Colombo randomness - with * L O V E *

September is knocking on the door, and so is "a daily Colombo grind". Well I mean.....how daily grind'ish can it really get, when you're still getting totally thrilled by the fact that the temperature never dives below 25+, that you can stack up on exotic fruits for what you pay for 2 kg over fertilized mushy apples in Netto in DK, and when - even though daily rutines of course are a part of my life, I still get to be pleasently surpriced ever so often by the Sri Lankan way of going about life, and by how every day spend here, allows me to get just a tad deeper into the culture I'm in and surrounded by.

I'm here, all alone for the time being. My darling roommate - and landlord :) - Michelle, is still in her other home coutry Down Under visiting familiy, friends and taking some well deserved time off, so I think for the next few weeks, I'm still on my own. It was the plan, until very recently, that I should only stay here temporarily, but I guess those plans have changed :) Michelle and I have both grown quite fond of the "roomie concept" - and each other of course, and so I have gladly accepted her generous offer of staying here, instead og finding a place for three months.

Her appartement is in the same building as the office where I work, so in that sense it is also very convenient. The area where it is located is called Bambalapitiya, and is an area of central Colombo. So I'm pretty close to everything. That being said, close has a different meaning than back in DK. A place may only be 5-10 minutes in a three-wheeler, but walking the distance would be highly unthinkable! Well, when the sun is out I'm glad to work - eventhough people think I'm NUTS, but after sunset, you hardly see anyone walking here. It's not that I feel unsafe, but I guess walking, just isn't the best way to get around, 'cause you never know.... Sad fact, I guess, but just how it is here. Actually, I'm really surpriced by how little "life" you see in general on the streets at night.

This Saterday, I went to a jazz concert at Barefoot (I tried to warp you down so many times Lea - you would really have LOVED it), and I headed home around 11.00 - streets almost completely abandoned. I saw the occasional Tuc tuc, but apart from that - empty streets (Oh yeah, this particular Saterday, you would also have seen me standing on the side of the road, while the tuc tuc driver tried to fix the flat tire!!! )This is in a Capital that counts around 2.2 mil. inhabitants....

Anyhow, Saterday I spent some of the day on the backseat of Chamin's three-wheeler (he's a sweet tuc tuc owner, who's reliable, not a hustler, and he takes pride and joy in keeping his "wheels" in MINT condition!). I went around town, visited a few temples, and, I'm afraid, a few of the shops, I've already come to know some what well ;)

Colombo truly is a place worth visting. The tourists that have come here within the past years, seem to have went straight from the airport to either beach or high lands, and that's a shame, I think.

Snapshot of the concert on Saterday - especially for you, Lea :)

Today, I've went to my first, long awaited, yoga class. It was just FAAAAANTASTIC. I won't spend much time elaborating on it now, because the class, and the amazing 65+ plus female teacher!!!!, really deserves a paragraph of its own. But it was just lovely - and: it's 3 times a week at 350 Rps per class - Yoga happy :)

At the last moment, I have to say, that even though being here is full of adventure and a lot of exciting 'first's', there is great downside to this "being abroad" situation.... Skype is a good thing no doubt, but when life shows one of its ugly sides to someone you hold close to your heart, Copenhagen and Denmark is a loooooooooooong way from Colombo! In general really, being away from the ones you love, is the price you pay, I guess. Most of the time it's okay - thanks to Skype, but sometimes longing and missing creeps in on you! Skype or no Skype, it's just to damn far, when all you really want is to be there FOR REAL. Leaves me feeling very powerless. All I can do, is send ALL my LOVE and compassion - and that is exactly, what I will do, hoping it reaches its destination in some way or another.

Hørt på kontoret....

Jeg afviger lige lidt fra tidligere, og skriver denne lille pudsige oplevelse på dansk - jeg er ikke så sikker på, at landsmændene her, vil syntes det er helt så morsomt som jeg finder det. Har i hvert fald ikke lyst til at tage chancen :)

Jeg sidder og arbejder i formiddags, da kontorets te-wallah (selvom det vist er i Indien de kalder dem det) kommer forbi. Han fungerer også som kontorets bud, og går bla. dagligt på posthuset. I går fik han lidt med fra mig, og det slog mig, da han nu igen kom forbi, at jeg ville spørge ham, om det var muligt at få ham til at sende et par DVD'er jeg igår købte til én derhjemme, jeg ved, elsker alt, der indeholder ordene: action, Hollywood, Sci-Fi - og sikkert også Megan Fox og dets lige ;). Vores te-wallah er sød, smilende og imødekommende, men jeg fandt så ud af, at hans engelskkundskaber stopper ret brat efter; tea madam', yes madam', thank you madam' -hvorfor mit dvd projekt ikke rigtigt kunne komme så meget videre.
Jeg spurgte derfor Pradeep, som er en af mine 3 mandlige kollegaer, jeg deler kontor med, og den af de tre, der taler mest til mig uden jeg først stiller ham et spørgsmål (misforstå mig endelig ikke, jeg er sikker på, at det er et par rare gutter, og at vore forhold nok skal udvikle sig positivt over de næste måneder. Der er allerede sket meget på den ene måned jeg har været her; de fniser f.eks. ikke længere som tre små skolepiger, når jeg går forbi).
Nå men jeg spurgte så Pradeep, om jeg bare skulle gå på posthuset for at købe en af de der bobbelkuverter? Han spurgte så, hvad jeg skulle med den?Og jeg svarede -prøvede virkelig mit bedste på ikke at lyde sarkstisk -at jeg skulle sende noget, nærmere betegnet; nogle DVD'er til Anker i København. "Sende DVD'er....?!?!? Jamen, det kan man altså ikke bare sådan liiiiiiige", lød svaret. Lettere forundret måtte jeg jo be' ham om at uddybe, og det viser sig så, at man godt kan sende dem, MEN - og det er et af de større MEN'ER:
Først skal man forbi Ministeriet for medier, hvor de skal se alle dvd'erne igennem, for at tjekke at de kun indeholder det de sir' de gør. I mit tilfælde; Transformers, Iron Man, Public Enemy og noget med nogle Watch Men - okay, måske var de ikke gået igennem alligevel.... Fornemmer en undertone af alternativ krigsførelse måske?!.
Derefter skal man forbi Forsvarsministeriet, hvor man skal have fat i endnu en godkendelse. OG SÅ kan man komme på posthuset og sende dem!!!!

Det er altså én af dem jeg ikke lige glemmer med det samme

Så jeg må jo desværre meddele min Honey, at det jeg havde tænkt, han kunne bruge som tidsfordriv til en kold, våd, dansk søndag ikke når frem i denne omgang !
Men det er jo også tanken, der tæller :)

Weekend get away - Galle & Unawatuna

5 O'clock Friday morning... Alarm clock is ringing, and I know this particular day will be full of new adventures. 6 O'clock, I had arrange for my new favorite tuc tuc guy to come pick me up - heading for the train station. The streets of Colombo are very peaceful at that time in the morning, still we managed to get stopped twice at check-points, though! Getting a train ticket really shouldn't cause a lot of trouble, you would think. In theory it didn't, but there was a very looong queue to buy one. Thought it was better to be on the safe side, since time was a bit short, so I asked the man in front of me, if this was the line for Galle, he said it was, so I kept my place and waited 3o minutes to buy the ticket. When my turn finally came the clerk ended up telling me, I was in the wrong line after all!!!! Well thank you Mr.! Anyways, in the end I got the ticket as well as the last seat on the train. Thank god for that, it would have been a long train ride otherwise. Top speed must have been approx 50 Km/h, so even though 120 km isn't very far, it still took almost 4 hours to get to Galle. The journey was nice though, very beautiful and so green it almost hurt my eyes :) Took so many pictures, but my camera karma here is not very good, I've discovered! I took around 70 pictures on the train and in Galle, wanting to sort them out a bit at night, I accidentally hit the "erase ALL" button instead of "erase ONE" -NICE GOING, STUPID! So, no more train shots and no more Galle shots. Gives me a reason to go again though - gotta look at it on the bright side, no?

So, getting into Galle, I went to see some of the cricket match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Cricet is THE sport in Sri Lanka, so I figured, I have to get acquaited with it - not so easy though. Not on my own anyways. Next time there's a match in Colombo, I will need to bring some kind of "Cricket interpreter".

In Galle, they have a big Fort, which was built first by the Portuguese and then modified by the Dutch during the 17th century. It is is on the UNESCO list of World Monuments - http://www.fortgalle.com/, if anyone should be curious :)

Very nice sight, and one I would have loved to share, buuuuuut - these are part of "the no longer existing" photos!

From there only a short tuc tuc ride to Unawatuna, and that's were I went and stayed until Sunday. Such a lovely beach - picturesque,laid-back and a place I have a feeling, I'll definitely be going back to!

If anyone ever find themselves in Sri Lanka, I can highly recommend the place. In particular, you should drop by PEACELAND just below the temple sight. This place is run by Kheerti, who is a hospitable, extremely accomodating and easy going Sri Lankan, who can tell you everything about the area, about Buddhism, about living in Sri Lanka or what ever you feel like chatting about, really. There are of course many nice spots to hang out in Unawatuna, but this place is quite unique -located in the nook of the lagoon, by the mouth of a small river and just below the temple -and it is NICE. To make it even better, PEACELAND has specialized in all sorts of delicious, tropical ice cream desserts - YUM :)

I met up with some of the girls from the Australian High Commision and Andrea, who is working for US Aid, on Saturday, chillin at the beach, having sun set drinks at another nice spot on the beach and just relaxed really. Sunday at noon, we drove back to Colombo - fully recharged.

Really felt like a vacation, eventhough it was only for 2 nights :)

Perahera in Dehiwala

" Esala Perahera is the grand festival of Esala held in Sri Lanka. It is very grand with elegant costumes. Happening in July or August in Kandy, it has become a unique symbol of Sri Lanka. It is a Buddhist festival consisting of dances and richly-decorated elephants. There are fire-dances, whip-dances, Kandian dances and various other cultural dances. The elephants are usually adorned with lavish garments."

Two very sweet collegues of mine, invited me to go to the Perahera in the part of Colomboo called Dehiwela - to those of you in Copenhagen, it is just a part of the city like eg. Vesterbro, Nørrebro etc. Virgina and Ladikha came to pick me up at 7 pm, and introduced me to the buses in Colombo! So now, I can also cross that of my to do list! VERY cheap way of getting around, but I'm pretty sure I would really lost, really quickly, if I ventured out on my on! Anyways, as we approached the area the crowd just grew and grew. We went to temple first, where we got a glimpse of the preparation work. It was supposed to start at 9, but as everything else, it started at 9 pm "Sri Lankan time", which meant quarter to 10. We had found a place to stand, along with the other 1 billion people who had shown up (at least ;) ). And finally, the Perahera began, and it included everything that is stated in the qutation above: richly-decorated elephants, fire-dances, whip-dances, Kandian dances and several others, I'm not sure how to describe.

It was a nice experience - though, very hot, very crowded and chaotic at times. What I'm sure wasn't part of the Perahera, but also took place, was an elephant on the loose! People all of the sudden fleed the scene lightningly fast, apparently because one of the elephants didn't really feel like parading anymore! Talk about legging it! Also the fight that the men next to me all of a sudden got it to - not part of the parade, though amusing ;-) 5 minutes after, they were all smiles again!

http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/08/15/fea03.asp The link is for a newspaper articel that covers the event.

Walking in single file all the way from Perahera to Galle road - aprox. 2-3 km's.

Made it home at 2 am - completely BUSTED - after a tuc tuc ride with the Perahera crew, Virginia and Ladikha, Virginia's mum, dad, younger sister and brother,who we met in our way back.

And yes, a tuc tuc is much more roomy than you would think; 7 persons - not a problem ;-)

Two weeks since departure....

....And still loving every minute of it :)

I think Colombo is the kind of place that grows on you. This is by no means the most beautiful city I've vistited, but for some reason it seems to take hold on me even with all the dust, noise, check points, and everything that falls in between. I didn't take the picture myself (still waiting to see if my camera is fixable!) Anyway, I don't think, I would be brave enough to take a picture of these guys. I mean, even though someone told me that a lot of them don't have bullets in their guns, they still seem some what intimidating to me !

Had a funny experience on Sunday though. I was walking through the city from the outskirts, where I spent the day at the beach (talk about the perfect Sunday outing!). I decided to walk back on the main road, so I did - with my Ipod and Jay Kay keeping me company. Walked and walked, passing a few check points as I got closer to the city center. When I was almost home, I passed another check point, where 2 police officers were sitting by a desk doing what ever it is they do. The one stopped me, pointing to my ears, and on reflex I gave him my ear thing'ies so he could hear, what I were listening to. He came across as pretty stern to me; listening for a few seconds, asking me where I was going, and I expected him wanting to see my passport (which is the normal procedure) Instead he asked me, where I was from, and when I answered, he beamed at me and I swear, it was like looking at a totally different man! Turns out that the man has a sister in Dk, he gets so excited that he tries to call her, so I can say "Hi" to a fellow countryman! To my luck, she didn't answer :)

From there, I got a loooooooong chit chat, and 15 minutes later, I ended up leaving there with his sister Dk number: "if you ever need anything Sri Lankan when you get back, just call Renuka and she will take care of it" - his personal cell number: "When you go to the highlands, call me before booking a hotel, and I'll get you a better rate", and not to forget, the number for the policestation where he's an inspektor (which is nice to have, I admit, but hopefully it wont ever come in handy!). What I would really like to know though, is the number of people working for the military and the police here. I would think the number is enormous! You simply see them all over the place!

So what to make of that....Well, only that it is a good example of the genuine interest and hospitality you meet here, and I guess just a peculiar incident, I won't forget any day soon!

Anyways, my weekend included going to an area called Pettah, which I thought was a restricted market area. Getting there though, it proves to be this HUGE area of streets cris-crossing. Every street sells something different. I only made it through a few: street with shoes and bags, the one with dried fish (had a very "nice" odor!), fabric and jewelry. MAN was it ever hectic. Next time I go, I'll take some pictures, and see, if I can catch the feeling. I think. you would be able to do some really nice bargains, but it will take some time getting acquainted with the place.

I went out both Friday and Saterday night. Seems like the Sri Lankans are a very fun loving people! Went to my first night club on Friday, jam packed with people partying, dancing and going nuts! (Dj played Abba and 70+80'ies music in general - and the crowd LOVED it - and no; I left the poor guy alone, controlled my self, and tried to get in touch with my inner Abba lover!) Saterday we went to a surprice birthday party on the beach (same one where I spent my Sunday). Such a nice set-up: a palm-roofed area at the end of the beach, torches, a bondfire, nice bar and a heap of waiters and chefs preparing dinner. When I say dinner, I instinctly think: 7 o'clock'ish - not how it works here: we arrived just after 8 pm. Had a drink or two (someone even broke in the dancefloor), and then we ate: at 10.30 pm! That's the way it works here apparently.

Well, I guess this was a little of everything. Still feel that there's so much to tell, though - seems like the smallest things can leave a lasting impression on me.

Poya at Kelanya temple

Wedensday was Poya. This is a Buddhist public holiday that occurs every time there's a full moon. I went to one of the most important temples just out of Colombo. The crowd was massive. Everyone dressed in white, chanting and sacrificing flowers - most like the ones on the picuture, incense and money offerings. Quite an amazing experience to me. I have visited temples before, but I havn't ever seen anything quite like this. Eventhough, there were A LOT of people there, the place had such a calm and serene feel to it.

The temple had beautiful paintings on the ceiling, but to me the surrounding artifacts were just as empressive.

What made it even more special to me, was that along with the people I went with, I was the only non-local there, which just makes it so much nicer.

Actually, I get that feeling a lot in Colombo too. Eventhough, the country does have some turists, they surely don't stay in the city. I'm sure it'll come, though. With the country finally being at peace, I think that people will -and should - begin to visit. The cultural and geographical variety within the country is one, I think, you won't find a lot of places of this size.

As the last picture shows, it is also a country of great contrasts!

Where I spent my weekend - Unawatuna

Unawatuna at 7 AM. Just an amazing place about 120 km from Colombo. Unfortunately, I didn't get to take any pictures later in the day, since a wave took me by surprice while reading. Getting soaked not a problem - my camera getting soaked BIG problem :( Now, no more camera - DARN!

Anyways, the place is just lovely. It's close to Hikkaduwa where we went for the beach festival. Also a nice location, but much more turisty - even though it's nothing compared to other places. Swimming is a lot safer in Unawatuna than Hikka (where surfing should be really great). , because it has a bay like form - still the waves a big enough to take you by surprice apparently!! I hope it will be a place that'll come to know much better in the next months :) Next time, I think I'm gonna try the train to Galle, and then grap a Tuc tuc the rest og the way (that will probably cost me the same as a ticket with the Metro in Cph!)

Today was the first day at work, and I feel quite confident that it'll be some very interesting months ahead! Around 50 people work at the office, and then another 100 some where else in city. I had a very good day :) Everyone is very accomdating, and I'm really looking forward to, hopefully, getting to know them all much better. Tomorrow is a normal work day again, but Wedensday will be off because of Poya, which is public holiday. Every time there's a full moon it's called Poya. It's mostly something Budist celebrate. They go temple and pray for most of the day, for others it's just a day off. One of the things that's already struck me as something very special about Sri Lanka, is that 4 of the 5 biggest religions in the world are represented amongst the people living here: Buddism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. This is in a country that is, geography wise, only 1 1/2 times bigger than Dk! Who said that different religions cannot co-exist in peace and harmony ?

City view from Mount Lavinia Hotel just out of Colombo.

I spent a day at their pool - very nice way of getting out the city. The hotel is from the early 1800's, and the place makes you feel, as if you're in a different time. Will be going there again for sure :)