shaded tables around the pool for those who wanted to sit there.

Next they had a ‘blanket race’. The four groups were given four blankets. They had to put two people into each blanket and race to the finish line. That was NOT as easy as it sounds with so many people carrying the blanket and running into each other.

There was then a beach volley ball game, tug-o-war, and pool games - dive for spoons and again a ball game. For those who didn’t want to get into the sunlit pool there was music for dancing.

There was an absolutely fabulous luncheon spread, (my favourites being a crab meat salad and the handmade chocolates!!).

The last event was a ‘beauty contest’ There were 15 contestants, who were then asked to introduce themselves, do five poses and a catwalk. They were of course tutored by the ‘famous’ Siriyalatha, with his blond curls, extravagant bosom and hairy legs showing them some ‘sexy’ poses which had everyone rolling around in fits of laughter.

The girls were reminded that most men are nagged at for leaving the toilet seats up in their homes, and also for not ‘aiming straight’. As penalty or trial if you may, they were each given a water filled coke bottle to be held between their legs and a beer mug placed a between their feet. Their mission was to release the mouth of the coke bottle and try to direct the ensuing stream into the beer mug without splashing the immediate environs.

That was absolutely hilarious. We spectators had so much fun with the concentrated looks on the girls faces. Priceless! The poses and cat walks had us giggling too. There were self-conscious poses, funny ones, haughty ones, confident ones and course some real beauties.

They finally picked a winner and two runners’ up, gave them bouquets of flowers, sashes while the winner was crowned. The ultimate triumph was the huge pastry crown placed oh so carefully on the winner’s head, while garlands of buns were gently placed around the necks of the runners up. One thing I really really liked was that though many of the girls from the Hilton were there, and very pretty they were too, they did not take part in the contest. As an aside I may add that they would have won all three spots hands down. But Hilton was the perfect host in every single way making each and every invitee feel special indeed.

We then had a draw where all the invitees names had been placed in a bowl and drawn out. There were LOADS of winners as there were so many prizes to win. There was also someone calling out for things which we had to find and be the first to take it up to the compeer, Gigi. She just seemed to draw inspiration out of thin air. A pink bra, she requested with the men waiting impatiently to see the person wearing one. Purple underwear, silver nail varnish, stiletto heels, black slippers, a scarf, blue jeans (oh there was a stampede for that one!) a glass (those seated nearby were generously splashed with water by those rushing past carrying water filled glasses), salt and pepper shakers, a gold sash, a silver sash, a chair (I got a prize for that as I was seated right there!) and so on.

Finally each and every invitee was given a huge gift from the Hilton (a business set) Yes, it was been a wonderful day indeed, finishing up with was a delicious spread for tea and then onto the buses to go back to Colombo.

Well done Hilton Colombo!