Karen's ring has really hurt my pocket but it's her birthday and she deserves it. Ever since arriving here she has been wanting a Sri Lankan Sapphire. They are counted as the best quality on earth. As such a nice one commands a "nice" price. Now I don't like spending money. I don't consider myself tight but more careful when it comes to fiscal matters. As such we have looked at a few jewelers on our travels. I have been dragged into quite a few small independent shops as we have wandered around. Some of them the prices seemed crazy for small businesses. It seemed to my mind that some of the "genuine" stones they were selling were worth more than the shop premises.
I know nothing about gems. I can't tell the difference between a genuine gem stone worth thousands and glass worth nothing. However this significant purchase has prompted us to do a little research and we now feel a bit more knowledgeable on the subject. Not clever enough to make a purchase without advice or assurance. I researched the different jewellers locally and found one that sounded promising. All the little shops we had visited had zero security but claimed to be carrying stock worth a lot of money. This one we chose had security on the car park, and the gem room was situated inside the main store behind several locked doors. It was like an Aladdins cave. Crispy spoke to the young lady about the type of ring she would like. She started by opening the safes and showing us an array of the precious blue stones. The starting gambit was over £3000 just for the gem. And it didn't look particularly large. The ring to hold it would be extra and would have to be made to fit. After an hour and a lesson on Sapphire she chose a suitable already completed ring. 1.6 ct Blue Sapphire with white Sapphire collars. A bespoke one would have been nice but would have taken a minimum of 2 days to make and by which time we would be miles away.
Suffice to say she is now a happy puppy and I am a lot poorer. But as long as Crispy is happy so am I.
As a footnote the guy took a yellow Sapphire from the safe to show us. It was about the size of a 10p piece and he valued it at £48000. I'm so glad she didn't like it. He also showed us some Sapphire in the rough before cutting. They just looked like small pebbles or sea glass. If I'd have found them on the beach I'd probrably have skimmed them to see how many times they bounced.
After acquiring the ring we headed to our next destination. Dikwala. A beachfront room overlooking turtle bay. It is here that we hope to snorkel and swim with the turtles. It's not a tourist trap but a simple gorgeous bay with a few rooms and resteraunt. The turtles just seem to like it here as the water in the bay is calm. We settled in under blue skies and I snorkelled. There were plenty of coloured fish but no turtle. I spoke to a young resteraunt owner who advised that the turtle tend to come into the bay in the morning. We will try again tomorrow. In the afternoon the dreaded clouds glided slowly over and obscured the sun once more. No rain but grey skies. This weather is really unusual for January and the local guys are baffled. Still it's hot, beautiful and better than freezing our bits off at Crispy HQ. I do however feel a cheeky week coming on in March. Don't tell Crispy!!!
Bare and Crispy signing off Dikwala, Sri Lanka
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