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| Nilan's house |
Thirty-four continuous hours of travel is hell whether or not you're flying business class (I was, thank god for frequent flyer miles) and I landed in Colombo loopy from the strain. Luckily it was the middle of the night local time, so once I got to Nilan's house, all I had to do was take a quick shower and go to bed. Dad showed up first thing in the morning for our appointment at the Bureau of Coconut Estate Affairs (I have no idea what the official name of the government office actually is, but the name given is as good as any). We had to submit some form regarding the sale of some land which he and I jointly own, which took place a few years ago, in order to facilitate the sale of another parcel of land. The amount of bureaucratic wrangling is slightly ridiculous for what will eventually amount to a pittance, but still one can't help wanting one's due when it comes to the inheritance of land; it's all very Downton Abbey. With coconuts.
After our meeting with the coconut police, I headed back home and my aunt, uncle, cousin Shalini, and I took off for a weekend at the beach - we went to the Jetwing Lagoon Hotel where we planned on spending two nights. Jetwing is a local hotel chain and we've all stayed at various properties in the past, but the Lagoon is somewhat new and none of us had been there before. We were all expecting a beach-front hotel but the property is actually on a giant lagoon (somehow we managed to not put that together, despite the name). The rooms were nice though, with giant outdoor bathrooms, and my aunt and uncle had a nice view of the lagoon from their upstairs suite. Unfortunately, the first thing Shalini and I observed while we were admiring the view was a crocodile swimming past quite close to the shore.
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picture a crocodile paddling by
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We went down to lunch which was a really nice Sri Lankan buffet (along with the requisite western/bland offerings for the European tourists, which I totally ignored) and I stuffed myself full of rice and curry, then we spent the day relaxing - napping, swimming, reading, and watching TV, before getting ready for dinner. Shals and I had changed and were chit-chatting while waiting for her parents and thought it would be nice to sit outside our room by the lagoon. There were some people out by the shore though and Shalini pointed out that if one of them fell in and the croc snapped them up, we might be obligated to intervene, so rather than risk having to wrestle a crocodile, we decided to finish our conversation inside.
My evening's entertainment was going to be taking a lovely bath in this lovely tub while enjoying the lovely night air, but after running the water for about 10 minutes and barely filling it a couple inches (deep tub/low water pressure), I ended up taking a quick shower and going to bed, I could hardly keep my eyes open anyway.
After our meeting with the coconut police, I headed back home and my aunt, uncle, cousin Shalini, and I took off for a weekend at the beach - we went to the Jetwing Lagoon Hotel where we planned on spending two nights. Jetwing is a local hotel chain and we've all stayed at various properties in the past, but the Lagoon is somewhat new and none of us had been there before. We were all expecting a beach-front hotel but the property is actually on a giant lagoon (somehow we managed to not put that together, despite the name). The rooms were nice though, with giant outdoor bathrooms, and my aunt and uncle had a nice view of the lagoon from their upstairs suite. Unfortunately, the first thing Shalini and I observed while we were admiring the view was a crocodile swimming past quite close to the shore.
