Unsystematic Denial

I went on my first ever "company" or "office" trip yesterday. Considering that I've worked at 3 different joints and have a cumulative total of 5 years of work experience, I suppose this is slightly unusual. Unless I take in to consideration the Egyptian expedition thingy...but that was official and hardly any fun (laughs evilly to himself).

From a scientific point of view, I suppose the journey itself was slightly enlightening. I realized that I actually only enjoyed my last out-station venture only because of the abundance of alcohol. This time around, water was about as strong a drink as I was allowed to have. Needless to say, I had a terrible headache halfway, and threatened to throw up on everyone unless they stopped for a bit. In an attempt to justify my weakling behavior, I have a very delicate inner-ear, which probably accounts for my excellent agility, proven by the fact that I was jumping on to and over rocks just like any old mountain goat. Excessive (engine) vibrations and rocky roads experienced from within a stuffy and overcrowded van were probably the reasons for my nausea.

(Mumbles to self: "I hope everyone buys that rubbish")

Anyway, we traveled for 4 hours to end up doing a 6 kilometer trek in a little more 2 hours (if you're wondering about any cases of sado-masochism, don't look at me...it wasn't my idea). Fortunately, my conditioning held up, even though I eventually had to carry this heavy bag a skinny fellow was straggling along with. After this apparent torture, we were allowed the pleasure of cooling off in a little pond like thing full of algae-like stuff and miniature leech-like creatures. Here was the highlight of the trip, where one of my female co-workers nearly drowned after using her limited swimming skills to wander out in a fairly deep area. Fortunately for her, and probably unfortunately for me, I was the closest, and had to go over and yank her to the surface. The fact that I probably saved her didn't spare me the awkwardness of having to have actually touched her in slightly embarrassing places in the process of securing a firmer grip. After all, I didn't really "save her life", did I? If it wasn't me, somebody else would have eventually gone after her and pulled her out. By then, the kiss-of-life would have been necessary as well, but nothing really life-threatening, yes? I was still feeling a little embarrassed when I wandered out of that slime hole shortly after that. Even she ignored me until I forced myself to ask her "er, you're alright now...right?" to which she replied "Oh...yes. Yes, I'm alright. Thanks Grommash!". To which I said "Oh..." in a meaningful way and wandered off.

The place itself was rather nice. Blue skies, cool mountain air, blazing sun, and pine trees in the distance all added to a rustic sort of charm. The lodge joint we lunched at was a bit of a farce though. The walls were built with bricks, but they had slapped mud on to it to give it a truly poverty-stricken-villager's-home kind of feel to it. Even the asbestos roof was covered with the traditional weaved coconut-leaf mesh. Though initially appearing authentic, certain spots jumped out glaringly upon closer scrutiny. But since I'm not writing a travel guide, I'll leave out the boring details.

Lunch was a bit of a disappointment: a (rather bland) fried rice packet that I could have picked up from any two bit Chinese restaurant in Colombo. I was expecting a traditional village styled buffet with all kinds of exotic vegetarian dishes (destitute villagers generally eat any edible flora, so lending to a rather delicious, if somewhat strange, fare).

All things considered, it was a nice trip. Add a few of the following to the equation and it might have been truly fantastic - hot (and horny) bikini clad babes, a buffet lunch and lots of alcohol of indiscriminate variety. But being the realist I am, I'm not complaining.