One Day In Sri Lanka

Okay, I’m a little late with these pics – and now I’m in a bit of “pickle”.

I have all these veggie photos from the Pettah trip but I don’t have their names!! I need to get these out of the way, so that I can share another really neat shopping place I visited this week…So can you help? Just click on the word “Comments” below if you know any of these!

Photo#1 What is this woman chopping?		Photo#2 – I’ve seen these at home – They kind of look like cucumbers with warts.
Photo#3 – Notice the size…see the cabbage and peppers?		Photo#4 – If these were more purpley, you might think it was turnip…wrong!!
Photo#5 – Okay, this is for double points – What’s that brown bumpy thing on the left and the white items in the middle, which I think I had in a soup in China.		Photo#6 – Let’s go for two here, also – the middle bag and the purple vegetable (I had this one in China, for breakfast one day).
Photo#7 – The left veggie looks cucumber with very high ridges and right…well?		Photo#8 – Thilaka said this is somewhat like a potato but it makes a very delicious drink.
Photo#9 – I’ve heard you shouldn’t let anyone take this one, cut open on a crowded bus – apparently, it stinks – but it is very tastey!		Photo#10 – Easy points here – each vegetable is only worth half a point!

Yesterday, Thilaka, a Sri Lankan friend, took me to Pettah, an area of Colombo that is packed with street commerce. Thilaka was great at helping me get acquainted to this hectic place where it seems every side street has a different product to sell (we visited the fruit, vegetable and clothing alleys) while at the same time she introduced me to a variety of Sri Lankan fruit and vegetables. I can now put a name and cooking/eating method to many of the strange beasts we’ve seen in the produce area of the supermarket.

I will add more photos at another time but for now I hope these capture the essence of the place!

One “Shop” setting up just as we arrived… I’m not sure where the boxes get stored overnight

The same shop later in the morning

It’s mangosteen season – sticky, juicy but oh so tastey!

One of the Fruit Areas of Pettah

I picked up a handful of the best looking beans I’ve seen ever…really! and some beets – while Thilaka popped a sampling of mangosteens, mangoes and rambuttan in my bag as well.

We spent most of the morning browsing, buying and babbling – then finished off with a refreshing woodapple drink…what fun! Thilaka described that the outside of the wood apple is hard like a coconut – you crack it open and then puree the inside fruit – you can either drink it alone or add milk – but our treat had ice cream…mmmmmm – Sorry no pics of the woodapple experience…but I had been curious about them ever since I spied them in the grocery store!

Three wheelers are used to transport a variety of items here in Colombo – This one in particular caught my eye because I haven’t seen any donut shops around so I wondered where the Dunkin’ Donuts were going…then I realized that they are not dunkin’ donuts!

Mark and I had a great Saturday…walking along Galle St…. finding some new places for coffee, sushi, books and other items. We were out around midday so we also got very good at identifying stores that would have good air-conditioning where we could deke in and get cooled off while we ‘browsed’.

As we approached Majestic, the closest mall to us, we came across an open-air auction in a field. I like this particular shot of the action because it seems to tell the whole story all in one frame – it’s just unfortunate the auctioneer’s orange juice is more prevalent than his gavel…..ugh

I’ve included a short movie from my digital camera of the action at the auction (see the link below). You will see that auctions sound the same, no matter what language they are in!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvOiSWTXPQY

If you go and view the video, it is unfortunately, a little blurry in this format – you can make it smaller (and therefore the blurriness is less annoying) by clicking on the size button in the lower-right shown here:

Yesterday I went to an Art Show. It was an exquisite display by the Colombo Centre for Special Education. This centre works with “intellectually impaired” people (their label) – it provides a half day programme where the students learn about living skills, get access to occupational and speech therapy and participate in dancing, sports and of course, art. I like their mission statement: “To provide a haven for those who are otherwise able, to prepare them with skills that engender self reliance and independance”.

The show was at the Lionel Wendt Gallery, a famous art gallery in the city. As I was walking around and checking out the many paintings and wall hangings, there was no shortage of sharp-dressed students coming up to point out their masterpieces. There was such pride in the artists as they showed me their work.

The Art Show is a fund-raiser for the centre which operates only on donations. Not only was there a collection at the door but also many of the art pieces had a nominal price tag attached. Once a piece was purchased a little green tag would go on it indicating it was sold. Once I realized the system, I noticed that most of the pieces had been sold and the show had only been open for two hours!

Mark and I are now the proud owners of two pieces of Sri Lankan art – “Bright Eyes” by George and another by Joshua. I’m not sure they will fit in the suitcases to come home but at least we’ll be able to enjoy them while we’re here… a little colour for our stark white walls! Here is Joshua with our painting “Chirpy-Chirpy-Cheep”:

I’m quite sure this house in my neighbourhood is uninhabited… but don’t you wonder about the activities those walls have been a part of?  And now, is this tropical gingerbread house destined for rubble to fertilize the growth of another seaside 12-story  hotel?  I wonder….

This image begs to become a painting… a postcard… a card…

On my train trip back to Colombo from Kandy two weeks ago, the train stopped for 45 minutes on the top of a mountain because another train coming up the the single track was stalled and needed to be ‘boosted’ by another locomotive.

While we waited for the track to be cleared, a few people appeared out nowhere and started selling the trapped train passengers various sundries including bananas – it all seemed a bit make-believe with these people popping out of the bushes along the track.

But not only did we have visitors from the nearest village, the local wildlife came visiting too. My camera doesn’t have a good telephoto so these pictures are a little blurry but I really wanted to share the iridescent colours of this bird.

A little research here told me it was a white-breasted kingfisher. Can you believe the turquoise?!!

I’ve also seen this kingfisher flying around the canal that drains into the ocean near our hotel.  Reading about the whitebreasted kingfisher here, suggests that the bird does not only eat fish – “This species mainly hunts large insects, rodents, snakes, fish and frogs.” …finding the bird so far up a mountain seems to support this theory!

I received this set of photos in my email from a Sri Lankan friend. Anand operates a foundation called “Gods Own Children” which runs a school in Jaffna for children with special needs.

One of his staff members came across these two snakes up in Jaffna…I think the shots are self-explanatory….

Guest Photographer: “Anand’s Staff Member”

I just like the tones, shapes and subdued colours in this photo.

In the gallery we visited a few weeks back, I was attracted to this odd shaped oil lamp with a wick hanging out its spout – It was hiding in a dark corner, flickering attention my way.  I took several photos of my subject…settling on the layout of the image above (with a little help from cropping).  This is what the lamp actually looks like:

Guest Photography: Mark

Maybe it has something to do with the cooler temperatures as you move north in Sri Lanka towards Kandy, but nature really begins to bloom strong as you move north in Sri Lanka. Fruit stands with vibrant colours are the norm, lush tea plantations begin to appear, and the trees — WOW, the size of some of the trees would astound anyone. This photo is taken on the beautiful grounds of the University of Paradeniya in Kandy. For a perspective on the size of this tree, take notice, in the photo below, of the person with the white shirt standing just in front of the tree.