The Child Bride and I are now in Sri Lanka. We’ve noticed one or two differences already with two standing out. In #3 of this saga, I outlined the tortuous procedure we went through to get into India. It was almost like they were agonising over whether to let these two reprobates in. Here, we bowled up to the almost deserted immigration line. We abandoned the business class line as it was occupied by a couple of dozen shouting, arm waving family members of a particular religious persuasion. Our immigration man looked at all of the items I put on his counter, took the passports, made sure it was us, stamped them and gave them back. I said “is that all?” He nodded and we headed to the baggage carousel where our bags appeared in the first half dozen or so. Way to go Sri Lanka.
So far all’s hunky dory. The drive in was on a smooth almost deserted highway. If this road was custard, the Gwalior/Orchha road mentioned previously (at length in #7) would be gristle. The roadside is mostly clean and tidy with no randomly arranged piles of dirt and broken masonry and walls don’t look like they are half built (or half demolished). In other words, while India looks partially finished, like Rome, the Sri Lankan’s have completed the job.
Colombo has quite a Singapore feel to it with lots of colonial style buildings and an increasing number of glass behemoths. I say “increasing” because these guys are relatively late to the building orgy which has seduced much of Asia. 2009 to be exact which is when the civil war ended. It’s amazing what can be achieved if you’re not spending most of your money on guns and bullets to kill each other. Consider the USA after their civil war, the Japanese and Germans after WW2 and the South Koreans after the Korean War. The Vietnamese are also going okay with their version of capitalist communism.
This blog has always tended to focus on the quirky, weird, funny or, as a last resort, the interesting. Something happened when we checked out of our hotel in Colombo which we have never experienced before and falls under all of those descriptors. We met our guide in the hotel driveway but there was a short delay in leaving. It turns out that something suspicious was found on a towel in our room. It was blood because the CB scratched her nose. I guess they had to ensure there wasn’t a body stuffed in the safe before allowing us to leave. You’ve got to think that nastier things than a drop of blood on a towel are left in hotel rooms on a regular basis. Especially this place which has just had a religious festival. Say no more.