A 13 hour flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong, 6 hour layover in Hong Kong, and a 5 hour flight to Colombo. A long travel time, but the Cathay Pacific flights are reasonably comfortable, and I managed to catch an hour of sleep now and then.
Arrival at the airport in Colombo was a crash course in patience and learning to slow down. Several flights had arrived at once, and the line-up at the immigration counters seemed like they were a hundred people long and not moving. Eventually more counters were opened and I got through after about an hour. I arrived at the hotel about 1:00 am local time, and just crashed.
The next morning after breakfast, Celene and I started out on a walk to explore the city, but in the 35 C heat we quickly realized that was not a good idea. There was no shortage of tuk-tuk drivers and one approached us, so we hopped in and he took us on a little tour.
We stopped for much needed coffee, and then checked out a jewelry store. Sri Lanka is known for its gems, like sapphires, and Celene wanted to have a look.
From there we went to the popular Gangaramaya temple, an important Buddhist temple in Colombo. Our driver showed us around the place, and we took part in things like making offerings of water to the Banyen tree.
As it turns out, the important Vesak festival was taking place at this time. This is a celebration of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and death, and is the equivalent of the Christmas - New Year's holiday in North America. A lot of shops are closed for several days, and many people go to their home towns. Fortunately for us, this meant a lot less traffic in Colombo and we got around quite easily.
After the temple we saw a few different sights around Colombo, like the Independence Square, commemorating the independence from Britain in 1948.
Arrival at the airport in Colombo was a crash course in patience and learning to slow down. Several flights had arrived at once, and the line-up at the immigration counters seemed like they were a hundred people long and not moving. Eventually more counters were opened and I got through after about an hour. I arrived at the hotel about 1:00 am local time, and just crashed.
The next morning after breakfast, Celene and I started out on a walk to explore the city, but in the 35 C heat we quickly realized that was not a good idea. There was no shortage of tuk-tuk drivers and one approached us, so we hopped in and he took us on a little tour.
From there we went to the popular Gangaramaya temple, an important Buddhist temple in Colombo. Our driver showed us around the place, and we took part in things like making offerings of water to the Banyen tree.
As it turns out, the important Vesak festival was taking place at this time. This is a celebration of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and death, and is the equivalent of the Christmas - New Year's holiday in North America. A lot of shops are closed for several days, and many people go to their home towns. Fortunately for us, this meant a lot less traffic in Colombo and we got around quite easily.
After the temple we saw a few different sights around Colombo, like the Independence Square, commemorating the independence from Britain in 1948.
Finally, we stopped at Galle Face Green, a walkway by the waterfront which seems like a very popular spot for Sri Lankans to hang out.
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As part of the Vesak celebrations, there are lanterns all over the city that are lit up at night. One of the centers of the festivities is Beira Lake, and we checked it out that night. The roads around the lake were closed to traffic, there were lots of food stalls, and stalls showing lanterns that people have made. And it was packed with people. Apparently the tradition of Buddhists celebrating the festival is to wear white:
and the lights around the lake itself were spectacular.
Finally we went back to the Gangaramaya temple, which in the evening was in full festval mode with people worshipping in different parts the temple, lighting incense, hitting gongs, etc.
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