Walk to Mt. Lavinia

Since we were supposed to go to the beach this weekend, but that trip fell through, Barbara convinced me to walk to Mt. Lavinia and check out the beach there. So we walked the back roads to Mt. Lavinia, which isn't too far from our house and the only beach area in Colombo where one can safely swim. We had a nice walk up and down the beach with not too many people bothered us. The number of people who do bother us directly relates to how pleasant whatever activity we are undertaking is.Our plan was to have dinner on the beach, but a quick review of a couple of menus proved that these little cheap looking beach huts were rather pricey. Thus, we decided to check out the prices at Mt. Lavinia Hotel and see if it was much more since the view would be incredible there. Result -- you can get high tea at Mt. Lavinia for just 600 rupees each. Cappachino is 375 rupees, so clearly high tea is the deal on the menu.We got to the Terrace Bar at 5:45 and tea ends at 6, so we immediately ordered. There is a free movie at Mt. Lavinia at 9:30 and we considered staying for it (it is at the Terrace Bar), but around 8 p.m. I got a little cold and waiting around was getting a little old. But the time we spent sitting around watching the sunset and the brightening skyline was really nice. Oh, and the tea was great. I would have been really happy if the scones were larger (they had the circumference of a quarter), but we can't have everything in life. We've decided we need to try high tea at all the hotels and determine the best one.
On the walk home we stopped at a quick Indian food place and bought the best naan I've had in this country. So now we plan to pick up dinner there often as it is close to the house and a cheap meal (we both had dinner for 70 rupees).

As you can probably tell by my lack of an entry everyday that having someone around to do things with is keeping me busy. It is so nice. Also, Barbara has introduced me to the Couch Surfing phenomenon, so I expect to make a few more friends in the near future. I suggest you check out their website, it is a pretty amazing idea. Basically, people either offer their couch to total strangers on the network, or if they have no couch, they offer time to have coffee or whatever, and this way you can travel around the world or just meet people in your own town. I plan to use this system pretty extensively when I travel in August.

In case you are wondering, the war wages on. There was a terrible bus bombing on Wednesday where after the landmine stopped the bus, Tigers were actually shooting at the passengers and 26 people were killed. This was in the southwest of the country -- so out of the normal fighting territory. Now everyone is telling us to stay away from public buses, but for those of us working at Sewalanka this just isn't possible. We are avoiding long distance buses, but to get to town public buses are the only affordable means (until Barbara finds a bike, that is). Then yesterday the military reported that ten people were killed in the south about 160 miles southeast of Colombo. I think all our fears of what the end of the ceasefire meant for the future of Sri Lanka may actually be realized.