This is indeed a sad day. Today we say good bye to our Room Steward, Mr. Sariyano. His contract is up and this evening he returns home to Java to his “other” family that have been missing him for the past 6 months. (We met his wife and 3 of his four children in Semarang last month.) He has been an excellent steward and a friendly, caring, and open companion on this adventure. We will miss him greatly but we wish him the best.
After the normal “Begin the day” routine we boarded our bus for the (included) tour of the city.
Here are a few shots from the bus window:
We stopped in Cinnamon Park to take some photos around the pavilion at Independence Square – built to commemorate Sri Lanka’s independence in 1948.
Back on the bus we drove to the Gangaramaya Temple – one of the most important temples in Sri Lanka. It was built in the late 19th century and serves as a center of education and welfare as well as a place of worship.
Guardian lion with ball in his mouth 
Buddhist temple-all women must have shoulders and knees covered and everyone remove shoes and hats. 
Large Buddha 
Devotees 
Devotees 
Stupa 
This elephant carried Buddha’s coffin on his back in ceremonial parades for 11 years-when he died they kept his head to stay with Buddha in this temple 
Offerings-any food is given away to the hungry 
Temple built around sacred Bo Tree 
Male student clothing 
Female student clothing
In addition to the worship and learning centers it also includes a library and museum of significant buddhist artifacts.
Then it was back to the port where we took some time to peruse the temporary shops that had set up next to the ship.
Along the way we picked up a few child-sized t-shirts. One of our fellow passengers has a contact in Turkey who is collecting clothes for earthquake victims. This passenger has put out a request for ‘gently used’ clothing that we don’t want to pack to take home, as well as inexpensive children’s clothes. The shops along the pier had some great bargains and we were able to select shirts in several sizes on a very modest budget.
Back on board we took tea at 4:00 in the Wintergarden. We weren’t sure when we might get supper so we noshed on little sandwiches and killer scones.
Being Sunday we had church at 5:30.
7:00 saw us decked out in our evening finery
and back on the bus on our way to a local hotel where we were presented with a drink and a performance of native dance.
Perhaps our favorite dance of the evening was the “Elephant Dance” – young women portraying the majesty of elephant movements.
I’ll publish another post with samples of each of the dances for your perusing pleasure.
The dancing was followed by a traditional Sri Lankan feast, good company, good conversation, and eventually a bus ride back.
It was quite a day.
We’ve designated tomorrow as a vacation day – but more on that later.
For now, TTFN, R
PS: The “Index Image” for today is a Tuk Tuk
Cheryl’s Factoids:
- Colombo is the largest city in Sri Lanka. The biggest source of income is people working in other countries and sending money home. German tourists make up 60 percent of their tourist industry and a lot of Germans like to retire here and in Phuket (where we saw a “currywurst” restaurant).
- There are 1.4 million 3-wheeled tuk-tuks here – which dart forward whenever one can get his fender ahead of another.
- In the Hindu religion, the low caste people cannot go into the temple, but the Buddhist temples welcome all.
Interesting photos and commentary.
Is that last thing why there’s a statue of Shiva at a Buddhist temple??? I’m confused. Which is fine, I don’t mind being confused. It just struck me as odd given I mostly know about Sri Lanka for its Buddhist fundamentalism.