Tag: Sri Lanka

Day 8  (June 13) Ella – Looking at the itinerary, we thought we were in for an easy day, after the rigours of the safari. We had three tours, and all three were just local sights to view. Easy. Not so!

The Nine Arch Bridge on the Kandy-Ella Railway is one of the iconic sights in Sri Lanka and a mecca for train spotters. Built in 1912, it is a stone bridge of 9 arches (surprisingly) over a deep ravine. To access it, we parked on the road and walked down. “Just a little bit more..” was always the answer to “Are we there yet?” Eventually, we emerged from the rainforest walk onto the bridge to join many others, including a large school group. Some had come from the other side by tuk-tuk ride, from a place that cars could not access very easily. We took our pictures and a train arrived, also stopping on the bridge for a while to allow passengers to alight and take photos. It is a beautiful bridge by any count.

I was worried about Christine’s ability to climb back up. The steps are killing on the knees going down but the climb up is physically demanding as well. We set off and got to the point about 40% of the way up where there was a tuk-tuk waiting. For $5, it was a bargain. Nilanka couldn’t fit in and the tuk-tuk had no hope with three in it, it barely made some sections with us two. It was the best $5 we have ever spent.

Then it was off to Little Adams Peak to take in the views. Just a easy walk for 2kms then some steps. He actually meant 650 steps, each one felt about 1 metre high. Christine stayed at the end of the 2km walk where there was a restaurant to keep her happy with a lime juice. Nilanka and I ran to the top. It was brutal. I kept having thoughts like “there are no medivac choppers here” or “I can always Google the view”. Once at the summit, the view was amazing and the fact that I had done it was rewarding. On the way down, I mentally assessed each person coming towards me as a “fail” or a “maybe”. Nilanka and I had icecreams as a reward for our effort.

The final spot was at least easy going. A small pretty waterfall is considered a good swimming spot. We couldn’t be bothered with bathers so we elected to just paddle in the lovely pool. Nilanka said there was a better pool and another fall accessible by a climb up the hill but we both voted down any idea of more climbing. Instead we paddled. The small sucking fish came out in force. These are the same fish sold for aquariums as “algae eaters” but they are quick to target the dead skins cells on people’s feet and we soon had them all over us. Christine hated it and escaped to a rock, while I didn’t mind it and happily let them chew all the old rotting flesh off my feet.

Once back in the town we sought out a restaurant and had a Vietnamese banh mi and an Italian Milanese roll just to spread the love around food wise and had a much needed afternoon snooze.

Day 9 (June 14) – We packed up and after breakfast, Nilanka took us to the Ella Railway Station. A cricket ground is situated next to the station and 6 teams were lined up listening to the opening speeches for a cricket carnival. The ground looked brutal, with the bare earth pitch situated so close to one boundary that bowling was only allowed from one end.

We waited for the train and watched the crowd grow larger, a mix of locals and some tourists, mostly European. Finally the train hove into view and we scrambled to find ur carriage. Fortunately, we did not have luggage, with Nilanka driving to our destination, Nanu Oya. The whole thing is about the journey, with this one of the World’s great journeys, offering spectacular views and a climb over the mountains at around 3000 meters. On advice from tourist blogs, we skipped the air conditioned 1^st class and opted for the 2^nd Class Reserved seat. This allows the windows to be open for a better view. Down in 3^rd class, the young backpackers even hang out the windows and doors for speccy photo opportunities but those days are over for us. The views were both interesting and spectacular, with deep ravines, soaring forest covered mountains, rice paddies, vegetable gardens and small villages. We made a few stops at stations along the way during the 3 hour trip. The final half hour saw the weather start to close in, with thick mist turning to light rain. The temperature dropped too, signalling the higher altitude of our destination.

Once off the train and back in the car, we drove a short distance to the town of Nuwarra Eliya, where we did a hurried walk of the town in the increasingly heavy rain. The market was a highlight. The vegetable grown in this highland region are the finest I have seen anywhere, and they are grown in small plots in people’s yards or small holdings. A huge variety is grown and everything looks amazing, with not a plastic wrap in sight. As we walked, we noticed that most locals were dressed in puffer jackets, and some with scarves and beanies. They knew what was coming. The clothing stores tried hard to sell Christine a jacket, because she still just had a blouse on and nothing warmer.

We left the town and drove up a steep hill to our accommodation, selected to give commanding views over Lake Gregory. Alas, all we could see was white. Once settled in to our room, we headed down stairs to the lounge to watch the AFL and relax in comfort. We were the only ones staying in the guesthouse, which was a beautiful building with rave reviews on Trip Advisor. This has been common for us, such is the depth of the “off-season” and the general decline in tourism in Sri Lanka. Even the proprietor was away, leaving one poor young man to be everything, receptionist, cook, housekeeper etc. He was a very friendly little guy with three and a half words of English but Nilanka managed for us.

We caught up on stuff on our computers and watched the Dockers make hard work out of beating the Kangaroos as the temperature steadily fell away. We both started to shiver badly. The problem is we had no real warm clothing. We asked for a heater, and a small oil column heater was trotted out and soon had us managing. Outside it was near gale force wind and hammering rain, along with a mist that meant that maximum visibility was less than 50 metres. Welcome to tropical Sri Lanka. We had planned to go out for dinner, but the weather rules that out so we order in a Pizza Hutt. Amazingly, we had a choice of that or Dominos and the cost came out at something like $15 delivered. Not only that, it was really delicious. We crawled off to a very early bed after securing extra blankets. It was one of the crazy nights where it got warmer as the night went on.

Day 10 (June 15) – Kandy – We were not sorry to see the back of Nuwarra Eliya, given that the visibility was not much better in the morning, although the temperature had risen a few degrees. Our drive took us steadily down, dropping around 1500m to Kandy. Most of the drive consisted of switch-back hairpin bends, negotiating around the tuk-tuks and motor bikes, which are restricted to 40km/hr. We were allowed 60km/hr and Nilanker never exceeds any speed limit, nor passes on an unbroken line. Most traffic is the same, a far cry from Australian drivers. The police are a very visible presence, and the on coming cars flash lights to warn of the police ahead. The buses are an exception. Their aim seems to be to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Any slow down of traffic ahead earns a loud blast of their twin horns. Nilanker’s skill in negotiating all this is amazing. There is no way I would contemplate driving here. I love it when someone decides they are going the wrong way. Simple. You do a three point turn on the highway. The cars that can get around you do so, the others stop and let you perform the action. No one gets out of their cars and bashes your windscreen in or kicks the front fender.

Kandy on a Sunday is very crowded, especially as the road we came in on is filled with international colleges that specialise in upskilling secondary students so they can get a better university entrance score or secure an overseas student visa.  The sidewalks (and road verges) were teeming with young people heading too or from classes and progress was very slow, even though the police had taken control and directed traffic.

Eventually, we made our way to the Temple of the Tooth, Kandy’s most famous site. Kandy was the capital of the Kingdom of Sri Lanka before the British took over in 1815. The temple was the previous palace of the Sri Lankan King. Now it is a Buddhist Temple that houses the most famous of relics, a molar from Buddha himself. The relic has been a well documented symbol of Buddhism in Sri Lanka for many centuries, and its possession meant power. Many times it was taken and many times it was hidden away from threat. Even in modern times, it was endangered in 1998 when Tamil separatists known as Tamil Tigers, bombed the chamber that housed the relic. Now it has been moved deeper within the temple and is subject to very high security. Even entering the temple grounds, we had to enter through separate male and female gates so we could be frisk searched.

The temple is very grand, reflecting its former role as a palace. It displays a well presented history of the tooth relic and a great many items associated with its history. It is a very sacred place for Buddhists, as meaningful as the Vatican to Catholics and the collection of murals and ceiling art is on the same level.

From there, it was off to our lodgings, Jack Tree Lodge. Once again, we were the only guests in a very beautiful guesthouse. The people were so friendly and accommodating, but a few more guests would be nice. The other great thing about the accommodation is that it is perched on a high ridge, so amazing views are gained on both sides. We lazed around for a couple of hours before heading out to a Cultural Dance Show. Such shows are to be endured. The content bares an amazing similarity right across SE Asia, and usually involves much drum banging and elaborate costumes. This one was no exception, topped off with some impressive fire dancing, and it was actually very enjoyable. We sat next to a UK couple around our age who were just starting their own tour, in the opposite direction to us.

Nilanka took us up to a restaurant high on the hill with excellent views over the city. We paid a bit more than our usual conservative meal budget but enjoyed a wonderful meal in beautiful surroundings.

Day 11 (June 16) – Sigiriya – We left Kandy with the sense there was more to explore and made the decision that it would be our return destination at the end of the tour. We have built in some time to free explore and we will take a train from Colombo to Kandy to soak up a bit more of this interesting city. The drive out of Kandy was another very   long switchback descent for 50kms or so before emerging onto the plains, still dotted with isolated mountains. It was three temple drive. We keep saying we have seen enough temples but each one is so very different they are worth seeing, a bit like a cathedral tour in Europe.

A large Hindu temple in Matale was a working temple, although under reconstruction. The amazing array of colours and ornate decorations were worth seeing and to have some explanation of the workings from Nilanka was useful.

The second temple was an archaeological site a fusion of Hindu and Buddhist influences dating from the 9^th Century AD. It was very well preserved, probably because the huge stone blocks were carved from a hard granite-like stone rather than the usual softer sandstone.

The third temple was both a working temple and an archaeological site, probably the most famous in Sri Lanka. An enormous rock overhang high on a hill contains numerous buddhas, including three huge reclining buddhas. Unfortunately, to reach it we had to climb. Christine elected to take us by the cobbled pathway rather than the stairs but I’m not sure which was worse. The old legs are starting to protest more on each climb. However, the temple was worth the pain, a glorious testament to the importance of faith to mankind. The cave walls are covered with a staggering array of paintings, many depicting stories from the life of Buddha. Again, it is reminiscent of some of the great cathedral ceilings of Italy. I did find myself wondering if the original painters 1100 years ago found themselves painting over neolithic artwork from prehistory. The overhang is so huge it must have support early human life.

Our accommodation is called the Goddess Gardens, sounding more like a house of pleasure than a homestay. It is actually well named, with gorgeous gardens over a large area, beautiful pool and large well appointed rooms. Nilanka had not been there before and we joked about what we might find as we bumped our way across paddy fields and farmlands to the hostel. For once, we weren’t the only ones staying, with one other room occupied. We lazed away the afternoon with a swim and a snooze, before electing to stay in and eat at the hostel.

Day 12 (June 17) – Sigiriya – Today was one of the highlights. We had a booking with a Sri Lankan Village tour. On the way, we stopped at various places to take in views of the famous Sigiriya Rock, or Lion Rock, a towering slab of granite that looks like it is the plug of an ancient volcano. It is amazing to think that a fortress and rock temple was once constructed on the top. You would have to pity the workers.  It is possible to climb it, but the fee is high and so I elected to climb the slightly smaller neighbouring rock called Pidurangala later in the day.

The village tour is highly touristic but still a wonderful experience, the lunch being the highlight. First, we were loaded into a cart being pulled by an ox along a dusty track to a nearby lake. The ox was a large brahman type bull with horns so ingrown they crossed over. The yoke simply sat between his head and the large hump that they have on the rear of the neck so the keeper ensured that we sat in the right spot to balance the load and put a slight pressure on the neck. The cart was wooden and unsprung, so it was not the most comfortable of rides. The connection between the keeper and the ox was wonderful, the beast looking over often to get directions, and receiving affectionate pats for good work. There was no tugging of leads or touching with sticks at all.

From the cart, we off loaded onto a small catamaran pontoon paddled by two young men. They paddled us around the wetland lake for some time, working hard in the stiffening breeze. We spotted a good variety of bird life, the highlight being a pair of eagles nesting in one of the trees. They one made  Christine a beautiful garland out of a water lily while I was fashioned a weird hat out of a lily pad.

Eventually, they dropped us off on the other side of the lake to a pair of girls who took us into a traditional village house. The half walls were earth/brick while the long pitched roof was made from plaited coconut fronds. It was cool and comfortable. The kitchen was at the rear and consisted of a wood fired earthen stove with holes at the top for placing pots in. As heat was needed to different areas, the burning sticks underneath were moved around. It was highly efficient.

They demonstrated a variety of cooking techniques, getting us to join in with some of the preparation, while they prepared potato curry, sweet potato curry, an amazing coconut sambal, coconut roti, fried snake beans and, my favourite, a wonderful dish made with wild mangoes, which were little bigger than roma tomatoes and very flavoursome. They used hand grindstones to grind millet and flat rock with a round rock to grind ingredients for the sambal. The fish was river fish, Tilapia, cut into portions and deep fried with a rich herb coating.

Finally, we sat down with Nilanker to a meal that  would grace any top restaurant anywhere, such was the variety and quality. That all this was done on a simple wood stove with very basic cooking equipment was amazing. It was a highlight.

After a bit of a snooze back at the Goddess Gardens, I left Christine to swim in the pool and headed out with Nilanker to climb Pidurangala Rock. I was not confident that I would complete the climb, the reviews saying it was very difficult. They weren’t wrong. The steps were steep and very narrow, requiring a sideways foot placement at times. I rested quite a lot to keep the breathing under control but eventually the steps gave way to a broad ledge containing the ruins of an ancient buddhist monastery. Remains of stone walls showed where small cells were constructed under the overhang to house the monks and a earth brick and a mortar covered reclining buddha dates from the 5^th Century AD.

From the monastery, the path was mostly a matter of climbing over rocks, sometimes with the aid of a stout rope. There were quite a few tourists on the rock, climbing late  to catch the sunset view. I was pleased to see that most were a lot younger than me.

Emerging from the rocks onto the top was one of the “Oh wow!” moments as the full vista was exposed, the glorious Sigiriya Rock not far away and the backdrop of other peaks and mountain ranges. A couple of other Aussies of retirement age picked up on my West Coast Eagles shirt and we exchanged a few comments. They apologised for being Collingwood supporters.

The climb down proved much easier and I reached the bottom feeling a lot better than I did with the Little Adams Peak climb in Ella.

The Sigiriya area is very beautiful and rightly holds its place as one of Sri Lanka’s key attractions.

Day 1 (6 June) – Perth-Singapore-Sri Lanka. It is back to the international travel for us, off to Sri Lanka this time. The whole thing went very smoothly, with a bus and train trip to the airport, which is the first time since the train line opened that we have left during civilized hours, and a very quick flow through the formalities of immigration and security. Christine did get carted away for an extra scan because she had a knee brace on, but she didn’t get the full body frisk she was hoping for.
The Singapore Airlines flight to Changi was as good as any economy class can be with a good standard of food and a very generous red wine serving. The in flight movies are becoming tiresome though. As we have found with other airlines, you get around 3 minutes of ads before a show starts, which means if you surf through a few choices before settling on one, you can be subjected to the same pointless set of ads each time you change your mind. Then the announcer keeps interrupting the movie to advertise their in-flight duty free shop. It helps to have a few backup things on your own device.

Negotiating our way through Changi airport was easier than many other times because we were true “transit” and didn’t have to do immigration. It was only a short walk to the skytrain link from terminal 3 to Terminal 2 and we were soon settled in for the 2 hour wait for the next plane. The aircraft was big, but packed to the brim and many passengers had 3 or 4 items of hand luggage. How does this happen? We are always so careful to follow the rules but we are a minority it seems. With a time change coming up in Colombo, we adjusted our watches and tried to ignore the fact that we would really get there around 3am and had a small meal on the plane, refusing the main offerings. Then it was more dozing, watching stuff on the seat back screen and being aware of a gradual but persistent loss of mobility and feeling in the legs. Somehow we made it and got through Sri Lankan immigration and customs with no issues. They make a big thing of having an Electronic Travel Authority system where you have to go on-line and fill out lots of stuff only scammers should know. The main part is paying the $US52 each. Of course, Australians are visa free entry, you just need the ETA. The guy at the immigration counter didn’t even read it.
We were met by our driver, Nilanka, and taken a short drive to our stay in Negombo, the Optimum Residences. It was very late when we got there so we were shown straight to our room and we collapsed in a blissful sleep.

Day 2 (7 June) – Negombo – We expected to sleep late but ended up being first to breakfast at 8am. Able to scope out the surroundings in daylight, we found the Optimum Residences to be composed of two buildings of rooms and one large family home and office all set in beautiful gardens. The breakfast lounging area is next to a lovely swimming pool, with another outside our room. The rooms are basic, clean and comfortable. Breakfast was a wonderful buffet of mostly local foods and fruit, with enough variety to satisfy most tastes.

With breakfast out of the way, Nilanka arrived and we planned our day. Still needing some catch up sleep, we opted for afternoon excursions and we spent the morning in the pool or dozing. We were surprised to find the AFL matches on TV via ABC Australia so we watched Geelong demolish Gold Coast.
In the afternoon, it was off in the car to find an ATM. All our money is on a card (Wise) which has international currency exchange built in. We had very little in the way of Australian cash and no Sri Lankan Rupees. Concern set in when we got knock backs from three ATMs, uncertain as to whether the fault lay with our card or the ATM services being offered. Finally, we found a money changer and changed a $A50 note to give us something. Then we tried a supermarket where we could try out the card with purchases. No problem. Just cash withdrawal did not work.
Moving on we went down to the beach area, quite crowded it being a Saturday, and tried a restaurant with the card. Again no problems and they suggested that we try the ATM down the road, which was probably more tourist oriented. To our great joy, it issued us some cash. The bulk of our purchases will be with card, but cash is still needed at times.

We spent a lovely couple of hours at the beach side restaurant, sampling some delicious cuttlefish, a not so good but still filling local dish called kottu, like a noodle stir fry but with sliced up roti substituting for the noodles and, of course, quite a bit of beer to wash it all down. There was a lot of activity on the beach, with volleyball games and food trucks. The sea was quite unsettled but there didn’t seem to be much interest in swimming. As the restaurant began gearing up for live music and young people, we found our driver and headed home, happy that we were solvent again.

Day 3 (8 June) Negombo – It was a very early start with Nilanka arriving at 5:45 to pick us up to go to the fish markets. The early start is because they only run until around 7am, to ward off the heat of the day. They were amazing markets, with a lot of quality fish on display, all recently caught. Most fish were the same or very similar to our own northern species. There were a lot of bonito displayed and a few very large yellowfin tuna. Prawns were also a feature, from tiny river shrimps to large fresh tiger prawns. We saw no squid at all, but a great many cuttlefish. Apart from the obvious smell of fresh fish, the place not difficult to put up with, as many Asian fish markets are, probably due to the lack of dried fish, which is at a different market.

We walked onto the nearby bridge to watch the local fishing. It was well organized. The tide was running out hard and each fisherman had a little container attached to a cord to hold their live baits. Most used rods and reels with a simple rig to run a live bait down into the current. We saw one happy guy cart off three very large mangrove jacks towards the markets and there was also a beautiful barramundi around a metre long tied up on a cord and swimming in the current to keep it alive and fresh. It is a sign of a healthy fishery, with so much available in the markets and still available to catch locally.
Then it was back to the guest house for breakfast. We have researched many of the offerings that were unfamiliar and we found that much of the breakfast was made up of Sri Lankan street foods, pan roll, string hoppers, pittu and sweet pancake. Everything we tried was delicious and not too spicy, although I think the chili had been wound back a bit for the international guests.
The rest of the morning was spent relaxing in the pool before the Eagles – North Melbourne match. We watched the first half in our room then moved to the restaurant for lunch and to continue the game. The staff rushed around to get the TV working and to place an air con unit in front of us. We were in heaven, despite the eventual score. We feel like royalty sometimes. The staff can’t do too much and always with a big smile.
In the late afternoon, Nilanka picked us up and took us to Angurukaramulla Temple, a large Buddhist Temple complex that had an amazing visual display depicting the life of Buddha and the growth of the religion. Negombo is largely a Catholic city, but Buddhism will be dominant as we move on.
Next, it was the site of the old Dutch fort, much of which is now used as a prison. The original fort dated from the 1600s and built by the Portuguese, destroyed and rebuilt by the Dutch then taken over by the British. It is a story repeated throughout Asia.

Nearby is the fish drying area, where a big expanse of flat beach is devoted to drying fish on reed matting. It is heavily salted and sun dried, before packaging for distribution around Sri Lanka and beyond. There were anchovies, scad, mackerel and tuna being dried. Remarkably, the smell was quite bearable. I was amazed that the whole thing wasn’t a mass of birds feasting on the fish, but apart from the odd egret wolfing down some, the crows left the fish alone and there are no gulls anywhere in sight. I think it is the only place in the world I have been without gulls of some form.
We cruised the beach area again, very crowded on a Sunday evening, with many locals out in their finery. We stopped at a restaurant called Fish and Chips, partaking in a wonderful prawn curry and crab curry each. The main dish was supported with bowls of sambal, fried onions, potato curry and another sauce we couldn’t identify. Very, very delicious and rather messy to eat. We left feeling full. The evening was spent watching the Men’s French Open Final.

Day 4 (9 June) Colombo and Hillanka – We are on the move. The decision to stay three nights at Negombo was a good one. While the city itself is not a “must see” place, the chance to really relax after a very hectic few months has been good and the Optimum Residences is a fantastic place to stay.
It seemed to take an age to get out of Negombo, fighting tuk-tuks, motorbikes and pushbikes all the way. The lines on the road seem to mean nothing. It is not uncommon for several vehicles to make a new lane straddling a double white line. It isn’t a matter of the odd near miss, everything is a near miss. We have not seen any actual contact to date. Once on the motorway (toll), the 30 odd km to Colombo soon disappeared.
Colombo is a mix of old, messy, crowded and grubby, along with ultra modern stunning high rise buildings and wide open plazas down on the beach front. Our driver took us around all aspects. At one stage, we got caught in a traffic jam due to a Hindu parade, part of a festival. We toured the Huge Gangaramaya Buddhist Temple. While the many carvings and buddhas were stunning, the thing of special interest was the collection of donations made over the years and stored for display. People donated something of value as an act of devotion. Nothing is sold, but everything is displayed. There were a couple of 1930s Rolls Royces, numerous mounted elephant tusks, some mazing ebony furniture with ivory inlays, a whole showcase with Rolex watches just piled in and a ridiculous amount of jewelry. There was even a case of guns that looked like a weapons buy-back program.

The Colombo Museum was interesting. It is laid out in a chronological order, starting with pre-history and working through to British colonialism. What I learnt was the extent to which the Dutch rule had an influence, lasting over a Century and having a significant impact on architectural styles and furniture fashions still in use today. We stopped briefly at Independence Square, a monument to the end of British rule in 1948.

Getting out of Colombo and heading south proved harder than Negombo. The traffic was insane but eventually, we made it to the Ahungalla area on the beach and stopped at a Turtle Conservation Project. There are many of these operating and appear to be a tourist thing at first glance. However, the logic makes sense. Five species of turtles nest regularly along the open beaches of the coast. The eggs were hunted for food to the extent that actual hatchings and natural attrition due to predation could not keep up and all species were threatened. The system now is that there are many hatcheries set up along the coast, and people can dig up the eggs when the nesting is observed, take them to a hatchery and get paid for them. The hatchery places them in temperature controlled sand pits and releases the hatchlings in darkness to promote survival. As well as this, they take in injured turtles until ready for return to the sea. It was interesting to see fifty or so day-old hawks bill turtles all on the seaward side of their pond trying to satisfy their natural instinct to reach the ocean.

We stopped for a short while at a monument built by the Japanese in memory of those lost in the Tsunami of 2004, which resulted in over 30,000 deaths in Sri Lanka alone and many more in Indonesia and Thailand. The site was where a train was inundated. The pictures on display brought back memories of those very sad times.

 

 

A short distance away was the Madu River mangrove complex, a huge expanse of shallow water teeming with life. We took a “boat safari”. These tours annoy us. They are always horribly over-priced and we see far less than the average day in Shark Bay. However, this was a surprise. Within minutes, we were up close and personal with a large water monitor swimming across the river. Then we started spotting the numerous brilliantly coloured kingfishers, being lucky enough to see one snaffle a fish from the water. We saw many white-breasted sea eagles, darts, egrets and amazing tiny terns, that followed in the boats wake and dived to grab any small fish disturbed by the propellor. It was all action. The boat stopped off at an island where cinnamon is grown. We always thought it was the outer bark taken, but it is an inner layer of bark that is carefully sliced off, as demonstrated by an old man. The smell is amazing. Another interesting feature is that the river is criss-crossed with large ropes strung at the water level. These act as speed bumps, because the boats are forced to slow and raise their outboard motors to get over them, thereby reducing the wash that causes bank erosion. All in all, it was a fun tour and worth the money.

By the time we settled in the Finlanka Hotel in Hikkaduwa, we were all in. We dragged ourselves to the beachfront two hundred metres or so away and ate an unsatisfactory meal (our first poor meal in Sri Lanka) at a waterside restaurant and consumed a very satisfactory beer. Early to bed.