Sri Lankan adventure number 1

The first and foremost bad news is that I am minus one camera and the only pictures I have of sri lanka in my possession are tourists' dribble. I do however have some fantastic stories to tell, and without further ado I will now inculcate you with them.

On the way to Colombo, nothing remarkable really happened except that I was able to hire a taxi driver who was willing to pull over to a grocery store by the side of the road so that I could make my first purchase, Arrack. Arrack, in case you're wondering, is the same word as Arak from Arabic, but translated and transliterated a few too many times, so that the arabs say "AH ruk" and the Sinhalese say "Erick." It is basically distilled coconut wine aged in the casks for some time. I bought a bottle of the "Old Arrack" at 35% and a whopping $6.85. It has a most peculiar flavor and I'm not really sure I like it. But I made my way around Sri Lanka and tried several different varieties and there is better stuff, I'm just still not sure if I like it aside from its novelty.

So I get to the hotel, one bottle of booze richer, and wide eyed at this new found paradise. I check into my room at the Colombo City Hotels directly next to Sri Lanka's tallest buildings, the world trade towers. Sri Lanka's trade towers by the way stand at a modest 40 stories, but for south asia that's enormous. I talk to the clerks and front desk guys and tell them I'd like to see some authentic colombo. They tell me that the Hilton has some tourist package with a guided bus tour for $30 or something. I wave that off immediately and tell them specifically what I'm looking for. I want to see what locals do on saturday night, and eat at some dingy sort of restaurant serving up the Kothu Rotty (as they spell it). Well, I was in LUCK. The guy on duty who has some sort of hospitality relations position and had spoken to me in Tamil on the way to the room, says that he's leaving in 20 minutes and he'll take me around. I ask the clerks if this is a good decision after he leaves. They assure me he is a good person and knows colombo very well. If they'd said anything with the slightest hesitation, I'd have bolted then and there and gone to seek out Colombo on my own. But I decide to go see what he wants to show me.

We start off walking along the beach south toward another hotel called the Galle Face Hotel, which is perhaps Colombo's most premiere hotel (with a price tag of $81/ night). It has several bars, restuarants, and famous salt water pool, as well as it's own very small private beach on which westerns may wear bikinis and actually swim! WOO! I'm not so interested in this place, but he wanted to go to talk to someone. Apparently he had worked there before and wanted to see about getting his job back. As he tells me, he went to work "for" the US army in saudi and UAE for a few years, something having to do with mess hall preparations. I didn't totally understand, but after he returned from the gulf, he got a job at the other hotel. He asks about my religion and I tell him Anglican, which to my shock he knew about. Even though India was a british colony until not so long ago (as was Sri Lanka) Indians generally don't know what I'm saying when I say "I'm Anglican." So he walks me to the nearest Anglican church which happens to be really close. It also happens that a huge and beautiful wedding is happening. It was a Sinhala slash anglican wedding. We stopped and watched the ceremony for a few minutes. It was interesting to see the other customs taking place in "my" church. I was happy to see it.

We keep walking and soon we're in the poor part of town. No more tourist frills, no shit, just people doing their thing trying to get by and make a living. He tells me we're in a muslim part of town, and I'm suspecting he lives there. He tells me he's buddhist, and asks me what I think about other religions. I tell him I don't have problems with any individual person based on religion. He tells me he believes in Jesus too. I could care less really, but it seemed important to him.

As I had suspected I get drawn to his house. He lives up an extremely narrow flight of stairs and in a cramped little tin can of an apartment. It's dark and dirty and I sort of feel bad for him. He then tells me he just keeps the apartment in Colombo for working and goes to visit his wife and children on the weekends (30 km away). I wonder why he only goes on the weekends....

He tells me "Mr. Alex come." And asks me to sit, and I wait for him. He brings out his wedding photos and shows he some family pictures. Then he says to wait 5 minutes, he needs to do some prayers. So I watch him, sprinkle saffron water on his floor, light incense, pray to Buddha, the other buddha statue, a couple hindu icons, and several pictures of Jesus, as well as St. Anthony. Then he instructs me to remove my shoes and put on flip flops. I do, and he says "come." So I go with him again and he takes me on an incredible tour of Hindu Temples, Mosques, Buddhist temples, and a couple churches. I'll describe those later, but let's just say, the man got his prayer on. Damn! He made sure to pray at every temple and church at every god, goddess, and saint. I think he's covered. It really would be a shame if it's all false and he's wasted a hell of a lot of time just trying to cover his bases...

Well, after all the temple seeing, we go for some food. FINALLY! Kothu Rotty. That is some tasty goodness my friends! Take some roti and chicken and lots of spices and one egg. Chop them all up while on a flat grill and serve with "gravy" and of all things "sauce" which is sweet and sour sauce. Delicious. Having lost my camera I've lost my two or three pictures of the guy chopping that all up and making a commotion.

Finally I get my shoes back, and we take the bus to the train station so that I can buy a ticket for the next day's adventure to Kandy and back to the hotel. The bus, I should mention was a death trap! Oh MY GOD! He was going like 60mph and I was standing and falling, and people falling on me and TRYING to stand up. The only reason I could hold on is because my arms are strong and my stance is wide.

I make it back to the hotel finally and go to the rooftop bar. I sit with a lovely english couple from cornwall and have a good beer. FINALLY! Oh thank you sweet jesus for answering my prayers, maybe Kamal had a point with all that praying. I got to drink an imperial stout brewed by Lion in Sri Lanka. Not actually a great stout, but when you're as desparate as I was, you'd understand.

This English couple told me they are rescue volunteers and have traveled the world bringing emergency relief to people. When they're not saving people in need, they run a beautiful little campsite in Cornwall, England. They invited me to come, and I think I will.

Lower Polladras. Look them up, it seems they've got a good summer thing going.

Night one, over and out.