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Published: August 6th 2010
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Fly-By-Prayers
Friday, July 23rd
We started our day seeing the temple of the tooth at
Dalada Maligawa where we saw the President’s wife. The Kandy drumming resounded through the halls and although we had seen them the night before in the touristy setting then it didn’t have the same power that seeing them in the temple and hearing it reverberate off the walls produced. Pilgrims made offerings of thirty two different bowls of rice and curry symbolizing the thirty two teeth in our mouths. Mom made an offering but it was really “fly-by-prayers.” One has to pre-meditate ones wishes seemingly to toss them at Buddha as we are moved on.
The temple was flooded with school children on a field trip celebrating the end of the school year and they followed us to the botanical gardens where they impressed us all with their well behaved manners and their abilities to maintain their pristine white uniforms, even while running wild. One of the most lucrative ventures is the selling of big black umbrellas, under which couples discreetly “do what they can manage to do.”
Same Same But Different
Saturday, July
24th
Nuwara Elyia - means “City of Light” and is known as a British Hill Station - reminding us of the towns in India that also celebrated the colonial times. Mostly we’ve been staying in these hotels that for us are luxurious and although mom loved ending her days with a swim in the pool, the “musak” that filled the halls made us feel that we were closer to Tennessee than Asia. The melodies itched the brain not quite recognizable in their new “lite” incarnation and persisted to pester. It’s very different from the karaoke that is so popular in Vietnam/Thailand/China. Other differences include the absence of prayer flags, and the white ritual scarves from Tibet. The country seems to be built around one meandering road which spiders through the cities. There are no parks or plazas that we’ve seen where people congregate to hang out. This time we stayed in a small guest house where our group was the only people there. The owners even gave us a cooking lesson one night. After all the rice and curry we’ve eaten on this trip we probably won’t repeat the dish at home though.
Sri Lanka
renamed in 1972 was previously known as Ceylon and became famous due to a Scotsmen named Sam Lipton for its tea. He smuggled seeds from China 100 years ago to start his business. Tea goes from the bush to beverage in 24 hours. They pluck only the top two leaves and the bud to make the tea and B.O.P.F. (the best tea) can go for $300 a kilo. The high ground tea is the finest and the blends of high, middle and low ground is what we usually get. The government insists on this blending to insure a distribution of wealth for the farmers.
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