Queen of the matches
All World Cup encoun-ters featuring Sri
Lanka will become special events in the Royal Ballroom of the Queen's Hotel,
specially sponsored by Coca-Cola.
The matches will be relayed on a giant screen and the Queen's expects
a packed ballroom on these days. Special concessionary rates are offered
on all food, drinks and beverages. Several other leading companies are
also taking the opportunity to stage special product promotions at the
Queen's in this period.
Beauty and the beasts
Two thousand feet over the tea slopes of
Midland State Plantation, in Rattota, past Matale, the climate is suddenly
Nuwara Eliya. The mountain trail is long, winding, and the locals call
it River's End - a misnomer if ever there was. On the heights, the wind
is strong enough to become near frenzied and the mist streams across miles
of stunted trees and shrubs making everything look as if it is drowned
in milk. This is also the preserve of Sri Lanka Telecom and on the mountain
stands an imposing radio tower and attendant buildings, strongly fenced.
A large yellow board insists in black letters, "NO TRESPASSING"
and the trail winds around the base of this property then dips down, down
to where the mountain stream emerges through a screen of boulders and massed
rocks. Surely it has to be "River's Birth" - and many Kandyans
today like the idea of spending a day in this cool, crisp place with a
picnic lunch for good measure. Balm for the tired soul, if you get what
I mean.
But things are getting out of hand. The place is now being increasingly
haunted by gangs of young roughnecks who consider the place ideal for all
manner of nefarious activities.
People who inch up the trails in vans are attacked, picnickers are harassed
and insulted, and what is more, these local toughs use the Telecom property
as their own. Apparently, the place is unmanned and gives the gangs a vantage
point. They hide up there, watching the road and disappear in the mist.
It is also a place where young village bucks bring their women and they
resent the presence of sightseers.
The whole place is going to pot, naturally, and will soon be shunned,
making a true beauty spot, the haunt of the goons who seem to now stake
a claim to it.
Improving bank customer service
What with all this work-to-rule and bank
employees venting their spleen on long-suffering customers instead of the
management, it is refreshing to learn that the Rural Banking Innovations
Project of Kandy has conducted a workshop with the People's Bank managers
to identify ways and means of improving customer service in the Kandy region.
Two RBIP consultants, Messrs H. Depner and H. Grossmamm presented a Customer
Approach Strategy using the Gampola branch of the People's Bank as an example
of how to analyse the needs of existing and potential customers. The workshop
revolved around the six P's - People, Products, Positioning, Performance,
Promotion and Planning.
New vision
There is much concern about the students
of the Aruppola Technical College with the general view of industrialists
that the students are not ideal employment material; that they may be knowledgeable,
but have no practical skills and lack work-attitude. The College's drop-out
rate is also at an alarming 50% and the College has now appointed a Market
Specialist to see how the situation can be corrected. The RRDP, Kandy has
also volunteered to help the College develop a new vision for the future
where students and the local industry could be better served.
Nature and wildlife safaris
Commencing June, the Queen's Hotel offers
both guests and all nature lovers in Kandy special tours to Wasgomuwa,
Minneriya, Randenigala and other nature resorts. These weekend tours will
be conducted by specially trained guides and travel will be, as far as
the trails go, in air-conditioned mini-coaches. General manager Palitha
Konara says that the tours will give visitors the opportunity to spend
a night out in wildlife bungalows and camping sites. All details could
be had from the reception desk.
June will also see the staging of a Queen's Fashion Parade and the Indian
food festival.
Fresh products
A business plan has now been worked out
for the Kandy Fresh Products Marketing Centre where, it is hoped, up to
30 tons of fresh produce of high-value fruit and vegetable producers in
the Kandy area could be stored, then routed to markets in Colombo and overseas.
The Centre, a Rs. 14-million project -is a venture of the Protected Agriculture
Entrepreneurs Association, assisted by USAID and the Central Province Enterprise
Promotion Centre. Grants are also expected from the EDB and the RRDP, Kandy.
New restaurant
Viewpoint is quite the most picturesque
spot for tourists who want a birds-eye view of the lake and the city that
embraces it. Right now, Sujiva Surnajana owns a Sri Lanka silk shop close
to this point on Rajapihilla Mawatha and decided that he should offer the
hundreds of visitors who come to this point a chance to spend time, dine,
snack and for enthusiastic photographers, time to spend in comfort as they
wait for a changing light or to take the night shots they wish.
Now, rising on two floors, Sujiva is ready to throw open the doors of
Senani Restaurant, where the cuisine is Eastern, Western, Chinese and local.
"We can seat 150 on two floors," said General Manager, Anthony
Sansoni.
Goodbye Robert
One of Kandy's finest photographers, Robert
Riethmuller, who was Planning Advisor of the Rural Regional Development
Project, left the island last week to take up a challenging assignment
in Vietnam. Robert was a regular photo-artist for AirLanka's Serendib magazine,
several other inflight magazines, and his photographs adorn many Sri Lanka
desk calendars. Unigraphics of Colombo confirm that he has provided a series
of stunning pictures for the 2000 desk calendars produced by that company.
Robert and his wife Veronica gave a farewell dinner at Stone Lodge Cottage,
Kandy before their departure. Kandy will certainly miss him.
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