Park Street Hotel Colombo

This week we participated in a workshop to progress our project to its next milestone. The event was held at a nearby hotel close to the harbour, the Grand Oriental Hotel. It is a graceful colonial building positioned on a corner right opposite the barbed wire and concrete fences of the Colombo Port Authority. Outside is a statue of a rickshaw transporting some old colonial and momentarily bringing to mind a vision of how ...

Normally if I'm only stopping over in a country and never leave the airport, I don't count it as a country I've visited, but after 12 hours getting here I'm going to make an exception with Sri Lanka. The airport is actually very nice, lots of shops, and free internet access, which is why I'm writing this. I'm stuck here for 6 hours, no money to spend and my bag has already been checked through, so I can't even freshen up. In the 12 hours I was ...

... from Indian curries to Western cacao pops cereal. I typically have mangosteen, pink banana, cantaloupe, grated coconut, museli, homemade fruit yogurt, waffle, fried egg, bacon or sausage, and baked tomato. I feel ill just writing it all down. But actually one good breakfast is suitable for almost a full day, at least one that includes a lot of sitting. I've tried the curries, the hoppers and the like. As much as I like curry, I'm not one for starting the day ...

... holiday), and German. I get up about 5:30 a.m. and go to the hotel gym and use the treadmill while listening to jazz and blues (on headphones). I am the only person in the gym (and I never see other guest names on the sign in sheet). I return to my room, dress for work in regular work clothes and sandals, and go downstairs to the hotel restaurant. All you can eat breakfast buffet is included in price ($60/night B/B). Every food item imaginable is ...

The meal on the Thai Air plane from Colombo to Bangkok was the best we'd had in weeks; it comes to soemthing when airplane food is a welcome change but then it was also the best meal we'd every eaten on a plane. The red wine, which was served without stint, was also very tasty, even at 3AM. Arrival in Thailand was busy - Bangkok is a massive airport nd very modern - the arrival ...

... group a few rows up from us had a game of cards going in the aisle. Of course when we arrived in Colombo airport, with the said anti-aircraft guns aimed at the skies ( to shot the tamil tigers of course), we walked straight through immigration and without any hesitation we were given our visa without a so much as how long will your stay be ??? We weren't too keen on spending the night in Colombo, so we made a couple of quick calls to the Indian High Commision ...

... Happy Cow cheese to save money. Here in Colombo, I went to McDonald's. They have Mc Omelette, Mc rice and curry with hot sauce and veggie burger. Today I found a place very popular with the locals, so I went in. I had a delicious masala dosa, a small Pepsi and milk tea (yum ...

... give them a boost and also to give the 3 latest pups a bath ( as they were very dirty ) so armed with bottles of milk , hot water, bowls towels , collars for the adult dogs and drontal for the puppies we walked up the road ( the other 4 volunteers here kindly offered to help which was fantastic as I am not sure how I would have managed to bath 3 puppies at the same time ! ) after much fun with bottle feeding ( we have photos that I will upload when I get home ) and putting ...

Have just put dinner in the oven - am very hungry so looking forward to our chicken, potatoes and carrots! the electric has been off from 9am and came on again around 5pm so it's been a very laxy day. The height of our expeditions was a walk down to the shops to stock up the fridge with the essentials, and of course the non essential biscuits and chocolate! Roderick didn't make it down this ...

... do you understand the Buddhist concept that the body's desire is to be repressed. Liza: Bikuni community, is it possible to build in Sri Lanka? Canice: Buddhist family - husband and wife relation - equal? Pathma: Husband has more power, families that are emancipated they share equal rights. Metti: When religion gets institutionalized it gets diluted, is there a movement in Sri Lanka for renewal? II. Dr. Selvy (researcher and writer, a radical feminist. Research project ...