Letters of Malcolm William Keshan, 1940 (Part 11)

Sgt. KESHAN
Nx 11067
214
SAG 

2/4 Bn. 4th Reinf
A.I.F.
Abroad
Dear Dot,
Just a few lines to let you know
how everything is going darl.
To start with in the letters you have
had previous to this one the port I mentioned
was Fremantle. Up to date we have only
called at two ports, and I did tell you a
little about Fremantle and Perth so I won't
repeat it all over again it would only bore
you.
Well after leaving Fremantle it was just plain
sailing until we reached Colombo, on the way
we had a little celebration when we crossed
the line (Equator) we had a Father Neptune
and a bit of a muck up. I referred to
it in my last letter, I don't know if you
understood it or not.
 

(2)
Here goes darl, we pulled into Colombo very
early one morning, and by 10 o'clock the same
morning, we found ourselves landed, they have
to bring you ashore in punts as there are
no wharves, and all shipping just anchors in
the harbour, anyhow there we were, for the rest
of the day.
The first thing we got to know were the
native beggars there are hundreds of them
and it didn't matter where we went we seemed
to be surrounded by them asking for pennies.
We were shown a great time, by the white
residents of Colombo, and I was very lucky
as an English Lady and he daughter asked us
to come for a drive with them and they
would show us the sights. Well we certainly
had a good time and I don't think there
was one realy interesting thing in Colombo
worth seeing that we missed. One of the
things we visited was the Budha Temple, and
before we were allowed to go in we had
 

(3)
to remove our shoes as no person is allowed
in wearing same, before we came out we
were given a flower of the Temple each
for luck. From there we drove around to
the Race Course, and its just a good as
Randwick if not better, but then that wouldn't
interest you would it? After giveing it the
once over, we went to the Cinnamon Gardens,
and believe me they are something you don’t
see every day, I don't know just how to explain
them Dot, I've never seen anything so beautiful
(except you) before they are very interesting also
actually, I think, you would have to see
them to get any idea what they are like they
couldn't be explained, in the centre of the
gardens they have a flower house, flowers
don't interest me much as a rule, but
this place is full of Orchids, and there
was not two the same, it took me
good half hour to just walk through the
place, I bet if it had been you, you
 

(4)
would have still been there. They were all
sizes, shapes, smells, and colours, they were that
gorgeous that I felt like getting one and
sending it home to you.
As luck would have it during our stay
in Colombo it was dull most of the time
and although I got some spa snap of the
gardens etc. I don't think they will come out very
well.
We went around to where there were coconut
trees after we left then and our friend got
a native to climb the tree after nuts for
us. You would think he was a fly to see
him do it. We also visited the Town Hall
and I was very surprised at the size of it
it appears to be a lot bigger than ours.
After just having a swift look at all
the other buildings of any importance we
were invited to our friend's place for lunch
it was a lovely big place and was also
surrounded by nice gardens, all the houses
 

5
around Colombo seem to be the same, that is
of course except in the native quarters which
are just the opposite, when we got there
we met two other young ladies, we just sat
in the shade and talked for two hours, and
after an invitation to go to a dance that night
we decided to walk around town on our own.
We had not walked far, when one of us
go a bright idea of hiring a rickshaw, and
having a race which was no sooner said
than done, the people must have thought
we were drunk, or mad, tearing from one
end of the town to the other, but it was fun
the natives can run for hours with out a stop
and they never seem to get tired.
Actually it was much better walking about
than riding as you saw much, you would be
walking down the street with natives trying
to sell you something or other every step you
take, when you might see something of interest
 in a window, and naturally we stopped
 

6
to have a look, well before you knew what
happened a native would rush out, and start
saying, yes master very nice very cheap, you
come inside master I show you very nice very
cheap souvenir Colombo then he would try ll to
leed you in, no matter what you said they would
answer yes master you come inside, when they
got you in they would try to sell you the shop
just about, and there seemed to be no such word
as no. This happened a terrible lot and most
of the shops were jewellers, I was tempted a few
times the only trouble is you don't know what
is genuine and what's not, and besides if I sent
anything to Sydney they would probably charge
duty on it.
The natives seem to get more pleasure out
at making a bargain for something than selling
it at the price they ask. They rogue you if
possible though and you would find in most
cases that if they wanted a £1 for something
you could beat them down to 10/- or even less
 

(7)
Although very simple, the currency gave me
pain in the neck before I had finished
the trouble was the natives trying to rogue
you all the time, they would do their best
to get you confused 1 Rupee is about 2/-, 50cents
1/- and 10 cents / 2 1/2, the natives only talked in
Rupee's it was always 3 Rup when you priced
anything not 2 Rup 50 cents.
When they do any work, the natives get very
little pay they work all day for 75 cents the
whole 24 hrs.
Before leaving the boat we were warned
not to go into the native quarters alone, so
my cabin mate and myself thought we would
stroll through and look around, they have
funny little shops, very untidy, but they sell
almost anything we had not been there long
however before we decided to leave, and
return later when it had got a bit quiet
actually it was funny, we were walking
along with a whole herd of kiddies following
 

AUSTRALIAN IMPERIAL FORCE
PASSED BY CENSOR 493

Sydney 11-AM 20 Nov 1940 N.S.W. AUST.
DEFENCE NOPOST
 

Miss. D. Williams.
37 Byrnes St
Bexley.
Via Sydney.
Australia
JBWells

2

S.A.G