travelinwoman: June 2012

The new theatre built in the middle of the roadway..... really quite amazing an beautiful; i think it was a Chinese architect

I had little expectation for Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka on the Indian Ocean due to my general distaste of third world Asian cities (over populated, over polluted, insurmountable traffic and usually Bad City Planning) as well as specificity from guide books denouncing Colombo. I needed to go there for a few days to extend my visa (folly, since I ended up coming home early from dengue) and it was the dreaded place I actually got BIT. Dengue is the plague of the cities.
I stayed in a most hospitable colonial era house cum boutique hotel, Havelock Place Bungalow where I have determined the bug bit me: outside luxuriating at their fabulous cafe next to their still + presumably fetid pool. o well.
I will not bore you with the excruciatingly LONG day I spent at the immigration center, chaotic and crowded and plainly disorganized (where is the typical digital counter that we typically find in our deli section to coordinate the masses in need of assistance?????) There were Hundreds and hundreds of us and no loud speaker, nothing to herd us toward the next step, except a civil servant speaking softly. And there were many "steps"!!!!!!!! Another really poor way to attract tourists and the fee to extend was exorbitant. Actually everything in Sri Lanka is costly compared to anyplace in Asia. It's a shame and will backfire because the infrastructure as well as customer service is absent.

The next day I spent perusing the streets with a car+driver. The streets were Clean, tree lined and ACTIVE. I really enjoyed walking around the different neighborhoods, whirling around in the ever present tuk tuks and seeing a wide diversity of people; busy going about their lives.
First stop: Gallery Cafe- former office of the illustrious architect Geoffrey Bawa.
It's now an art gallery with some provocative stuff.

stuck in the eighties (right before the civil war ) the architecture bespoke of time past+ very very overpriced mediocre food

interior pools of serenity

always room and time to comment on colonialization

I found the city to be much more sophisticated than I could have ever thought; I am glad I ventured into the streets as there was some really beautiful historical architecture. At present, it's all being built with a lot of foreign investment (ie: China) as Colombo and the rest of the country has been at a standstill during the civil war.
During my time at the Galle Music Festival I met and spent quite a lot of time with the diplomatic crowd (not my usual; spooks are not my peeps) as they were the "faces" of the countries represented and who had underwritten the festival.
They all resided in Colombo and told me stories of bombings and architecture and cultural offerings. Of course, people in the north thought that the inhabitants of Colombo had it "easy" and just went about their lives and cocktail parties.
I did find it to be very cosmopolitan and Very Clean, which must be noted! There is Great Effort to put the war behind them. There are also still Big Gaping Wounds and dissatisfaction in how the government is handling everything.
I spoke with some intellects working in a NGO and suggested, "why not try a truth and reconciliation council a la South Africa and Haiti"? They answered me, "The same people who were in power during the war remain in power- they don't want to confess or change".
So, as I have been observing since landing in Sri Lanka; this country is in transition. Where they are headed politically and whether the truce will remain in effect is unknown. There remains a lot of vitriol. There is the pressure to "catch up" economically and be perceived as "First World". A UNITED Sri Lanka. Only history will reveal whether the Sinhal Buddhists + Tamil Hindus can overcome their differences and bring prosperity and equality to Sri Lanka or whether the festering wounds will bloom due to inattention.