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Trip photos

I have created a slide show of my photos on my personal website.

Roma

In Roma today.  Well, I arrived yesterday around noon on the train, which seemed to be in tunnels most of the way.  Made my way to my little 2* hotel by the train station (great place!) then over to the Vatican Museum.

As I would rather be out exploring Rome today than writing this (no sleepless nights to write this), here are some photos from The Vatican and Rome.

MOTAT – and Venice

I woke up with the idea of going to MOTAT, the national museum of transportation for New Zealand. On two sites along with a zoo and parkland, it sits about 15 minutes by bus from the CBD.

The museum has a rich collection of transportation artifacts, but really is in need of some curation. It has the feel of a community museum, not a national museum. Artifacts are added and shown not necessarily for any reason other than that they were donated to the museum. Quality pieces are buried by flotsam. How this can be handled better is what the National Railway Museum in York, England, handles this. As the repository of the relecs of the pre-nationalized railways of Great Britain, it holds a vast collection of artifacts of limited interest. Instead of burying the main pieces with these artifacts, they keep them well documented in back rooms – which are open to the public.

Anyway, even without this, I enjoyed a good 3.5 hours at the two sites – connected by historical tram. Very hard to take photos tho, as it was so stuffed together.

Upon my return to the CBD, I walked through viaduct harbour, looking at the boats, enjoying people watching. A very nice area of Auckland, which I missed the last time I was here, as it is not well connected to the CBD. (an expressway is in the way – sound familiar?)

Had a quick bite overlooking the water and continued wandering the city, finding a fine Microbrewery (The Shakespeare Inn), going out for supper on the water, and calling it an evening.

Up the next morning and off to the airport, for my flight to Venice via Bangkok and Frankfurt (Thai and Lufthansa). Listening to some French pop music, but not using my Bose earphones. On my Singapore flight to AKL, the seat ate the cable. Luckily, I have a spare, unfortunately, it is at home.

Flying over the Timor Sea at the moment, about 4 hours out of BKK, listening to a mix of Arabic and French pop. A few CDs to buy are now on my list. This is my longest flight of this trip, beating the flight to Amman by 45 minutes. I will have to say this flight is a bit more comfortable.

Update

Second day in Venice. Went out a bit yesterday (after 24 hours in the air – the seats let me sleep!) but it was raining. Today, sunny early, now hazy. Here are some photos of Venice

A small Banff

Basically, that is Queenstown in three words. From the architecture to percentage of Japanese, from the mountains to the gondola Queenstown is basically Banff at 1/3 size. Well, other than it is not in a National Park. That is 250km away, in Milford Sound.

It is rather interesting how a a commercial district in a small mountain town can take something that looks unique and beautiful and turn it into another generic tourist village – Jackson Hole, Whistler, Queenstown, Banff – they all look the same in the end.

Jet-lag finally hit me, and had a bit of trouble waking up yesterday. Eventually got up and drove to Milford Sound in the pouring rain. Missed the last boat out into the sound

Here are some photos from the trip down, they look dark on a PC. I have some better ones, but they need some work.

Off to Auckland today, hopefully the internet won’t be as expensive and or slow. I find that the internet in NZ is some of the most expensive and slow anywhere. Twice as expensive at the hotel as in the Hilton in Colombo!

Kandy to Colombo

Woke up very early again to get to Colombo. The train left at 6:15 so I wanted to leave the hotel by 5:30.

All the lights were out, I woke up the front desk clerk from a nap – he was very apologetic. I told him not to worry, I would rather be sleeping myself! They called a tuk for me – no negotiations this morning on fare, as he knew where he had me.

A quick cool ride to the train station before the sun rises, so cool in fact that the windows are not even open in our coach. All baggage is searched as we enter the station. I board my coach, noticing the only real difference between 1st and 2nd class is that the seats are a bit closer together, and do not recline. On the other hand, the seats are wing back, which makes napping easier. This activity is what most everyone on my coach does, after eating a takeaway breakfast.

I am luckly sitting on the other side of the train this time, so I can see a different view – even if for most of the ride my view is the side of a mountain.

We go down the hill to the plains, it is a 1:44 slope, not that great, but I do notice what looks like two run away tracks at stations. They arch off the main and go up quickly against the grade.

By 8:50 I am in Colombo – entering the station at full commuter push. The air is still cool-ish (maybe 30) so I walk to the hotel. It is only 3 blocks and 15 tuk ride offers away! I enter again the coolness of the Hilton and ask for an early check in. Given the 35% occupancy rate, it is given. Plus, I am upgraded to an executive floor. Score.

For a couple of hours I sit, relaxing, going through photos, looking at the very active port, taking photos I shouldn’t

I decide to have a walk in the old city. Not much to see there really, as it is pretty much security checkpoints, so I head to the Galle Face Green. It is a nice walk up along the Indian Ocean, watching the ships on the horizon. I chat with some kids off school for lunch, who are playing in the ocean, showing them some photos I took. It was really nice to talk to some people who just wanted to chat and practice english, and who did not want anything else.

Had lunch in the new commerical district south of downtown, and then walked back to my hotel. I am pretty sure I looked like some kind of steamed meat – i know I felt like it!

That evening I took drinks and dinner in the lounge – as it is all free – and watched the sunset from the 19th floor. Had after dinner drinks with a couple of technical people from Singapore until late in the evening, forgetting that I had an early flight out.

Up early the next morning, already checked out. One hour hotel car ride to the airport (fun to be in) and I am checked in. The flights and my tickets work!!!!

Kandy

The trip to my hotel in Kandy takes about 30 minutes, as it is actually south of the city, overlooking the Mahaweli Ganga (River). It is still rather early, but as the hotel is mostly empty, they check me in.

My room is nice, but is a bit worn around the edges. After unpacking and a quick shower, I have a Coke in the lounge, which has a wonderful view. I call for a Tuk, and I make my way into the city. Kandy feels about 5 C cooler than Colombo, as well as much drier.

The city is dominated by Kandy lake – a man-made lake built by the last King of Kandy – the last kingdom in Sri Lanka. Overlooking the lake is both downtown, and the Royal Palace and the Temple of the Tooth, or Dalada Maligawa. This group of structures were built over the last 200 years, but some of the temple was destroyed by a bomb 5 years ago — since rebuilt.

I got a guide for the tour itself, which was useful, but I found he was a rather bit rushed in his presentation :\ I would suggest getting the recoded audio guide, or maybe just another guide than mine *shrugs*

The temple itself was very impressive, with many different buildings of different ages. I took some photos, but thy didn’t turn out very well. It is an active temple, and while photos are allowed, I decided to minimize it as not to impose too much on those who were there to worship.

The tour itself, which was rushed, took about 2 hours! At the end my feet were sore as you mostly walking barefoot, and generally tired from the early start.

From there, I walked Kandy Town, which felt much more intimate than Colombo, with a much less oppressive security situation. More touts though, and I do mean more…

About the touts. Generally every couple minutes a single man would appear, walking with you starting a conversation. Such as, I am a cook at your hotel, or something similar. It got tiring after awhile. I don’t begrudge them, I have money. It still is tiresome having to ignore people, which is something not really in my nature. I imagine if I was not traveling alone it would not be as bad.

After finding a bank machine, I went to the town market, to shop for clothes. I bought three polo style shirts, one Polo, two Lacoste. Funny thing, everyone mentions how Lacoste is cheap in Sri Lanka — well the shirts I bought were made in Peru! Matthew, how were the shirt prices there?

After my purchases, I was rather wiped. My options were to go to the Elephant Sanctuary or the Botanical Gardens. I had little interest in walking with the elephants, so I was about to go to the Botanical Gardens when it started to rain a bit — nix that.

Instead I went back to my hotel for a nap and drinks as I watched the sun set over the valley, which was very pleasant.

I had dinner at the hotel, Italian of all things (they had a very limited kitchen for the 12 guests in the hotel)

To bed early as I had to be up for 5am to make the train back to Colombo!

More about Kandy.