Lanka - A Small Sashay

When the 27 years and 28 days of your existence have been spent within the physical boundaries of a single country (not a very lofty statistic when you often mention ‘travelling’ as your hobby), you’d jump at any opportunity to jaunt to an overseas location. Well, the overseas bit happens to be just about so, when the destination is Sri Lanka. A tiny emerald shaped island in the Indian Ocean variously called Taprobane, Serendep, and Ceylon by the abundance of travelers who have landed on its shores. On a fine March morning, I too packed my passport and landed into the hassle free Colombo airport. The way I see it, supreme happiness is ‘Visa on Arrival’. It allows for all your impulsive travel lusts and saves you the despondency of seeing ‘rejected’ stamped all over your passport. That’s one ignominy I get nightmares about. For some unfathomable reason, we share a clear sailing bondage with our southern neighbour. Happily you can do a to and fro to Colombo, pretending it’s a local train, and the emigration officer will only be too pleased to receive you.

Its quite a marvel, this little island. To me it’s a laboratory of sorts. It’s a marvel that you will find every variety of landscapes here, other than the snowy mountains. With a population of 19 million, that practices at least four different religions, it’s really not yet too over crowded. 140 miles across at its widest, a drive from one coast to the other will only take half a day. And if you don’t care for the weather, a half an hours drive in any direction is guaranteed to change that.

If you have less than a week to spend in Sri Lanka (and no conferences to attend!), the two places that should be on your “to do list” are Colombo (by default, since in all probability you’ll land there), and Kandy. The Colombo-Kandy highway built in 1826, and seems hardly to have changed since then, will take you on slow but scenic journey from Colombo to the capital of Old Sinhalese Kingdom. Kandy is to Colombo, what Pune is to Bombay. But you’ll have to discount the express highway in this case, the Colombo Kandy road is desperately narrow, and makes U-turns an almost impossible task. My suggestion is that if you have the lungs and the legs, hire a cycle and ride the way there, but make sure the temperature works for you.

About 90 kms from Colombo, off the Colombo Kandy highway is the deservedly famous, and the most charming concept I’ve ever come across, the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage. It was started in 1975, with one elephant; and is home to retired, abused or orphaned elephants. It currently provides for 70 elephants, the most famous being Raja – a blind tusker. The Pinnewala Orphanage has been recorded as one of the most successful captive breeding programs for Asian elephants. Its best to time your visit so that you can watch the feeding, and that most pleasurable of all sights – the mammoth mammals bathing. The usual touristy mementos are always available – elephant dung recycled into notebooks, and well, picking up a couple would make for nostalgia to dawdle on back home when you’re drowning your henceforth-drab existence in some good old lager.

Kandy is a hill station with its fair share of history. Founded in the 14th century it had the distinction of remaining unconquered until 1815 when it finally fell to the British. But what puts it on the world heritage map is the Temple of Tooth Relic. As the name suggests, it houses the sacred tooth relic of Lord Buddha, but it’s hardly ever taken out and is heavily guarded. It’s a rather confusing place with so many different domes that one looses track of their significance. One of the more interesting rooms has a storyboard that traces the history of the tooth relic, and how it finally reached Kandy. If you’re looking for a peaceful tour of the temple, visit sometime during the day. Evenings get very crowded, with annoying European tourists everywhere. It gets congregated with women draped in transparent dupattas around their sunburnt spaghetti strapped shoulders (you have to have your shoulders and knees covered inside the temple, and they are very strict about it, which makes for good business for the shop keepers nearby). I was really surprised to see the tourists outnumbering the locals especially during the prayers. I would have figured the temple has a greater significance for the locals. This quite justified my belief of it being a more contrived tourist spot, than a place of worship.

On the other hand, a really eliciting place of worship is strangely found bang in the middle of the capital city. The Gangaramaya temple near the scenic Beira Lake is a peaceful edifice and worth a dekko for the majestic tusker tethered there. Don Bastion, a trader and ship owner built the temple in the 19th century. He has been regarded as one of the few people who played a significant role in propagating Buddhism in Sri Lanka. His ships were used to carry messages and gifts to the King and Court of Burma, and more importantly to bring Bhikkus from that country to strengthen and to preach the message of the Buddha. A ‘Bo’ sapling brought from the ‘Sri Maha Bhodiya’ in Anuradhapura was also planted and brought up. Now over a century old, the tree serves as a place for some transitory contemplation. Heck I spent a good 10 minutes soulfully reminiscing the fatuous choices I’ve so far made in my life.

A metropolitan hub, Colombo strikes one to be quite colonial in nature. There are only two kinds of people you encounter – the very rich or the very poor. Some how, some where, the middle class has disappeared. But it’s one of the few countries where the Rupee brings home a lot more! An absolutely marvelous place to shop and bargain, Colombo has something for all kinds of money spenders. Walk down to Pettah – Colombo’s link to South Asia – a bustling teeming commercial center, crowded, hot, colourful bazaar alleys so much like India its incredibly familiar, it sells everything from Indian silk saris, to fishnets and hardware. Be sure to haggle and bargain for the complete shopping experience! Alternatively walk into Odel, the unlimited fashion mega store where your eyes will pop out at the price tags of Banana Republic T-shirts and Pierre Cardin pret collection! And what will make your credit card jump for joy is converting that same amount to Indian Rupees. Heaven thy name is currency conversion in Lanka!

Ayurveda, spices and tea, they won’t let you leave this island with out them. It’s easy to scoff and ignore the former two, being, well, from India, but I do beg you – get the tea experience. By that I don’t mean drink the chai – it will never cater to the strong Indian palette. But look, touch, marvel and then simply buy the packaging. Tea in Lanka is packaged in the most original, cute (pardon the expression but its genuinely called for here), and a fascinating manner – using ceramics, paper, straw, cardboard. The actual product is available in India and of course is exported the world over, but walk into a tea show room in Lanka for a lesson in encasement. I ambled into one of these places and walked out a thousand rupees lighter. I now possess various flavours of tea inside ceramic elephants, kettles made out of thatch and carved jeweled boxes of stones. I’ll never expend all this chai, but hey, they look pretty, and so often, is that not enough?