Stargazer4moon's blog: "It depends on what occurs on the way."

It has come to that time when all the nice folk you meet move on either homewards or to another destination for a few more days in the sun before going home. We are left with a lovely German couple with their beautiful baby but they go home tomorrow to Hamburg via Dubai. Then we will be the few remaining Western Europeans here. === We had an early start and drove down by Tuk Tuk to the south of the island along the old Galle Road. Luckily the highway has been finished down to Galle so the road is not packed. Tuk Tuks are not allowed on the new Highway so we Tukked down the west coast passing Bentota Beach where we once stayed and Alutgama when my friend Ruwan lives with his Mom & Dad. === Tuk Tuks are, if you don't know, three wheeled vehicles and the cheapest form or transport next to walking. However they are also the most dangerous but our drover is good so we have no journey worries as he never drives all the way there and back on the middle white line as some traffic does. He stops and gives a donation to Buddah ensuring a safe journey there and back, not many people do that these days as they are going too fast to stop. Tuk Tuks also have no doors to keep you in or seat belts but somehow we get from A to B without mishap baring the other idiot road users who think the road is theirs. The little people of the world really with more hoots than an owl. === We arrived in Ambalangoda, where the dentist is, early so parked up and waited in the police car park. The Policeman was very nice and let the TukTuk driver, Harin, park there last time he took us and again allowed us in with a smile and wave. == We went into the hospital building early in the hope of being seen and were lucky to get waved straight into see the dentist. It is an open plan room with five dentists working side by side with partitions between for some privacy. I climbed onto the couch, took my shoes off and settled down. Each other visit there people have walked by the bottom of the couch and knocked my flip flops in passing so rather than dirty any more saris I thought it polite to keep them on the floor out of the way. Next to the walk way around the room is the window that gives a view over the town. === In this dental practice the dentist mostly works alone having assistance only with some bits and pieces. He hooks a metal pipe onto my lip and leaves it to drain away the fluids which is handy as I can get rid of what I want without worrying about a dreaming assistant deigning to plunge the sucking/draining equipment when they feel fit rather than when I need it before drowning. Having been there twice before I was getting expert at manouevering the tube around to drain efficiently. The dentist did not have to give me an injection as he had already killed the roots off on two previous visits. He completely killed off the tooth then filled it all the time telling me to open my mouth wider. I find that since brain surgery I cannot keep my mouth open as the manidbular muscles get affected during the surgery and it hurts to have my mouth open for long dental sessions. Each time he turned his head when he'd taken his fingers out of my mouth I cloed my mouth for a rest. Having explained about the jaw problem on the previous visit he was not so sensorous about it but had to ask in order to undertake his job in hand. Finally he was done and he said those wonderous words, "You can chew on both sides now," so I assumed he had used the composite rather than amalgam filling material. +++ The man with the limp was called for to pay the final bill and we said our farewells going out into the crowded waiting room. In Sri Lanka the whole family seem to attend the dentist and everyone goes in to see the dentist together. One minute the place is packed the next it has emptied and the surgery has filled. The person in the next booth had four people waiting around as she climbed onto the couch. I expect that it is normal so the dentist just switches off to the surrounding visitors to his treatment section. It is very informal but the dentists are thoroughly professional as are the assistants. There is a reception on the ground floor like all hospitals and one on each floor for the varying departments. I have no idea if there where any beds in there but it really did not look like a hospital like we know them. == The Tuk tuk driver was waiting for us where we left him, he had been chatting to the police man who waved to us in a cherry manner as we arrived. We clambered in and headed back to Kalutara but on the return journey Harin stopped in various places for me to take photos. One was of the lighthouse in Berewala and then the harbour there. They had been drying fish along the route and the harbour was also an area where dried fish could be seen laying around. They were very small tuna which were dried and shipped to Japan as well as used in the domestic markets. The harbour was really big and very busy with many boats in dock. Fishing is carried out at night and the catch brought in during the early morning so we had missed the really busy time. == After taking the photos we moved on and headed home by which time it was lunch time. Harin had stopped for me on Saturday just by a tree which was filled with fruit bats sleeping for the day until 4pm when they woke and went off in search of coconut trees to get sweet sap from. There are a few bats that regularly visit the hotel coconut palms in the late afternooon and on Sunday, after our Spa massage, we were lucky to get some very good photos of some that had been feeding and were still hanging onto their food perches for as long as possible. +++ It had been a really pleasant journey today as the winds had turned southerly which meant that the seas had become calm, the first time since we arrived last Sunday week. Consequently the Tuk tuk was not being constantly buffeted by side winds and more to the point it was not raining like it did on our first journey down to the dentists last Tuesday. ++++ We said our farewells to Harin, went to lunch then came back to the room for a rest then headed out for another massage. We walked out of the front entrance and along the wall to the entrance down onto the beach where we met the cow the other day. It was along the track this time and as we approached she picked her head up and headed towards us in a quick trot but instead of greeting us she turned down the path that she had chased the boys down the other day and it became clear why she had done this a moment later when the train whistled, rattled and screached by. Luckily the cow and her calves did not go far down the road so we were able to walk along the side pathway down onto the beach with the fear of any stampeding cattle either way. We walked onto the beach and were greeted by the white do who began his jumping up and nipping then rubbing around my legs until he was chased off my the lady masseur. She greeted us and the young male masseur appeared also giving his greetings. We went into our separate rooms for our massage, The young man worked hard and I seemed to be on my face for ages until he told me to turn over onto my back. He said that he was getting a new massage bed with a hole to put the face into rather than suffocating on a towel on a flat surface. For some reason he thought we were leaving tomorrow so he said that he had given me an extra massage to which I thanked him and explained that we still had another week. I wondered why I was stuck down on my face for such a long time. He went to give me the head massage and I told him it would be better carried out if I was sitting up so I sat up on the bed and had a really good Indian head massage from him. +++ The man with the limp had already been massaged and was waiting around for me to pay the bill. We left them at this point and walked back across the sand onto the side road up to the railway track and pathway. Along the route the young lady who had given me the dreadful Oily Rag massage appeared and asked why I had not been back to see her. I explained that these were our friends and she accepted that. We left her going to a friend's house to get some things and carried on walking to the junction by the track then turned along the pathway heading for the hotel entrance. The wildlife along the railway track was amazing, I have not seen as many kingfishers during our trips up the canals and mangroves in Sri Lanka and estuaries or rice paddies in India. ++++ When we came to the gates, the guard opened the side gate for us and we took the back entrance to our room avoiding going into reception where we would have looked really tatty in our oily clothes. +++ So ended the days activities and then it was time to shower and dress for dinner which we decided would be taken at the Japanese restaurant tonight rather than going in the main one where it was Mexican night. During the course of the meal a dog walked along the edge of the restaurant and how he got into the hotel grounds is still a mystery. Luckily he went on his way without begging for food and we finished our meal with icecream. I had GreenTee icecream which was like eating herbal icecream, quite delicious actually. Man with limp had plain icecream with a gooey topping which he enjoyed. After that we headed back for the room taking in the stars which were nice to see after all the cloudy evenings we have had.