Arrival in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Aug 1, 2005

August 1, 2005

I debated whether or not to check in today.

I'm totally knackered. It was a late night of burocracy both at immigration and unexpectedly the hotel. It seems the airport enjoys having 4 or so international flight ALL arrive at 1 am and the hotel has had several guests unable to return to their homes in Mumbai due to the flooding...I didn't get to bed til nearly 4am.

I friend emailed me from a Muslim area in China regarding the "doll". He shared his similar tales of coming across the Bin Laudin action figure...actually I had forgotten I had seen that one too. Thanks Rod. It seems these toys are quite popular the world over. He went on to tell me how these otherwise friendly folks pour over gun magazines like american lads with playboys...it is a wonderful world we live in!

The drive from the airport.

At every intersection their were shrines, mostly buddhist, but some hindu and christian mixed in for variety...Picture 3 dimensional characters glowing in neon or florescents and sprinkled with crhistmas lights. It was like the Super Friends pantheon...there was St. Sabastian and Mary, the little baby J and Gatama (sitting. walking and lying down), Shiva and Ganesh...remember the "It's a Small World" ride at Disneyland...?

Colombo is a trip...Unfortunately their cease-fire with the northern Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels ended abruptly a couple of days ago and the war is on again. (Im sure I'll fill you in later for those unawares...) It's wierd crossing through dozens of military check points, complete with sandbags, barbed wire, fully armed troops...jeez I'm just trying to sightsee.

They've gotten rather creative with the bombed out buildings...don't rebuild, just throw in some furniture and a makeshift staircase and you have a breezy office building with great views!

I'm leaving the Beirut-of-the-Indian-Ocean for the hills at 6am tomorrow!

Anyways, thanks to everyone that said "hi" it really means a lot to me... and again I'm sorry I can't respond to everyone personally (but remember thats what these emails are for!)

xx paul

Travel Tales of Sri Lanka, July 31, 2005.

April 15, 2012

When I originally started this blog, I intended to start with my current journey, Egypt, (done) then roll the clock back to my very first trip to Asia in 1996. Unfortunately, transcribing from my chicken-scratch journal to type is taking much longer than I had hoped...

This July, I will be leading a small group to Sri Lanka to tour this magnificent island nation and to witness the Kataragama Festival. As a teaser for this trip, it seemed fitting to share my 2005, Sri Lanka travel journal. And just a reminder for those who are considering to join me on this upcoming trip. This journal was written during an intermittent civil war, which is now over. Sri Lanka is very safe to travel and certainly could use the tourism!



Sunday, July 31, 2005

And the story continues... Many of you are new to my travel journals...so let me start off by saying if you do not want to receive my travel spam, just let me know... For those of you familiar with these rants and reviews, I hope this series proves as amusing...or whatever ;) One of the things most interesting about the journals is how I now experience my travels differently...like most of us, I'm sure, I have an inner dialog constantly chattering...(fortunately these days its less self-abusing and more amusing...), but the thing that has changed is now when I travel and I know I'm going to be writing...my inner dialog occurs in the "first person narrative"...weird huh?

So this journey started a day earlier than I had anticipated, (you can imagine the last minute scramblings...thanks mom for pointing out my itinerary confusion...would have been quite disappointing to show up at the airport to find my plane had departed 24 hours previously...) I arrived in Bangkok the evening of July 28 and I am now heading off this evening for Sri Lanka. Those of you from previous journals know Bangkok is an old friend and an easy place to adjust to jet lag and to catch ongoing flight connections for more remote destinations.

I spent the first two days shopping ad nauseam and decided to collapse poolside and start planning the Sri Lankan itinerary, yeah kinda late, but whatever...

My dear friend Mani from Berlin had to cancel at the last minute and a MAJOR festival I had booked my flight around...actually occurred prior to my trip...gotta love 3rd world governmental "official tourism" websites...why on earth would they care if their posted dates are correct?!?!? The festival I am missing is the Kataragama festival. It is a Tamil-Hindu celebration culminating in participants swinging from hooks through the flesh! (yes the birth place of the Mod-Prim's "flesh hook suspension")...oh well I will certainly still catch the other major Sri Lankan festival called the Procession of the Buddha's Tooth...So there you have it folks, the basic jist of what's in store.

A little bit of amusement for you...I went to Bangkok's Chatuchak weekend market, a very lively place with MILES of hamster trails to get lost in...I actually came across something that shocked me.For those of you who know me, I am NOT easily offended. I stumbled into a Marxist T-Shirt stall. Actually Im sure it was the money generating operation of their local communist party ( I hope the irony of this capitalist venture wasn't lost? ;)

Anyways, at first I was quite excited and just had to get this one t-shirt showing a vietnamese female guerilla fighter carrying a 50 caliber machine gun?!? with the caption "For me and my baby"...still I was amused.
Then I looked up and saw they had action figures, you know, like G.I. Joe...only these were of Palestinian "freedom" Fighters. The one that actually horrified me was the doll of a suicide bomber! Completely life-like and highly detailed including, ski mask, an uzi in his left hand, a detonator in his right hand and sticks of dynamite strapped to his chest!!!!!! I sent up a little prayer that these dolls were intended for the childish and not the children. I hope it goes without saying, I decided not to patronize...

http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=985

anyways, that's all for now peace and love.