Thusi Max

Sunday, May 11, 2014

I was seconded to the Ecolodge project from the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce as the accountant to the project. Hemantha Rathnayake was the CEO of the project and Dhammika, Saliya, Laksman, Aruni & Azam was rest of the team. Project was headed by Mr. Prema Cooray as the chairman of the project and there were several leading companies as the share holders to the project.

This was first eco tourism model project in Sri Lanka and the location was Enselwatte estate of Diniyaya own by Mathurata plantation. The site is 506 hectares with 480 hectares of sub-montane and montane rainforest and the balance acreage being VP tea cultivation. It is 213km from Colombo, which takes 6 hours approximately on the Colombo-Deniyaya road.

The location was realy facinating and it was boardering the sigharaja forest. Most of the time it was covered by mist even in the noon.

Hemantha & Dhammika with other project members

Audleys Wood Hotel

This was the private house for Thomas Pain & built in 1880.

Walking around London 2 – Finding Sherlock Holmes

Though we have heard about the 221b Bakers street, Westminster is the place, we were not sure the famous house is still there. And it was my main desire to visit there since I have promised to my wife, I’ll be visiting there and take some pictures & some souvenirs.

We got in to tube train from London to Bakers street. It was quite short trip. Ah.. It was Sherlock Holmes everywhere in the station. Portraits of Holmes and pictures of famous stories were the decorations. Even the wall tiles were designed with portraits of Sherlock Holmes.

We thought it will be easy to finding it, but we were wrong. We walked up & down of the baker’s street but we couldn’t locate the place.

Interestingly most of the Hotels, pubs were named after Sherlock Holmes.

Walking Around the London

My friend was very kind for me to join with me for site seeing. We started our journey from Basingstoke in the afternoon. Weather was bit rainy and we expected some rain. But unfortunately we had no umbrella but if it rains our plan was to get in to good pub and have couple of beers and spend the rest of the day. So we had plan B to spend time in London and my friend liked the plan B as always.

Train to Waterloo took almost one hour and by the time getting down in London we almost thought we will do our plan B. we were searching for a “Good English Pub” as Dave always look for.

Sherlock Holmes, 221b Baker street, London

The epic Sherlock Holmes house is situated in Baker street bearing the number 221b in city of Westminister. As per Sir Auther Connan Doyle's famous Sherlock Holmes novels, the detective Sherlok Holmes and Doctor Watson lived at 221b Baker Street from about 1881-1904.

In the first floor it is the study room which Holmes and Watson shared and the adjoining is the bedroom of Mr. Holmes. Doctor Watsons bedroom was on the second floor next to Mrs. Hudson's room.

The opening of the Sherlock Holmes museum to the public on 27 March 1990 and from then thousands of people all over the world visits and write to Sherlock Holmes.

England in March 2012

London Eye: A 360 degree view to the London city from 135 meters up in the sky. this is the tallest ferries wheel in europe.
The London Eye is located in the Lndon Brough of Lmbeth at the western end of Jubilee gardens, on the south bank of the River Thames between Wstminister bridge and Hngerford Bridge.