Blogs from Kandy, Central Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 20

ARRIVAL IN SRI LANKA: COLOMBO TO PERADENIYA Between changes in time zones, the date-line, and the disorienting long flights during which you sleep and eat at bizarre intervals, we were all suitably confused when we arrived in Colombo. By local time, it was very late at night, just past midnight. We all staggered around the airport, showing our Passports, waiting out lines, and changing U.S. dollars into rupees. Eventually we were through the maze and looking for our local transport. Several young Sri Lankans took us in hand, grabbed our American-sized suitcases, and shepherded us onto the bus which was to become our portable "home away from home" for the next three weeks. After more than 24 hours in transit, we still had another two hours or so to ride from Colombo to Peradeniya. Of course ... read more

I finished my lectures in Kandy, including my public lecture, which had to be rescheduled because no one showed up the first time. The only people who showed up the second time were students who were forced to come. Once upon a time something like that would have bothered me, but now I just shrug it off. To compensate, the director of the Institute arranged a little party for me at the faculty club, where we could avoid the alcohol ban imposed on Kandy during the week of the Perahera. Third World faculty clubs are my kind of scene: chalky, disillusioned academics slouched over their gin and tonics, bathed in the eerie blue glow of neon lighting, wondering where things went wrong. Even the mosquitoes seem too burned out to bite. I was impressed that both ... read more

Colombo-Kandy Railroad Haiku Rattling through jungles Heads bouncing like souvenir dolls Lost in sad thoughts +++++ I can feel the proximity of the jungle in Kandy. Monkeys scramble across my roof, the bird calls that wake me in the morning sound like auditions for a Tarzan movie, and there are columns of ants streaming across every wall. Even if Buddhists were allowed to use ant traps (and they aren't,) this isn't a problem you solve, it's a problem you learn to live with. In my last entry I asked Asia to swallow me whole. This turned out to be a lesson in being careful what I ask for. Asia is a giant organism, a turbulent flow of people, cows, mangy dogs, rickshaws, and dilapidated buses. It's not enough to go with the flow; I must also ... read more