Grand Palace Bangkok

Peace Haven villa

Some friends and I have found a villa that rents for $120/nite so with 8 people it is a very cheap place to stay. The best part is that the cook there can make anything, so long as we go with him to market to select the fish or vegetables. Very tranquil and perched on clifftop, overlooking the rough sea. We have to walk 10-mintues to get to a suitable swimmable bay but the walk takes us past natural blowholes, water buffalo, cow-herders, capsized boats, and tiny seaside shacks that sell toddy (moonshine made from coconuts). Well worth the long 6-hour drive on dusty, dodgy roads.

Tangalle

What is unusual about Sri Lanka is how you wouldn’t actually think there was a war given the pockets of peace and lovely quiet towns. In Tangalle there are the liveliest markets, water buffaloes grazing on clifftops, and hypnotic, paradisical sunsets!

At the port some friends and I discussed with the fishermen about the day’s catches. It is definitely noticeable these past few months how the impact of the rising oil prices, inflation rates and devalued currency have affected the fishermen, saying that have to charge higher prices to cover the cost of fuel and other operational costs.

Down South 2 years after Tsunami

Late last year I traveled south a couple times to Tangalle and Hikkaduwa, seaside towns known for the fish and surfing. It’s still strange to see the wreckage of the tsunami 2 years afterwards. Although many houses, hotels, businesses have been rebuilt, and most people have recovered from the onslaught of the ‘benevolence’ of NGOs, people enter into a new phase of recovery, from the decline in the tourist industry due to heightened conflict. Around the New Year a bus bomb exploded on the main road, a few km outside Hikkaduwa, killing about 15 people. Tourism has dropped significantly and the rupee has devalued, putting pressure on everyone. This is the same pressure that people in the East and North have felt, probably for the last 23 years; only it is even more unbearable to think that very little has been done to reconstruct the communities hit by the tsunami, due to the constant gunfire and slaughter.