GUEST HOUSE TWO -- SINHAGIRI -- Part One...

 

We arrived in late wet afternoon at what seemed perhaps to have been an English country house. It had a sheltering port-cochere, with several personable guys wearing knit caps with umbrellas to help us gather ourselves unloadeding our bags, while we made introductions... meeting the staff at Sinhagiri. 

I'd had a peek peek at the garden as we drove in which was lush, if a bit formal in it's groomed plantings.

By now we were thoroughly damp & cold, but also were quickly warmed when we entered, by a exuberant abundance of deep tones of lipstick red... walls to ceiling, with rugs to suite! 

A long tall passage with rather pointed gothic beams at the ceiling & several sections with large frames around facing mirrors added to the heated mystery. A country house for a gay cousin of Dracula?!? It was, all in all... at least spellbinding... 

That color scheme continued to dominate the salon toward the back. There a pair very heavy cast bronze chairs or, more truly, thrones, seemed to settle the whole effect while quite sharply eluding any comfort in that end of the room. This was proving a severe version of very high kitsch! 

Otherwise, the room Otherwise we found this room comfy, especially when a fire was lit. A cozy gathering hub for dinner. We peeked to explore it's counter-part for tea & coffee as we just as the light filled morning room just beyond, also cozy...  with views of the garden lapping the rain.

Another telescope... just as in Boutique 79. I'm sensing themes of the owner/designer of These three properties Joel has chosen for us. Both scopes are fine specimens, thus their placement for being looked at, not through! I do love all notions of enhancing vision...

 

Over the mantle a gong hung in a stand of two horns... bringing along that motif of our collector/designer of Boutique 78, the first guest house, in Bentota,

 

Over the mantle a gong hung in a stand of two horns... bringing along that motif of our collector/designer of Boutique 78, the first guest house, in Bentota,

We are learning about our host, whom Joel met on his previous return visit to Sri Lanka... now bringing us along on a repeat of that adventure... profiting for his experiences. We are in the presence of a playful mind... down to his andirons!

One of the large rooms off the hallway held a collection of beautiful hand painted kimonos, displayed, with sleeves lifted to allow viewing from both front & back...

 

Each unique in beauty...

Of course my eyes caught more mundane practical beauty as well...

Our bedrooms were themed around their bold floral wallpapers. Ours was peony

Oh my!

We found a rack with a variety of clothes: jackets & coats, even a fur... hung in invitation al drag. I put on an demurely lively sport coat... dressy & warm, if a couple sizes too large.

 

One ultimate destination for this group of foodies was the dining room, which did not in any manner  disappoint, of course!

Even something for a boy from Kansas...

Dining was to step into a fulsome bouquet of boldly painted floral walls surrounded its huge round table. With a bit of period figurative painting in dramatic contrast to the blossoms out of which it wrenched  a gesture of ecstatic astonishment... what fun! Joel enticed Nana to mimic.

 

 Thus we came to be at home in what was some zenith in decorating.  Basically, it was a collection of the finds of an imaginative eye in a wildly creative mind... picking furniture, oddments & tchotchke from second-hand establishments & auctions. It becomes a fair masterpiece! 

 

Having a known proclivity for waxing into cataloging with my camera everything I see, I must practice some brevity in this blog. So I'll trim this post at this point & add another soon... because I have so much more to share!

Galle ... An old Portigese Fort City...

 Galle, Sri Lanka has been the site of fortifications for centries... back to when the spice trade was dominated by the Moors. It was  was a Portuguese Colony before becoming part of the British Empire. It's ramparts in the main no longer exist, but a rambling core of shops remain. We had lunch in a place close to one of the old walls

We found it good to get back to our jungle home... in lovely twilight...

Candlelit twilight!

BALI - part two: BY THE SEA...

 

Joel & Nana have recently experienced a guest house behind a wall on a beach. They took us for several days of relaxation. It seems they've discovered a bit of paradise! We want to return to stay for a month next year, perhaps. The notion of having a more low-keyed stay-put holiday holds charm when compared to this past month's driving pace. To have hours to journal & blog -- to simply write at whim... Heaven! This image of Mount Agun, looking up the beach from the purple gate in that wall.

Inside is a sweet swimming pool & a a 3 bedroom house with ample terraces & decks... spaces to read or eat al fresco. A kitchen with part time staff to cook & serve. Maybe this is actually paradise! 

What will next year bring?

Around the Globe... Toward the Holidays...

 Trusting all are thriving in 2025... I am reaching at last the point when I need to stop lingering in the need to begi writing & posting on tis blog... so much has not been shared for too long!

I shall begin by by celebrating that the holiday bell sales season was satisfying, especially for Momo, who has been assiduously active in keeping the bells lively on various social media platforms. I thank her!

Then I report that Stephen & I celebrated very quietly, as is our preference. Even our honoring of Solstice--which is the actually true event--was subdued in the honoring of our need to take some quiet time to continue resting, because we were doing all the the business shipping atop the recuperation of jet-lag from literally flying to circumnavigate the globe during the month before.

So I will begin writing about those adventures... not so much using the usual chronological travelogue format, but choosing to relate shorter stories more succinct  about moods, people & places. I am rather constantly working to improve my communication as I continue to record my life story in this blog of several decades & in my handwritten journal, spanning some forty years. I constantly muse being any kind of a writer at all...

AN INTENSLY WET SAFARI IN SRI LANKA...

One of the destinations Joel had planned was a visit to Yala Natoal Park, a preserve for wildlife protection, where we went on a Jeep Safari... on a cold rainy afternoon.

Jim, our driver, let us off with our luggage at the side of the road, where a Jeep took us down a very muddy track, with occasional glimpses of the ocean between shrubby trees growing out of sandy dunes.

We first were served a very good, if hasty, lunch under a thatched roof close to the waves off a sandy beach, close to the large tents where we left our luggage, because these were our lodgings for the night.

Impressed with the meals these guys prepared in kitchens with sand under foot & leaves for a roof? An unqualified YES!

We five intrepid travelers: Edward on the left, Joel, Stephen & Nana. with his constantly carried tripod/selfie-stick

We clambered into the sturdy, almost "armored" open jeep with our affably capable guide & driver, Kaloum.

 

.. headed out onto the marshy wooded beach of dunes finding first many water birds...

Along a coastal wildlife refuge.

A striking green parrot-like bird called a bee-eater... but, I was simply watching & trying to keep my mind off the growing discomfort from being cold & wet. I wasn't studying to learn many of the details like names, for all the variety I was seeing...

The terrain was a constantly changing mix of beach sand & jungle margin.

But we kept catching glimpses of the wild elephants, which were of fascination & wonder to me. I've always loved those gracefully lumbering creatures.

A youngster was a surprising treat!

Spotted deer were plentiful & also quite beautiful, with majestic racks of antlers.

There were alligators, often submerged, but sometimes moving about on their own errands

Many more birds of mysterious variety, perching & seeming sometimes to be having lofty conversations. The trees surviving in these brackish waters were sculptural wildlife...

There were beings mysterioso to match...

Peacocks were plentiful, mostly looking drenched & bedraggled.

We passed the big rocks where we were told the leopards would show themselves on sunny days, but being cats, were staying hidden in drier haunts that soggy day. This Leo could not blame them!

As a fine finale one family of elephants, two females, one a nursing mother with her baby were coming closer to the road, persistently wanting to cross where we were slowing to watch.. along with several other vehicles

We were properly startled by the cow's close subtle aggression toward Joel, filming from the back seat, as she staked her legitimate claim to to cross between the several vehicles gathered for the show.

 

 

We were happy to be met in what was by now very heavy rain by the host crew with flashlights & umbrellas... getting us back to our canvas "glamping" quarters in the dark... quickly disappearing, leaving us with but the promise of "dinner in our room"... 

 

Where we were fumbling for lights... digging for warmer clothes, &... quickly chucking absolutely any notion of the hot showers we'd dreamed... perceiving that plumbing as being outside... in the weather we we'd just escaped...!

 

So we "settled" into the welcome of relatively dry shelter,  since we were not in communication with our others... since there was no escaping the truth as promised, as we re-invented it as a "date night"...

The only chairs, being quite moist, needed to stay mostly on the porch. still under the edge of the eaves. By now we could celebrate as adventure what began as potential predicament... no candles, lamp light...  incessant rain for our musical background... dinner of a credible fish curry... nearly bliss.

Next morning we reunited in quiet daylight returning via Jeep to our van... happily "safaried-out"... but, now we know better the rainy season we are traveling in, which treats us, as we climb over a rather high pass, to flag stops so we could safely navigate around slides... & numerous waterfalls...the best being a spectacular, thus busy, attraction. Cameras busily clicking all around us, we found our moment...

Well, two, when Nana appeared...

Obviously rice paddies were happily unfazed by the wet...

We did what we could do...we drove on in the rain, rain, rain...