Sri Lanka September 2014 and Ceylon May 1941

Colombo 14th September 2014

Yes here I am in Colombo staying in a brand new hotel called Cinnamon Red, with all the trappings of "infinity pools" and roof-top bars. To cut a long story short I missed my connection to Colombo and ended up paying an over-inflated price and arriving at 1.30 am Sri Lankan time and 4 am Sabah time. Anyway I got here and it was lovely to see Andrew and yesterday we spent the day walking along the sea front; getting ripped off by a passer-by;  visiting a buddhist temple; feeding an elephant with biscuits; wandering around a lovely park watching fruit bats and families and young lovers all enjoying the buddhist public holiday; culminating in delicious strawberries and cream and a g&t on the roof-top bar - not bad for a first day! 
   My father arrived in Colombo on 21st May  1940, on his way to Singapore. He celebrated his 23rd birthday on the luxury liner that sailed from Marseilles and took the route via the Suez Canal (shortly after closed) calling in at Aden, Bombay before arriving in Colombo. He had joined the Royal Medical Corps as a newly qualified doctor and much to his horror he was sent from Europe to South East Asia and the day before he left he became engaged to my mother who was still a medical student. They were parted for 5 and a half years and years of emotional and physical hardship that would change them forever. On my father's return voyage to England in October 1945 on the "New Holland" carrying the remnants of men from the POW camps, the ship docked in Colombo and he bought her wedding ring. They were married on 27 October 1945, a week after the New Holland docked in Liverpool. I would like to share parts of the love letters written by my father about his first visit to Ceylon.

20th May 1940
Good-night dearest one. This is just to be a very short note to let you know I didn't forget you to – as if I could! We've had the most magical and interesting day. I don't know if I'll be able to remember everything all at once and anyhow I'm not going to start tonight. We have just left Colombo and there is a full moon and how I wish you were here beside me. We took a tour to a place called Galle. We were supposed to go to Kandy but the roads were flooded so this was the next best. All along the journey I kept thinking " Oh I wish Beth was beside me"......

2:30pm 21^st May

Well little one we are well on our way for our last lap. Tension is mounting as to what S... will be like. I do so hope I'm posted to a hospital. Anyway let me tell you about yesterday. Ceylon, what little we saw of it, is really a most beautiful, enchanting place. We arrived there on the birthday celebrations of Buddha. I think it falls on the first full moon of May – it was their equivalent to our Christmas day. We went along roads which for miles were gaily bedecked with flowers, bunting and white streamers. The coconut and palm trees lined the roads with the turquoise sea on one side and perhaps a lagoon on the other – it really was delightful. All the people were in their Sunday best – mostly in very clean white. The women wore the long white flowing robes – from the waist downwards to the ground and then on top they just had a sort of vest. Some of them had headgear but many didn't and the men mostly wore the same « skirt » as the women but nothing on their upper parts though some had vests too. I'm afraid I can't describe them very well but the roads were thronged with people. All along the roads we saw little coconut huts that seemed to have little inside. Then we would come across a modern bungalow with a car outside! We saw rubber plantations with the grooves cut spiralling down the trees to collect the rubber. We saw a group of ten to fifteen elephants bathing of which I took a snap. I can't describe how exciting it all was. We were in a Budhist temple and saw the service – three large statues of Budha with many ornaments. The temple was not very big but there was three or four different rooms. On the table in the centre there were all sorts of fruit – bananas, pineapples, mangoes, etc.. (all of which we saw growing) – as well as bread baked in all shapes and sizes. A little oil stove was burning and the priest was burning the gifts of food. We had to take off our shoes to go in and the ladies had to take off their hats. I got a photo of the three Budhas in the temple but it was very dark and I don't think it will come out.

            The roads were simply wonderful in the way they were decorated. There were even Union Jack flags here and there, fairy lights, arches and the air was perfumed with the most beautiful scent. We stopped at a roadhouse in the morning and had our photos taken in a group. There was a railway line running just below the house which looked so incongruous in amongst the coconut groves and the sea only a few hundred yards away. The train came along and then stopped. The driver and stoker had a good look at us and then they went on again! We arrived at Galle, which wasn't anything out of the ordinary by Ceylon's standards. We came over the hill and lying beneath was a typically British scene with about 20 cows grazing in a green pasture. They are smaller than our cows – little bigger than a donkey. Of course there are hundreds of oxen everywhere, some carrying carts with heavy loads, others in the « family » trap taking the family for an outing – complete with their bells which make a lovely sound. We had a very good lunch all included in our fare – tomato soup, salmon, beefsteak and onions, fresh fruit salad and tea.We didn't stay very long at the hotel  before we started the return journey.On the way back it reminded me of the 12^th July! The drums were out and the people were following them. We passed through many villages and it was the same everywhere – gaily decorated streets; all the roads crowded with people and people on platforms haranging the people and singing or rather chanting « hymns ».

            Then we met a procession of elephants with all their splendid head dresses and paraphaenalia, followed by priests who were disguised in hideous looking masks, then the drummers and then followed by a throng of people. Our bus stopped and I got out to take some snaps and before I knew it I was swept off into the crowd. Amazingly the procession, if you please ,stopped while I took my snaps and even posed for me while I took them!The driver of one of the elephants asked me to get up on the radiator of the bus and take a snap of them all which I did with the whole populus looking up at me! I'm sure you would have been embarrassed to see me. Anyway I hope some of the snaps come out well.

            We stopped later on for tea and by the time we neared Colombo it was dark but what a beautiful sight. It was a full moon and there are no clouds to hide the moon like at home. The houses were all lit up – the poorer houses had about 40 candles burning outside and the bigger houses were elaborately decorated with electric light bulbs. The huge trees in the gardens had about 20 lights of  many different colours and all the houses were just ablaze with light. A few houses hadn't any lights and this was ,we were told , an indication that they were hindu - most of the people are buddhists. We arrived back on the boat at 8pm, very tired but completely enchanted and enamoured with our day. Ceylon is another place we must visit!