Today I went out to dinner with my Punchi Amma and Bappa and cousin Anouka. I cannot say that I recommend going to a restaurant with a 2-year old, but I can say that life goes on. Mango Tree is a nice restaurant by the way, I recommend the lamb marinated in the green stuff. This photo is of Anouka sitting on the mango tree outside Mango Tree. We are outside because he wouldn’t sit still inside. The photo is heavily effected for the same reason. He was a blur.

I was calling someone at Media Temple (web-host) yesterday and they asked if Sri Lanka still had phone lines working. Er, yes. I update 4 or 5 websites 10 times a day over lease lines. I had dinner at Mango Tree tonight. We are not as fucked as it looks. If you’d like to invest in Sri Lanka or visit, by all means. The Rupee is actually rising, and Kandalama is the best hotel in Sri Lanka, tucked away inland. Actually, most of the land is inland. I, personally, haven’t stepped in the ocean since I got here. Sri Lanka is not destitute. Sri Lanka is coming up.

I live in Colombo. Not that I really like Colombo. It’s dirty, smelly, unzoned and there are mangy dogs roaming around with their obvious and gross unneuteredness. I would like to dwell on the mangy dogs for a moment because they interest me only slightly less than trishaws. Normally I feel an innate desire to pet furry creatures, but with these dogs that feeling is entirely extinguished. Perhaps because they don’t have fur to speak of. It’s more a patchwork of mange and dirt, one blending into the other. I’m not exactly clear on the biology of this, but the bitches have at least 18 saggy teats and the waggling dog testicles are in no better shape. If Bob Barker is still alive I wish he would come here. Some of the dogs lie in front of cars because I think they want to die (says Gavin). But I think the point was that I don’t like Colombo much. If I could, I guess I would live on the beach in the East, cause it’s beautiful. But I don’t. I live in Colombo because the economy is in Colombo. Some ridiculous percentage of Sri Lanka’s economic activity is in Colombo and the Western Province. I’d guess at least 60%, but Tha or Chanuka could tell me. Colombo and the Western Province are pretty much untouched. Hence Sri Lanka is OK.

All the damage maps they show are wrong. They, including me. In the health.gov.lk one that I’ve been using for Sarvodaya it shows the entire province of Ampara as a big purple welt. In fact, the only affected land is a 2 km strip along the coast. On TV it looks like all the houses are fallen over, but I’m living in a house with walls and everything. Most people are. If you come to visit we can find you some walls, maybe lean stuff together. But nobody cares. All the journalists want to stand in front of the busted up parts. I think we should just move into disaster tourism and get paid off this.

(Stock Graph from the New York Times)

Posted on Sunday, January 16th, 2005 in Photography, Sri Lanka.