It never rains, but it pours

Here, with my finest weather-presenting impression is the forecast for Colombo. It’s hot, and stays hot all day and all night, but when it rains, boy, does it rain. Yesterday evening I was sat in the Sri Lankan office of Cricinfo, putting together an entry for this blog, when I realised I could hear water cascading down the window panes. Funny time to wash the windows, I thought, before opening the door to see sheeting rain. Within minutes the road outside the office resembled a river and the dusty surface had turned to mud.

But, if that was impressive it was nothing compared to the deluge that struck Colombo today, unfortunately on Independence Day when everyone was on holiday and would have packed out the beaches if the sun had shone. At about one o’clock this afternoon, typically just as I was about to leave the house, the thunder rumbled in and the heavens opened again.

Now, tropical rain in Sri Lanka shouldn’t come as any surprise, but this isn’t the main wet season and today’s downpours surprised a few people. When the country held the 2000 Under-19 tournament it was staged a month earlier and rain played havoc with a number of matches.

I attempted, fairly unsuccessfully, to dodge the worst of rain as I went to one of the hotels in town to collect an invite to tonight’s opening ceremony. When I came out a brief dry interlude encouraged me to take a walk along a random street to see where I would end up. However, I wasn’t alone for long as I had one of those surreal experiences that can only happen on the subcontinent.

I wasn’t paying attention when this friendly chap – who became known as 'Dom' for simplicity sake – started matching me stride for stride and chatting about the weather. After a couple of false starts I worked out he was one of gardeners from the hotel, so I complimented him on his very fine lawns and shrubs, and he quickly tagged on that I was a Brit and was quite excited when he found out I was here for the cricket. He then insisted that I go with him to look at a temple and two minutes later we were in a tuk-tuk that would end up staying with us for the next two hours.

Dom insisted that this was one of the best in town and the Gothami temple was indeed a strikingly ornate building. After taking off our shoes my new guide showed me around the various rooms, explaining what different paintings and statues meant.

Then it was on to another Sri Lankan special – a gem factory. A very knowledgeable young man called Michael – a qualified gemologist apparently - talked me through how Sri Lanka’s famous gems are made. Without major details, it involves volancos, rivers, the sea and a lot of digging. Suddenly, all that A-level geography came flooding back. Well, not quite.

Back in the tuk-tuk Dom seemed very pleased with himself and said we should stop at the beach before he went home. Once we got to the shore he jumped out, we settled up with the driver and as quickly as he’d appeared Dom was on his way – he was late he said, and would get in trouble if he was any longer. Well, I thought, that doesn’t happen every day but, then again, plenty of my Colombo experiences have been firsts.