Trees, Trees, and more Tress

With a history dating far back as 1371, Royal Botanic Gardens, better known as the Paradeniya Gardens, is a national treasure that we should be proud of. It was initiated during the reign of King Wicramabahu III, and made into a Royal Garden by King Kirti Sri Rajasinghe. It gained its current botanical garden state during the colonial times, under the direction of Alexander Moon. The idea was to use the gardens as a testing ground for crop cultivation, such as Rubber, Coffee, Nutmeg, etc, before mass cultivation.

The garden covers an area of 60 hectares and is bordered by the River Mahaweli on three sides. It is home to around 10,000 plants and trees from around the world. In addition, there are many species of animals calling this place home.

They have a good web site with lots of information so anyone interested and check it out.

Y'all have a super duper weekend :D

Orchids Galore

Took a little trip up to Kandy last week, and thought I’d pop into the botanical gardens to get some pics. It was there that these pretty little ladies caught my eye, hiding in the Orchid house. Unfortunately I don’t know their names.

Apparently, the Orchid family, or Orchidaceae if you want to get technical, is the largest family of flowering plants, with 880 listed genera and about 22,000 accepted species. That’s about four times the number of mammal species. Orchids can be found in every nook and cranny of the world, except for deserts and glaciers. They can even be found in the extreme colds above the Arctic Circle. Anyway, I’m not going to go into a Botany lesson here, but those who are interested are more than welcome to check out wiki.


















Aint Mother Nature Cool!!! :D

Random Drivel

Well, I managed to get through the exams without turning my brain into mush. Was a bit stressed out since I only had a few days to study, thanks to this little thing called work. Oh well, hopefully have gotten through. Free for couple of weeks, till classes start again.

The goings on of the country are quite depressing don’t you think. Difficult to imagine where we are heading to. The future is unpredictable and it is scary. I blame the game of politics, politicians and their non-exhaustive greed for money and power. To me politics, especially Sri Lankan politics, is like a bunch of rabid monkeys fighting over a basket of rotten mangoes. How i wish all assholes would just vanish into thin air. *poof*. It would solve a lot of problems. I want my paradise isle back...

Anyway, don’t want to clutter my blog with drivel. Been catching up on my reading these days. Currently on a spree of Stephen King (All Hail!) titles. Finished Cujo couple of days back and now going through Duma Key. Get my mind off the shit that is happening. There must be sales in bookstores now, this being the season and all. Must take a look and get my hands on some new books.

Speaking of the seasons, feel a little guilty about celebrating, since saying I’m religious is an understatement. Haven’t been to a church for a long time, makes an appearance on Christmas day to make the parents happy, but other than that...nada.

This post is a bunch of nonsense :P

Sometimes i wish i could trade places with this bugger. Funny, still haven't named him. no point really, since he never listens to me.

Happy Birthday Sesame Street

Wow... a post after long time. Well sort of a post. I haven’t had some free time for couple of weeks now. Swamped at work, classes, several assignments to finish before the 15th and exams in 2 weeks. Still haven’t even touched a book. Officially starting to go on panic mode, something that rarely happens to me. AAAARRRGH....

The reason for this appearance is to wish Sesame Street a happy fortieth birthday. I found out about only when I saw the Google Sesame Street logo today. So Happy Birthday to Big Bird and the gang...

Image from here: http://amerginaccounting.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/sesamestreet-group.jpg

Sesame Street


I’ll make another appearance if my brain doesn’t turn in to mush by the end of the month.
Take care all

Cheers

Habarana and Trinco...

It was the first time I’ve been to The Cinnamon Lodge at Habarana, and I must say I was pretty impressed. Not by the hotel buildings or the service or anything, but just by the environment. The abundant trees and the cool breeze blowing in from the lake is more than enough to refresh a weary soul. In truth, it’s not what I expected. I thought it’d be hot and dusty, but because of the amount of trees, you don’t feel the heat. I don’t know who designed the place, but they’ve done a great job. Man, how I wish I could build a house somewhere like that.

Trinco is booming with tourists these days, very much beneficial for the people in the area. Nilaweli beach was jam packed. During the two months since I first went to Tinco and last week, I think there is a noticeable increase in the amount of visitors. The boat operators to Pigeon Island are raking in the dough these days.

Coincidently, I came across this article in the Sunday Times about how the increased invasion of visitors is having an adverse effect on the coral population. Truthfully I also didn’t think about the effect of the visitors to the eco system till I read the article.

“This area was full of live corals three months ago, before the current tourist frenzy started at Nilaveli. Visitors who come to the island often walk on the corals and some of them even break the live corals to take home as souvenirs,” Eric said. A diving instructor who operates from Nilaveli Beach Hotel, Eric does several dives around the Pigeon Island reef daily.
Pigeon Island is one of the two marine national parks in SL, the other being Hikkaduwa, which from what I hear is not in a great state. What the marine biologists fear is that the same thing will happen at Pigeon Island.

I personally don’t see the attraction in bathing there, mainly because you can’t. The corals are razor sharp, and almost all who go in come out with several cuts. Sure, you can see the fish, but I prefer to have another way, rather than being covered with scrapes. I’ll take a sandy beach for a rocky one any day.

The other thing is the taking of corals as souvenirs. I don’t see the attraction in that either. It’s just adds more clutter to the house, which I already have a problem keeping clean. Then again maybe it’s just me.

Luckily the Navy is keeping an eye on things to make sure people behave. I saw several being advised by the soldiers to leave the corals they were carrying.

I’m not saying that I’m 100% environmentally conscious, but I try to be at least 80% whenever possible. I always try to stick to the mantra “Take only pictures and leave only footprints” where ever I go.

We are blessed with a naturally beautiful country, whatever the state of other things may be. That is why we have a great advantage in attracting visitors and promoting tourism. If we locals set an example of being environmentally conscious, and respecting our land, then the visitors will also learn to do likewise.

The work week was extremely busy, with tons of work, made maddeningly frustrating by network issues at office, gah… Looking forward for a relaxing weekend at home, well at least the Saturday. Its back to classes on Sunday. Gah…Gah…
Have a fun filled weekend all!

Little porky, has a funny expression. @ the Cinnamon Lodge farm

Trinco Beach

Like my sexy pose?

This bugger fell to the ground with a thud and was feeling woozy i guess :)

Selamat Siang

...means “Good Day” in Malay, which forms the basis for Bahasa Malaysia. Interestingly enough, it is most commonly written using the Latin alphabet.

Why am I talking about the Malay language? Well, last week I joined some friends on a short trip to Malaysia. Short, because it was only for 3 1/2 days. The main reason for the trip was that a friend was attending her convocation from RMIT, and it was decided to make it a holiday as well. Hey, you live only once, so might as well take every opportunity to see how the rest of the world lives.

There’s a homely feeling there since environment and climate wise, Malaysia is like Sri Lanka. The main difference being the level of development they have achieved. It is a glimpse of what Sri Lanka can become. The other nice thing is the level of cleanliness. That is something I really wish we have, more than even development.

The Kuala Lampur International Airport is situated in a district called Sepang, about 50km from KL city. The whole area is covered with Palm plantations, which at first I thought were Coconuts. Apparently Palm oil is the second biggest export after petroleum. From above it basically looks like somebody took a strip out of a green carpet so that planes can land. The airport has two terminals, where the main one houses immigration, customs and etc, and to get from one terminal to the other, there is a pair of automated trains.

KL city is basically a concrete jungle, but it doesn’t feel like it because there are lot of trees. Somehow they’ve managed to create a balance between the concrete and natural greenery.

The Corus Hotel in which we stayed is right smack in the middle of the city and just a few buildings away from the famous Petronas twin towers. Unfortunately we kept putting off visiting the towers till the last moment, only to find out on Saturday that it was closed during that weekend because of the festival. So we missed the chance to go up to the sky-bridge. Tough luck I’d say.

There are more than enough shopping malls in the city to keep the shopaholics in a permanent state of ecstasy. The largest one we went to was the Times Square Mall. It has about 12 floors with about 100 shops in each floor. You do the math on that one. Most of them are designer clothes and fashion accessories. Seriously, once you go inside, you don’t feel the time moving. Have you noticed that most malls are built in a way that you don’t see the outside when you are in? When you don’t see the daylight changing, you feel like time has stopped. It’s a sneaky, clever way to keep the shoppers inside. Because of the festival season, all the shops were having some sort of sale. Otherwise, I don’t think the prices are that cheap. Food on the other hand is quite cheap, and tasty.

Being huge wasn’t enough for the Time Square mall people. They wanted more excitement, so why not put an amusement park inside it. Yep, it has an amusement park, complete with thrill rides and a twisting, looping roller coaster. It was my first time on a roller coaster and it was scary yet exciting. I guess it has an added scare factor than the outdoor one’s, because it goes twisting around the other rides so closely that you think that you are going to hit them. If it gets too hot to handle, the easiest remedy is to keep your eyes closed.

We did have a good time though; the only damper was that it was raining most of the time. I also would have loved to go visiting some other sites as well, but there is so much that you can do in 3 ½ days. Who knows, maybe another time perhaps?

On a separate note, I don’t know about other airlines, but compared to Emirates, our Sri Lankan has a long way to go. You’d think it would fall apart the way it was shuddering during taxing. The return flight had a weird engine noise as well. Oh well, guess we have to keep our faith with the engineers.

Annual office trip is coming up this weekend, so I’ll be off to Habarana and Trinco, again, and sponsored too :D Yay... lucky me.

Have a good weekend all.

Cheers

Random street shot - KL city

Petronas Twin Towers @ night

Random street shot - KL city

Random street shot - KL city

Reaching for the clouds

Random street shot - KL city

Inside Suria KLCC Mall

Cosmo World, indoor amusement park in Times Square Mall

Random...stuff :)

I have been neglecting the bloggie for a while now. It’s been a bit busy these past weeks, what with some exams and work and stuff...you know. The good news is that the exams are over, at least for another two months. Bah...I have no life...

In an admirable move, the Indian government has stepped up its austerity drive, mainly because of the effects of the global recession and the severe drought in some parts, which is taking its toll on the Indian economy. Austerity is defined in economics as when governments reduce its spending. The foreign ministry has advised the ministers to limit expenses on travel, furnishing for ministers' offices and residences, publicity work, as well as seminars and workshops in luxury hotels. It has also been suggested that the ministers travel on economy class when flying. Most of them are adhering to the cut backs, except the flying in economy class. It’s is very commendable that they are mindful when spending public funds. I can think of a lot of people who should take an example for the Indian minsters.

Looks like another would be Sakvithi was arrested for allegedly defaulting LKR 430million. It’s sad to see that values such as honesty and integrity are becoming mere words. Soon they will have no value. Why can’t people do an honest day’s work without hurting other people? Hah...If there was an answer to that question, there would be a lot less problems in this world.

A female British rower named Rosalind “Roz” Savage is rowing across the Pacific Ocean, to become the first female rower to do so. Earlier in 2006, she became the 5th woman to row solo across the Atlantic, East to West. Now she is crossing the Pacific, and on the 6th of September 2009, has reached Tarawa, in the Republic of Kiribati. Kiribati is a small island nation in the middle of the Pacific, composed of 32 coral atolls. By arriving in Tarawa, Roz has completed the second stage of her journey.

She started the first stage in May 25, 2008 from San Francisco and arrived in Waikiki, Hawaii in September 1, 2008. The second stage was started from Hawaii in May 24, 2009 and completed after 104 days at sea, covering some 2500+ miles (about 4000Km)

Stage three will start in 2010, heading to Australia. When she finishes the crossing, she will cover about 9500 miles. Man, that’s a lot of rowing. More info can be found on her home page.

You have to admire the guts of some of these “adventurers”. They are not satisfied with having a mediocre life. They take risks and go for the kill. How many of us can say that we would do something like this? I am definitely not one of them :)

Roz Savage, Pic from Wikipedia

Have a good week everyone!