We didn’t make it to Colombo today. The curfew throughout the whole island of Sri Lanka was extended to Tuesday and we didn’t get permission from the Police authorities to leave the city.

So we returned to our hotel to put up with another day in the hills surrounding Kandy.

We weren’t even allowed to wander around the streets of this beautifully positioned town. However, I managed this photo of people queuing outside a chemist. Note the social distance they are keeping one from another and the fact that they are all wearing facemasks.

Compare that photo with this one taken outside a Tescos in the UK.

There can be no doubt now that the time for advice and personal decisions in the UK are over. There must be mandatory implementation of similar rules and regulations for controlling the virus imposed in other countries throughout the planet. This includes self-isolation and social distancing.

The odd thing is that mandatory social distancing should hurt the English less than many other nations, especially the Mediterranean ones where the covid-19 virus has hit hardest. For example, when two Neapolitans meet their social distance may be as close as a couple of inches and hugs and kisses abound. For northern nations, however, even a handshake may be difficult in meeting.

Social distancing has, of course, always been around when social relations are considered, especially in small communities. Just observe the extremes some Bagnioli (inhabitants of Bagni di Lucca) take to avoid each other, especially the brits. Cantankerous academics, failed novelists and white van drivers appear to be the worst offenders.
***
Our trip to Sri Lanka has been unfortunately curtailed with only half of our proposed itinerary accomplished. We clearly cannot be a possible burden on the Sri Lankan health service and we need to get back to the UK asap before all flights are cancelled. Never mind. We shall certainly plan a return journey to this pearl of the Indian ocean: there is so much more to see and enjoy here.

Among the highlights of any trip to Sri Lanka we missed out on was a visit to some of its national parks, for the island teems with wild life and has extensive tropical jungles. All we managed to see were some wild elephants, birds including peacocks and the sacred ibis, in addition to the monkeys, chipmunks and monitor lizards.

We missed out on leopards and the fishing cat in particular. Next time?

Casting my eyes back on my connections with a nation formerly called Ceylon I recollect a pupil at my old school of Dulwich College, Ratwatte, who we naturally called ‘Ratty’: a good cricketer without a doubt. At university my tutor for a year was the brilliant social anthropologist Stanley Tambiah,’Tambi’. He also wrote the definitive biography on Edmund Leach, another distinguished social anthropologist and provost of Kings. A carer for the last years of my mother-in-law, Ambiga, also hailed from this island.

Anyway, here we are waiting to return to another island which, so far, has shown less sense in a rapidly deteriorating situation than Sri Lanka.