The best way to enjoy a trip is to begin the trip with less preparation. I mean, less planning but an open mind to take things as they come. However, it is important to be well informed. For example, you can convert local currency to US Dollars, buy an international mobile SIM card, pre-plan all the places you want to visit and even book a vehicle in advance. Or, you can do none of this at all. I would suggest the latter. This way your trip will be much more exciting and might turn out to be an unforgettable one. Beauty of life lies in the suspense hidden in the next second, isn't it?
Chennai to Colombo was just an hour of uneventful journey. But the fact that I was in a different country within just 60 minutes of travel started sinking in as soon as I disembarked the flight and strolled in to the airport. The Visa process was too simple and took just a couple of minutes. Next, I needed local currency. The official at the Thomas Cook Forex counter gave me a surprise look when I asked him if I could exchange some Indian Rupees for Sri Lankan Rupees. "No Indian Rupee sir. Only US Dollar. Or Euro. Or Pound..". It became evident that Indian rupee is of no value outside Indian border. I had to call up my guest house and inform my arrival there but I didn't have a phone. I had gladly switched off my mobile phone the moment I got in to flight at Chennai knowing that this SIM is of no use abroad. Nobody can call me for 5 days. But even I couldn't call anybody. I somehow needed to get a local sim card which I could use till I was there. There was a counter selling local Sim cards but they wouldn't accept credit cards or any currency other than SLR. So, I had to go out of the airport, draw cash from any ATM, come back in to the airport (thanks to the tough-looking-but-not-too-strict airport officials) and buy the sim card.
I, and my 2 friends who traveled with me, started feeling very hungry. But outside airport there was only a tiny restaurant with menu only in Sinhalese. It was a small place, kind of workers' mess. There were vegetarian buns, thankfully, but every inch of the place had the smell of fish. Just outside the hotel there was a pick up point from where the government operates free bus service, to drop people at the nearest bus station. The Bandaranayake International airport is at Katunayake, about 35 km north of Colombo city. Many tourists prefer to stay at a place called Negombo, which is just under 10 km north of the airport, where hotels and guest houses are plenty and are very cheap compared to Colombo. From the nearby bus station we took a local bus to reach Negombo. By the time we neared Negombo it started raining. An awesome welcome to us in to the tiny island nation.
A quick Tuk-Tuk (our Auto rickshaw) ride costing 200 SLR helped us get to our guest house at Lewis place, which is just across the beach. They say, behind every hotel there is a beach in that place :) . The route from airport to Negombo reminded me of Kerala. The place, trees, even the rain, was just like Kerala. But Lewis place was very much like Goa. Many foreigners, hotels serving European cuisines, beach, etc. So, we decided to stroll along the beach, look around Negombo and spend the evening leisurely.
(To be contd..)
--S--
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Sri Lanka: Prologue
The original plan was to travel Sri Lanka for 9 days, covering half the country, moving from place to place using only public transport, preferably trains. I had always been a fan of trains. Ever since I read Paul Theroux's "The Ghost Train to the Eastern Star" I'd been dreaming of taking the coastal train from Galle to Colombo, just as Paul Theroux did. So my plan was to spend a couple of days in Colombo, move on to Kandy by the Inter City Express train, stay there and visit places around it like Polonnaruwa, Dambulla, etc, then go to Nuwara Eliya - a pleasant hill station, proceed further to Galle or Hambantota. Finally, I would fulfill my dream by catching the coastal train to Colombo from Galle.
I had informed my vacation plan to my manager nearly 6 weeks in advance, booked my return flights and guest houses to stay. I reminded my manager a week in advance about my planned vacation the week after. But things started turning against me that week. Work was increasing and my bosses wouldn't let me go even for a day. Some tough negotiations and angry stares and frustrated arguments later I was "permitted" to take 2 days leave and the 3rd day as uninformed sick leave. I bit my teeth and altered my plan. It cost me my dream. Shrinking the trip from 9 to 5 days would mean I would lose money I spent for my return flight and some guest houses. But the biggest loss would be Galle. I would not be able to take the Galle-Colombo coastal train at all. Probably I would not even be able to hop on to the Colombo - Kandy ICE as well.
Despite such upsets it turned out to be a fantastic trip with a lot of learning about a culture which is so close yet so far from that of mine. Learning was not just in terms of culture, but political, ethnic, lingual and religious. Buddhism is the magnet that drew me towards Sri Lanka, the center of Theravada Buddhism. I always imagined Buddhist monks will be meditating all the time, thinking only of Buddha and nothing else. I discovered how wrong I was when couple of years ago I accidentally came across a Tibetan movie called "Phorpa" (directed by a Tibetan Lama by name Khyentse Norbu) and later on visited the Namdroling Monastery in Coorg recently. I saw hundreds of little monks playing cricket and football behind the monastery. It was a lovely sight. In the 5 days I will spend in Sri Lanka I will probably learn a lot more about this peace-loving religion.
Let the journey begin...
--S--
I had informed my vacation plan to my manager nearly 6 weeks in advance, booked my return flights and guest houses to stay. I reminded my manager a week in advance about my planned vacation the week after. But things started turning against me that week. Work was increasing and my bosses wouldn't let me go even for a day. Some tough negotiations and angry stares and frustrated arguments later I was "permitted" to take 2 days leave and the 3rd day as uninformed sick leave. I bit my teeth and altered my plan. It cost me my dream. Shrinking the trip from 9 to 5 days would mean I would lose money I spent for my return flight and some guest houses. But the biggest loss would be Galle. I would not be able to take the Galle-Colombo coastal train at all. Probably I would not even be able to hop on to the Colombo - Kandy ICE as well.
Despite such upsets it turned out to be a fantastic trip with a lot of learning about a culture which is so close yet so far from that of mine. Learning was not just in terms of culture, but political, ethnic, lingual and religious. Buddhism is the magnet that drew me towards Sri Lanka, the center of Theravada Buddhism. I always imagined Buddhist monks will be meditating all the time, thinking only of Buddha and nothing else. I discovered how wrong I was when couple of years ago I accidentally came across a Tibetan movie called "Phorpa" (directed by a Tibetan Lama by name Khyentse Norbu) and later on visited the Namdroling Monastery in Coorg recently. I saw hundreds of little monks playing cricket and football behind the monastery. It was a lovely sight. In the 5 days I will spend in Sri Lanka I will probably learn a lot more about this peace-loving religion.
Let the journey begin...
--S--
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
To ESCAPE from Cellphone
Most of the times you choose the movie you want to watch. Sometimes the movie chooses you. Sometimes the movie you watch would fit perfectly to your mood, so perfectly, that you can draw some ideas out of it. Whether you build on those ideas or not, is secondary. Under an extremely irritated work environment and stressful time, which might go on endlessly, that I took this day off from work, switched off my mobile phone and escaped to watch a movie alone.
Coming to think of mobile phones I feel I have got Telephon-o-phobia of late. How would you fell if your work condition is such that you might get phone call any time? That too I'm not in public service. I'm not a doctor. I'm not in call-center business, to be getting calls at odd times. I'm not a stock broker and late nights are not when markets function. Shit happens. Even the thought of being without a mobile phone is so liberating. World would look so beautiful with lots of sparrows instead of tall cellphone towers. World would sound so pleasing to your ears when birds chirp, instead of cellphones scream.
Taking just my wallet and NO mobile phone, smelling freedom in the air, I jumped in to some bus, not having decided which theater to go or what movie to watch. When you are unsure of what to watch and you have plenty of time in hand, 'Express Avenue - Escape Cinemas' is the right place to be. Of all the movies, I chose "Zindago Na Milegi Dobara". Dil Chahta Hai is one of my all-time favorite films, and I liked Rock On too. So I decided to watch ZNMD for Farhan Akhtar without much thought. I don't understand Hindi that well but one needn't know Hindi that well to watch Hin-glish movies nowadays. The movie was thoroughly entertaining, impressive and helped me get out of my bad mood. It was DCH-like. It was RockOn-like. And it was in parts like Spanish government's advertisement film. But who cares! It had some stunning visuals, nice music and its own good moments.
In a scene when Hrithik keeps getting phone calls from his work place in London, while driving in Spain, Farhan (ZNMD's version of DCH's Saif Ali khan) grabs his mobile phone and throws it out! How I wish someone does that to me! I can only switch off my phone for today but have to switch it on tomorrow again. How painful. It was like a signal to me, asking me to throw away cellphone and feel liberated. Not just about cellphone, but the entire movie was like that. Like asking me to throw all nonsense and jump out and do what my heart says. Very much like Paulo Coelho says in 'The Alchemist' - "Look out for signals around you, there will be clues around". Very few films have mad me feel this way. "Into the wild" being the most prominent and the most influential of them. "Bucket list", the next. And "The motorcycle diaries". Purposeless travels, but very meaningful ones. That's exactly what I like the most.
--S--
Coming to think of mobile phones I feel I have got Telephon-o-phobia of late. How would you fell if your work condition is such that you might get phone call any time? That too I'm not in public service. I'm not a doctor. I'm not in call-center business, to be getting calls at odd times. I'm not a stock broker and late nights are not when markets function. Shit happens. Even the thought of being without a mobile phone is so liberating. World would look so beautiful with lots of sparrows instead of tall cellphone towers. World would sound so pleasing to your ears when birds chirp, instead of cellphones scream.
Taking just my wallet and NO mobile phone, smelling freedom in the air, I jumped in to some bus, not having decided which theater to go or what movie to watch. When you are unsure of what to watch and you have plenty of time in hand, 'Express Avenue - Escape Cinemas' is the right place to be. Of all the movies, I chose "Zindago Na Milegi Dobara". Dil Chahta Hai is one of my all-time favorite films, and I liked Rock On too. So I decided to watch ZNMD for Farhan Akhtar without much thought. I don't understand Hindi that well but one needn't know Hindi that well to watch Hin-glish movies nowadays. The movie was thoroughly entertaining, impressive and helped me get out of my bad mood. It was DCH-like. It was RockOn-like. And it was in parts like Spanish government's advertisement film. But who cares! It had some stunning visuals, nice music and its own good moments.
In a scene when Hrithik keeps getting phone calls from his work place in London, while driving in Spain, Farhan (ZNMD's version of DCH's Saif Ali khan) grabs his mobile phone and throws it out! How I wish someone does that to me! I can only switch off my phone for today but have to switch it on tomorrow again. How painful. It was like a signal to me, asking me to throw away cellphone and feel liberated. Not just about cellphone, but the entire movie was like that. Like asking me to throw all nonsense and jump out and do what my heart says. Very much like Paulo Coelho says in 'The Alchemist' - "Look out for signals around you, there will be clues around". Very few films have mad me feel this way. "Into the wild" being the most prominent and the most influential of them. "Bucket list", the next. And "The motorcycle diaries". Purposeless travels, but very meaningful ones. That's exactly what I like the most.
--S--
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