Advertisement
Published: April 22nd 2012
Edit Blog Post
4/18
After a long 13 hour plane ride from Heathrow, I finally arrived at Colombo airport. I had arranged a bunk for one night before my departure from London, and also scheduled a pick up to my desired location. After withdrawing some local currency, I found my driver, sign in hand. His name was Kielty and he was there to take me to the hostel. As I stepped out of the airport, beads of sweat began forming on my skin. It felt like millions of small insects crawling on me, every which way. Since I was still dressed in the same clothes I had on in England, those which had protected me from the cold and rain of London, the heat and humidity were intensified. The drive to the hostel took abut an hour. The congested streets and traffic reminded me a lot of Kathmandu. Cars, trucks, tractors, scooters, bicycles, tuk tuks, and pedestrians all battled for their right of way, carving their own little niche of mobile real estate. The thought of renting a motorcycle seemed dangerous at best, deadly at worst. I would find out later that 20,000 people a year died from some sort of vehicular/pedestrian accident. Dozing
in and out of sleep, we finally arrived at a 4 story building which was to be my home for the next 20 hours or so. I was greeted in the lobby by a woman. I noticed a tall slender Westerner sitting on a lobby chair. After filling out paperwork, I introduced myself to the other traveler. His name was David from New Zealand. He had also just arrived at the hostel. We chatted as we waited for our room. He had also recently been through a break up from his fiancé, and thus decided to leave London to see Sri Lanka and India. We chuckled at our respective reasons for coming to Sri Lanka. The irony wasn't lost on us. It turned out that we were sharing the same room. We unloaded our baggage and decided to grab lunch, but not before our showers. It felt good to finally be clean and to put on some fresh, seasonable clothes. We walked 5 minutes toward the beach to find a suitable place for some grub. A smile crept over my face as we stepped over the train tracks, panorama of the water encompassing our view. Locals young and old were
frolicking in the water. Outdoor restaurants dotted the sands. We decided to walk for a bit before choosing a spot. As we walked, David ran into a young French woman, Mariam, whom he met the night before on their bus ride from Nagombo. We asked to join her and she obliged. She had kind eyes and a very sweet disposition. I liked her right away. We ordered some cocktails and lunch, chatting the entire time about happiness, philosophy, meaning of life; conversations reserved for adventures such as this one. It was not even
5pm, but being near the equator, the sun set quite early. What to do for the rest of the evening? I remember reading about casinos in Colombo. They agreed wholeheartedly at this suggestion. What had I started? They were about to see amiable, outgoing, good times Aric. After returning to the hostel, we received a call, telling us we would be getting a third roommate. I hoped he was going to be as friendly as David. Mark walked into our room. He was an English chap, a quantum physics researcher. I was going to converse with him on the subject of quantum mechanics and universal attraction, barraging
him with all I knew on the topic, but decided against it. I didn't want to waste 10 seconds of his time. We quickly invited home to the casino with us and he agreed. As I normally am on all trips, I become the negotiator of any group. It's a skill derived from my very first adventure, and one I am able to use, In any country, any language. The group soon found this out. I negotiated a fair tuk tuk ride to the closest casino, the MGM Grand. The floor itself wasn't very large, but it was clean and well maintained. I quickly asked about the location of a blackjack table. After much miscommunication, I sat down at a table. It looked like I was the only one playing. I arranged for free drinks for my compatriots, laid out my rupees, and began to play. The others were going to watch first. I told them jokingly to hurry up because my money wasn't going to last long. Sure enough, the dealer began razing my stack of chips. I began to make somewhat of a comeback. David decided to join the fray, then eventually Mark, and finally Mariam. I was
the brash gambler of the entire casino, goading dealers and guffawing at any and all opportunities. The others smiled and laughed at my antics, but I was right where I needed to be- creating good times for my company. I really enjoyed making others feel comfortable, safe, and welcome. We were up and down all night. We had set a hard deadline to leave, as I had decided earlier to head to Kandy with David and Mariam the following morning. I had roughly half my stack left. It was time to gamble. I laid down the entire stack. He dealt me two face cards. I was in excellent shape, as he was showing a seven. He dealt himself two cards for a total of 21! The son of a bitch beat me. I was not upset however, because I had put on a good show, had fun, ordered boku drinks, and made sure everyone had a good time, even though it was at my financial expense. It wouldn't be called gambling if it wasn't risky. We decided to leave and grab a bite before retiring. I chose a local joint, not a tourist in sight. It was just what we all wanted. We sat and ordered some local dishes, I opting for the chicken that no one else wanted to risk. They went vegetarian. The food was good. It was all good, including my chicken. I negotiated a tuk tuk ride back to our hostel and we retired for the night. I was going to attempt to secure a ticket on the train in the morning. The others had already purchased their tickets. I crossed my fingers and figured it would eventually all work out. If it didn't, it wasn't the end of the world. After all, I was in freaking Sri Lanka.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.124s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0517s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb