To taxi on the Male airport is like being in a dream, you are sitting in the plane and looking at the astonishing blue postcard beaches around the airstrip... it is quite unreal. However, the dream is over as soon as you feel the push of the engines letting you go towards Colombo. Colombo, for Asian relations a quite small city, the metropolitan area has around 5 Million inhabitants. What is making it really interesting is it's location directly on the ocean. For whatever reason I had to think on Rio - walk along the city's coastline, with a strong wind coming from the ocean making the waves coming up to the coast road, really, it has something special. Or just jump on one of the suburban trains to the south, go 4 stations south starting at Colombo Fort, the ride is going to take you along the coast, when you are lucky having the sea with heavy waves you may get a shower looking out of the window. Get off at Colombo 4 and just drink a coffee at Geoffrey Bawa's cafe, like all the other tourists reading lonely planet or whatever guidebook... It has something decadent but is also letting you think on the colonial time here in Sri Lanka. One of the great things about Sri Lanka is, you can visit it all the time around the year, heaving always an option to escape the rainy areas - in August it is the east coast where to go. We took a daily train to Trinco at the east cost, it is an area just for doing nothing, relaxing, enjoying the fish, looking at the fishermen and their work, getting boring after a few days.... hmm, where is the line between relaxing and getting bored? Am I able to relax? I think yes, but not doing nothing - writing a blog is relaxing, for sure, not for looking for English words I would like to use and which do not show up in my mind (is it a result of not having an room with A/C?) - so all you my friends not knowing German, I'm working for you during my holidays letting my blog probably sound a bit technical.... However, I give it a try.
Best wishes,
Les
