Welcome to Fiji - a different world

Coming from Sri Lanka to Fiji in the mid seventies I found it was like a different world. There were many things that were new to me. Differences ran across the board from food, the house we lived in, roads, stores, school, clothes, language and the culture.

The first thing I noticed was the food. Our Dad was eagerly waiting to welcome us. He had stocked the fridge and kitchen full of goodies that were not available back in Sri Lanka at that time due to severe economic restrictions. Amongst the goodies that we now take for granted were, apples, oranges, Kraft cheddar cheese, Cabin crackers, Cadbury chocolate bars,Tang, sliced bread, instant Nescafe coffee, sliced ham, frankfurters,lamb, hotdog buns and ice cream.

The fruits were Australian, the apples were bright red and the huge oranges which were bright orange. Apples were non existant at that time in Sri Lanka. The closest I had had to an apple was something called 'pears' that was a kind of pear only found in Nuwara Eliya. Even the oranges were different to the local Sri Lankan oranges which only turned greenish yellow when ripe. They also had something called Tang which was the orange crystals that you dissolved to make a drink.

The cabin crackers came in a big square tin and were similar to cream crackers but were slightly sweet. The Cadbury chocolate was way creamier than the Kandos chocolate that seemed to be the only choice available in Sri Lanka back then. Tang was the orange crystal drink that you made with water. The sliced bread was cut into neat, even slices and so clean although rather soft. We were finally able to enjoy bread again after suffering the 'gullo (weevil) bread' of Sri Lanka. Nescafe coffee was also a pleasure to drink, the Sri Lankan coffee always had too many 'rodu' (bits of coffee grind) in it. Sliced ham, frankfurters and hotdogs were not available to us while we were back in Sri Lanka. We finally got the chance to enjoy ice cream everyday right at home. The ice cream was imported from New Zealand and was sold in plastic tubs. It came in many different flavors. Lamb chops were a common food item from New Zealand and oh so delicious although I have since given it up.

Journey from Kandy to a South Pacific Island

Just a few months before my tenth birthday, my younger brother, myself and my Mom left Sri Lanka to join our Dad who had taken up a new job at a university in the Fiji Islands.We left Sri Lanka in December soon after we got our school holidays.

This picture in my school uniform was takenin 1976, for my new passport, a few months before we left Sri Lanka. However, my brother and I were allowed to travel on our Mom's passport as accompanying children. So we ended up not needing our own passports.

We flew out of Colombo's Katunayake Airport on Suisse Air. I used to dream about what it was like to fly on an aeroplane and now I was actually flying, I was very excited. On the same flight were a family whose Dad had also taught at University of Peradeniya and who were now migrating to Australia.

During the flight people around us were speaking in English. Until that time, my brother and I didn't get a chance to speak English. Although my Mom did read English books to us out loud .
So while my brother and I could understand the language we were reticent to speak it. So I listened attentively to the people talking around me including kids. What struck me was how the native speakers around us on the flight pronounced the words differently to how Sri Lankans spoke it. One word in particular was the word 'Air' as in Suisse Air.

Seated next to us on the flight was a young Sri Lankan lady who had a bad cold, however she had forgotten her handkerchief. So my Mom gave her some blue pin striped scrap material from a sailor dress that she had been sewing for me. This young woman was on her way to Melbourne to join her husband there.

On that flight from Colombo to Singapore they served us lobster for lunch which was quite a treat.I don't think you can get that kind of food in economy class any more. Since we were kids travelling, they gave my brother and I both coloring books and crayons as well as a book with scenery onto which you could transfer pictures of figures etc. The picture transfers could be rub bed off onto the scenes in the book.They also gave us little bars of Swiss chocolates and postcards.

At that time they were building a new terminal at the Singapore Aiport, so we were transported from the plane to the terminal by bus. While we were on the bus they made an announcement saying that someone had left their bag on the plane and even mentioned the passenger's name. It turned out later that it was one of our carry on bags. However, at the time my Mom did not pay any attention since the name they announced was her maiden name.Once we were in the terminal we discovered the bag was missing and contacted the airport staff. Then my Mom was given a pictorial list of bags and told to select our bag from it. To my amazement there was a bag that looked exactly like our missing bag. Since we correctly identified the missing bag they gave it back to us.

The next leg of our journey was a flight on CP Air (Canadian Pacific Air) from Singapore to Sydney, Australia. I remember they served us breakfast before we landed. I vaguely seem to recall marmalade and some sort of bread. After a short stopover we boarded our flight to Fiji which if I remember correctly was on Air Pacific and landed at Nadi, Fiji. From Nadi we had to take an internal flight of about 45 minutes duration, on a smaller Air Pacific plane to Suva. Suva was our final destination and is the the capital city of Fiji. At Nadi Airport we passed by a little snack shop. I remember they had cheese sandwiches and a spinning orange juice machine with an orange fixed at the top. This was a novelty to me coming from mid 70's Sri Lanka.

On board that flight my Mom was sitting next to a Tongan man wearing a mat with frizzy hair. Tonga was a smaller island nation neighboring Fiji and the national costume for men was a sulu (which was similar to a skirt) over which a woven pandanus mat was worn. The sulu was also the national costume in Fiji and was worn all over the South Pacific.

During the flight, my Mom had seen smoke rising from the ground and she was kind of concerned. She asked the Tongan man if they were from live volcanoes. To her relief he said, "No there are no volcanoes in Fiji". I seem to recall that the airhostesses had red hibiscus flowers stuck behind their ears. Maybe I'm confusing it with the Air Pacific brochures at the time which all had them with hibiscuses behind their ears. The flight was short so no meal was served, instead the air hostesses came around with baskets of wrapped sweets.

New Pictures: Gal Bangalawa /BDay Party

Hello everyone!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've posted some new pictures on my blogspot. To see the pictures please take a look at my postings on the " Gal Bangalawa (Stone Bungalow) at Mahakande " and " My ninth birthday party"

Day trip - Kandy to Colombo and English High Tea

My Mother and I caught the inter-city train to Colombo from Peradeniya Junction early Wednesday morning at about 6.30am. It was the day of the latest partial solar eclipse. It was our first time riding in the observation car. We bought our tickets a few days in advance so we sat right at the rear end of the train facing the rear window. When we got on the train there was a lady sitting there, apparently her seat was the one behind us so she changed seats. I had expected there to be foreign tourists in the observation carriage but everyone was local. Most of them were sleeping, I guess they were used to riding in the observation car. We had a panoramic view from where we sat but the carriage was also a little warm from the sun against which we had to draw the curtains from time to time.

We arrived at Colombo Fort railway station at about 9.05am. Then we used the toilets after paying Rs 5, but the toilets were not clean. Since we were in a hurry we had to make do. After that we caught a bus to Kollupitiya and then another bus to UNDP office where we had to get a form signed. Coming out of the office we saw Shanti Vihar and decided to have lunch there although it was early. My Mother decided to order rice for both of us. Bad choice, I had wanted to order paratha or dosa, maybe next time! After that we walked a long way, then finally took a 3 wheeler to Liberty Plaza. We wondered around inside, there were the usual crowd including locals and foreign tourists. We bought a few articles of Sri Lanka made clothing which seemed reasonably priced. After leaving Liberty Plaza we went to a clothing shop close to Galle road and bought an Indian handloom sari for my Mother in a subdued earth color that she now prefers to wear.

By then it was time for my Mother's appointment at the US Embassy to collect her new US passport. Two weeks previously my Mother had submitted her application for a new passport. At that time I had to hang around sweating, waiting for her across the street in the blistering heat. This time my Mother had discovered that US nationals were allowed inside the Embassy. So I showed them my US passport and was allowed to accompany my Mother inside. Once there, she was promptly given her new passport and we were on our way.

We had one more stop to make before returning to Kandy. I had always wanted to try an English High Tea in Sri Lanka. I had heard that the Hilton High Teas were legendary. I called them up and I came to the conclusion that they were too pricey and I would be getting music and a vast assortment of food that went far beyond the authentic English High Tea experience that I was looking for. I had done some previous homework on a few other places serving High Tea and decided upon the Mt. Lavinia Hotel.

So we walked back to Kollupitiya Junction and caught a bus to Mount Lavinia. We told the bus conductor that we wanted to go to the Mt. Lavinia Hotel and aked him to tell us when we reached our stop. As we approached our stop, a lady sitting behind us was helpful enough to tell us that we should get off at the next stop and take a 3 wheeler from the main road. So we did as she had instructed us.

We arrived at the Mt. Lavinia Hotel around 3pm as they served their Bicentennial High Tea from 3.30pm until 6pm. It was served at the Terrace Restaurant of the Hotel which is located next to the Pool.

Each of us was presented with a three tiered serving tray filled with one each of the following items: scone with jam and clotted cream, finger sandwiches (cucumber, fish, cheese, asparagus) , chocolate eclair, curried fish tart, fruit tart, chocolate covered strawberry, chocolate cake and fruitcake. Of course, a pot of tea with cream and sugar was included. The price per head including taxes came out to Rs. 800. I was very happy with the tea and accompaniments which were pretty authentic. The location was ideal to enjoy a relaxing afternoon tea.We had a beautiful view of the ocean and we could see how the Colombo skyline curved down from Colombo Harbour all the way to Mt. Lavinia. Great location for people watching too, people were eating or just relaxing in the wood framed rattan chairs of the Terrace and others swimming or lazing about the pool. There was a mix of locals and tourists on the Terrace and in the pool and everyone seemed to be having fun. The charge for using the pool (according to the staff who served us) was Rs. 600 for the whole day and included towels, a beach chair and umbrella.

We spent about two hours enjoying our tea at the Terrace. Then it was time to return, so we caught a 3 wheeler back to the main road again and a bus back to Pettah which took us almost one hour. We immediately caught an intercity bus heading to Kandy which departed at about 6pm. Since we boarded the bus as it was about to leave we had to sit on the jump seats in the isle of the bus. The seats were fine except when we people at the back had to get off and we had to stand up and fold our seats back to let them get past. Fortunately, this didn't happen more than four times.We had encountered a lot of traffic and it took us an hour just to reach Kadawatha. After that the traffic lessened and the total journey from Pettah to Peradeniya (Kandy) turned out to be almost 3.5 hours.

Thanks for posting comments on my blog:)

Hey Kaiser Kobayashi, Lazy Owl and everyone else who posted comments on my last posting,

I really appreciate your comments and it's encouraging to know that you are following my blog :)
It would be great too, if you mention your own blog name when you post comments so that I can go look at your blogs as well. If you want to keep your comments anonymous that's perfectly okay too :)

Kottu has an excellent bunch of blog writers, I feel privileged to be on here amongst them :) I feel kinda humbled when I read some of the brilliant writing on here!
Kudos to indi for creating Kottu!

Is anyone reading my blog?

I haven't blogged for a few weeks, though I do keep checking my blog and email to see if anyone has posted any comments on my blog.

Makes me wonder if I'm getting any hits on my blog. It would be so nice to see that someone has actually read some of what I've written. Oh well Lol maybe one day :) In the meantime I'll just keep blogging for my own enjoyment, which is mainly what blogging for me is all about.

Gal Bangalawa (Stone Bungalow) at Mahakande

The beautiful bungalow in the picture is the Gal Bungalawa (Stone Bungalow) where I lived as a four year old in 1971 with my parents and brother. It was part of the University of Peradeniya Academic Quarters and is located at Mahakande, Sri Lanka. This two storeyed Bungalow had at one time been a tea Planter's Bungalow. The exterior walls of which are studded with stone hence the name Gal Bangalawa (Stone Bungalow). It stands nestled at the foot of the Hantane mountains and at the time we lived there we had no idea of its history but we recently learnt that it had been built around 1939 by a Tea planter named Colonel Thomas Yates Wright. His wife had been the architect of the design of this beautiful historical building. I am sure it must have cost a fortune to build.

Colonel Yates had published a book called "Ceylon in my time 1889-1949" in 1951 and he makes reference to this house in his book.












Below is a picture from the book-Queen Elizabeth II-opening the Univ. of Peradeniya in 1954




















The bungalow stands on a small hill and below the bungalow is a roundabout with a road which encircles the round about.


There were frangipani trees on either side of the steps that led up to the house from the roadway. Below the road was a large garden with beautiful flowering shrubs and a fountain. Off to one side of the road were huge shade bearing trees some of which were madatiya(which was a tree that used to shed red madatiya seeds). Under these trees was a headstone which was the memorial to one of the beloved dogs of Colonel and Mrs. Wright. At that time I had no idea that it belonged to a dog, I used to imagine that it belonged to a dead person and used to wonder who it might have been.



Our family was given the upper right wing of the bungalow(on the above picture that would be on the left side). And it's the upper bay-wing shown in the picture below (left).
The upper left wing (pictured below) was occupied by another family who became our close friends.

Pictured also is the green bathroom of the upper left wing.




















The bottom floor was also divided into two separate wings and one family lived in each of those wings as well. The ground floor had a big verandah onto which all the ground floor rooms opened up.

This house made a huge impression on me even though I was just four years old at the time.The house was undoubtedly beautiful, had a lot of character and atmosphere.I still remember the musty smell in the house and how the ceilings often used to leak when it rained. There were also a lot of mouse droppings in corners and we had no choice but to set traps for the mice when we first arrived. At night if we left the windows open, small bats used to fly into the house.

Each wing had bay windows on the front of the house and there was a big bay window in the center frontage of the upper floor of the house. The bay windows all had roofs above them. The glass on the windows had iron grids on them to simulate leaded glass windows.

All the rooms on the upper floor had a fireplace, which we never actually used. I'm not sure if the original owners actually lit fires in those fireplaces. Each wing had one or two bathrooms each with tiled walls and floors. Below pictured is our bathroom on the upper right wing.

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On the top floor the kitchen was located at the back of the house and had windows all around. On the floor of the kitchen was a wooden trap door which closed off the staircase which led down from the kitchen to the ground floor. The picture below shows the bedroom in which my brother and I used to sleep. The open doorway shows the kitchen. Our bedroom room was a small room and did not have any windows, but did have two doors on either side instead. At night our parents used to switch on a green night light for us so we wouldn't be afraid of the dark.

The bay windows in the middle of the upper floor had window seats all around. The floors of the house were beautiful too since they were all made of polished wood planks.

The entrance hallway of the house had a fireplace and the floor was wood parquet.From this hallway began a wooden staircase that led up from the ground floor to a landing and then the staircase continued to the upper floor from that landing. The walls against which the staircase stood were lined with wood panels.

On the left is a picture of the stairwell on the upper floor which opens out onto the living room.

Below (left) is the green latticed walkway which leads from the house to the garages.

Below (right) is a picture of the wood panelled study which is located on the ground floor- front right wing of the house.

Below is a picture of the garages of the house.


The Mahakande Bungalow was a magical place to live in for a child and I think my brother and I were very lucky that we had the chance to live there. I have more wonderful memories of it that I will leave to write about for another day.