Denise's Adventures and Beyond!: First weekend in Colombo

Easter weekend! After a couple more days of catching up on e-mail correspondence between the NOC/CGA and other parties along with a few small tasks, I reached my first weekend here in Colombo.

One of the streets in Pettah.

I had expressed wishes to visit Pettah, an older part of Colombo and location of the crazy and bustling marketplace. That had surprised the staff I work with as they perceive the place as sketchy and not a place for a female to be alone. So on Thursday after work, they decided that they would go with me (with a male – our driver) to walk around a little and check it out. Crazy it was! People were everywhere weaving in and out between the traffic which itself was nuts. I’m glad I didn’t go alone as it was a very different part of town. As neat as it was, I don’t think I will be going back. There are deals to be had, but quality is definitely lower than those in stores and it's not worth the effort in dodging vehicles and stares! After that brief outing, we all went to do more shopping at Arpico, Sri Lanka’s version of Wal-Mart. I picked up the last of what I think I’m missing at home, had some popcorn, and got dropped off at my place. I have to thank the lovely ladies that accompanied me on this trip and our very patient driver. They are all so caring and patient!

Local Bus

The office was closed for Good Friday so one of my colleagues, Dinushi, made plans to meet with me in the morning to go to the National Museum then head to the Univesrsity of Colombo where her friend was working on a final project for one of his classes. However, the National Museum was closed for Good Friday so we went to Gangaramaya Temple via public bus! Dinushi took care to get us on one that wasn’t crowded, but it was a very jerky ride as the drivers tend to brake pretty hard here. Not too bad when it’s not crowded, but it looks like a very different journey when people are packed in there like sardines during rush hour.

The temple was quite different from the temples I’ve seen in Malaysia, China, and Japan. Those ones were all so clean and looked like they really catered to tourists. Although this one had tourists, it really looked like a well-worn and locally used temple. Things weren’t all polished, shiny, and bright. Instead, it looked liked it really had a lot of character. And then there was an elephant. Sacred animal indeed, but it didn’t look too happy.

Afterwards we hung out at my apartment for a little while after picking up some lunch packets. I had Dinushi teach me how to eat with my hands! You can see my attempts at eating. I was rather slow, but I think I’m slowly getting it! Still out of my comfort zone, but I hope it will become more normal. The curry here is so delicious!

My friendly colleague, Dinushi

After lunch, we headed to the University of Colombo campus where Dinushi’s friend was shooting a music video as a school final project. We sat around and enjoyed the scenery while they shot a scene. I don’t understand anything they’re saying, but I’m enjoying trying to decipher the mood and tone of the conversations just from facial expression and body language. One thing I noted to Dinushi is that in the Western culture, when we agree with something we nod up and down. Here in Sri Lanka, they nod side to side.

Saturday was a very rainy day. Like Vancouver, but very warm. It did provide some welcome relief to the very hot weather. I finally connected with video on my Skype with the family and Chad in the morning (yay!). After spending some time on the computer in the morning and cleaning a bit, I took a cab to Crescat Boulevard in Colombo 3 (Colpetty). It was nice and definitely more like malls in Canada, but tiny compared to what we’re used to! That’s very unlike Majestic City which is the mall that I live close to … which I compare to more like a bunch of shops in a strip mall (or for those of you in Burnaby, Crystal Mall). However, there are three floors and each one has shops side by side that are crammed to the brim with merchandise!

After a bit of a sleep in on Sunday, I set out on a long walk. Walking north on the street I live on (RA de Mel Mawatha) I got to see a couple clothing shops. First was Fashion Bug then I passed through Beverly Street. These stores carry so much merchandise I really didn’t have any motivation to look, but prices are pretty affordable for most things. Because the clothing industry is so big here and in India they get a lot of overstock here. However, the styles seem a little on the old side compared to what we have. At one of these shops, I saw an overrun of an Eddie Bauer skirt for $8 CAD. I also saw an H&M button up shirt that I own in Canada for $6 CAD here. I almost got to Kollupitiya Market when it started to pour. I quickly hailed a tuk tuk (lucky a metered one came down the street while I was unsuccessfully bargaining with a non-metered one) and set out for ODEL. Considered one of the higher end labels in Sri Lanka (prices are comparable to ours) I went to their main store which is like a department store. I spent an hour or so trying to wait out the rain amusing myself in trying to find some steals (i.e Zebra print Zara dress, $16 CAD). When the rain stopped, I went and continued my walk through Colombo 7 around the area I work, then caught a tuk tuk back to the area I live. I stopped in on House of Fashion which was a mad house with clothing, homewares, toys, luggage, etc. Ridiculously cheap clothing here too! Again, so much to sort through … save that for another day. Lucky for me it’s only about three blocks from my apartment.

I also picked up a internet dongle (def: “A device that is connected to a computer to allow access to wireless broadband or use of protected software” (google.com)). However, I currently can’t get it to load the driver or software properly onto my computer to have access.

I had promised to show some of you how dirt just sticks to everything here. Here are some examples: