by Alan Ho Chok Chan
Expectation and reality
Any tour experience is an admixture of expectation and reality.
Expectation is fueled by the colourful snapshots you gleaned from brochures, Tripadvisor reviews, Facebook photos and the Internet.
Reality is what you experience on the ground with your 6 senses : eyes, ears , nose, touch, taste, and your mind( or consciousness ).
The seasoned traveller learned to garner expectations through research, but accepts what he experiences, which is Reality. That way, the mind is not tainted and obsessed by preconceptions, and every trip is a novel, valuable undertaking, unclouded by delusions, disappointments and others’ views.
After a flight free of major turbulence, we landed around noon in Bandaranaike airport, named after the 4th prime minister of Sri Lanka.
In God we Trust
Our friendly guide Arosha with the elfin grin settled our luggage, SIM card changes and packed us into a comfortable aircon coach operated by a mustachioed driver with the name of a film star : Mr. Newman. The number plate of the bus has a curious prefix : In God We Trust ! I almost blurted out to our driver with the famous name : In your hands our lives we entrust !
Colombo
We stayed in Colombo for 2 days, to find our footing, do some sightseeing and shopping.
Colombo is the commercial, and the administrative capital of the former Ceylon, since the days of Portuguese traders and explorers in the 1500s, its name in Sinhalese meant ‘ a port at the mouth of the river ( Kelani ), others said it meant ‘ a harbour under the mango trees ‘. Whatever, it was a deep natural harbour and its potential was fully realised and capitalised by first the Portuguese in the 1500s, then the Dutch in the 1600s, followed by the English in the late 1700s all the way till mid- twentieth century : all seafaring nations out to conquer, occupy, extract and exploit.
Such, is the ways of the world.
Colombo was variously used as a port for shipping goods, initially cardamon and cinnamon ,then increasingly coffee. After the coffee industry was devastated by a leaf disease, the English planted tea, which became world -famous.It was also a useful defence outpost for the imperial colonies in India. Thus fortresses and ramparts were built and left behind by the colonial rulers, along the coastline guarding the approach to the harbour. Today they stood sentinel against an angry Indian ocean, housing high-end shops selling branded goods and gems , serving as a backdrop in tourists’ photos…
Colombo is really two cities-in-one : the inner, glittering jewel called the Colombo City Centre housing the modern high rises, the WTC twin towers, municipal buildings and showpieces like the Independence Square is its Public Face.
Surrounding this is a peripheral city fringe called the Pettah : this is where we drove through–squalid, extensive shantytowns built on the riverbanks, zinc or asbestos roofed lean-tos, with stone slabs over the makeshift roofs to prevent it flying off in a squall…you see people living in canvas tents with tarpaulins as flooring, right on the streets, because their hovels were inundated or washed away by the recent floods..clothes drying on the pavements, or over the tents…children playing games in muddy puddles…what quality of life, health care, food and shelter do they enjoy ? What does the future hold out for them ?
These are the scenes enacted in my mind’s eye as we were whisked, in aircon comfort, to our luxurious hotel by the sea –Mount Lavinia hotel, a converted palatial residence of the former British High Commissioner. It boasts of about 180 degrees’ unimpeded view of sun, sea, surf and sand. Reminiscent of Raffles’ Hotel back home, high-ceilinged, pristine white walls on the outside, a little dry rot here and there on the inside, giving it a rustic air of faded glory. Staff courteous and subservient, Time reverts back to that in a Somerset Maugham’s novel : “ Sir “ and “ Mem-sahib “ reverberates through the corridors and tiffin room…
We walked the narrow streets in search of lunch. Eschewing a cramped, OMO ( one-man-operated ) eatery which all self-respecting Singaporeans would forsaken in a huff in their hometown ( but which one dozen or so hungry ghosts piled into), the intrepid traveller in me made an about -turn, with wife in tow.
Alas, the greener pasture we sought for was not to be, after huffing and puffing along the meandering street, we came across a sign advertising a seaside Chinese restaurant : but we couldn’t find the fastest way to the sea !
A three-wheeled tuktuk solved our problem, and after sidetracking smoke-belching buses, with bellies growling, we smelled the scent of the sea !
If you could visualise my thoughts you would’ve seen a portly tourist, with sunglasses, under a coconut palm, waves lapping at his feet, sucking the flesh out of the giant claw of a Sri Lankan crab, a glass of frothing Singha ( Lion) beer in hand.
It was just a mirage you’re seeing.
All restaurants are shuttered according to the hours of the British Raj !
To use a patois expression, “Bopian lah !!!”
To get back our tuktuk fare’s worth, we gamely took some selfies against the surf, then posed with the tuktuk driver proudly in front of his fire-engine red deathtrap, and back to the hotel for a lunch of Maggie mee, garnished with muruku.
Burrp !
We slept fitfully, hungry bears in deceptive hibernation, till dinner time…
Dinner was a WOW !
It was a spread that rivalled, and surpassed many featured in 5-star settings back home.
Just the curries alone boggled the mind !
I am in CURRY HEAVEN !
And the Sambals ! Want to know its ingredients ? Fried copra, in finely grated form, add chilly, salt, and a hundred spices, gives you a condiment, not unlike our sambal belachan, but minus the stink of smelly anchovies, and there you have it : a universal additive to rice, hopper, soup, or porridge! Well, maybe not porridge.
We tucked into every dish on offer, sans the beef and mutton, which I overloaded in a previous lifetime. Just the vegetable curries alone is enough to fill a cow’s 4 stomachs.
Dessert galore !
Just the cakes, jellies, custards, and fruits alone occupied an entire side of the cavernous dining hall.
All reservations about salmonella ( typhoid), shigella ( dysentery), E Coli ( lao-sai ), and C Vibrios ( cholera) gets thrown out of the windows. Tuck in, and pray !
The only problem was : to find a 5th stomach !
( end of part 2 ) To be continued
Dr Alan Ho Chok Chan is a Paediatrician in private Family Practice. He also spends time golfing, swimming, playing tennis, wine tasting. playing guitar and singing. He is also a bibliophile and voracious reader.
