Sri Lanka

[marcus_h]

Anyone been? Thinking of a solo mission mid to late July for a couple weeks.

If I don't get surf I suppose I can always join the Tamil Tigers, sure they could always do with one more.

Google hasn't been that helpful

Thanks dudes!

[BA]

Sorry Marcus, haven't been, but Smorgasboarder had an article on it. Check their website. Or you can order back issues I think.

[marcus_h]

Cheers BA i'll check it out

[Trev]

Plenty of videos here.

:Surfing Sri Lanka:

[Donweather]

From what I've heard it's the euro bali....every fecking Euro goes there for their surfing holiday.

[steve shearer]

Israelis actually.

[Beanpole]

Went there in 1982. April so I missed Aragun Bay just hung at Hikkadua. It was a cruisy little scene then. The waves a bit like Changu without the punch except the left is way fatter. You stay directly in front of the break so it was order breakfast and it might be ready by the time you finished surfing. Apparently the locals are quite heavy now which is funny since its a light wave. It is possible to get barrelled on the right but not very likely to happen. Great country, great people, great food, really interesting culture, basically like India but a tropical island.

[Slowman]

read the papers much?

The tammil tigers and most of the tammils were wiped out about a year ago.

It was pretty brutal too, here is some light viewing: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri- ... fields/4od or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz_eCLcp1Mc

The Sinhalese based government still continue to deny the atrocities ever took place and that Channel 4 and other independent observers fabricated the events.

[Beanpole]

I believe a few things have happened in Indonesia in the last 30 years too.

[Slowman]

Not quite on the same scale. Sure there has been murder, corruption, terrorism, oppression and a bit of torture but I don't think it has ever gotten to scale of genocide. Perhaps in Irianjiabut I just don't think the Indos could ever be organised enough to embark on systematic genocide. Even in East Timor it wasn't genocide

[moreorless]

I just don't think the Indos could ever be organised enough to embark on systematic genocide.

How about up to two million Indonesian communists and communist sympathisers killed in the backlash against an alleged attempt to overthrow the Sukarno government in 1965. How about over 250,000 deaths in East Timor following the invasion by Indonesia in 1975. There's a really strong case that the atrocities committed by the Indonesians in East Timor amounted to genocide, though it's never going to be prosecuted.

[Beanpole]

Second time I went to Bali I had something like $200 to last me two weeks and I blew half of it the first day
Anyway this made me do things seriously on the cheap and use a lot of public transport and hang out with the locals rather than downing flaming sambuccas at the Bounty. This guy up at Ubud used to come over and have a bit of a rave when I was staying at his brothers losman. He told me about some of the things that had happened in Ubud during the communist purges in the sixties. People being shot everywhere. Chased through town and hunted down. Bodies in the waterways. Kind of reminded me of stories about the Spanish Civil War in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Since everyone had to keep living together and divisive talk was forbidden everything remained under the surface.

I was in Sri Lanka in 1982 before the Civil War there and blissfully unaware of much other than waves, where to score and the fact there was really good cheap food but not a lot of women available. We used to fire sky rockets up the main street at night. One time right between the legs of two policemen who were patrolling. Hired a van and driver and drove around the south of the island with an ebony chillum loaded most of the time. Drove into a Tamil Funeral by accident in Candy. Just saw all these angry faces. The civil war erupted not that long afterwards but its one place I always want to go back to.

We are so ridiculously lucky in this country.

[daryl]

Second time I went to Bali I had something like $200 to last me two weeks and I blew half of it the first day
Anyway this made me do things seriously on the cheap and use a lot of public transport and hang out with the locals rather than downing flaming sambuccas at the Bounty. This guy up at Ubud used to come over and have a bit of a rave when I was staying at his brothers losman. He told me about some of the things that had happened in Ubud during the communist purges in the sixties. People being shot everywhere. Chased through town and hunted down. Bodies in the waterways. Kind of reminded me of stories about the Spanish Civil War in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Since everyone had to keep living together and divisive talk was forbidden everything remained under the surface.

I was in Sri Lanka in 1982 before the Civil War there and blissfully unaware of much other than waves, where to score and the fact there was really good cheap food but not a lot of women available. We used to fire sky rockets up the main street at night. One time right between the legs of two policemen who were patrolling. Hired a van and driver and drove around the south of the island with an ebony chillum loaded most of the time. Drove into a Tamil Funeral by accident in Candy. Just saw all these angry faces. The civil war erupted not that long afterwards but its one place I always want to go back to.

We are so ridiculously lucky in this country.

Couldn't go there without wanting to bring a family back, even 'tho' I'm not particularly in favour of immigration.

[Beanpole]

Daz I would rather live there myself than bring back a lucky few. The government isn't the people.

[davdfoge]

Thanks for the link to the videos Trev,
How was your experience on the beaches marcus? have you visited Sri lanka?