of lizard, lavatory and the laughing God

august 19: friday: day 10 (part 3)

the process of journalling became almost as addictive as blogging- although for different reasons... i just couldn't bear losing so many of those thoughts and memories because i knew i'd have no way of retrieving them afterwards.

the mind is a funny computer- everything you've done, everything you've seen, heard, felt, tasted or otherwise experienced is saved somewhere on your internal hard-drive... but the files are buried so deep in unlabelled folders that accessing them is next to impossible sometimes.

the journal is a labelled shortcut
***

so we set out for batticaloa. the conversation was warm and free, which was refreshing after our trip to the garden and back.

we ate at an amazing restaurant that was suggested by our driver. al took some great 'album cover shots' at the table. ginger beer was as omnipresent as God in our photographs- kinda funny how many times afterward i found myself explaining to people that this was just soda pop bottled by coca-cola.

feeling some pressure from the journey, i excused myself and went to the washroom. i was about to assume the position when i noticed that the seat was wet (quite common, as they have the little squirtgun thingie which sends water- well- anywhere you point the thing) so i went to wipe off the seat... a lizard of some sort about four to six inches long zipped around inside the toilet bowl up to the spot where the water comes down just below the seat in the front... well, that was it for me- suddenly i didn't have to take a dump anymore... it wasn't until the following morning that i was able to declench after that one!
***

on the road, lazarus was passing out, so i moved from the back of the van to the all-but-uninhabitable middle seat. having no legroom at all, i decided to lay on my back with my legs crossed up against the side window- somehow i allowed myself to fall asleep while travelling a sri lankan highway at night.
***

when i awoke, we were at the hotel... and what a hotel! for 6300 rupees/night, we had all the western comforts of your basic resort hotel. it represented the laughter of God, for it was a surprise outpouring of his goodness. (for more on the laughing God, go to http://northvus.blogspot.com/2005/03/laughing-god.html)

by far the nicest restroom facilities encountered on the trip were here in this $63/night hotel. hot water, a shower stall, toilet paper- you name it!

i joked with al, as we lay in our tidy little sri lankan resort hotel beds, that in this light he had very nice eyes. to take things further in the wrong direction, we discussed the possibility of sending jey a massage at 7 a.m. the following morning.