Day 5 - Colombo

Apologize for IPhone quality photos - Going to buy my camera-to-comp cord today. Here I am flying over western Saudi Arabia before landing in Qatar.  

It is Sunday afternoon and another beautiful day in Colombo: high of 88, low of 79 and 60% chance of rain (this has been forecast for each day I've been here)

This "weather" has not discouraged me however. I do not know if I'll spend much time in urban Sri Lanka so I must make the most of it. On Good Friday night, after Asanka dropped me off at my homestay, I ventured out to find a restaurant my coworkers recommended, Summer Garden. I couldn't find it, got lost, made it home, and ate a bagel I'd saved from the plane.

Buddha chillin outside museum under massive tree. 

The next day, emboldened by sunlight and an 8 hour window to make it back, I asked Auntie for fresh directions to Summer Garden for lunch. "Oh, you went there last night, yes? Today try Cafe 5 - just go right, then left, then through the roundabout and its on the right. Everyone knows it." Too ashamed to correct Auntie that I had actually failed at eating, I left for Cafe 5. I followed the directions to a T. And yet, there I was, 45 minutes later, walking the busy streets of Colombo searching desperately for this cafe "on the right." Doubling back, trying to re-interpret Auntie's directions, things were looking grim. I think I startled a police officer when I approached him with my soaked, scarlet face and asked if he knew Cafe 5. He did not. Utterly defeated, I almost convinced myself I wasn't hungry and began walking back. Maybe 6 minutes from Auntie's, I saw it. Auntie did not mean go through the roundabout and find it on the right, she meant: go right at the roundabout. There was 5th lane, and, just down it, Cafe 5. I was perfectly happy and disgusting looking as I ordered my fish cakes.

Upon my triumphant return, I sat and watched cricket with Auntie. England was playing the 2nd of its 2 game series against Sri Lanka, in Sri Lanka. Cricket is serious here - it's the national sport and Sri Lanka has placed 3 times in the last 5 world cups. I quickly picked up the basics from google/Auntie and became far too attached given I learned the rules that day. Though not easy to make out through Auntie's modest television, I could see that the grandstand was entirely filled with Brits. Auntie explained that tickets were 40 pounds each - prohibitively expensive for most Sri Lankans. The commentators told us that 8,000 england supporters had traveled to watch the match.

Chameleon wondering how things could have been different. 

On Easter Sunday, Auntie left for a funeral in the south and I was left to entertain myself. I left early and went to the National Museum. I forced myself to appreciate ancient buddhas and Sri Lanka's irrigation history but after two hours, convinced I'd satisfied my cultural obligation, I practically skipped to the nearby Natural History Museum. This was the only museum I'd been to with animal exhibits exclusively comprised of organisms in ethanol jars. I was the only one there, the lights weren't working - it was perfectly creepy. Afterwards, I grabbed lunch at an Indian coffee place and made it home shortly before Auntie's return. One more day till Udawalawe!