Hibiscus Beach Hotel Kalutara

... man's world. Men control the work world in Sri Lanka, and even in the international consulting sphere, the team leaders are men, and the majority of consulting assignments are held by men. There is little camaraderie, transparency and sharing of documents and information, even though we all have a piece of the whole - improvement to the secondary school system - from principal training, working with parents and communities, to student-centered instruction ...

... a freak wave. They had no idea that the bigger wave was coming later. In fact, my friend was just chatting to me about other things, like when I was going to drive down there. Nobody was scared. The only way you might know is if you might see the water start to pull away from the shore." We were headed inland to the elephant sanctuary, but on the way we stopped a few times to buy fresh cashews and tea. Miles wanted to take the tea to his teachers ...

... end such a fantastic holiday and family get together. Sri Lanka's troubles were all over the news and Independence day was coming up, so you could argue it wasn't the safest place to be, but with snipers on the rooftop and a man on the grass shooting stones at the crows with a catapult, we felt safe enough.

... to pick up 1 day, 2 day and 3 day old turtles....my first one was quite docile but the second one lived up to the Stewart Turtle Experience and flapped wildly wanting to escape my evil clutches. We head off and stop at a local cafe along the way for lunch - cheap but very very slow. We head through Colombo with Amaranga getting more and more aggressive in his driving . Dropped at the airport and a quick WC change later and we're looking and feeling ...

It felt strange to awake knowing it would be the last time I would do so whilst in Sri Lanka. A month ago, I had woken in the same bedroom full of expectation and excitement for the trip ahead, and it was scarcely believable that my experience was drawing to a close. Unfortunately, the rain had not let up since the previous day, and continued to fall heavily throughout the final Friday which made exploring Colombo a problematic and slightly under ...

... city of gemstones" then to Okkampitaya, Elahera and finaly to the famous moonstone deposit of Metiyagoda near Galle. You can enjoy our fieldtrip report, photos at the following link: Sri Lanka, the "Gem Island" All the best, Vincent Pardieu, www.fieldgemology.com

... right next to Buddhist ones! I also discovered that the driving here is an experience. Lanes don't really apply and it is the norm to jut out into oncoming traffic in order to overtake. There were a few times where I couldn't help screaming after dodging oncoming cars and missing them by inches. I got calmly told by one driver that "cars have breaks, putha (darling). Don't worry too much, OK". I also now know ...

... the children when you simply clap when they catch a ball. It's sad seeing some of the older ones as you can see the trauma and hurt in their eyes. They are old enough to have seen the devastation first hand that the Tsunami caused and it has left them permanently scarred. Think that's really all the background...here's a "brief (!)" rundown of my week so far..... Monday - left sunny NI at 1115am bound for Heathrow. We were due to fly out at 5pm but it was delayed until ...

... count and at one time, I had to go back to look for people who weren't with us.    Marini, our 200 lb. Sinhalese host kept wanting to give up. Theresa, the Vietnamese was also slow. Julia, the Singaporean with the pronated foot alternated human walking sticks, sometimes me, sometimes another Filipina, Jeane. Josephine, the 72 year old from Myanmar surprised us all. I don't think she was ever out of breath or that she ever had difficulty ...

11/9/06 Kalutara is a nice little town based on Gale road which is the main link road up to Colombo. It took us 1.5 hours on a nice local bus to get here. It turnes out Mum and Davo are staying 5km away but it is not a problem. Polina and i looked for somewhere to have a drink and assess our options when i started getting hastled by a local guy trying to find me accomodation. I stupidly lisened to him which means you have been drawn ...