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Sri Lankan good
Thursday, July 3 2025
location: room 27, Fox Jaffna, Jaffna, Sri Lanka
The breakfast this morning was fairly good, at least by Sri Lankan standards. There were some British options, though unfortunately no mushrooms (as agaric mushrooms do not seem to be much of a thing in Sri Lanka). Since the breakfast buffet was also serving non-vegan people who were not part of our expedition, labels had been placed on items saying "vegan" and "non-vegan," and of course the vegan options were proving fairly popular with the non-vegans staying at Fox Jaffna. Interestingly, there were also two different coffee options: a brewed pot of coffee labeled "local coffee," and a pot of reconstituted instant coffee labeled "Nescafe." I'm not sure why anyone would go for the latter when there is the former, though in truth the former wasn't especially good. I was still wary of foods that reminded me too much of the stuff that had presumably given me food poisoning some days ago, and there was no way I would ever eat another string hopper (bland though they are). But I did happily eat sambar, which I combined with pancakes or poori, and I didn't mind if it was spicy.
Our late morning activity was to take our bus to a school where traditional dance and theatre is performed. As we arrived, we were greeted by the people at the school like conquering heroes, the sort of thing that draws unwelcome attention to the colonialist origin of the relationship between their people and the West. We kicked off our shoes and took seats in single arcing row of chairs beneath a thatched roof in a semi-outdoor performance space.
There was a little dancing at that point, but then an unnecessarily long time was spent with the various dancers and performers talking (often with the help of a translator) about who they were and how they'd come to participate in this dance and theatre group. A few of the stories referenced the recent civil war, when conditions were reportedly brutal for the majority Tamil population of Jaffna and surrounding territories. The fourth wall wasn't respected at all during any of this, and at one point we, the members of the audience, were expected to say who we were and where we were from. Meanwhile a couple of kids who were nominally part of the performance were getting distracted and even horseplaying the way kids do.
After the intros, a little heavily-narrated dancing happened. And then staffers came around to hand out bowls of a bland, unappetizing soup that I took one sip of and knew I could not eat. (Gretchen had a similar reaction, though her mother ate all of hers.)
There was more dancing, this time with the participation of those in the audience who wanted to, followed by a brief theatre performance that depicted grief by someone whose family members had died in the civil war. Another round of refreshments came in the form of freshly-opened green coconuts, another thing Gretchen didn't much care for (though I drank all of mine).
Towards the end of our visit, we got a complete tour of the grounds and then went into an actual building with walls. The next thing we would be doing would be staying for a banana leaf lunch, but those of us who were not up for it (which included Gretchen and me) could return early to the Fox Jaffna in the bus.
Back at the hotel, I happened to see a few fruit bats (aka "flying foxes") flying around in the middle of the day. So I saw where they were coming and going to and saw dozens of them hanging in a tree just southwest of the Fox Jaffna grounds (9.70126N, 80.01519E). I couldn't walk to the tree because a fence blocked my way, so I stood where I could and used my telephoto lens to snap pictures. Eventually I went back to the room to tell Gretchen about the bats, and we ended up on a balcony outside someone else's room, which was the best place to view them from. For once we were having a good time in Sri Lanka, something we referred to with the weak praise of "Sri Lankan good."
Other than that, we had a nice relaxing day in the room. The television proved useless, though, because everything on it seemed to cost money and it had an extremely slow and painful user interface.
Dinner was held outside and this time included booze: both Lion beer and a local Sri Lankan whiskey, both of which I partook of. Sensing that those in our contingent were weary of Sri Lankan food, our fixer Zach had arranged for the meal tonight to be more traditionally European, with traditional bread, pasta, broccoli, and green beans. (Though Gretchen found the broccoli inedible.)
Being lectured amid the dance at the dance school. Click to enlarge.
At some point they brought out a squeezebox. Click to enlarge.
A yellow-billed babbler. They're very loud birds that fly in little groups of individuals who seem to tumble over each other. Click to enlarge.
A flying fox on the wing. Click to enlarge.
A flying fox flying while others are roosting. Click to enlarge.
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