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Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

House foundations.
near the airport - nowhere near Kandy.
No, and everybody asks that question.
Obviously affordable or I couldn't have bought it :) Like most Asian countries exorbitant in the capital, but cheap outside. You can own outright, which is rare for the region, and they cancelled the 100% foreigner surcharge a couple of years ago thought the xenophobes are now petitioning the new government to put it back.

Teacher in Rome · Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Posts: 1286

Stephen

How did you find the land-buying process? Do you speak Tamil? (I'm assuming, maybe wrongly, that this is the language spoken in Sri Lanka.)

I've seen references to Sri Lanka on some of your previous posts, and was wondering if you have very close connections to the place.

There can't be many places where foreigners own land outright, as you say.

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

The official language is Sinhala. Tamil is also spoken, but I did everything in English. You can get public documents drawn up in Sinhala, Tamil or English in Sri Lanka and all three had validity. I had an English speaking lawyer, whom I'd dealt with on previous occasions. He was of course one of the most expensive in Sri Lanka :)

The process was long drawn out but straightforward. I had been there many times before and had a friend looking out for land for me, and he had come across the land I bought even before I arrived for the holiday. It still took about eight weeks to arrange the sale however, with checking out the land registiy for the history going back fifty years, and then getting copies of old surveys, and checking out the identltiy of the seller, and getting the surveyor to repartition, and then getting that agreed by the town council. If I hadn't been paranoid I could have done it a lot quicker and cheaper. It then took some time to get the deeds back from the land registry, and then getting planning permission took a couple of months though that was very straightforward and the town council was incredibly hellpful.

The next step is building. I've started on it, but its a long job. At the moment the problem is the price of sand. They have just changed government, and they are getting serious about protecting the river basins (or simply haven't worked out what bribes to take from the sand dredgers - your degree of cyncism will let you choose which explanation to take) so the price of sand for construction has gone throught the roof.

Bindair Dundat · Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Posts: 1123

I am impressed with your dedication to your vision, Mr. Jones. My first foray outside of my own country was to Sri Lanka, many years ago. I spent some time in Lunawa, Kandy, Hikkaduwa, and at Bogawantalawa, high in the tea country. I still get wistful when I think it.

Ever run across this?

http://lakdiva.org/clarke/

BD

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

For some of the best photographs of Asia, and Sri Lanka in particular go to http://www.dominicsansoni.com

khmerhit · Posted: Fri May 14, 2004 10:07 pm Post subject:

nice pics on both sites--however I did notice a GLARING OMISSION---
it starts with a c and ends with an a, and i dont mean canuckistan or california............

cambodia. try it and see. Surprised

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Stephen, the price of sand is expensive?
Pssst go to the beach with a big bucket and spade. Last time I was in Lanka there was loads of the stuff on the beach. I'm sure they won't miss a little.

Aramas · Posted: Sat May 15, 2004 11:42 am Post subject:

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

Sea sand is no good. Too saline. The erosion to the river banks is such that they are talking about using sea sand and treating it to get rid of the salinity.

Even standard sand doesn't work - if it did I could just use what we dug up to make the foundations in the first place. Has at least 5% dirt, and that's way too much.

As you've been in the Gulf you may have noticed concrete steps that crumble after two or three years. This can be because they put in too much sand and not enough cement (which was a common practise when sand was a lot cheaper than cement) but is more probably the result of using the wrong kind of sand.

In Saudi they ship sand for buildng from the Empty Quarter. With the current property boom they got worried they might exhaust the available suppiles and banned the export of sand (which was a disaster for Bahrain). It caused considerable amusement in many news sources.

zaneth · Posted: Sat May 15, 2004 7:29 pm Post subject:

Isn't there some kind of low tech way of washing the sand or seperating it? Or way too much work?

They're laying a lot of brick sidewalks around here lately. They pack the sand down, lay the stones, and then spread sand to fill in the cracks. Looks like an interesting process. Why I find it interesting, I don't know. So simple. I saw some guys doing this in London once and they told me it was "sharp" sand. Some kind of special sand that tended not to slide or shift. I imagine it has to be produced somehow.

What's the traditional housebuilding method in Sri Lanka? Any native stone around?

Magoo · Joined: 31 Oct 2003 Posts: 651 Location: Wuhan, China

Yup-sharp sand. Brush it in, tamp it down with a whacker plate and, voila! Cheap and fast (although my old 'traveller' boss overcharged beautifully). If a brick breaks, just lift it out and replace it. If we did this more in London, our casualty departments wouldn't have so many little old ladies with broken hips, but will they listen to me...?