Nasty Guests: Will Meacock and Stephanie

The reason for this post was because I was unable to name the guest who made some really bad comments on booking dot com.  I generally dont bother to answer negative comments about facilities, cleanliness.  WilpattuHouse is a budget location (USD 20 for a room).  It is just a little above camping, with attached toilets.  Sometimes expectations are above the the price.

What really annoyed me was the
a) the damage done to the sheets and bathroom
b) cancelling a pre booked safari tour
c) eating the ordered meal for the safari
d) not paying for b) and c) .

Thats without paying for the food he ate or even bothering to ask about the cancelled safari tour.
Will Meacock is NOT quite the English Gentleman he pretends to be, British yes, non of the courtesy and gentlemanly manner of the English

Then Will Meacock goes on to review with a 3.3 rating.

• This was probably the worst place I’ve stayed at. It is not suitable for anyone hoping to get any sleep and feel safe
Beds terrible, constantly barking dogs and very claustrophobic rooms. Showers were so basic. The place should either stop functioning or do a major clean up

Will Meacock

We had guests that were just nasty.  Will Meacock and Stephanie Kaldewey and their two children.

The children had vomited all over the bed sheets and mattresses.  Apparently from  food (cream pasta from previous hotel). Not a word about it before they left. 

There was a safari Booked and Breakfast and Lunch to go, Will Meacock cancelled it after the Jeep arrived halfway.  We did not ask for a cancellation fee, neither did Will Meacock offer one.
Of course Will ate into the breakfast sandwiches. We did not ask to be paid, neither did Will offer.  What more can one expect of a member of the tribe.

Stephanie Kaldewey

At Wilpattu House we expect all guests to sit and eat together. Will and Stephanie and children did sit down with others.  Two very young women (less than 25) from the UK and a family fromDenmark (two children around 12 years old)

Will and Stephanie were quite aloof (maybe arrogant).  They did often drop that they were doctors in the UK.  Stephanie (Kaldewey) had an accent, and I asked what was the accent, she said she was German.  Not a word that she was Jewish. 
 Will Meacock was trying to pass of as English.  OK he is British.   But he is of Jewish origin.

There is a pattern of denial.  Be Honest of your origins.

Preventive Maintenance of Brush Cutter/Back Pack lawn Mower.

Some tips on Preventive Maintenance of Brush Cutter/Back Pack lawn Mower. (sent by Anil Ratnayake)

• Always Mix 2T Oil - 250 ml in 5 litres Petrol. (50 ml / liter)          
• After work is over for the day - DO NOT use stop switch because 2T oil will condense in the engine and cause Damage when re starting. ALWAYS shut off petrol while the engine is running.               
• Wash inside of shaft well with kerosene oil every 50 hrs.               
• Grease drive cable in shaft every 50 hrs of use            
• Oil Gear Head every 50 hrs of use (remove blade and pour oil)          
• Knocking blade on stones damages gear head at the end of the shaft               
• Sharpen long twin rotor blade with file daily as soon as work is over    
• DO NOT USE CHOKE when starting warm engine.

Troubleshooting
Shaft Vibration: Check if blade has been properly installed and tightened.
Idle Speed: If blade keeps turning/rotating at idling speed, turn the idle adjusting screw counterclockwise.


 

Gear Head

Idle Speed Adjustment

Colombo, Meetotamulla Garbage is not to Puttlam but to Wilpattu

Kala-Oya/Lunu-Ela 200m away from proposed Garbage site

The old Quarry and proposed garbage site

Please see Update and Suggestions. 

The Meetotamulla garbage is not to Puttalam. Thats a red herring. The proposed site is on the Banks of the Kala Oya and bordering Wilpattu.

Wilpattu National Park is the latest location proposed to dump 470,000 cubic meters of garbage every year. That is the equivalent of a building 3 story high 33 feet x 33 feet of garbage every day.  .  Thats 479 large tipper trucks per day or a tipper truck every 4 minutes, 24/7. That garbage will grow to a mountain 250 feet high every year.

The location proposed is within 200 meters of the beautiful and historic Kala-Oya and in the Wilpattu National Park buffer zone.  Yes, the beautiful scenic Kala-Oya fed by the historic Kala-Wewa built by King Dhatusena in 455 AD.

Toxic Foam from Garbage in Bangalore

The proposed site at GangeWadiya / Aruwakkalu has a steep slope toward the Kala-Oya. It is just a matter of time when the seepage and overflow during the North East monsoon will turn the Kala-Oya into a toxic mess.

In addition any capping with concrete will crack because of dynamite blasting of limestone at the Holcim quarry 500 meters away

This beautiful pristine area is likely to end  up being like the Bellandur Lake in Bangalore and Toms River, New Jersey.  In Bangalore, toxic foam from Bellandur Lake covers the city.   In Toms River, New Jersey,  local residents are affected with higher rates of cancer and children with acute lymphocytic leukemia.

Toxic seepage from the garbage site into Kala-Oya  will kill fish, mangroves and contaminate the whole of  Puttalam Lagoon.  When toxic foams are created, the south west winds will carry the foam into the Wilpattu National Park and end up suffocating all animals.

To make matters worse, the garbage will cover the only visible Miocene Site, Wedi Pitiya, containing  stone tools, potsherds, beads and bony remains of prehistoric human habitation dating back to more than 250,000 years.

This author lived for 5 years (1998-2003) 7 km away from the largest landfill/garbage dump in the World in Staten Island, New York.  Now of course it is called Fresh Kills Park.   It looks nice from a distance, 14 years after its closure in 2001.  However still  "its presence is palpable in the four grassy monadnocks rising up to 225 feet tall, in the intermittent exhalations of landfill gases from passive vents, in the 386,000 gallons of leachate that daily ooze from the mounds into an on-site treatment plant, and in the hundreds of protruding gas wellheads and monitoring pipes".

Thats 467 large bowsers of chemicals every day, and this is 14 years after the land fill was close.

Map of Kala Oya and Garbage site. Click on Image for Google Maps

The Gathering (elephants): Natural?

The Gathering (of elephants) in Minneriya or Kaudulla National park are considered one of the great wild life spectacles of the world, comparable to the Great migration in Serengeti.  The gathering of over 300 elephants in Minneriya occurs during the dry season of May-Sep.

The gathering is however a result of  environmental engineering two thousand years ago.  The 87 km (54 miles) Elahara canal was built by King Vasabha (67–111 AD).   King Mahasen (277-304 AD) built Minneriya Reservoir and connected it to the Elahara Canal. Currently Elahara canal starts from Amban river near Elahara and carries water to large reservoirs in north, Minneriya, Girithale, Kaudulla (Tissavadamanaka of Mahasen) and Kantalai reservoirs.

Click for Map Link

.

Its not just the Gathering at Minneriya. Sri Lanka has been environmentally re-engineered for over 2,000 years.  The 30,000 odd reservoirs/tanks and associated wetlands have changed the dry zone into oasis of water and wetlands for both animals and humans.

Not only has the environmental engineering changed biodiversity, it has changed social structure. Building and maintenance of village tanks was done by the village community. This resulted in a more egalitarian society, specially compared to the rest of South Asia.

Reservoirs were not built just for irrigation. It was, for example, traditional to build a forest tank in the jungle above the village. That tank, however, was not used to irrigate land: on the contrary, its express purpose was to provide water to wild animals and, hence, to reduce the likelihood that they would descend into the paddy fields and destroy the crops in the search for water (Goldsmith)

Finally:
Sir Emerson Tennent in Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical vol 2 considered it to be The Greatest Canal in the Ancient World: (complete pdf: pg 433)

“Excepting the  exaggerated dimensions of Lake Moeris in Central Egypt,and the mysterious " basin of Al Aram' the bursting of whose embankment devastated the Arabian city of Mareb, no similar constructions formed by any race, either ancient or modern, exceed in colossal magnitude the stupendous tanks of Ceylon. The reservoir of Koh-rud at Ispahan, the artificial lake of Ajmeer, or the tank of Hyder, in Mysore, can no more be compared in extent or grandeur with Kala-weva, or Padivil-colom than the conduits of Hezekiah, the kanats of the Persians, or the subterranean water-courses of Peru can vie with the Ellahara canal, which probably connected the lake of Mineri and the "Sea of Prakarama" with the Amban-ganga river.”

Refs:
http://mahavamsa.org/2008/05/king-mahasen-275-ad-301-ad-sri-lanka/
http://mahavamsa.org/2008/05/kings-sri-lanka-62-ad-131-ad-ceylon/
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Minneriya/@7.9406086,80.8640254,13z/data=!4m5!3m4