Old Friends visiting Sri Lanka

I spent another three weeks in Sri Lanka in December 2010 and met with two old friends, Dilika Perera and Govindan Parayil, visiting from Melbourne and Tokyo respectively.

I met Dilika when she came to Mobile, Alabama, in the early 1990s. Dilika visits her parents in Sri Lanka every few years and sometimes our visits overlap.

My old friend from the Washington DC days (in the mid-1980s) also came to Sri Lanka to attend a conference and we traveled around for a few days. Govindan is seen with me at Pondside.

I took this photo of the Sigiriya rock fortress. We decided not to climb it.

The Parakrama Samudra had been only a third full during my last visit in July, 2009. On this visit, I was delighted to see that the prolonged rains had filled it up this time.

Govindan at a hotel overlooking the lovely Giritale Tank.

Govindan and I went on an elephant safari and saw a herd of nearly 100 wild elephants, the most had seen on a safari. The photo shows some of the other visitors in their safari jeeps.

I am not nervous going on safari (we come within 25 meters of the elephants) because I know that the drivers are experienced and understand the moods of the elephants. At the first sign of danger, the drivers drive away quickly. But I heard of a tourist who got down from his jeep to take photos and was attacked and killed by an elephant. Amusingly, the grater danger comes from the reckless speed at which the jeeps are driven to and from the wild life parks. These are old jeeps, at least 30 years old, which have been reconditioned with new engines. They have ramshackle bodies, no air bags, not even seat belts.

The leader of a herd is usually a female, although in size she is much smaller than the bull elephants. Sri Lanka's wild elephants are dwindling in number so I was pleased to see that a number of cow elephants were pregnant. Among Asian elephants, tuskers are rare: only about 3% of Sri Lankan male elephants have tusks. The elephants themselves appear to be aware of the privilege of being a tusker. According to our driver, even a young tusker will be respected by much older, tuskless bull elephants. We actually saw a much bigger bull elephants backing away as a younger tusker approached him.

When I visited Kandy about six years ago with my old colleague Jason Gleckman of the Chinese University, we visited the small, peaceful Garrison Cemetery which lies hidden behind the Temple of the Tooth. British residents were buried there well into the 20th century. Few Sri Lankans are aware of its existence. I was glad to revisit the cemetery and meet the caretaker Charles Carmichael again. Charles, a descendant of an Englishman (like me) speaks flawless English, which is surprising considering the work he does. But he was looking the worse for wear and I suspect he's hitting the bottle. The cemetery, however, was looking its best, the graves well maintained and the grass carefully mowed.

On the bund of Kandy Lake opposite the Temple of the Tooth. The New York Times, when it named Sri Lanka the top destination for 2010, featured a photograph of the lake.