The heart-breaking job of burying the dead was still underway in Sri Lanka this week when three cornered suicide bombers blew themselves up on Friday night during a security forces operation, killing 15 others, including six children.
Another devastating blow for the people of Sri Lanka who last week, on Easter Sunday, witnessed their country racked apart when suicide bombers took up position in three churches and three luxury hotels and detonated their terrible packages. A statement from Isis said that churches and hotels with foreign guests from “crusader” countries had been struck.
I was one of those “crusading guests” who visited Sri Lanka last September, staying at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo, having breakfast in that same dining room that was last week ripped apart by two bomb blasts that killed entire families.
I chatted to the friendly staff, met many kind people who welcomed us to the hotel and Sri Lanka, delighted that after many years of civil war in their country, tourists were now returning and boosting the economy, providing jobs and income. (Twenty-six years of fighting between the government and the Tamils ended just ten years ago).
The driver who picked us up at the airport at 4.30am stopped his car as he drove through the dark city so he could buy us two fresh coconuts from the early morning stall-holders who were just setting up by the river. We drank coconut milk as the sun came up and the driver told us how happy he was we had come to his country. (He also told us how delighted he was to see my friend Rob’s dreadlocks – “the first time I have ever seen hair like this,” he said)
Later that day we zipped through the city streets in a tuk-tuk – presented with more fresh coconuts by our driver Rex as we climbed abroad.
We wound our way through the traffic as people waved from neighbouring scooters, children laughing as we overtook them, waving furiously with wide smiles as they overtook us.
We met groups of men in the Spice Market who wanted to come and shake our hands and have their photo taken by Rob. With wide smiles and thumbs up they posed madly. And later, one man who had stayed outside of the group shyly approached Rob to ask if he could have his picture taken too.
We learned the history of Sri Lanka’s proud past in the tea shops, ate lunch with locals in the market – the men sitting with us at the communal tables gesturing at the staff to bring me some cutlery, so that I wouldn’t have to look like a foreign idiot eating with my hand as they did.
We went down streets that have only been opened recently to the public following the years of fighting, the bullet holes still clearly visible in the walls. And everywhere we went we found friendliness and kindness – Rob is still in touch with many of the people we met on our visit.
Yesterday the British government issued a statement advising against travel to Sri Lanka, except in essential cases. The country will suffer loss of income from foreign travellers and no doubt many of the people we met will lose their jobs. Another heart-break.
But while the bombers have wrecked great destruction and tremendous horror on the country, they can’t take away its spirit – the spirit of kindness, friendliness and welcome. The welcome that the suicide bomber who entered the Protestant Zion church in Batticaloa received from the pastor’s teenage son – killed moments later – is unutterably poignant and heart-rending.
But kindness and love will win out over hatred and hostility. I believe this. I believe that the spirit of the Sri Lankan people will win. And people will return to the country again, to show solidarity and to show those that attempt to spread fear and hate, that you will not succeed.
Christian churches and western style hotels were targeted in the hate attacks. Only just over 7% of the country is Christian. 9% is Muslim, 12% is Hindu and the overwhelming majority, 70% of the 20m Sri Lankan population, are Theravada Buddhists. There are 6,000 Buddhist monasteries in Sri Lanka, over 15,000 Buddhist monks and thousands and thousands of temples.
Theravada is the most ancient form of Buddhism, a practice that teaches its followers to develop the qualities of awareness, kindness and wisdom to reach a state of complete freedom from any spiritual, emotional or mental restrictions or limitations. It teaches that nothing is fixed or permanent, actions have consequences and change is possible. And so I believe that hate doesn’t have to be permanent, that change is possible.
On our last day in Sri Lanka, having travelled to the south of the country, we visited one of the temples – Mulkirigala Rock Temple, where we climbed over 500 steps to visit seven caves on five terraces, with their ornate wall paintings and huge reclining Buddhas. We met a monk called Siriniwasa, who was wary at first when Rob, having asked our guide if it would be appropriate to ask for a photo, approached him.
And after posing for a few photos with his young Buddhist apprentices, he eventually whipped out a mobile phone from under his robes and asked if Rob could take a photo of them all with it. I was eventually persuaded into the group to take photos of Rob with the monks, all of them beaming furiously. By now fast friends, Siriniwasa asked Rob to help them plant a tree and he did, there at the top of Mulkirigala, everybody delighted with their new found friendship.
I’ll go back to Sri Lanka again. I’ll go back to see the people we met, to see how they’re coping and to see if Rob’s tree has grown. I very much look forward to it.
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I first wrote about my trip to Sri Lanka for The Scotsman newspaper and it was published in December 2018 using Rob’s photos
There’s an elephant standing a few metres away from our jeep in Sri Lanka’s Udawalawe National Park, engaged in a very elaborate breakfast routine. Kicking the grass to loosen it, he tugs it free, then rolls it painstakingly with his trunk, constantly repeating the process over and over – kicking, tugging, rolling – an awful lot of hard work to make each small mouthful.
So far this morning we’ve seen elephants, spotted deer and water buffalo as well as a myriad of birds. But the most magical moment of all was on our way to the elephant transit centre, where abandoned baby elephants are cared for before being introduced back into the wild, when a – clearly selfie-conscious – large male elephant came to the edge of the road for a photo.
Standing the other side of a thin wire fence where a few other jeeps had also pulled up, he moved over to each new arrival, waiting patiently until they’d had their photo taken with him before moving on to the next group. “This is such kindness,” said our guide Palinder in wonder as we snapped away furiously.
Read the rest of the article published in The Scotsman…
All photos by Rob Wilson Jnr, Fluid4Sight
The hotel opened the same year as the Olympics, which hugely boosted the city’s profile. I was expecting a certain degree of culture shock on entering mainland China for the very first time but it looks like the infrastructure created to host the international community – and the eyes of the world – has lessened the impact. There are English signs throughout the city and plenty of familiar Western brands. The business districts could be located in any prosperous city, anywhere in the world, and cars on the three and four lane city highways are largely new and expensive.
The ‘real’ Beijing
But there is another side to Beijing, one that is very worth visiting. And yes, it’s partly the hundreds and hundreds of bicycles that stream like locusts through the flashy motor traffic, some motor-powered, most manual, many pulling trailers of agricultural produce or people.
There are small local shopping streets, too narrow for cars to drive through. And residential areas where accommodation is organised around tiny courtyards and ‘hutongs’, narrow streets and alleys. Some are now commercial enterprises so you can step behind the high walls for a look.
Cooking in China
One such enterprise is The Hutong Kitchen cookery school, where we take a morning cooking class – a great way to get a taste, literally, of the local culture. Guided by a local teacher, who speaks perfect English, we produce Beijing style noodles with soybean paste, pickled cabbage with mustard sauce and stir-fried tofu with lamb, like natives – well, close enough… and sit down to eat our efforts for lunch.
Eating out is a great pastime in Beijing – this city is clearly developing its restaurant culture to a very high level. And with more and more Westerners now visiting since the Beijing Olympics, it’s easy to see why.
So where should you eat in Beijing?
Restaurants to try include Najiaxiaoguan in the Haidian District, a traditional Chinese restaurant which is so busy that we turn up at 5.30pm on a Saturday just to secure a table – any later and queues start to snake out the door and down the street. The food is delicious and will be largely familiar to lovers of Chinese food in the UK, but there are so many more menu options and it all tastes just a tad more tasty, with a richness that is often lacking at home.
But the one destination to try if you’re a lover of Peking duck (Peking was the traditional name for Beijing in the English language) is the Jing Yaa Tang restaurant at The Opposite House hotel. It takes its duck very seriously – the chef fillets the meat at our table and I think I can safely say this is the best duck – Peking or otherwise – I have ever tasted. Such chefs are coveted treasures in hotels like this, only the best chefs have access to the top suppliers and hence offer the best menus.
The restaurant, like the hotel, is cutting-edge stylish and its below-ground location gives the space a cosy, cosseted feeling too. Prices belie the stylish décor, this is no London ‘Nobu’ – expect to spend £35 per person on evening dinner, including drinks. And you can look forward to such treats as poached chicken with crushed peanuts and seasame, wild bamboo consommé, steamed scallops, Sichuan beef, jasmine tea smoked baby back ribs and fried rice with shrimps and scallops, alongside your duck.
Staying at The Opposite House
Located in Sanlitun Road in Beijing’s Chaoyang District, the hotel is so cutting-edge stylish I immediately feel that I’ve cluttered it up, just by stepping inside. Installations in the lobby include hanging swathes of fabric that rustle mystically in the air above our heads and a spectacular glazed Christmas tree, one of the most modern takes on tradition I’ve ever seen.
Exploring the Chaoyang District
The area around the hotel is busy and buzzing; as well as the designer shopping mall there’s also a ‘normal’ – ie non designer – shopping centre showcasing high street brands, albeit high end, such as Levis, Benefit, Ugg and Uniqlo. It’s thronged all day, even at 9 o’clock at night on a Saturday when everybody seems to be out shopping. The Godiva café is also full, a double row of trees outside draped in hundreds of tiny white lights for Christmas. Nearby, the Yushow market on six floors has everything from silk table runners to Jade buddhas, mobile phones, Chinese tea sets, sweatshirts, kimnos, trainers, jewellery and massage spas.
Opposite the hotel, neon signs advertising everything from Carlsberg to pizza light up the long length of restaurants and bars. Karaoke drifts out from doorways, bars are filling up with stylish young Beijing revellers. It could be any city centre on a weekend night.
What to do in Beijing?
A visit to the Forbidden City is a must. For 500 years this vast site, housing palaces and temples, was the centre of Beijing’s royal ceremonial and political life. Located right in the centre of the city, the home of emperors from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty was permanently closed to the public, hence its name. The last emperor of China, Puvi, abdicated in 1912 when China became a republic, though he remained living in the ‘Inner Court’ while the ‘Outer Court’ was given over to public use. Dating from the early 15th century, the palace complex consists of 980 buildings and covers almost 8 million square feet – wear comfortable shoes!
With such a vast area to traverse, there’s plenty of empty space for quiet reflection even though there are hundreds of visitors on the site. All are tourists like us but for the most part Chinese, wandering around, cameras clicking. We see only a few Westerners during our entire time in Beijing – though we don’t feel like lone tourists as clearly so many people have travelled here from within China to do the exact same things we are doing.
Tian’anmen Square guards the entrance to the Forbidden City – and security here is much tighter than the huge ‘City’; we queue in long lines to have our bags thoroughly searched and bodies scanned. And it is impossible to step into that space without remembering the images that went around the world in 1989, when tanks were sent in to quiet the protests and establish martial law in the city, before hundreds – possibly thousands (reports vary) – of people were killed. Chairman Mao’s face sits high above on a poster, looking over us all, huge video screens around the square flash images of crowds, soldiers, everyday scenes – it all feels very big Brother-ish and slightly eerie, even in the bright winter sunshine.
Getting there and accommodation
Stay at The Opposite House from RMB 2,300 per night in a Studio 45 room, excluding 15% service charge. Add a breakfast package at the hotel’s Village Café for RMB 180. Visit www.theoppositehouse.com for more information.
Fares with Cathay Pacific from London Heathrow to Beijing start from £599 in economy, £1179 in premium economy and from £2499 in business class. For more information or to book visit www.cathaypacific.co.uk
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