Buddhist temple
Men wear sarongs and many were barefoot. It seemed like everybody was bustling about either shopping or working. Men were seen hauling carts loaded with merchandise right next to tuk-tuks and trucks.
People here are dark skinned, and we saw traffic officers in short sleeve shirts wearing removable arm coverings that go from the wrist and attach to the shoulder so that their skin is covered. Traffic was chaotic with too many vehicles on streets that were designed for horse and buggies; horns were always honking, beeping, blaring. This is a very noisy city. Trains and buses have open windows and do not use doors; we saw people sitting in the doorway of these moving vehicles. People hop on and off whenever and wherever they please.
Sri Lanka is famous for its tea: Ceylon Tea. They also grow coffee and export rubber and manufacture clothing such as Polo shirts. Maybe Michael should've gotten his shirts here! So why should anyone come to this Island country? Eco tourism is on the increase here as they have many different kinds of animals to go on Safari to look at, and they have some beautiful beaches. And if you love the game of cricket, this is the place to be. In fact, there are more elephants in Sri Lanka than in any other country in the world except for Africa.
I received escort duty for a panoramic tour of the city. This was good timing because my knee has been acting up and this particular tour involved sitting on a bus for two hours driving around the city in air-conditioned comfort. Michael also was an escort on the same tour, but the way he got it was a little bit different than the way I got it. He made plans to spend the morning sightseeing with Lillian and Adrian, but on the way to breakfast another escort asked if he would do the job for her because she wanted to do something else. Apparently, I got the better guide because we had no problem understanding his Indian/British tinged English accent. Michael's tour guide said he spoke English, but in fact he spoke Sengalise, and no one could understand him.
The day was warm but not hot. We were on a very large, new bus with great air-conditioning. We spent two hours driving around the city on the bus and only stopped once to take pictures. Therefore, my pictures are not very good because taking them out the window of a moving bus is like playing slot machines: you put in a lot of money and you get very little in return. I found driving through the central retail district in the city fascinating. The Pettah bazaar area, and shops and markets were on every street and they were teaming with crowds of people.
The fresh fruit market was huge; they sell all kinds of tropical fruit that is grown right on the island, but they have to import apples, grapes, and oranges. I hope chef picks up some sweet pineapple and mangos. The fruit on the ship has been on the rather sour side I'm afraid to say.
As we first started the tour, I was wondering if the whole city was going to be like the central retail district that is old, run down, crowded and filled with slums. But the farther we proceeded out from the city we wound up in some beautiful suburbs that had lakes, parks, botanical gardens, old colonial parliament and government buildings, and some lovely homes. The newer part of the city has high-rise office and residential buildings, plus there were many large namebrand hotels. Here the streets are wider and many intersections had beautifully landscaped islands in their roundabouts. We saw a lot of new construction, a lot of it having to do with tourism. We saw old colonial hotels such as the Galle Face that overlook the Indian Ocean, which was a playground for the wealthy Brits during the colonial times. All in all, Sri Lanka was a pleasant surprise. Michael and I both liked it a lot more than India, which is (unfortunately) up next .
Independence Memorial Hall
Convention and conference center
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