The last word

Wow, this is going to be tough, the final words to the blog. Its like saying goodbye to a good friend, a best mate, a lover, knowing that you will never see them again. It is a similar feeling to when I said "Goodbye" to my Father every time I visited him in the nursing home, knowing it might be the last time that I might see him alive. He died three weeks before I left for India.

Its also difficult to write the blog in the freezing conditions of my current rented home, which I now have to leave in the New Year as it has been sold. An absolute antithisis to the heat and security of back packing through India and Srl Lanka.


QED Mission accomplished.

Parvati's eys were hazel brown, I remember Parvati the little girl at the Barka Khana Orphanage, with the soft brown eyes. I will finish the canvass , paint Parvati's eyes hazel brown, but fleck them with touches of gold to bring the eyes alive.

Very sad to report that I have not had any monitor lizards, eagles, mongooses etc cross my path, too blooming cold. So the natural history section is now closed.

The highlights of the trip, were in chronological order, the cemetery in Park Street Kolkota, Diwali in Kolkota, all of Darjeeling and its mountains, the Red Pandas, sharing three days and nights with Raj and Olmer, the Orphanage and meeting Parvati. Feroz in Puri, the Sun Temple at Konark and the guide Shankar, the Bhutan Possee, the Hindu God Bronzes in Chennai, Pondicherry. Meeting up with Angela and Nina at their home in Srl Lanka, the GM car, meeting Michelle and Wouter and visiting Sigiriya (and its wonderful frescoes), with them, bumping into them again at the Elephant Orphanage and of course the many elephants. Mirissa Beach, meeting Manuel, Cheeky and Bobi. Being met by friends at Gatwick Airport and Norwich Station. And of course all the wonderful people I met on the way, those mentioned and those too many and too numerous to include  just to say that without them I would have been very lonely.

Would I do it again, yes of course? But maybe miss out the drive from Kandi to Badulla.

Many thanks to all of  you who have commented so kindly to my blog, without you it would never have flourished. Many thanks to those who read the blog but didn't comment.

Goodbye from Parvati and me.