Colombo and more

WEll, something is screwy with my memory card because I'm back in Chennai and a computer that was able to read it before is not able now. When I get home I'll post the rest of the photos, by then I'll also have some of the Taj hotel in Mumbai.

The train ride from Unatunawala to Colombo was wonderful, I took the slow train, 4 hours rather than waiting 2 hours for the fast train which was 2 hours, I got in at the same time and the fact that the train stopped all the time meant it slowed down enough for me to get some great shots out of the wide open windows, and it was nearly empty, most people probably opting for the later fast train.

Sometimes the train was so close to the water I felt like I could reach down and touch it, but mostly there was a highway and some land between. I saw an aray of lovely houses (and some not so lovely) most of the ones I was interested in, older more traditional styles, because they were old,were also well covered by shady palms nad thus hard to get a clear shot of. There was also a lot of Tsunami ruins along the way, foundations of houses with fragments of peoples spaces, tile walls, etc. There were some tracts of land that were empty aside from these foundations, as if it were haunted land, or maybe more likely, land disputes. The man who owned the guest house I stayed in in Unatunawala said that land is very valuable and that there is a strong mafia that also controls and tries to grab land, he has had trouble with some that he owns.

Colombo is a big beautiful city that has been a famous port for eons, but was not officially a city until the British were there, afer the Portuguese and Dutch. Most of it seems to date from that time and it seemed in some ways like a scaled down verson of Delhi. The Brits love their traffic circles with roads radiating out from all directions, which makes crossing the road, even in the much less densely populated country of Sri Lanka difficult and there never are right angles or roads that really head in solid directions which was a challenge for my fragile sense of direction even with a good detailed map.

There are a lot of beautiful mansions still standing, particularly in the area I was staying, Cinammon Gardens, which was the most exclusive neighborhood to live in, if you were British or a wealthy Ceylonese. Many are now the emgassies or other important edifices and most have high walls around them for security, making it hard to see much less photograph. And old photo of the area shows low walls and when I met with the head of the Fulbright program, he said you used to be able to see into everyones proud front gardens. I loved the charming smaller bungalow that was still the "Ladies Friendly Soceity" which was in my book Cinnamon Gardens, about the area in the 30's, for single ladies who came to the city to work.

The one older area wiht the narrow dense market streets had been badly bombed in the 90's so most of the buildings were awful modern things.

It was a nice few days of long walks and pleasant places to eat, a very nice and compared to India, laid back place, but I'm back here now, feeling very much at home. The show gets taken down tomorrow and Im off to Ahmedabad the following day.

SO, check back now and then adn I'll post the photos when I'm able to.