They use kerosine lamps which is dangerous. Most villagers like Daya when in SL sleep early. They walk in the dark, total darkness and you can see fire-flies. The stars are many in SL . Villagers used to use some sort of branch and light it up to move around; like the torch for Olympics. Villagers also walk bare-footed. They are very natural. Some houses are made of mud (pasted with cow-dung) and surprisingly, the house inside is without mosquitoes and is very cool within because of the thatched nipah-palm roof.

When I first went to the temple in SL in 1990 with mum, we stayed in that way alike the villagers. I saw on huge monitor lizard once. That was huge, standing tall as I am just like a dinasour. Bhante says such creatures are not dangerous but friendly. So long as you do not disturb the monitor lizard, they will not attack with its long tail. It is a friend of the children in the village. We hardly see them these days as the villagers develop.Those were the days!

Up in the highlands, the place is cold like in Europe. You will forget that you are in SL when up there. We stayed for 3 days up there in a big mansion once (used to be occupied by the British) as we have a friend who is charge of the vast tea plantation there. There is electricity up there but no TV, handphones, radios. They use generators I guess for electricity. Leading up to the house where we stayed, the lane is small just for one jeep to travel. It is alike the place I went in England. I guess horses used to travel up there when there are no vehicles before. The place is very well maintained as British used to occcupy the place up there because of the cooler temperature. Everyone who goes up there will not forget Sri Lanka. Yim cannot take the place because she feels giddy travelling in the undulating upland. The driver has to be very skilful to drive such roads.

I climbed Adams Peak (a mountain) further up where we stayed uphill. We took 6 hours walking up to reach the peak. The air up there is very thin and very cold. The Buddha visited this peak once and that was a pilgrimage trip for us. Even Christians, Muslims and Hindus pay a visit to this holy mountain whenever they visit SL.

Sri Lanka had beautiful beaches but was unfortunately destroyed by Tsunami. There are also natural parks (huge grasslands) to see wild animals. Villagers in one part of the island stay up on tree-houses as there are wild elephants, wild peacocks... roaming in the night. There are houses on the ground that people have to off the lights, close the windows and doors at night as wild animals can attack and destroy anything. You can see big foot-prints on the mud day-time. More natural things to see and to experience within the country....
but you have to be there to know ! Lian went to SL once and he plans to visit again if conditions are right.

khuan