Sri Lanka has a visa on arrival, which is the first thing you do after getting off of your plane. I opted for a 30 day visa, not sure how things would work on the eastern shore beaches. But, things are working quite well and when the time arrived to extend my visa for another 2 months, a handy site online looked promising… but was not working. In the end, it turned out that the website was only good for the first 60 day visa,,, which you get anyay at the airport. Next was a trip to several travel agents in nearby Trincomalee. One advertised the ability to get visas for every other country in SE Asia… but not Sri Lanka where, I was informed, one must arrive in person at the passport office in Colombo to extend a visa!
One AM at the Trinco bus stand, this young spotted deer wandered in and was petted and patted by various folks waiting for their busses.
My hotel owner and his manager had been following my lack of progress on the visa extension and suggested an overnight ‘luxury’ bus for the 5 hour cross-country trip to Colombo, a tuk-tuk to the passport offices with a 5 hour processing wait in long lines and a same day bus return. The ‘luxury’ bus was very cramped and so uncomfortable as to make sleep impossible, but I arrived in Colombo at the crack of dawn. At the Passport office, I was immediately accosted by a travel agent who assured me that he would take care of everything for a small fee… and after a fashion, he did. Meanwhile, I was sent off on a pleasant walk to a large nearby park, to return at 11.
A monitor lizards slides into a lily pond. These things are 5 or 6 feet long and hopefully harmless.
The park was pleasant and full of fairly tame birds, many hopping around on the ground.
Without a bird book, it’s hopeless, but a pelican, egrets, gallinules and mudhens come to mind
Returning to the passport office after wandering around the streets in the heat and humidity (the air pollution wasn’t too horrible on this day) I was informed that ‘the system has broken down’ and payments could not be processed at the government offices. So a bit more anxiety and waiting.
The little kingfisher.
And finally, things are up and running again. Although I am on a fairly tight budget, often the easiest way to deal with bureaucratic hassles is to throw money at it. And that ultimately worked. Now for the ride back to Trinco, this time on a regular bus. Advantage, they leave frequently, a seat right up front with plenty of legroom. Disadvantage, no A/C, loads of stops to pick up/drop off passengers, only one bathroom break after over 6 hours.
That’s one of the monitor lizards slipping into the pond. Unfortunately, no crocodiles appeared. Once I went on a canoe ride with my dear friend Sally in Jamaica on the Black River to look for alligators. Getting to the spot, the boatman hauled up a big hunk of meat and up swam the alligator… massive and mean, opening toothy jaws big enough to snap off an arm or leg. Chomp! and the three of us in a damn canoe… So forget about a little crocodile… hopefully easy to outrun.
Ni Dieu Ni Maitre 