Back to the cold waters

I wasn't pleased with the fact, Nipuna didn't return my precious books even after few reminders. I was about to explode. One of the books was actually a copy signed by its author, none other than Dr. Craig Challen whom I met at Maritime Museum of Western Australia. 

Then one fine day Nipuna's truck, usually go for his commercial diving jobs, parked in front of my home. He not just returned my books, but lent me two more books, which were on the favorite subject we both shared: Tham Luang cave rescue. They were the books written by two British Cave divers, John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, those who played the most crucial role in rescue operation. I was angry with Nipuna, but now I am more than thankful!

I packed both books in my hand luggage so that I can read them back in Australia during my next stay. It was great to land in Perth in mid of the Summer 2025. Sunny days means I am happy. It was exceptionally hot, but that's what I really enjoy than cold gloomy days. 

By the meantime Dharshana Jayawardena sent a message offering me to become an Administrator of the Facebook group: Sri Lankan Underwater Photographers and Videographers, which I accepted willingly. Who else would do that job better than me! 

Back to the cold waters

Given it was the middle of the summer, diving Rottnest Island seems to be the right choice for weekends though I didn't have any plans. Reason for not planning any diving was the bad experience I had last time. Anyway, giving up things is not in my vocabulary! I was careful enough not to hire gear from Perth Ocean Diving who gave me malfunctioning BCD that put me into a danger. I know its not Ian's fault but I didn't like the fact he took the incident very lightly. We still connect in social media and comment on each others photos.

Eventually I contacted a new dive team called Bucket List Diver. They were a small business, smaller team and equipment seemed reliable. I enjoyed diving in much relaxed atmosphere, than in massive boat Blue Destiny: Mcdonald's in diving world!

Australians usually do sports and hobbies by heart. When I first join the crew at Fremantle, boat was in the marina, divers reversing trucks full of diving gear closer, so unloading them directly to the boat is possible. Given diving wasn't in my plan initially, I didn't take any gear to Australia this time hence I was just going with my office bag! All were looking at me like What the heck this skinny Indian think he is doing in this diving boat! In no time we started chatting and realized most of them were just beginners and was interested in knowing more about my work. 

Diving in these conditions are nothing but an exercise that tested my endurance in cold water. As I get old, cold water became much more challenging. I explored few sites around Rottnest which had caves and a lot of life. Visibility wasn't bad and I was disappointed that I didn't carry my camera.  In one dive I was almost getting hypothermia due to unbearably cold water. Still, I was pleased to be in cold water again. Cold water diving is like a girlfriend I love and hate at the sometime! 

In March, Perth diving community was shaken with the news of two divers those were left behind in ocean during a recreational dive. For our surprise it was revealed Perth Diving Academy as the irresponsible operator. Few of my friends called me to check if I am one of the two! A news article revealed the names of the victims and one was called Ian which rang bells. So I was wondering, if this was good old Ian Jones my previous diving buddy. Later revealed its not him and he is just fine. He had been frustrated by number of phone calls he got from friends and relatives asking if he is ok. In fact, he ended up posting a public message in Facebook saying "I am OK. Diver got stranded in water is a different Ian" 

My flat mates

I was pleased to join my old flat mate Fred this time too.  We both wanted to visit Renee who was living about 200km south of Perth by then, but couldn't do due to our busy schedules. 

Apart from Fred's company, full of late night chats about life and new world trends, my flat was a reflection of dark side of human life. That's due to the sad plights of other two mates living with us. 

One of them was a Australian guy called Jo. He was going through a painful divorce. Listening to his story was an agony. Given Australian law is crazy around these kind of things, he is loosing most of his lifelong earning, leaving him to live in a flat. He wasn't allowed to live in house he built for the family. His favorite daughter wasn't talking to him anymore and sons too are getting away from his life. He often go to Footy ground to see from a distance how his younger son playing. Jo had three tattoos to symbolize his three children. 

By the way, Jo liked eating my Sri Lankan flavoured food. As I write today, I don't know where he is and how he is doing.

Other one is Vince, guy from Myanmar, who lived with wife, baby and his mother. Vince was suffering from a rare cancer. I feel very sorry for him about his unfortunate situation. He has been doing pretty well before the sickness. He often stayed days in hospital. Sometime come home and stay in agony for days. Fred and I always tried to cheer him up yet we all knew his situation was bad.

When I cook Sri Lankan food, especially curries, he used to come, see and say that looks delicious. I always offer some. Somedays he says No thanks and leave... sometimes, he come back and says hey I would like some for my Mum who cannot resist that amazing aroma. 

As I write, I know Vince is fighting back with his cancer bravely and Fred is helping him by all means, particularly with the most needed moral support. I wish him recovery!

With all his misfortune, he was further upset by the news about the earthquake that hit Myanmar in April. He was busy checking if his relatives and friends are safe.

I was humbled when my poor flat mates organized a small party with a birthday cake on my birthday. It was so special. I ordered Pizza for dinner. In spite of usual gloominess, we all spent the evening with laugher and good vibes.

Back in pearl for Sinhala New Year

After completing the work I promised, I hurried back home for Sinhala New Year of 2025. Just to mention, world was going to a chaos with Ukraine war and Trump imposing jaw dropping tariffs for everybody they deal with, giving world economy a shake!

Catching up with Dara was special, obviously due to his character and our history that cross paths in pretty unorthodox manner, as activists. As usual, we met at rooftop of City Hotel at Colombo. He actually came with another comrade who was a young Muslim guy with quite progressive ideas. So we started talking about our good old days and also politics in the country. 

සහෝදරයා දන්නවනෙ මගේ ආර්තිකය එතරම් හොඳ නොවන බව... හරි බන් බිල මම බලාගන්නම්..

Dhara started his activism as a hard core leftist but by now he is changed a lot in terms of ideology. From the bar we were having drinks we could see hundred and eighty degree view of Colombo. When it gets darker, we saw the glittering lights of hotels and other sky high buildings of Colombo. In other side we could see lights of ships approaching Colombo harbor. Night sky of Colombo is like an untold story for many of us. Its like an mysterious old man who knew everything about you!

He told how much he enjoy that scenery in his raw words. 

මං සහෝදරයා ආසාවෙන් රස විඳිනවා ධනවාදී සමාජයන් විසින් ගොඩනඟලා තියෙන මේ ආශ්චර්ය.. 

He also presented me a book about Richard De Soyza. Also we three discussed in detail about extra ordinary life of Richard de soyza and particularly about his tragic assassination. 

Though Dara and I worked in the same group long ago, we rarely agreed on one thing. He also showed me his diary entry, about 25 - 30 years old, he mentioned about an argument he had with me. It was a detail account with exact words we used that day. Though we didn't have any digital devices those days some memory can stay in physical books.. hmm!

Without much planning I joined Devana and Niro to visit Buddhika's pepper plantation in Badalkumbura (බඩල්කුඹුර). This is one special area that produced some of the best pepper in entire world. It was a good experience on understanding challenges of running a plantation. Monkeys had become the number one pest. To tell the scale of the problem, some people had given up the planting anything in some areas of the country just because there is no way harvest can be protected from monkeys. In Buddhika's case, his main crop is pepper and its comparatively safe from monkeys. For his other crops like Banana and papaya its an unending battle. Interestingly, there is a kind locally made guns to chase monkeys away.

While walking in the village, we noticed an abandoned house. Buddhika explained its story. Someone from Colombo, who had found guilty for a foul play, had come to this area and lived hidden in the forest adjoining river Manik. By the time goes, he had built this small house of clay and started living with his wife, while his grown up children lived in Colombo. Later on, no one cared about his past and he was doing pretty good with farming etc. and then he built a proper modern looking house in near by land. After moving to new home, for some fateful reason, this man died. His wife couldn't survive in this harsh conditions, she moved to Colombo, to one of her children's place. Now this house becoming a relic day by day.. this reminds me of Beddegama (බැද්දේගම) of famous Village by the jungle book (by Leonard wolf), a village reclaimed by jungle.

By the night, we spent hours and hours talking about history of that area etc. while enjoying some dry gin. It was a good session. Devana also exposed us some of the interesting stories and his experiences during his stay at UN office of Sri Lanka.

Anyway, I didn't forget to return the cave diving books back to Nipuna. For that I visited him with Indhi at his workshop where all the commercial diving operations are handled. So we had the opportunity of seeing the Sri Lanka's only privately owned hyperbaric chamber. Anyway, I wish to complete my diving journey without seeing a hyperbaric/ decompression chamber from inside!

Made a couple of family trips too: one to Tissa and other one to Kuruvita. Tissamaharamaya one was much more relaxing. We also done a quick day safari to Yala which was fun. We enjoyed watching some birds, spotted deer, Jackal etc. Our safari driver was trying to show us a leopard and it was such a disaster, not because we couldn't see one but because of the aggressive way jeep drivers tried to be in best placed to see a leopard. It was very strenuous, both Indhi and Vipuli suggested go somewhere else and watch some birds than chasing damn leopard, in such an unethical pursuit. 

Kuruvita trip would have been a great one of spending time in total tranquility, but party with loud speakers in a near by villa made it a total nightmare. 

While I was busy packing my stuff to next leg of my work in Australia, Shanjeewan sent me the happy message saying he climbed the Mount Elbrus of Russia successfully.. So this guy is really on his way to climb the seven summits!