Out and about in Colombo - August 2007

This is the view from our balcony at sunset.. Suprisingly its an abandoned building, but its so lovely from the outside (from afar)..

This is a scene along the side of the road, fruit sellers selling fruit. This scene goes along for at least 1 km. They are selling rambutans (the red ones, are the cousin of the lychee), durians (the big green ones, taste sweet but smell like a rotting corpse), and mangotsteens (the browny-purple ones, that taste like a cross between a strawberry and a mandarin, lush)..

These are brass things that at the beginning of conferences, meetings, etc, they decorate the structure with frangipani 'leis' and fill the little dishes with oil and set them alight. Its mean to be symbolic for lighting the awareness in your mind and promote pure thought..

This is also symbolic, with the war here and all.. (See below to the last picture for context)

This is around the corner from our house. We live in a tri-religious area - muslim mosques, a christian sect church, a buddist temple and a hindu temple, all within the same 2 blocks. So this what we call "Hindi Lane" and this is the entrance to it. There is a massive Hindi festival on this week and this thing lights up at night. Its pretty cool..

This guy is the coolest tuk tuk driver in Colombo. He is so old and so sweet you feel bad if you barter with him for the fare, so you just don't. He's gotta be pushing 90, and he drives the most pimpin' ride in the country. Check out his watch and the hanging hawaiian chick hanging over the dash.. Sweeeeet!

This is on the roundabout at the end of our street. Its designated Buddist land because the tree that you can see is a Bo tree. Buddha sat under a Bo tree for 6 years before he became enlightened, so now anywhere that a Bo tree is found becomes designated Buddhist land. Even if you own a house, if a Bo tree starts growing on the land, the Buddhist monks will reclaim it and there is nothing you can do and you are forced to move out.. no compensation, nothing, it just automatically becomes religious land and you are not allowed to live on it. So this roundabout has a Bo tree growing on it, but because its in the tri-religious area, there are Hindu holy cows that sleep underneath. Its kinda cool.

So the following is the prize photo - notice the guy with the AK47 in the back. This photo is taken literally at the end of my street. These army guys holding massive guns are all over Colombo (some of them look like they are 16 years old, and probably are), they are all over Sri Lanka, and if they see you taking a photo they will come and delete your memory card. I didn't even know he was in the shot when I took it, but notice him staring me down in the background. Eeek!..

Peace xx