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 ;-)