Hippo

Last week it was the my turn to meet the Lions, this week it was the Hippo's turn. Both these creatures are known to be brave, as per the Zulu's Hippos are even braver than the lions. Probably because of the better looks, the lions are more popular in folk lore than the hippos.

Seeing these man eaters in wild gives me a childish  excitement (but then I am a child so I should be getting that excitement). Yesterday we took a boat ride along the Naivasha Lake in Kenya, it took us to the close proximity of the herds of hippos. They put up quite a good exhibition, some carrying the young ones on the back while swimming,  some doing summersaults in the water but ending up with a huge thud and others were making a noise which was very similar to a babies cry.


The seated on a tree and watching the exhibition is a fishing eagle.


A herd at work


get off my back

Victoria Dam - A different angle

I had one big reason to not to write about this place, but unfortunately its one of the days in which I had run out of ideas, so left without an option. The reason why I hate to write about it is that, their are few who claim that Teldeniya as "Kandy 7" and keeps on boasting, I cannot unfortunately write everything about the place in public since it will be insulting for the whole of Kandy too. Anyway one thing that I cannot deny is that the place is beautiful and the crown jewel of the town is the Dam.

The dam is the largest hydro electric power plan in the country and the sight of it with the flood gates fully opened during the monsoon seasons is quiet a treat to watch! Since its an arch shaped dam usual pictures you  would have seen would clear show the curve. The picture below is a bit different and taken from a face on angle from a hill near the golf course near by. It show the damn nicely nested within the mountain range.




Below is a picture of sun setting over the picturesque dam.

Spider

Its a creature which fascinate me. When I was a kid I used to sit and observe them weave the web. The end product they produce always impressed me. It always puzzled me how so many smaller insects get caught in the small web they have weaved while having so much space outside where they could have been flying around freely. Then when at university while doing part time ( of was it full time? ) development with friends we called our selves DNS Cyber Spiders. The creature continues to impress me.

Today with a camera in hand I went around the house and captured them on my camera.

Batu caves

I do not go to Temples very often, my mother used to try really hard to pursuit me to go to  temples regularly, but now she has given up on it. She now tells me that there would be a time at which I will be going to temples and she will have the last laugh - Time will tell :D.  But there are few temples which I don't wait for anyone to invite me to make a trip. One of it is Batu caves, when I visit Malaysia and if I have a spare day I make it a point to visit it. In recent times it has become even more simpler to get there since they started a train line from KL Sentral which goes right upto Batu Caves.

I am not sure why I am attracted to it, but its a different type of temple. The large golden coloured Murugan statue is the high light of the place. you can take the steps behind it and reach the main temple which is within a cave. Its a peaceful place where you can find a place for your own self and spend time in contemplation. The monkeys will make sure that they will keep you entertained. They had got used to people and will make it a point to pick things from people.


In the vicinity of it you would find a few more temples and valovar kottam. Valoovar kottam is a nice place with the thirkural painted on the walls and it almost serves like a cultural center. Its a mix of serenity, natural flavour and sense of tranquility which I really like. Probably if I had gone on a festival day I might not be saying this, since I was told when its thaipoosam, the place gets crowded with thousands of devotees. But then usually I am a person who likes to goto any kovil on a non - festive day since the main thing I expect from a temple is its tranquility and Batu caves offers me plenty of it!

Aaru padai veedu - ஆறு படை வீடு

Great Sales People on the Kandy Colombo Train

The train journey from Kandy to Colombo is fascinating. I have taken this journey countless number of times but it never fails to impress. The stretch from Fort to Kandy takes you through different landscapes. I have already written a blog about the landscapes and the surroundings click here to read it. The focus of this post is not on the surrounding but on three sales people who impressed me. They are ordinary people exhibiting some strange qualities as per our usual standards.

Train winding through Kadugannwa

The vadai seller

Apparently he has been selling vadai (an indian short eat) in the train for the last 8 years. He is a stylish act, the way he handles the vadai impresses everyone. He first takes a piece of paper and places it nicely in his left hand ,   he uses the tong and picks the vadai with it and embeds it in the paper on the left hand. Then picks the knife and slices the vadai into two. Then he picks the spoon and applies the chillie paste. All this is done with style and grace. Each vadai is prepared in this way and then given to the customer. It has become the most sort after eatery in the train, I know people who have his mobile number and give him a call and inform the compartment they are in, because they do not want to take the risk of not getting a vadai because he runs out of stock very often.

This mans craft has not only charmed the locals but also the foreigners, who make it a point to taste his 20/= vadai. The best part came last Friday, he walked into the compartment, there was a large family travelling in it. I think they were either first time train travelers or one off travelers. Obviously they were not interested in buying from him, since they didn't know how it would taste and very easily he could have also walked away not worrying about them since it doesn't take rocket science to figure out that he can finish his days stock whether this family buys or not. This brought out the shrewed businessmen in him, he made an offer to one of the family member to try his vadai for free! Within the next 15 minutes I saw the family pay him for that vadai and also buying 7 more from him. I was left amazed and was wondering man didn't he do a (W)hoAreWee.


The kadala seller

The second sales person is a very old person who sells grams, peanuts and other bean packets. He is very chirpy when it comes to selling. One day he showed of his English skill to a group of foreigners. His punch line to sell packets was "Pick One Any One!". Later on I got to know he is a very knowledgeable man, who does this in his old age while being in retirement from a government job.

Train canteen

3rd guy is the guy who runs the canteen in the intercity train, he goes around distributing food items and strangely he is not interested in collecting money immediately. In a nation where, people normally take the money before giving a good, this behavior was very strange to me. After an hour or so he comes around and people call him and pay him the money. I was told that when he is out of change, he refuses to take the excessive money from the passenger and tells the passenger its easier for you to remember me, than for me to remember whom I owe money to, so you may give the balance next time you travel. He plays into the conscience of people and strangely he creates a culture where people make sure that they find him and make the payment for what ever they eat!

Irrespective of the scale you are doing in, Sales is a unique art and not everyone can do it. You should have the skill in you to do it and I guess its a skill you should be born with. If I was in their positions I am sure I would have just walked away not trying to sell the new family and also would have made sure I collect the money before I give the food. But these men think differently and become successful in their own right.

Kenya

I walked into Kenya, with mixed feelings. I was not sure what to expect. What I had heard and read in the media about Africa was not positive. People around me asked "Are you seriously going to Africa?", these questions were adding more to the confusion. I reached Nairobi and the feeling was totally different from what I expected. It was a place much cooler than Colombo to start with. The infrastructure development was visible, it looked like a place on the rise. The shopping malls were in comparable caliber to the onces in Malaysia, which is not bad by any standards. The life style there seems to be more easy paced. It was an interesting place and totally different from what I expected.

Cheetah at the nature walk

Going Around
When in Nairobi I got a chance to visit the Nairobi national park. I think its the only national park which is within city limits. We drove around it for about 4 to 5 hours. Our mission was to find the Zimba. The Nairobi national park has only a handful of Lions and our driver picked out a male lion at a distance, in all excitement we tried to get closer, but unfortunately, the path that we took actually took us further away from the Zimba and we missed to take a click of it. But it was a place where we could spot the giraffes, dears, zebras, Ostriches, etc, rather I should say you would see them in herds and after sometime we started to completely ignore them. Anything when too much will loose its value I guess :D

Ostrich at Nairobi National Park

Adjoining the national park you could find a nature walk, which is a zoo like thing, but animals are given more space and visitors are allowed to take a walk. Here the main attraction was the Cheetah. Yours truly was seated on one side of bund and taking the pictures of the Cheetah who had come to the other edge of the bund. Suddenly the cheetah's pose reminded me of the exact pose the cat at home would do to prepare to leap from place to the other. Thank god it just dawned on us what this adorable creature was trying to do and we hurriedly made our way out of its enclosure.

Zebras at Nairobi National Park

Another place which I got to visit was the crocodile farm, I think it was an orphanage for baby crocs. This is where I learnt that discrimination happens even in the animal kingdom. All the albino crocs at the farm had visible injuries. One had a torn jaw, the other was partially blind blind and another had a deep cut. When I inquired from the keeper, he explained that it was indeed discrimination and jealousy.

Dosing at the croc farm

I have been told that I had not enjoyed the real Kenya since I haven't gone out of Nairobi. It seems a visit to Masai mara is a must for any visitor. All in all its indeed a nice place and worth a visit.

Kandy

Very often I am asked by people why I like Kandy so much, sometimes they put the question the other way around, when they ask, why I hate Colombo. Its pretty hard to explain to a person who has not been there, but on the other hand I don't have to explain this to a person who had lived there.

Kandy lake at sunset

The reasons cover the entire spectrum of human life, starting from the people, climate, surroundings and the list goes on. People from Colombo never fail to question, "so why aren't you being in Kandy?". But then the only weakness of Kandy is that its not a commercial hub, so to make a living most people opt to go to other places. But they still live with found memories of the times they had there and never fail to go back to Kandy at every given chance.

Colours at the Kandy lake

I just made this comparison, out of those who come from different parts of the country to work in Colombo its the people who had lived in Kandy who make sure they rush back there whenever given a chance, just go on a Friday to the fort railway station or the bus stand you would see it, its only the queue to Kandy is crowded , where as others rather tend to stay back as they doesn't seem to see much differences between staying in Colombo and their hometown.

Kandy lake (on extreme left and extreme right) and Kadugannawa in the middle

I am sure, I am going to get some critical comments from some people of Colombo (btw how do u call them colombians? ), bring it on I am ready to face the music.

Read my past post in taking a train journey too, http://balagowri.blogspot.com/2010/01/train-ride-from-kandy-to-colombo.html

Digana