Item 01: Irene Victoria Read letters from her husband, 27 November 1914-1 November 1915 - Page 83
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 83]
Copy sent to Mother
(No 12)
Troopship Kyarra"
Alexandria Egypt
17 Jany. 1915
My dearest old Mrs.,
I think I ended up my last letter telling you of our safe arrival at Colombo on 26th December. On the 27th most of the officers & nurses went ashore before breakfast & got the early train to Kandy, having breakfast on the train on the way up. Major Grey & I went ashore after breakfast. I first went along to Cook's office to find out the times of arrival of the Demosthenes at intermediate ports – I then went to the telegraph office & cabled to you "Well, cable Colombo your movements" I left instructions for them to forward any reply to the Kyarra. We then did the sights of the town in rickshaws. We first visited the fruit & vegetable markets & here sampled many queer articles of diet. We then went out to a Buddhist temple & saw a reclining figure of Buddha 18 feet long. Our [indecipherable] wanted us to take off our boots & enter the holy of holies but we did not think the game was worth the [indecipherable] We visited quire a number of odd corners in this temple & at each corner was a priest with shaven head & yellow mantle. They each had something to show us & at the end of the showing the plate was handed round for our offering! If this pleased them they beamed on us