5 days worth....
Trip Start
May 21, 2007
1
61
114
Trip End
Nov 02, 2008
Hambantota,
Sri Lanka
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Friday was the afterschool sports day. Again there was a really good atmosphere at it, although few parents attended. Races included coconut stilts, wheelbarrow, completing jigsaw puzzles and there were also education ones like matching English words to singhala words. Obviously I was no help with that whatsoever! There was also some crossbow action. I did give it a go, needless to stay the arrow ended up nowhere hear the target. The first attempt, it ended up at my foot, the second time about a mile down the road - if I got it somewhere in between it would have been good! The sports day ended with what can only be described as a Sri Lankan rave! It was brilliant. Everyone was up dancing - our english "dancing skills" were put to shame. I don't think English moves will ever become part of traditional Sri Lankan dance
A sri lankan midday rave!
. They have it in their blood and we quite obviously don't!We then left for a weekend in Colombo around 330pm. We took the coastal route as we had to leave Ronali at a family get together so we didn't arrive at the hotel until near 11. On Saturday we set out looking every part the tourist with our map in one hand and guidebook in the other. Our first port of call was the tourist information, which actually turned out to be a hut with 2 policemen in it. We ended up going to a Pettah Market which sells everything you can imagine - from plus, to DVDs to clothes. After that it was time for lunch and a sit down as we had walked quite a few kilometers. We then headed to the air conditioned Odel center, which is a department store. We left there with a few trinkets, monopoly and Mark's new pride and joy - a Bert from Sesame Street puppet. He says it's for "the kids" but I guarantee they'll never see it! After that it was to "House of Fashion" which is a cheaper version of Odel's for some more retail therapy.
We had our first experience of a Sri Lankan cinema on Saturday night. The only thing on was "Transformers" -that's how desperate I was to go to the cinema! There are some notable differences - first of all there was a queue miles long so it takes about 30mins to get a ticket, then there's an interval in the middle of a car chase and finally the projector decided to stop working for a few minutes
Bert and I in the hotel lobby
! But all in all a cinema is a cinema! Sunday morning was spent at the National Museum - we thought we needed a bit of culture. We had planned to visit the Planetarium in the afternoon, but on our way we found a craft shop and spent too much time and money in it so spent the reminder of the day sitting in a hotel by the sea listening to music-a typical lazy Sunday!
Monday morning we went to a shopping center and eventually I got a copy of The Simpsons! I was delighted. Haven't watched it yet, but it'll be a treat! We also got enough DVD's for the Smile Center to last for the next few years! I was filled with horror and dismay when browsing through some CD's though. I have to ask the question, how on earth has Daniel O'Donnell made it to Sri Lanka?!
After a lunch at a very nice cricket club and a puncture later, it was time to set off back down to Hambantota. Ronali, Heshan and the children traveled down with us for their Summer break. Today was spent playing what turned out to be a very competitive game of monopoly, only to be beaten by an 11 year! Not good for the ego! Don't know what's in store for the next 2 weeks but what I've learnt so far is that you take each day as it arrives as you never know what the next adventure will be!
On a sad note, following our drive up to Colombo on Friday night, there is now 1 less stray dog roaming the streets of Sri Lanka. I'll let you figure out why!
