India Preseason: Surviving Sri Lanka (scams, beaches, buses and bombs). SL is a hard place to describe, its cultural richness suprising, areas of natural beauty, tea plantations of unnatural artifical beauty, crazy bus driving and dust. Its people are generous and good natured and even help you after you've said "no" to whatever they are selling. Contrasting the serenity of the beaches ($12US a night) is the fact that SL is still in midst of civil war. If you read the reports on the day that we left the Tamil Tigers carried out their first aircraft bombing raid on the SL airforce base next to the international airport, killing 7 and injuring 25. A couple of times on the trip we heard shelling or saw the flashes of gun fire. It did make for some nervous travelling at times. But as Mark and Janice, friends met on the journey pointed out, it was no where as bad as living in Belfast during the Troubles. Still a night or two of consideration of the wisdom of doing SL.

We only got scammed three times but only twice did we have to pay. About 30c in total and the third time all we lost was time as the guy (telling us the restaurant did not open to later) got commission simply for pulling us to the shop. All good preparation for India. The other scam was being given something at a temple when you really don't want to and getting charged for it at the end - the mistake was not talking about price before we took the flower. LESSON = nothing is for free.

We also survived our first bus clipping when the overtaking van failed to judge the distances correctly and instead of smashing into the oncoming bus veered into our bus, clipping the front bumper and causing our driver to take evasive action. Anyone who has been to Asia knows that road rules are relative and the horn an essential component of any vehicle. Basically biggest and fastest wins in any contest for road space.
These are the interesting stories to tell. In general SL is pretty laid back place to be, the standard of living is highish so there are only small numbers of beggars and touts. the war probably helps this because tourists are not coming much more so it is only locals who are going to the main cultural sites.
(L = Palace built on top of Lion Rock, Sigriya. R= the rock itself)
The beaches are lovely and a real break. You still see some evidence of the tsunami in reconstruction and foundations but mostly we sat around the beach by this stage. We did this last and an ideal way of winding down.

Everyone is mad on cricket and with the World Cup on I get to steer the conversation away from selling us stuff to the games. One of the best experienes was joining in a game and I was glad to be able to bat well enough to uphold Australia's reputation.

When catching buses the idea is to sit at the back so you have no idea what type of craziness the driver is doing. (To the R= In distance dagoba at Anuradphura, ancient capital, reaching up to 120m high, they were second only to the largest pyramids in height).

Overall though, SL will be remembered for the people we met - Mark and Janice - on this leg of the journey. Although we tried local food of rice and curry, rice and curry and more rice and curry, there is a reason why SL cusine is not world famous. SL nightlife is also not famous, with everything shutting at 7.30pm. As a result the best meal we had was a Pizza Hut home delivery, sipping on beers overlooking Kandy with mountains in the background, lake in middle of city in view.

So, after 18 days and a bit of hassle in getting our India visa, we finish the trip and have made our way to Delhi to see how "match fit" Sri Lanka has made us. Photos to come.
Safe travels to all.

Japan Quirks. - the best part of travel is the idiosyncratic things. the joy of Japan, thanks to Christina's language skills and connections, was getting to know Japanese people. Instead of working with Aust/NZ/Canadians I got to work with Japanese. Some of the interesting things experienced:

Vending Machines - they are everywhere always giving you cool and hot drinks (and cigarettes). Beer is available everywhere as well. Like silent guards they await your pleasure, all shiny and clean in backstreets, railways, main streets, snow covered ponds, tops of temples. I can not imagine another country in the world where they would not be raided.

Bullet trains - wow, they blast past you at a station at 250km+. All trains run to within 30sec of scheduled time and stop precisely where they are designated. Every time, on time.

Open toilets - a bit strange to head off to the loo and have an open door such that all the girls can / could (not sure if "do") check out the action. I guess it is a good way for them to know what they are getting before time.

Gardens and architecture - amazing. blending and bending nature. Can't get enough of it.

Dogs - they LOVE their dogs. Dressing them up in denim skirts, little pink top and died ears while on a walk on a leash. Or carrying them in a baby pouch on their chest while they visit a temple. all kind of rat dog size and so many outfits you could produce a fashion mag for their owners and become rich.

Open Conversation - a characteristic of most of asia but sharing, thru translation, stories over breakfast and dinner for 2mths gave a great insight into the lives of people (mostly girls as there was only one/two other guys working in the restaurant. Topics / statements included:

* Over breakfast declaring that bc she had her period she only eats dinner.
* Asking if other girls had sex-buddies like she did bc her boyfriend was in Canada
* Telling people blanantly that they have gotten fat. Maybe you should take up smoking.
* Letting everyone know that they have diahorrea at the breakfast table.

Overall an amazingly generous place to visit. Expensive but so rewarding. go if you can. Try to see the flowers blooming in late March / April.

Hiroshima - 7 realisations

1. a horrific but amazing scientific experiment by the USA to capture the actual damage done with criteria developed for which city got hit first. 17 dummy drops were taken in various cities before Hiroshima got the honour. Reading committee meeting minutes of the discussions astounding in the thinking and debates behind the final decision.

2. the blast was so strong it whitened the stones. Shadows were permanently formed by thosethings in the way, including humans.

3. so many people died bc one plane was insufficient to sound the air raid sirens. one guy only 200m from the blast survived bc he was in a building basement. In Germany and Britain air raid sirens would send people underground making carpet bombing less casualty causing. nearly certain the US knew the impact would be greater this way.

4. dropping the bomb by parachute meant people came out to watch it fall.

5. dying from burns, having your eyes melt is really not a pretty death.

6. the Japanese invasion of China that lead to Pearl Harbour attack for oil to continue invasion for those who do not know their history :) killed 300,000. Pacific fighting around 2million, Hitler 6-10million, Stalin 25million. 200,000 died from one bomb. With this much death around I can understand the decision that the enemy dies, not your own people. I think it is the one bomb thing that gets to us (plus made the radiation sickness that follows). See 3 and 4 above for the real horror outcomes.

7. the fact that Hiroshima was first means that lots of tourists come to the city. Few people go to Nagasaki.

the ultimate question one asks when you are there is "would I have dropped the bomb". Lots of politics were involved, the Japanese were beaten but as demonstrated hardly ever surrended (rate of 1-120 dead vs allied 1-3 dead). it was dropped in Aug bc there was an agreement that Russia would declare war on Japan 3mths following victory in Europe. this would happen end-Aug. the bomb ended the war. Like my German friend Jan pointed out, the german loss was a good thing for the world. the japanese loss and A-bomb probably helped change an attitude to people (some of the stories to Allied prisoners is dwarfed by the horror inflicted on China) and value they place on human life.

Japan is the easist place I have ever travelled in and wonderful. the scary thing is how many bombs and how big they are which surround us. North Korea now has these weapons, making the world very much more fragile.