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So I am blogging this from Sri Lanka; I am in the library of the Amangalla Hotel, which is really quite pretty and which is of course way beyond my budget [am only here because I am travelling with mom and some of her friends, hence am free-loading off her 
] This part of Sri Lanka was badly hit by the tsunami in 2004; you can still see the scars in the form of washout, abandoned buildings all along the coast. And it took us a 4 hour car ride from Colombo airport to get here – by which time all of our well-padded bums were worn through! [from all the potholes in the streets]. The driving here would take a bit of getting used to, and the driver we hired is a bit of a scam artist. well not sam artist but an opportunist extraordinaire. and we are stuck with him for the next 8 days. ugh.
Sri Lanka is still part of the developing world – and you can see that from all the touts and beggars who keep following us all over Fort Galle as we were walking along yesterday. We are so obviously tourists that it couldn’t be helped, really. and yes they are poor and they really follow you around… obviously some of them get ut from the shops if they brings tourists with them to the shops; one guy even tried to pass himself off as the cook from our hotel, and he kept up a constant spiel for 15 minutes, walking with us as we went around Fort Galle. but he got the message and buzzed off after a bit. The country is extremely Buddhist and you can see that in their attitude – they leave stray dogs alone and treat them quite well by feeding them too. Today, we visited a tea plantation – where they do only ’boutique’ teas and which are extremely expensive, and only for for certain limited purchases - and one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Galle, the Yatagala temple – where we got to after ascending 200 steps [leaving us extremely winded]. Of course, i shall post photos up a lot later. and of course, i had a nice long massage in the morning at the spa in the hotel – most relaxing. And it was a guy who did it for me a bit strange feeling but I got over it….
Our meals so far have been hit-and-miss. We went to the Lighthouse hotel where one of our friends were staying [this hotel was more than what he was prepared to pay for] and 1. the food took an hour to get to the table; 2. the food wasn’t great. Then we went for lunch yesterday at Wijaya Beach, which was recommended in the hotel guide book as well as other guide books. Mistake – out spicy fish curry turned out to be sweet and sour fish, which only arrived like an hour later (u see a pattern here? ) Last nights’ dinner at the Printer’s Hotel [only because the place use to be a printing firm - and in fact still has an ancient printing press in the lobby] was a better deal, only a little bit heavy on the salt. Hopefully tonights will be better; it’s at the Dutch hotel.
My eyes seems to be doing okay so far, but I don’t think I will attempt to swim just yet. so that’s my excuse.
Till part 2 of these chronicles… 
eye surgery is done. and apart from my head feeling as though it will split in half [and a raging fever, yesterday, from the GA], slight nausea, and a certain tightness aroud the edges of both my eyes, it doesn’t really feel so bad.
but yeah. i think lasik is out of the question. sigh.
so yesterday i go to an eye doctor for a consultation, to see if i am eligible for Lasik. and not only am i not eligible for lasik, i find out that i have a degenerative eye condition that is basically make my retina waste away – along its entire circumference. [the doc says he has seen this in patients who are really short sighted, but that he has never seen such extensive damage. and he was quite in awe of it some more, basket.] he took loads of pictures and showed them to me. and he basically said it was a ticking time bomb and i needed to get it fixed ASAP.
So now, i am scheduled for laser eye surgery tomorrow. ugh. NIL by mouth.
