Going to Your "Happy Place" Will Cost You...

The view from the Mount Lavinia Hotel terrace.

Have I mentioned lately how hot it is here? It is. No…really hot. Someone told me today that it was 37 degrees. On the surface, that doesn’t sound so bad... if you’re using the Fahrenheit side of your lizard brain. I do know from the whiney tone of voice used that, yes, just as I suspected, it is indeed hot out today. It reminded me of when Cam and I first moved to Dallas…in the summer…talk about your boneheaded moves! We would drive around and occasionally we’d see one of those time and temperature things. Inevitably, one of us would scream, “It’s 105 degrees out here! Why aren’t these people dead?” We never did figure it out and he traded the dry heat of Texas for the humid heat of Florida. But I digress.
I’ve been here for four months now and from time to time, someone tries to tell me how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. As with so many of life’s distasteful moments, I find sticking my fingers in my ears and humming real loud usually makes it all go away…until the next time. Look, I’ll learn kilometers, grams, liters and centimeters but I am drawing the line at temperature. I mean honestly, we’re seven degrees north of the freakin’ equator! It's hot! That's a given...I just don't want to know how hot it is. You can only really say two things about the weather here: “Gee, it doesn’t seem quite as hot as it was yesterday.” or “Gee, it’s way hotter than it was yesterday.” That’s about it.
So it’s Sunday and hot and all week I told everyone it was going to be a Mount Lavinia Sunday. That means we go to the Mount Lavinia Hotel and play tourist. The lunch buffet and pool costs 1500 rupees, about 15 USD, and we get to lounge around the pool all day or until we’re burnt to a crisp which ever comes first. Several volunteers ended up at the pool at the Hilton, but since I had told a bunch of others we’d be at the Mount Lavinia, I went there instead of the Hilton. As it happens, no one else showed up and I had a very pleasant day sitting by the pool, plugged into my mp3 player, writing postcards and reading my book. It was a fabulous day in the sun and jumping into the pool to cool off was the best part. As often happens this time of year, late in the day a massive thunderstorm blew in off the Indian Ocean. Rarely have I seen weather systems move as fast as the ones here. I spotted it on the horizon and immediately went to change into dry clothing. As I collected my stuff from the table and the pool boys were hurriedly tucking away the umbrellas, I noticed a family of tourists at the next table. They had just ordered their dinner and were expecting to enjoy it poolside. I told them it might be a good idea to move into the building for dinner since in about three minutes they would be drenched by the storm. Dad said, “But it’s so sunny out and those clouds are so far away.” I shrugged, muttered, “Fine, don’t listen to me, I’ve only been here four months…” and went into the lobby for a cup of tea to enjoy the ensuing mad scramble. Soaked tourists aside, it was one of the most dramatic storms I’ve ever seen, incredible wind and painful, horizontal rain. The rain cooled things down slightly, but it didn’t last.
I think poolside at the Mount Lavinia Hotel is my happy place and worth every rupee.