Lonely Hotel

Tues 28th July

I’m writing this back in the restaurant where we saw the elephants a few weeks ago. It is about 9pm and I am in the restaurant area in the open air. The moon, although less than half full, is bright in the sky free of light pollution. Below me I can hear the sound of the river where the elephants come to bathe twice a day, watched by a at least a hundred or so tourists each time.

When the elephants are not around the river is beautifully peaceful, except when as we saw this afternoon it used by local people to bathe and wash their clothes (they are clearly not too concerned by the recent mass elephant droppings or the fact that this is a wide river, clearly having passed through many other villages, if not chemical plants, on its way to this point).

Our room has two large double beds and is reached through many staircases passing through spacious areas of the hotel (attached to the restaurant) which have the potential to serve as conference and function space, as well as a couple of floors of rooms.

But it’s a bit weird. We are the only people here. The staff seem as surprised to actually have guests as we are to be alone here. They hover around offering help, but although they are well meaning, they have limited resources available. It took three men about 20 minutes to serve their only conscious guest a beer just now. Another young guy spent about half an hour trying to fix our satellite TV without success.

But its worth it for some peace after Colombo, and because I know in the morning J will see Jack the elephant (and his friends Jack & Jack etc) again, hopefully with the same wide eyed excitement as last time.

I’m not sure why such a great spot is so empty, but I think its mainly because the manager has not managed to get on the standard tourist itinerary sold by the agents here. Most people arrive in the morning and then push on to Kandy or elsewhere, following an demanding schedule under which they must see all the major sites in the country within 3 or 4 days. We’re lucky to be able to take a bit more time, as to be governed by the needs of small people means not just that you can only travel shor distances in one go, but also that you can stop and savour a bit more, even if there is noone else around to savour it with.