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All Fresco – K’ Rd Street Art festival

Sunday 05 May 2013 – Auckland

I had been casually looking around for street art in Auckland and hand not really had a lot of success so I resorted to good old Google to see what I could find. I was so glad I did as there was a street art festival on and around Karangahape Rd from 3-5 May, which was now…

I arranged to meet a friend and photographer Katharina in a cafe so we could walk around together, look at the work and take some pictures. As it was a Sunday I managed to get a park on Cross St, right near one of the walls being painted. It rained – heavily, almost as soon as I got out of my car !

Mica Still – painting in the rain.

I ran up through the rain to St Kevins Arcade for lunch with Kats until the rain had stopped and then we went for a walk. First stop was down the stairwell at the back of the arcade. There is a fair amount of painting here, some is old and some is new, and most of it is great ! I cannot tell you who the artists are though there is a Gasp! and I think a Component or two. If anyone stumbles upon this post and can help out that would be great.

Out of the side door of the arcade we found a couple of pieces on the there, again I am not sure who they are by, but the tiger is beautiful – and very well hidden. Th K’ Rd Masive have been painting here, but I could not get a decent shot of the wall as a truck was parked there.

While we were looking at this lovely shadow play we met some people who gave us a map of all the All Fresco paintings which was just great – well done to the organisers for doing a map – as well as organising the festival!

We took a walk down one side of K’ Rd and back up the other, most of the work was in side streets. Starting with Haha in Pitt St. All done by stencil.

Gasp ! had a piece on Bereford Sq.

Next was Wert 159 still working in Samoa House Lane, you can see where the rain had been washing some of the colour down the wall 😦

And TrustMe

Walking to the next site we passed this alley which had quite a bit of interesting stuff to look at, including another Trustme. There was not enough space to fit it all in, but it says “We drink to forget our nights to remember”, I liked that.

On Hereford St there was this amazing piece, the scales were a cityscape, but did not translate well under my camera.

There was also this piece hidden behind a wall.

There was a large wall with a cherry picker on it on the corner of Gundry St but the artist must have given up in the rain as there was no one home and not much paint on the wall. I felt sorry for the artists, it was not a good weekend to be painting on the streets.

Edinburgh St and West Terrace had Jonny 4Higher pieces

And we found this on a wall down the back of Edinburgh, I do like all these sort of hidden things.

And then back to where I started on Cross St and thankfully the rain had stopped so Mica Still could finish her work before jumping on a plane back to Wellington.

Mica was sharing a wall with Xoe Hall and Erin Forsyth who were doing a joint piece that was just fabulous. I loved the skull moths.

Xoe Hall.

Erin Forsyth

And finally I found this up an alley – love it !

It was a great day out, thanks Kats for keeping me company and a massive thanks to all those involved in setting it up, to those fabulous property owners who allowed out city to be a bit brighter and happier and to the artists who contributed their work !

Auckland Street Art – Part 1

Street art is sort of hard to find in Auckland, I looked in some of the obvious places first and visited a couple of spots where there used to be some – all to no avail. My mum told me about some at the Corbans Estate Art Centre near where she lives in Henderson and then I used Google to find some more. It would be great to see more in the inner city.

There was a street art festival on in Auckland’s K’ Rd last weekend and I managed to get along to that as well and will show those images in another blog.

It is good to see there is a scene here and even though it is small there is some great talent.

Corbans Centre, stupidly I did not record the artists names!

I really like the Maori influence in some of the work, keeping it uniquely New Zealand.

Though I recognised this artists style – Wert 159

Ponsonby

There is massive hole where a failed tower was supposed to be built in Ponsonby, the hoardings have been painted and there was some really good pieces. I didn’t get to see it all as it hammered down with rain while I was there.

Jonny 4higher – I think!

Wert 159

Component.

I spotted this wall on the way!

It was great to see some art and not just the usual tagging that plagues the streets of Auckland.

Two weeks (or so) In New Zealand

Monday 6 May 2013 – Auckland.

I have been in New Zealand for just over two weeks now and have five days left before I leave for Sydney and onwards to London. It has been great to spend some time with my family and friends and I have had some very special moments with them. I have not been able to see one of my sisters as time and cost have made it impractical which is a shame. Tonight I pick up my oldest son from the airport and I am really looking forward to that.

I have been pretty busy the past couple of weeks, loads of dinners and lunches – with far too many wines and lovely micro-brewery beer to go with them. Luckily I have managed to squeeze in a bit of exercise or I would be forced to buy clothes a size or two larger!

I started off with a nice, but windy, walk to Muriwai Beach with my mum, I love the west coast beaches of Auckland and Muriwai is very special to my family as dad’s ashes were scattered here on this cliff top in 2007, it is one of my beloved spots.

The cliff here is famous for its gannet colony, but it was not the right season for them this time round, I have visited and photographed the gannets and the area on numerous occasions in the past and have some great images.

I had a couple of mountain bike rides. One of my best friends and my riding buddy has been storing my old DMR single speed, I love this bike but it is hard work now after so little riding. Our first ride was at Woodhill, the local pine forest and bike park. I have been riding here for many years and the forest is now being logged with some of my favourite old trails long gone. It was great to see ‘no brakes’ a trail I built over a week in both 2004 and 2005 is still there and still riding well. Sadly my fitness level meant I actually had to get off and walk a small section – embarrassing to say the least. Luckily no-one was around to see.

The following week we took a trip down to Rotorua for some superb riding in the forest there. Again this is a working pine forest and a number of trails have had the trees logged from around them, but in the case of ‘Be rude not to’ the trail was still rideable – and still wickedly fast. Not for me though, I had no confidence at all and nana’d the whole trail.

I also managed to get a few trail runs in which was fantastic. I had a great little run up through the hills from Huia dam, short and sweet and at an hour long, enough for my first run for ages. It was great to catch up with my Vicki, a great friend and my best running buddy, to hit some trails and get fifteen months worth of nattering caught up on.

My next run was to take some photos with the Neary family out on the trails around Piha, it was a lot of fun running with Steve and his two young daughters and I have never heard so much giggling on a trail run before. Sadly the weather was not playing ball so we did not get to go out to the beach side blow hole for some photos. I love the trails around Piha especially Kite Kite Falls.

A few days later I ran the Okura walkway on Auckland’s north east coast. The trail has changed significantly since I left and is now gravelled the whole way. It was an easier run, but much less fun without all the mud. The view from the hill down the coast was great and worth puffing and panting up the climb.

And of course it rained !

Luckily just at the end and we didn’t get too wet.

My final run last weekend was again at Piha – up and over Piha Valley Track and down the ridge to Garden Rd. I just love the tracks here. Vicki and I were joined my Mal, who I supported on his epic Coast Path Run in England in June last year. It was great to hit some trails with Mal again and I look forward to hearing about his next big adventure….

Yep, you guessed it, it rained…

As well as the more active things I have been a wee bit cultural, after a great lunch with friends on Anzac day I visited the Auckland Museum and for the first time in ages had a good walk around the newly renovated Maori section which I thoroughly enjoyed.

As it was a day ending in the letter Y it rained again on ANZAC day, just as I was out of my car in the middle of the road taking a photo of the poppy installation on Titirangi roundabout that was commemorating ANZAC day.

I also took a trip to the Auckland Art Gallery, but the section I wanted to see was closed while preparations were made for an up coming exhibition. However, I did see one my favourite NZ paintings – Robin White’s ‘fish and chips, Maketu’. I love this picture and ended up buying a cheap print for my wall back in London.

For a change it was sunny all day so I parked down on Auckland’s waterfront and walked back into the city.

I was surprised to found a small spirit house in a park leading up to Symonds Street which was really nice, something new and something showing the real diversity of Auckland city.

After the gallery visit and lunch with Donelle I walked back down to my car and drove along Tamaki Drive, it has to be one of the most stunning inner city roads in the world. I then sat and had a wine in a bar and enjoyed the sun and warmth and the view over Rangitoto Island.

Last Sunday I visited the All Fresco Street Art Festival on K’ Rd with a really old friend Katharina. There was some great stuff happening and it was really cool to see some art in action especially in what has appeared to become a bit of soulless city. I will blog it separately, but for a time as usual – it rained…

We did find this cool box of what looks to be rubbish outside a shop on K’Rd. Katharina had recently done a photographic exhibition based around a mannequin factory so we stopped for a few shots.

I have also had a good session going through the stuff I have stored in NZ, surprisingly I only tossed a small amount out, but I did get to move it from a storage unit into my brother in laws spare room, which is great. I still have more stuff than I thought ! Though most of those boxes seem to say books or photos, so it is not all bad.

The most important thing to be done was to pay a visit to my record collection that my nephew looked after until he went away to university at the start of this year. It was a special reunion and I also got to see the records I have bought on-line while I was away that were sent directly to my sisters house, and even play one on my turntable.

And that was pretty much the first few days of my time in New Zealand.

Good times, good times 🙂

Jumping ship

Wednesday 18 April 2013 – Auckland, New Zealand.

I originally started this post on April 18, it is now May 5. I managed to get four words written that day in April before running out of whatever it was I ran out of. Even now, when I have had some time to reflect, I am not entirely sure what it was; motivation, inspiration, energy, mojo – is it possible to run out of mojo ? I know it is possible to have mojo and then to not have it, but does it run out ?

To cut a long story short – I was not enjoying myself on the boat, it was nothing to do with the boat or life on board, I was just not having fun. I was never sea-sick or felt cramped or uncomfortable or anything and in the main my boat mates were great. I was also really looking forward to going to Layang Layang to do some diving and possibly seeing the hammerhead sharks as well. But it was not too be.

If I step back a week or so, I had noticed I was not taking many pictures during my last week in Sri Lanka and really did not do much sightseeing at all. I should have taken this as a sign that I was ready to call the trip ‘over with’ and gone straight to New Zealand; my half final destination.

My first plan had me visiting Jordan for a couple of days, followed by a day or so in Dubai and then Sri Lanka for two or three weeks, all up I was thinking of a three to four week transit to New Zealand. Somehow this plan got skewed and extended and my trip turned into a nine week journey and I didn’t go to Jordan or Dubai, damn that mis-placed enthusiasm ! If I had stuck to what I had first considered then I certainly would have saved some money and maybe some sanity.

My last blog post had me on the yacht Infinity which was anchored off Pulau Aur a small island between the Malaysian mainland and the larger island of Pulau Tioman. We spent a couple of days there before motoring over to Tioman where we passed through immigration and were officially in Malaysia.

I had a couple of dives off of Tioman, the first dive had really bad visibility and almost no life but the second dive at this reef was quite good and finally after thirty nine dives I saw some rays – only small blue spotted rays, but I was dying to see any kind so I was very happy.

When we left Tioman we were going to be at sea for around three weeks before next land fall and it was here I decided I was just not having fun anymore and it was time to get off the boat, change my flights and head to New Zealand a month earlier than planned…

There were a couple of other people leaving from Tioman on 16 April so it made sense to jump ship and ferry over to the Malaysian mainland and catch a bus up to Kuala Lumpur. That is tea by the way, not beer – it is 7:00 AM !

I stayed the night in KL and had to do a wee bit of shopping the following day to get some clothes for the flight and my first day back in Auckland and then it was all over. I was back on a plane and heading off to see my boys, the rest of my family and my friends. Yay 🙂 – I should have just gone straight there from London.

So, here I am in Auckland a month earlier than planned, and a fair bit poorer after having to shuffle around flights to Sydney and back to London. The good news is I get back to London sooner than expected and can start the process of job hunting, something that is weighing heavily on mind as I write this. The even better bit is I get to see El in May rather than June: )

I am pretty much ready to start writing again, so it is now on to updating the past two weeks in Auckland. The best news, for me anyway, is I have started to use my camera again.

Maybe the mojo is coming back again after all.

Snorkelling at Pulau Aur.

Tuesday 08 April 2013 – Pulau Aur.

I managed to get a couple of hours sleep in the cabin before it got too hot, so I went to find a spot on the deck and discovered everyone in the cabin again as it had poured with rain sometime early in the morning. I pulled up a piece of floor and surprised myself by getting another hour or so on the hard wooden floor. Most people just sleep on a blanket on the floor so I will try that tonight.

I think I will enjoy life travelling on the boat, as everyone has a turn on watch people came and went all morning, once your daily chore was completed there was no routine to anything, though you needed to be quick for breakfast or lunch.

There was little wind in the morning so we continued to motor north east, we were free of the main shipping lanes by mid-morning and had the sea fairly much to ourselves for the rest of the day. It was still quite overcast, which was not such a bad thing though it did of course keep the humidity levels right up there.

After lunch it was my turn on watch again, there was not a heck of a lot to see as we headed towards Pulau Aur (Aur Island) our stop for at least tonight. We dropped anchor at 2:30. Almost as soon as the anchor had found purchase on the sea bed people were jumping overboard into the warm South China Sea, relieved to wash some of the accrued sweat away and relieve some of the stickiness. A few people jumped off the crows nest, I only managed to go from a third of the way up but will work up to it over the next few days, maybe…

We had lunch after the swim and then after a wee break a large group of us donned masks and flippers and swam over the island for a look, it was a long swim.

We had a small explore on island, climbing up one of the many rock falls to above the tops of the trees.

The reef goes right up to the sandy beach so we could not get the dingy in there until full tide, but there was plenty of drift wood on the beach so we will come back later for a beach fire. It is a great spot and right now we are totally alone. Though you can see that there have been fishermen here quite regularly and there is the usual collection of rubbish all over the beach and into the tree line.

It was a slow swim back to the boat, stopping to dive down on the reef and I took a few pictures with my snorkelling camera. There was a reasonable amount of small fish to see and the reef was lovely with some stunning coral. I very much enjoyed being back in the sea again – and being able to see clearly.

After the chores were all completed in the afternoon we prepared some food to take to the beach for an open fire BBQ. It was very nice sitting on the sand, listening to the sea wash on the shore and eat some freshly speared and cooked grouper. A nice end to the first full day at sea.

Out to sea.

Monday 07 April 2013 – On the sea.

After a brief attempt at sleep in the cabin I moved back into the library room and slept on the wooden floor and surprised myself by getting a couple of hours sleep before getting up around 7:30.

Much later in the day I discovered there was a duty roster stuck to a wall by the door, I was expecting there to be one, but no-one had pointed it out to me, so I had missed a couple of chores. One of the daily jobs is to be up early to make bread, so I had fresh homemade bread with vegemite for breakfast.

I was going to go into town with one of the dive instructors, Zach, to pick up some new tanks and a couple of other bits and pieces. I also wanted to get myself a mask, a dive log book and if possible a rash top for snorkelling.

We caught the train into China town mid morning and got the shop just before 12:00. The tanks were not going to be delivered until 1:00 so Elvin, the shop owner took Zach and I to the local food hall for some lunch and I had more noodles, this time with tofu chicken, it was pretty good.

I managed to get all the stuff I wanted from the dive shop and Elven took us and the tanks back to Infinity which was cool. We got back at 2:30 and I was keen to get a swim in the pool as it was quite warm and very humid under a low and thick sky. I was advised we would be leaving in twenty minutes so took a quick walk up to the convenience store to grab some supplies for the next leg of the journey as I was not sure how long till we arrived at Tioman Island, the next location with shops.

There had been a lot of thunder and lightning all afternoon and just as we were about to up anchor the skies finally opened and the rain came down in buckets. Which meant we were not go depart for a while, at least until it had slowed to a mere storm. I put my boardies on, took my shirt off and went and stood outside in the heavy rain – it was lovely and cool out there in the rain so I grabbed my little waterproof camera and hung out on deck for a while.

We finally departed Singapore at 5:00, it was an interesting exercise getting a 36metre boat off of its mooring. Not something I had been involved in before. It was a frenetic few minutes of shouted commands, rope pulling and running around in the small tender boat disconnecting the ropes from the buoys holding us in place.

And finally we left the marina in Sentosa into the open sea.

Once out of the harbour we spent half an hour rolling ropes up and tidying the deck before raising the tender for storage on deck.

We motored out to the edge of the shipping lane ‘super highway’, two streams of east and west bound vessels, there is a vast number of ships here, mostly huge! We had to wait to be cleared by Singapore immigration and customs and then further for clearance to cross the ‘super highways’ to the lane we were going to be motoring in. The sun was setting under very cloudy skies and the lightening was still flashing over the city.

And then finally as the light slowly disappeared we were under way – for me to a whole new adventure of living on a boat for a month, and hopefully some awesome diving.

I had my first dinner on the boat, a spicy vegetable dish with rice. The kitchen is pretty well appointed but it gets furiously hot when the oven is on. When I was cleaning duty the other day we were working in the kitchen while coffee was being made and it was roasting in there.

There is a watch roster for all the crew and my turn started at a reasonable 10pm. I tried for a nap prior to my shift as it was not too hot in the cabin, however we seemed to have mobile data for most of the time before my shift so I was on the internet for a while rather than sleeping.

The shifts are three hours long and split into three one hour sessions. Watching, steering and supporting – in that order. It is surprisingly hard to spot things in the night, especially on the Singapore / Malaysia coast – there are so many vessels it is hard to work out what is a vessel and what is something on the shore. It was my job to keep an eye on everything that was moving and we were passed by some massive ships as we cruised east at 5.5 knots. The three shifts mean there is three people plus a master on duty at any one time, with a new person on each hour, so plenty of people to chat to while on duty.

The steering part was challenging to start with, it is a large boat so takes quite a few seconds to react to any steering changes – and by the time it does I would have over corrected and be heading a few degrees in the wrong direction. It took a while to get used to :

My final session of supporting started with filling in the log book, a task that is done every hour as the steering shift changes and then it was hanging around till 1:00 am till my shift was over, no one wanted coffee so there was not much to do.

I collapsed into bed at 1:15 and fell to sleep fairly quickly. It is so good to be out of the marina and on the way to new adventures. I had a good day.

Infinity

Saturday/Sunday 05/06 April 2013 – Singapore.

My next adventure begins today!

I have just over one month on the yacht Infinity, sailing out of Singapore to a number of dive sites around southern Malaysia.

My flight out of Colombo was at 10:50 pm and with little else to do in the evening I left Trudy’s place quite early. Which was quite fortunate as the traffic was really bad and it took almost two hours to make the 30km journey to the airport, The first 13km alone taking up most of took one and half hours.

Colombo airport was an odd place, we walked through scanners and were patted down on entry but the bags were not scanned or checked. Check-in was a bit confusing but a breeze to complete as I was there fairly early. A latte was $7NZD so I flagged that as a really bad idea and then sulked for a while in the lounge. I had given my Sri Lanka SIM card to Colleen so she could loan it to visitors, even after a month of constant internet use and a few text and phone calls I had only barely used half of the $10NZD I put on it. Mobile is such great value in Sri Lanka.

The flight was a little late and fairly full, I am flying Tiger Airways for the first time, it is Singapore’s budget airline and apart from not getting anything on board the flight was excellent, comfy seats and as I paid for an exit row I had a ton of leg room as well. I think I even dozed for an hour – miracle upon miracles. Colleen had given me a few sleeping pills but I stupidly did not have any water so couldn’t use them. Doh… I am sure they will get used on the yacht though.

We did arrive on time in Singapore at the charming hour of 5:30 am, Singapore is two and a half hours ahead of Colombo which is really going to screw with my head timing wise as I have just got used to daylight savings changes in the UK when I arrange Skype calls with El. The best thing about Singapore airport at 5:30 am is there is no one about, I breezed through immigration, grabbed a bottle of gin from duty free, and was on my way out the door when I realised I did not have my pack! So back to the baggage carousel to collect it! I found an ATM and got myself a much needed coffee and a bottle of water. I was most of the way out of the airport when I realised I had left my pack in the coffee shop! This has not been a good start to the day at all – and I was lucky it was still there.

I took a cab to the One15 Marina on Sentosa Island to meet my home for the next five weeks – the 36 metre yacht Infinity! It was dark and raining when I arrived and of course everyone was asleep. I climbed on board and found myself a spot to sit and wait for everyone to wake up, with the first person struggling out just before 8:00.

Most people normally sleep the night on the deck but it rained very heavily in the night so there were a number of people on mats on the floor in the main cabin. I met so many people in a brief period of time I had very little idea of who was who by the end of it. Most seem to be in the mid-twenties though there are a couple of people closer to my age, there are eleven nationalities in the twenty people as well, everyone speaks reasonable English. Everyone seems friendly and all are here for diving and adventure, so it should all be good fun.

Infinity is in Singapore until Monday, which was longer than I anticipated so there was not a lot of running around on my behalf. I went to the nearby mall to pick up a few bits and pieces and had my first laksa in ages in the foodcourt and it was damn good too. While I was in the mall the heavens opened outside and it just poured for most of the rest of the day.

After lunch I went to the swimming pool in the marina and had a nice swim in the rain on my own. The tables and chairs were actually in a small pool, which I have never seen before, but then I do not think I have been anywhere this fancy either…

We all went for dinner to one of the big food halls in the middle of downtown Singapore, I had a really nice Bombay noodles, but was fading after no sleep in thirty six hours so went back to the boat with the half the group after eating.

My first night on the boat was OK, my room was not going to be available until tomorrow so I slept in the ‘library’ on a couple of mats on the floor. It was an OK sleep. The boat is quite quiet considering the amount of people and the fact that all doors are open to allow as much air as possible to move some of the stifling humidity. It was a warn night, but not too bad due to the rain.

Sunday was a busy day with virtually the whole day spent on chores on the boat, it was scrubbed inside and out and from top to bottom and we pretty much did not finish until 5:00. After that it was back to the pool for a relax and then to the beer shop for a couple of cans. I moved into my bunk in a room I am sharing with a young Swedish guy and that was about it really.

I took a photo of Infinity, next to a massive super yacht.

And my room a small box with two bunks, mine has the pack on it. There is some storage and each bunk has a small fan.

In the early evening the boat captain, Clemens, went into town with a small group to go grocery shopping for the next leg of the voyage. They arrived back at Infinity at 3:45 AM – having taken over five hours in the market. There was a lot of stuff and we all had to help get it to the boat.

I started the night in my bunk but it was so hot, even with the fan on, that I went and lay on the desk, I think I had just dropped off when the food arrived. It took an hour to sort out so I didn’t get back to bed till 5:00 and ended up sleeping on the floor in the library again. Tonight I will be more organised and find a squab to take on deck as they had been moved during the clean up and 5:00 am is not a good time to go looking for things.

It is Monday afternoon now and we are heading out to sea now so will update when I can when I next have some internet – no idea when that will be !

Farewell to Sri Lanka

Thursday/Friday 04/05 April 2013- Colombo.

Again I was in no real rush this morning, all I have to do is make it the few kilometres to the train station in Galle for the 1:15pm train to Colombo. I wasn’t planning on doing anything else with the day so did not get down to the restaurant for breakie until almost 8:30 and then I took over an hour to consume it. While I was eating the sky just opened up and poured with rain for quite a while. I was hoping it would clear the skies and the air and we would have a clear day with much reduced humidity – it was a forlorn hope. It seemed even worse!

The roof in my room leaked while I was at breakfast, fortunately not onto, or into my open pack, but near enough for me to organise everything into a pile on my bed while I lazed about for an hour or so before checking out at the last possible minute.

I took a tuk-tuk to Galle train station just after checking out at 11:00 and was surprised to find there was no 1:15 train, there was a 2:45 train. This meant over three hours in Galle station, oh well. I bought my ticket and settled down on a step to do emails to kill some time. I was, of course, an immediate target for a variety of touts and beggars and finally got sick of it and threw my pack on back and walked off to find somewhere less public to sit.

I found an unlikely home for a couple of hours – Galle KFC. I have not been into a KFC in decades- McDonalds and BK, yes – but not KFC! I ordered a coffee and a vege burger and took a seat in quiet and uninterrupted air conditioned luxury. It was a good choice!

I sent a text to Benne to say farewell and it turned out he was already on the train I was catching Having got on at an earlier stop in Matara. Small world, I found him when I got in but we did not get to sit together on the journey as the train was quite full

I hung out a door for a while before the rain started to come down Once the conductor came round checking tickets and kicked the non class 2 passengers out I managed to get a seat for the rest of the three hour ride. Sadly it was on the wrong side of the train and I did not have a window seat.

The train track from Galle to Colombo runs pretty much directly up the coast, often times only metres away from the beach, so the views were great, though with rain and other passengers there was little opportunity to take photos.

We arrived in Colombo Fort station just before 6:00, I said a farewell to Benne and we agreed to try and catch in England or Germany at some stage. I enjoyed travelling with him, thanks Benne !

Before I got a tuk-tuk to Trudi’s place I picked up a couple of rotis to eat on the way, my last ones in Sri Lanka. Most of the time the take-away food comes wrapped in newspaper or whatever paper comes to hand, often it is stapled together to make bag. This was the first time I have had some school book, maths or accounting I guess. I am not sure on the hygiene of it all, but what the heck – it is what it is!

Trudi was away back in Australia but had a friend, Colleen, staying in the apartment and minding her daughter, so I had someone to let me in when I arrived. It was great to have a good hot shower and even better to have a glass of red or two. I spent a very pleasant evening chatting to Colleen before making my 11:00pm Skype appointment with El. Maybe the last one for a while as I am not sure what internet access I will have on the boat. As always, lovely to see her again.

Friday morning was not too much of an early start and I got to eat toast and Vegemite for breakfast which was just absolute magic – sometimes it is the little things that are missed the most. I got all my washing done and dried, even my month old sleeping bag liner, which was a relief – probably to all. I was going to post a box of stuff back to NZ and asked Colleen about getting to the post office. She volunteered to take it and post it to my mum as she was off to Auckland next week, that was very cool and I off loaded a bunch of stuff I was not going to need on the boat.

We went for lunch to the Barefoot Cafe, a very popular local hang out, the food was great as were the couple of bottles of Shiraz we made disappear as well. I had a great afternoon, and then it was time to pack up and head off to the airport for the flight to Singapore.

I really liked Sri Lanka, if I ever chose to come back to a country again I would put it on the list, the Sri Lankans are very friendly and hospitable and with the exception of some tuk-tuk drivers and guest house operators are honest as trustworthy as well. The country is mostly beautiful and clean and has a great mix of things to do from the spiritual to the profane, from the active to the restful. The best thing is the food is delicious, plentiful and cheap.

A couple of dives in Sri Lanka

Wednesday 03 April – Unawatuna.

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning, by 7:00 anyway and was down in the restaurant before they started serving breakfast at 7:30! I wanted to make sure I had a reasonable feed to make up for my lack of dinner last night. I had had a very late lunch! Today was diving day and I wanted breakfast fully digested before I hit the water.

I walked round to the dive shop and arrived on time to the usual dive shop scene of vaguely organised chaos. There were a lot of divers going out today, more than I have seen anywhere else on my travels, and it I think more than the dive shop staff could really cope with. Fortunately we split into three groups and even more fortunately I ended up with a group who were primarily English speakers rather than Russian. Usually I am not so lucky! We had a very hurried dive plan brief, were split into buddy pairs and then got our gear sorted. You can see how close the buildings are to the sea…

Our first dive was a thirty metre deep wreck dive on the Rangoon. I don’t know anything about the wreck and disappointingly we were not told anything either. I guess I could google it! The dive was OK at best, visibility was rubbish and the dive master was too quick to move round the skeletal remains of the ships infrastructure, we really did not have time to look at much as we were constantly lost. My dive buddy ran low of air early so it was a short dive – though to the dive plan time I guess.

We started making our way back to the shop to get a second set of tanks when the outboard on the boat stopped dead in the water. It took a while to get started, though there was no need to worry as we were only a kilometre or so from shore and well within cell range. Finally the engine took and we were off again. There were five customers on board and a pretty good group to chat with which was really nice for a change, I have had way to many silent rides on dive boats.

Once we had loaded up with fresh tanks we were off again, I thought we would change boats due to the engine failure but no, same boat and same problem on the way back from this dive. I think it summed up the dive shop for me, shonky!

The second dive was a shallow reef dive. Though there was not a lot of coral or anything much else to see, a few fish and that was about it. Visibility was poor even at ten metres and there was a reasonable wash that made buoyancy awkward and looking into all the small overhangs almost impossible. I was pretty unhappy with it, possibly the worst diving I have had yet, though I was OK, buoyancy and air use were both good, a shame about the dive site.

I was not impressed with the dive shop, as always I don’t name names, it is not their fault the visibility sucked, but I thought our dive master was very average. Having said that, there was a minor incident underwater with one of the other divers and the dive master reacted with utmost professionalism to ensure that diver safety was not compromised. That was at least a good sign.

The other thing I didn’t like was that the staff all smoked in the shop, it is reasonable normal in SE Asia, but I didn’t sit around for a coffee and chat after because the air was thick with stinky smoke. Bad customer service… On the subject of smoking the boat boy threw his cigarette butt into the sea, something I have never seen before, they always put them in a bin on the boat. I think it summed up the shop and probably Unawatuna; little or no respect for the environment that has given them the opportunity to make money.

I walked back along the beach to my hotel at the far end. I had extended my stay here by a night, and just like the place in Tangalle, I had to change room, so my stuff was all moved while I was out diving. The room is nowhere near as good as the last one and I have the noisiest bed I have ever had the misfortune to sleep on, it didn’t just squeak at every movement, it yowled and screamed, a shame as it was quite comfy.

I had a much needed shower and then went down to the restaurant for a late lunch of pizza and beer. It was the best pizza I have had in Sri Lanka by a million miles, very nice – chilli chicken. It was the first chicken I have eaten as well, I have been sticking to a mainly vegetarian diet with the occasional egg, fish or sea food meal. The food has all been good though, I have not had a bad meal in Sri Lanka and have eaten a lot of the ‘short eat’ snacks, curry roles, curry wrapped in roti etc. I will miss them.

I hung out in the restaurant for a bit after the pizza, got a blog post completed and a few emails done, making the most of the wifi while I have it. I went for a short walk in the afternoon before heading back to the beach bar for another G and T or two on the beach while reading my book. Once it was dark I headed back towards my hotel. It was depressing walking past all the deserted and semi-deserted restaurants. I was not particularly hungry, but if I had found a restaurant with the right atmosphere I would have gone in and found a snack to go with a final, or two, G and T. There just was not one, the thought of being alone or joining the other sad lonely bastard sitting there with his or her book was too much. So I went back to my hotel and became the sad lonely bastard there; sitting over a laptop with a G and T.

Though I was not sad or lonely – just alone.

Galle Fort

Tuesday 02 April 2013 – Unawatuna.

I was in no rush to do anything much today so I mooched in bed till 8:30. I had been trying to avoid using the air con all night but the room is so vast the fan just did not create enough cool air so in the end I had to turn it on to try and bring the humidity down to a sleepable level, it barely worked. I had a western breakfast in the hotel, part of the room charge so I wasn’t going to go hunt down a Sri Lankan one, much as I would have enjoyed string hoppers and dhal again.

Late morning I Skyped my mum and youngest son back in NZ, I wanted to update them on my plans and it is always so nice to see them. I had the added bonus of being able to see one of my sisters as well and I have not seen her in ages ! I will update a bit more on my plans in the next couple of days.

In the early afternoon I wandered through Unawatuna and out to the main road to catch a bus into Galle, which is a few kilometres up the road. As I was standing in the bus stop a tuk-tuk came past after dropping people off and gave me a price for a ride into Galle that I could not turn down – win / win for both, so I took the ride into town.

Galle Fort was first built by the Portugese in the 16th century and then added to by the Dutch in the 17th and finally by the British in the 18th. Galle, as a significant port has been on world maps since the 2nd century, so it has a fair amount of history. Like a lot of places on the Sri Lankan south coast it was badly damaged during the 2004 tsunami. Though the old sea walls were largely undamaged, there was damage to many of the historic buildings inside the walled area. The fort section of Galle is a UNESCO protected site and is quite cool, sort of. Like a cross between Hoi An in Vietnam and Stone Town on Zanzibar.

My tuk-tuk dropped me off outside the main gate into the old forted part of town, the walls were mightily impressive even seen through these fairly jaded ‘been impressed by walls in the past’ eyes. I started walking up into the town, mainly in search of a cool drink and a wee lunch time snack, however I got latched onto fairly quickly by an old guy who assured me he was not a guide and then proceeded to guide me. I gave him five minutes, a couple of bucks and told him I did not want a guide. He left in a huff, but only after I got him to take a photo of me…

I walked around the walls for a while in the sun, a habit I started in the Angkor temples, walking around the outside of a site first – look at the walls, look inside the walls, look for some of the interesting things to see outside of the centre.

Like all the major tourist places I have been to in Sri Lanka there was a large school group visiting Galle Fort, I think it is very cool that the young people of this country visit some of the historically important sites, and in this case bring a drum and have a sing and dance as well.

There are a number of large signboards around the town showing where the major highlights are, a couple of them, like the Black Fort are out of bounds to tourists. I fail to understand why a place as cool sounding as the Black Fort has to be the office of the deputy police commissioner.

Which brings me to briefly comment on people in uniforms carrying automatic weapons…. They are everywhere in Sri Lanka, every major tourist town seems to have a military base of some description, Galle has navy. I have no idea what was in Tangalle, but the whole town seemed to be covered in serious faced young men with guns. I know there was a long and ugly civil war here, but, come on, guns suck ! Remove them from the streets, especially in places like Galle. I want to see the Black Fort, I want to know why it is called the Black Fort, I probably would take a photo. Why does it have to be some deputy friggin cop’s office…. grrrrrrr

I spent the next couple of hours (calmly, I will add) wandering around the inside of the fort area, me being late in the tourist season it was quite deserted which was really nice, though it did make me an easy target for tuk-tuk drivers and others with things to sell.

I loved this sign.

I did eventually stop for a cold drink and a snack, but found it difficult to find much that was open and not selling western food, a bit like Hoi An, pizza and lattes seemed to be the choices of the day.

I took a walk out of the fort area and back to the high street area, I walked around for a while looking for a pair of board shorts but didn’t find anything that appealed.

I ended up grabbing a tuk-tuk back to Unawatuna. I got the driver to drop me on the highway so I could walk back up the street and enjoy the much nicer atmosphere than that on the beach.

As I was walking I heard the music from a New Zealand ice cream van coming up behind me, but it turned out to be a small truck selling local foods, so grabbed a couple of egg and vege rolls – lovely 🙂

I had a cool down shower in my room then read by the pool for a while before heading to one of the beach bars for a G and T and to read some more. I had been put off by the whole beach bar thing, not that I am opposed to them, I love them, just don’t like the way it seems so rapacious here, but I did enjoy a drink until it was too dark to read anymore.

I had dinner at my hotel and went to bed early and read some more. I am reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and it is beyond addictive, it was a late night.