10-27-05

I saw another house at noon today. It had one bedroom downstairs plus ‘servant’s quarters’ and four upstairs. It was completely unfurnished (no stove or refrigerator) but it also was in need of lots of updating. To start with all the bathrooms needed to be ripped out and redone. It rented for $500 and is in the Cinnamon Gardens area which is considered to be the best residential neighborhood in Colombo. From the little I have seen we will be paying around $1,000 a month to get the kind of place we want.

I am supposed to see another one this afternoon through a contact in the newspaper. Then Anton has me lined up to meet with a broker tomorrow around 9:30. Onward.....

Today I ate at the food court in the small (newest) mall next door. I decided to eat at the Sri Lankan ‘café’. Rice and curry is the ‘national’ dish. I‘ve had it in some of the restaurants but today I had it as Sri Lankans have it. Oh my, we are talking chilies! Holy moley, Ron Bergman, aka Dragon Mouth, would love it. I, on the other hand, felt like my mouth was on fire! The dish came with three vegetables along with the rice and meat curry. With the bottled water my bill was $3.80! Such a deal.

This afternoon I saw two more houses, both were furnished. One rents for $1200 and one for $1500 a month. The first one had black granite, marble, terrazzo(???) floors on the first floor. Very sleek but not very Bergman. The furniture was actually quite attractive but not very Bergman. The second one had very seedy furniture and as I was leaving a woman walked up to the tuk-tuk and held her hand out for money. I can’t imagine leaving my house each day and having someone begging for money.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with another broker. I think I’ll give up on furnished places.

I have mentioned that our hotel is undergoing a major renovation but I forgot to mention they are painting the outside-with rollers! This is a 600 room hotel folks.

Tonight I dined outside with nine turtles and hundreds of koi. One of the six restaurants at the hotel is an outdoor dinner house that is located on the deck that surrounds some of the fish ponds here. So you sit right on the edge of the pond. So as I was eating nine turtles were swimming around me. The smallest koi I saw was about ½ an inch and the largest was about a foot in length. I don’t really know pond fish but am assuming they are koi. It was better than dining alone!