The Bo tree in the garden can't stay

I've just received a lovely email from Brayen who will manage the property for me. In it he has some great ideas for the bedroom without walls and an opinion on the fengshui of the living room. For now, however, the most important thing he had to say concerned a Bo tree that lives in the garden.

It seems that if this tree is allowed to get big the Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka have the right to turn the land on which it stands into a temple. Clearly any monk worth his salt would love to have a temple on my property so bye bye Bo tree it is. Shame.

Welcome to heaven...

It's coming up to 1 pm and I was picked up this morning at 7 by the real-estate guys who realized quite fast that it was probably best to leave me here and find my own way back to Ging Oya lodge. Sine then I've been hanging out with Shiny (the current owner) and his precocious 3 year old son. His wife has been looking after their month old daughter. I've asked every question I can think of and all of the answers have been great. Obviously I need to get a survey done, ask some more questions and get lawyers to look into the whole lagoon development but, in principle, and assuming we can do a deal, I want this place. I've taken lots of photos and will load them when I get back to the hotel. I'm so excited. I know annoying and expensive things I can't even imagine right now will happen but, oh my God, this place is beautiful.

Hurdle No 2

Why do I think that labelling hurdles will soon seem very pointless? The guy who was supposed to pick me up at 11 called at 1130 to say he would be here in 15 minutes. I explained that I only went to meetings that start on time and we've now arranged for him to pick me up at 7 tomorrow morning which is "not usual". We shall see if it works out...

A little on where I'm staying now and my hosts

I am, remarkably, the only person staying at Ging Oya lodge. This is remarkable given how lovely the place is and how wonderful the owners. They are a Belgian couple who have lived here for years, have a remarkable eye for putting beautiful pieces together to create a relaxing and welcoming environment and are generous with their time and knowledge. All of this and they lent me a camera so if you want to see evidence of how lovely this place have a look at the slideshow (please - these are the first photos I've taken in about 10 years and I learned how to upload them!). Sadly you won't be able to smell the flowers or meet Leo and Myrjam but you can always come and visit...

The first hurdle - oops - and the first nasty surprise.

So, I have been off my meds since the end of July and, despite a pretty gruelling schedule, I've been doing fine but today, just as I was setting off, I got a horrible pain in my hip and couldn't bear the idea of doing the 35 minutes from where I'm staying now to the place I am considering buying. Luckily I had an excuse to bail as the vendor is a Muslim and away in Colombo visiting family for Eid so it made sense to put it back a day.

In the last post I spoke about the "unknown unknowns" and then today had a perfect example. In a conversation about the merits and otherwise of swimming pools on one's property, it transpired that there may be a development planned for the lagoon. Something to do with a private/military airfield for seaplanes with support from the President's brother. Apparently there was a big demonstration this time last year by the fishermen because the security would mean the end of their livelihood. Seems very short-sighted to me as it would be more valuable to tourist industry if cleaned up rather than taken out of play except for planes. In any case, worth investigating. 

The beginning...

Some people might consider it strange to start writing this blog now as I haven't even bought a property yet. I have, however, been dreaming of it for a year and on this trip I finally found the right real-estate guy who has showed me what I think is the right property. And then I met a potential housekeeper/manager who also gives massages. Too many things are coming together to ignore so...

I'm going back to the property at midday and will start to get answers to the dozens of questions I've had since leaving two days ago. Getting reliable answers to questions is always hard but the real problem lies in not knowing what to ask. Security, access, fauna (mosquitos!), communication and the cost of all the services are the obvious things to worry about but there must be more that I don't even know I don't know (thanks Donald Rumsfeld).

Wish me luck!