5 years after Tsunami, the beach promenade of Batticaloa is all new and shiny. The only thing lacking are the tourists, who come only in smallest numbers, as infrastructure is still limited. Update: As my hoster has copied this blog to a new machine with a different IP, som inconsistencies in posts and comments can…
if such a playground is here in the right place. At least my kids would probably prefer to climb on trees, wade in creeks, run through the fields, play hide and seek in the bushes. But taking into account that this area was probably only recently de-mined, it makes perfect sense. Don’t worry, profits in…
Rural Reality in the village of Periyapullumalai, Sri Lanka, quite far away from our (made in China) style of life.
Enjoy.
Wordless Friday, okay?
It was only when the boys got distracted by viewing the images on the screen of my friend’s camera, that the little girl, easily the youngest of the group, was allowed to pose for the camera.
Next month’s wallpapers are available as usual from here. I found this scenery in one of the smaller alleys of Galle Fort, the former Dutch fortress that had secured that strategic port. Nowadays instead of sailors the tourists are welcome guests, but in the monsoon time of last November we walked pretty much alone there.…
Found in Batticaloa downtown. Sometimes all the shapes seem to fall right into place.
Maybe the most unexpected encounter during my traveling through Sri Lanka where those caskets on the platform of Batticaloa train station. As the east coast companies offer substantial lower prices for finishing and decorating, it pays for Colombo funeral parlors to send the casks on two 12h+ train transports to Batticaloa. In comparison to the…
Found in the evening in Kattankudi (where these sad images are from). Being a Muslim traders’ town, Kattankudi is buzzing with activity until late at night, totally different to Tamil Batticaloa, where shops close usually before 20:00 hours.
Sometimes, like here, the horizon has to be in the middle. And, another deviation from standard rules, only the lower half of the brightness scale was used. While the latter might need some modification for printing, viewed on a computer screen it seems just right. Oh yes, and these fisherman are a recurring theme for…
The end of the civil war in May 2009 not only brought a drastic increase of security and freedom to move in the streets for the people of Batticaloa, but also, only one year later, a largely disproportionate number of new banks as well as investment companies trying to make their luck in this up…
Sometimes a scenery like this flies by, and I am glad that my feelings made me frame and record this scenery as it presented itself. Something in me just said “this works”.
Jewelry business was not flourishing too much during the civil war – not only due to the lack of money, but also because the Tamil Liberation Army had forbidden the dowry system. The dowry system was and is very problematic for the status of women in the society: The necessity to provide a huge dowry…
One of our pumps, built during the last project, was not correctly fixed with some kind of anchors in the sand. It still provides clean water, but is now uncomfortably low for usage. The lady however was still glad to have it, as carrying water cans is impossible for her.
Found in one of the side streets of Batticaloa. In contrast to the blue sky of this image, taken in November last year, Batticaloa and surroundings suffered from torrential rainfalls, cutting off traffic and transports and forcing tenthousands to leave their homes, and many to stay in provisional shelters. Since some days only the situation…
The American Dream is somewhat faded, but still alive here in Batticaloa.
Some things, it seems, haven’t changed since the British left Sri Lanka in 1948, the stationmaster’s bell among them.
Sometimes the Hindu shrines are very inconspicuous, like this one. The only signs of reverence are the white blossoms, better visible after clicking on the 1:1 crop to the right.
The winter monsoon time also provided some dry hours with a clean, deep blue sky, creating an image impression that reminded me very much of scenes photographed in the U.S., getting the best, deeply saturated colors out of Kodachrome, then often at the expense of the shadow areas. At least the ads for Kodachrome are…
The Online Photographer today’s post dealt with the different “sweet spots” of the cameras. The image of the dead gecko certainly profited from a broader sweet spot of the camera used: Not wanting to destroy the nuances with a flash, high ISO as well as image stabilisation was necessary due to the unavailability of a…
As near the equator the length of the days is approx. 12 hours during the whole year, at least part of the business life in Sri Lanka have to happen during the dark hours. Since the end of the civil war it is possible again to go out shopping in the evening, something that was…
Found in Koduvamadu. You can find it here on google maps. Yes, it’s probably in the middle of nowhere. The amount of attention as well as improvements might be proportional to the geographical situation.
Continuing yesterday’s fences with a door.
After Friday’s tragic post it was hard for me to find an adequate topic for today.The fences in Sri Lanka are continously fascinating me (therefore there’s already a gallery of them), and this last visit I found not only those dangerously looking fencepost-tops, made from palmyrah stalks, but also a young palmyrah plant, showcasing this…