Article for 2011 Apr 15
Part of the “Sri Lanka” series.
2011
2011 Apr
(the first two articles in this series mention vomiting)
Throughout this series of articles, there are several phrases with the initials “IBIS”, alluding to my avian life-list, the Index of Birds I’ve Sensed, which I often added to whilst in Sri Lanka. The frequency of such phrases declines when I see fewer examples of new species. How many can you find? Some examples to start you off are:
- “...in beds (I slept)” (2011 Apr 10)
- “Iridescent birds including sapphire-green...” (2011 Apr 11)
- “I became increasingly soaked.” (2011 Apr 12)
- “Indeed, bee-eaters (II species)” (“II” being Roman numerals for “two”: I was getting desperate) (2011 Apr 13)
- “...is banned if swallows...” (2011 Apr 14)
- “Interesting. But I’m supposed...” (2011 Apr 17)
Apr 15 Fri 
We received guided tours around a tea factory (not my cup of tea) and a gem museum (which I didn’t think was beryl-liant, but it wasn’t opal-ling). I caught a brief glimpse of a snake-charmer outside the museum, when we finally left. Also, I met some beautiful butterflies.
I had fried eggs and fruit for breakfast, an omelette and “French-fried potatoes” for lunch, and grilled sea-food and “French-fried potatoes” for tea. The sea-food included calamari, tuna, crab (with its shell intact), and prawns.
That lunch of omelette was at the Royal Botanical Gardens near Kandy, in the café next to The Great Lawn (part of the Gardens). A large fig-tree resides at the centre of The Great Lawn, and several bats reside in nearby trees. Wild monkeys and myna-birds also frequent the gardens and were seen by us.
The gardens sit inside a meander of the Mahaweli Ganga, the longest river in Sri Lanka, and there’s a narrow suspension-bridge across that river. We walked half-way across the bridge then turned back because we didn’t want to cross the river and leave the gardens yet.
