Amazing coincidence

An amazing coincidence!

Yesterday I read a short story called The Captives,from the collection Monkfish Moon by Romeshb Gunesekera. This story is set in Sigiriya, the town we have just arrived at. It is a story about a Sir Lankan guest house manager who is trying so hard to be helpful;  so hard that the two guests feel like captives. Well you guessed it. We have the same guest house owner. He keeps popping by to wipe the table or the door.  While we were eating, he stood beside the table. “Everything is good Madame? You are happy Sir? If you are happy I am happy.”

Before supper, we went out for a walk and he chased us down in his tuc tuc to try to pick us up and show us things.  We persisted in just walking.  Now that we are back sitting on a deck in the jungle,  our fellow popped over to show us the flower of the banana. It’s a dark red pointed globe about ten inches long. “My wife, she cook this for you tomorrow. All natural. Tastes like chicken. Then trying so hard to be helpful and have us like him, he said “ My wife doesn’t speak English but she likes you Madame, like a mother. My mother is very short but she is fat like you!”

Here are a few photos from our walk.  Lion Rock has the remains of a fort on the top and wall frescoes on the way up that were done a couple of thousand years ago. Discovered on 1885, it is now a world UNESCO site. The enormous Buddha, built ten years ago is just standing there in the middle of nowhere. He is guarded by many many life sized statues of monks.  The fence of old metal roofing is my kind of beauty; colour and texture.