tuk tuk tales: 2011

The first trip downtown with my
daughter Jacquie who took the pix.!

Drying my washing on a hot rock down in Unawatuna
with Tukie parked in the background!

I was required to display "L" plates
for three months before taking
my tuk tuk test.

A real Texas customized license plate
previously on my son's Volvo in Texas.

Finally, I'm on the open road with Tukie!

I have passed my tuk tuk driving test, removed the big red "L" plates and am allowed to drive him anywhere on the island as long as I don't exceed 40 kilometers per hour, which is roughly about 28 mph. I found out about the max speed for tuk tuks in Sri Lanka last week while tuk tuking down south near the town of Galle. I was pulled over by a policeman operating a radar trap along the main road. He showed me his radar gun which had me registered at a blistering 48 kmph ( little over 30 mph!). Fortunately he spoke a little English and told me that 40 was the limit for tuk tuks. I admitted guilt through ignorance of the law, promised him I would not race Tukie in future, smiled a lot and we talked about fishing for a few minutes and he let me go with only a verbal warning.

I was down on the south coast doing a story with pix for Serendib, the Sri Lankan Airlines in flight magazine, on the Hiyare pocket rainforest about 20 km north of Galle. It contains about 600 acres of original tropical rainforest and a reservoir of 56 acres which once supplied drinking water to Galle. The headquarters facility is now run by the Wildlife Conservation Society of Galle and their main activity is providing medical treatment and care to wounded or abandoned wild animals, who when cured or reach maturity are released back into the rainforest from whence they came.

After Hiyare, I stayed in my Swiss son in law Reto's brother Rico's house which he he had built over 20 years ago in Unawatuna. It's a beautiful three story stone house near the beach and barely 20 minutes from the supermarkets and cold beer in Galle. The house has electricity, and there is a strong and cooling breeze blowing off the near by sea both day and night. I could charge my camera batteries, connect my netbook to the internet with my trusty dongle and keep the fridge filled with Lion Lager, the beer of choice in Sri Lanka which is brewed by Carlsberg at their brewery up in the central highlands. Talk about paradise!! Nuwan, the keeper of the house speaks excellent English and was my cook and travel guide for almost a week. Everyday we would select a new subject and site for a story, usually located several hours by tuk tuk further down along the beautiful southern beaches or up hills into the jungle covered north. Everything from the villiage processing of cashew nuts, turtle hatcheries, wild fruit bat habitats and beautiful and ancient Buddhist and Hindu Temples. All in all, I put over 500 kilometers on Tukie, that's over 300 miles in about a week on the road. I still have a lot more of this beautiful, wild island to discover. Hi yo Tukie, Away