Birds of Panadura

Mind out of the gutter now :) I went for a birthday party in Panadura, and had the luck to see quite a few garden birds and also the luck to get a few shots off, since I happened to have the cam along. Missed a few too, including a lovely sunbird that wouldn't sit still long enough. Selected the best three subjects for publication.

The first is what I belive is a White-Bellied Drongo. The belly shots are blurred and the wiki doesn't have a photo, but the description tallies.

"One Sri Lankan race, Dicrurus caerulescens leucopygialis, has the white on the underparts restricted to the vent area and undertail coverts."

There are also a large number of these birds at my office at Malabe so I have had plenty of opportunities to study them. Very active and don't stay still for long, which is why I haven't got many pics of them here. Must give it another go. This particular example posed on a branch quite high up, and was quite difficult to get. I'm quite pleased with this shot, which was the only decent one of about 5! Besides, the others came out as silhouettes, as there was a cloudy sky behind presenting a white backdrop.

The second was a Black-Hooded Oriole. What a showoff! :) Gave me plenty of shots, and after I came back and sat down, came back for a repeat performance! I think I'll upload this to the wiki.




"The Black-hooded Oriole, Oriolus xanthornus, is a member of the oriole family of passerine birds and is a resident breeder in tropical southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia."

"The male is striking, with the typical oriole black and yellow coloration. The plumage is predominantly yellow, with a solid black hood, and black also in the wings and tail centre."

The last is a sunbird of some sort. According to my "Birds of Sri Lanka", it might possibly be a female Long Billed Sunbird, aka Loten's Sunbird, tho Wiki doesn't agree with the description of the female.

According to "Birds of Sri Lanka"

"Female has brown upperparts and light underparts"

I've crossed out the Purple-Rumped Sunbird, since there is a picture of that and the face coloring is different. It's also likely to be the Long-Billed as there was another bird that looked like a male Long-Billed, tho I couldn't get a picture of him. If anyone one can clarify, pls leave a comment. :)

Foxhill Supercross 2007

Wrote this article some time ago for autoLanka, but it was never used. Thought I'd put it here now. I've already got this on my multiply site at http://preveen.multiply.com/journal/item/6


21^st April was the day the hills at Diyatalawa echoed with the thunder of engines as the annual Foxhill Supercross was run. This is the 15^th time this event has been run, organized by the Sri Lanka Association of Racing Drivers and Riders (SLARDAR) in association with the Military Academy in Diyatalawa. Qualifying the day before had been a fast and furious affair, according to those present trackside, and the day started with much promise for some top class racing.

Team autoLanka set off to Diyatalawa on 20^th Morning (Friday) Meeting up with fellow AL forum members Fuzzo and Madmax at Ambalama in Hanwella, we proceeded rather briskly up to Belihul-Oya Rest house for lunch. Yours truly transferred onto Madmax’s luxury wheels (BMW 320D) and leisurely sauntered along to Bandarawela, taking in the breathtaking scenery and pausing to take photos along the way. In the mean time Fuzzo and his better half, followed by our fearless leader of AL Madz and his better half, had hot-footed it to Diyatalawa like a cat on a hot tin roof. Yours truly puttered in somewhat later and spend the evening enjoying the flora and fauna (including migratory birds) at the picturesque Bandarawela Hotel. As darkness fell, quite a few familiar faces from the local racing scene showed up to enjoy the buffet including Dinesh D, Aravinda P, Dinesh J and from the AL forums KLM and Pilawoos! (note to self- maintain a lower profile. Ppl are recognizing me and asking why I don’t take a lot of pictures of them) Top marks for the buffet by the way. Personally speaking I enjoyed it immensely. Only problem was their idea of a BBQ was to BBQ chicken sausages. It isn’t possible have a BBQ with just chicken sausages, no matter how good they are!

Next morning, determined on an “early” start, Team AL got ready, stepped out …. and were greeted by a large breakfast buffet. The “early” start promptly disappeared, tho we made our way out with plenty of time for the action. Unfortunately, the traffic on the roads leading to Diyatalawa were terrible, aggravated by wanna-be Americans who decided that driving on the wrong side of the road was the way to go. In the mean time, we managed to catch the commentaries on radio, and by the sound of things, we missed at least two races, one of which was a hotly contested Ford Laser event. Advise to future visitors, make sure u leave for the track well in advance of the start time, and behave on the road. After finally getting in to the paddocks (with Madz inexplicably telling an army chap that I was a competitor) we made our way out in front where a bike race was under way.

The weather was gorgeous, bright blue skies and high clouds that bought relief from the sun. The weather gods cooperated until the last race was run and then the rain absolutely poured during the awards ceremony. The spectator areas were jam packed (after that traffic jam, they had to be), The Sunday Observer reported that the crowd was in excess of 30,000. They were treated to some keenly contested races. Dinesh Jayawardena and Aravinda Premadasa provided a closely fought contest in the SL-GT class for 1^st place, Gayan Sandaruwan recovered from a bad first lap to come within a couple of lengths of leading rider Pasindu Peris in the Group MX - Racing Motorcross Bikes class and Dinesh Senenayake took the flag in Jeep event after hounding Osanda who crashed out right through the race and picking up some damage himself. Dinesh Jayawardena provided some entertainment by doing some do-nuts to celebrate his win in the first, and Sajitha Wedisinghe decided to do some of his own. The highlight of the day though, was Gayan Sandaruwan leaping for the sky and performing aerial tricks on his bike in mid race while the crowd loudly cheered each successive jump in front of the grand stand.

There were also plenty of spills including Gayan Sandaruwan taking the last jump in the last lap on the last race of the day, only to land on the bike of another rider who had fallen just ahead of him. He was thrown across the finish line with the marshal waving the flag, but there was a report that the race was canceled. He did walk off into the ambulance, but the Sunday Observer mentioned that “there were serious injuries” and reported that his father had said he was bought to Colombo for further examination. There were also several severely damaged cars, and Janaka Dias had a close shave after Rizvi Farouk drifted into his car. Soon after the last race, the heavens opened up, and even though the prize giving had been held in the rain, Team AL could not cover it. However, we had a good days racing, and kudos to SLARDAR and the Military Academy for excellent organization. Pictures for the races from Team autoLanka can be seen at http://www.autolanka.com/gallery/ Confirmation of the results and the points table can be found at the SLARDAR racing website, www.slardarracing.com.

The longest climb

The adventure began when the G-man called up outta the blue and asked if I wanted to go on a trip. He temptingly dangled lunch at Kandalama Hotel as bait. Its very hard to say no to lunch at Kandalama, even when he mentioned the dreaded word Sigiriya. The sheer mention of the word gives me vertigo.
But anyhoo, chance of a nice trip, meet some new people and take a few pics was interesting, so what the heck, I was in. Details came in slowly. Dambulla and Sigiriya. Great, more climbing.

So, historical background. The rock temple at Dambulla. This from Wiki.
"Dambulla Cave Temple (also known as the Golden Temple of Dambulla) is a world heritage site (1991) in Sri Lanka, situated in the central part of the country."
What the site doesn't mention is there is a lotta steps to climb to get there. Why can't these people install walkways or elevators at these sites!? The altitude change leaves you short of breath anyway.

And Sigiriya the famous "Lion Rock"
"Sigiriya is an archeological site in Central Sri Lanka. It contains the ruins of an ancient palace complex, built during the reign of King Kasyapa (477 – 495 AD). It is one of the seven World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka and is one of its most popular tourist destinations."

The G-man promised an early start with a 6:00 am pickup. Sometime after 6:30, he arrived with a van. Popping on over the Mount Lavinia Hotel to pick up Hermy (newly christened courtesy yours truely) we headed out. The point of the trip was to show Hermy sites of historical interest in SL, as she is interested in this kinda thing. (In case u missed it, shes from America, with a complicated ancestry. So America will suffice :) ) Why G-man didn't think of a tour of Mt. Lavinia Hotel is beyond me. Nice old historical place with lots of stories attached.... I'd have conducted the tour personally if it consisted of visiting the restaurants. :) Oh, well, maybe it wasn't old enough.... But I digress...

Sooo, off we went in the van, bouncing around at what musta been 100kmph (can't see the speedo from the back). In the pic from left to right, Buddhika (G-man) (front row), Coomerene (back row)(hope I got the spelling right), G-man's sis (front row) Thusitha and Hermy in the hat.

Stopped for breakfast at some joint outside Kaduwela. No recommendations from me, service sucked and the food was so-so, tho the toilets were good. Setting was decent too, with a nice large garden to view while eating. Saw a Brown-Headed Barbet, but I had left the camera back in the van.

Resuming our epic adventure, we headed off into the horizon, giving Hermy history, geography and political lessons on the way :) After a confused time at Dambulla trying to find our way to the temple, we stopped at the Golden Temple. Immediately, we were beset on all sides by a bunch of fortune tellers who insisted on calling me "manamala mahathya". Honestly, the nerve! They gave Hermy an interestingly generic fortune, tho we really couldn't keep the translation up with the speed of the flow :)


Very much the Golden Temple as you can see. A looong flight of stairs later, we headed into the famed cave temple. Somewhat out of breath too. However, it was nice and cool in the caves. There are all kinds of restrictions on the photography, like no flash, but I got some dim shots. Going to have a try with a tripod and prolonged exposure if I ever go again.



The place is infested with monkeys. Just like I remembered it from a long time ago. Wanna be players those monkeys, kept going up to the girls and trying to climb on them. Easy to satisfy them, just need to give them a flower. Gave the girls a bit of a fright tho!



Got the team to pose in front of the bell tower. I'm taking the photo, just in case someone thinks of asking.


Came down again after having a refreshing thambili (king coconut for the benefit of internationals) on the way down, we got back to the van to more calls of "manamala mahathaya" from the 2nd shift of fortune tellers. Honestly, these people!
Onward to Kandalama Hotel and lunch! 10km according to the sign posts, but it felt quite longer than that. Wish I thought of taking a few more photos at the Hotel, but it was near 2 and we were worried about missing the buffet, so we rushed right through to the restaurant. Standard at Kandalama, A+, definite recommendation for anyone with pockets deep enough.
The Salad
And the main course.

After all that, I was definitely feeling like not climbing and a relaxing soak in the pool and a nice drive back to Colombo was an idea that was very appealing. However, we had a mission, (show Hermy ancient sites) so off we went.

Sigiriya has this effect of looking more and more forbidding the closer we got to it. Introduced to the delightful new abbreviation, GNT (gaanu naana thana, or place where women bathe) we headed across the moat into Sigiriya. Old king Kashyapa definitely liked his GNTs, with the miniature GNT just after the ramparts, the pictures of the women in the GNT on the frescoes, and the GNTs on the summit with a throne were the pervy old king could sit and check out his NGs. According to some quick net research, he is supposed to have had 500. Oh well, kinda isolated spot, what with the center of everything at Anuradhapura and there was no Internet in those days, so the man had to do something with his time while he waited for invasion. Amazingly I survived the climb while all the while needing to pee. I was tempted to find a corner on the summit but it was very windy up there.

The old Perv's GNT. More extensive than it looks from here.
The Forbidding rock face.
The team setting out. We must be nuts!
The stairway leading through the boulders and on into exhaustion.
The team at the famed Lion Paws at the entrance to the citadel on the summit.

That is definitely my last trip to the summit. if I ever go again, I'm going to explore the lower palace structures and halls. I'm amazed I made it back with my knees intact. Curses on the idiot architects that designed that place! They could have at least had some wider stairs. Feel like a mountain goat on those things. Not the place for a person with feet as big as mine. Also, the wind god must have been offended by Buddhika's hat (which I was wearing) coz he was trying his best to rip it off my head. No jokes, the wind was blowing so hard it pushed me back a couple of times. Batteries ran out on the camera at the Paws, so no more pics :(

It was a relief to come down again, and an even bigger relief to empty the bladder. The van had come to the tourists car park, which was at the base of the rock, sparing us the need to walk further, thanks to Hermy's tourist pass. One souvenir book later, we were on our way home. Stops at Jinadasa's for Aluwa, and Ambepussa Rest House for dinner and we were home sometime just after midnight. Word on the Rest House, its a nice place and the toilets are excellent, but the dinner menu isn't great. Get the feeling they are catering more towards the people who want to stop for a drink and chat than people who want dinner. That seems to have been outsourced to the restaurant by the main road, which I was informed had hoppers. My bad, that.

Intro

The very first post in a brand new blog. Exciting. All the old stuff has been said before, but this being a public publication, I guess it pays to establish my bona fides.

The name is Preveen. It is derived from a word that, roughly translated from the vernacular, means a noteworthy person. I'll not comment on how accurate my parents were in naming me. :)

I currently work at a large IT firm based outside of Colombo as an application support engineer. What than means is, when other people make mistakes, people call me and yell at me, so I can figure out who is to blame and pass on said shouting to them. Guess its easier than figuring out the correct person to shout at. :)

In addition to all the yelling and getting yelled at, I have a couple of interests to keep me sane (or is that insane?). Photography is my latest hobby, which I might look into developing into a revenue stream in the future. The photography complements several of my other interests. I'm a nature lover, and that is a rich area to explore photography. Also into motorsports, and I've had the opportunity to develop my photography skills shooting pictures in the local motorsports arena. Keen follower of several sports (other than motor related sports) including basketball, cricket and tennis, and play basketball, cricket, badminton, squash and table tennis with various amounts of success and enthusiasm. OK, so I'm not a great sportsman, but a jack of all trades :D I've also been known to dabble in the aquatic sports now and then.

This'll give everyone a nice idea on what to expect on this blog ;) lotsa photos. Lets see what develops!