Colombo, Ceylon

Monday, July 8, 1929

Today was a hard one, but mostly on the pocketbook. Plenty of ships through here, but they aren’t cheap. Received a check from Dad, but don’t know where the next will be. If not in Singapore, I am very nearly flat again and will probably have barely enough to take me to Siam where there is another check. Thus the only thing to do was to take the first ship out and the cheapest. That happened to be a Jap ship on the N.Y.K. Line, leaving the 9th or 10th. Passage third class was Rs 124, or £9, or $45.88, so I took it without food for £7/4 or $35.52. It’s only a six-day run and the boat is the S.S. Hakusan Maru [sunk by USS Flier 4 June 1944]. I hate to tear away from Ceylon this way without going to Kandy to see more of it, but I seem continually between the devil and the deep blue sea. [OK, here’s the songor two!]

The worst of the monsoon is due here about the first part of August. At present the skies are very cloudy every day and rain falls intermittently throughout the day. A strong wind from the west cools the temperature to about 82° and at night much cooler. The ocean isn’t exactly what you would call smooth. I predict some fun en route to Singapore for the N.Y.K. boats are not so large, most of them.

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