Colorful Colombo, Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon

nansknits19
May 8, 2023
5 min read

Colombo is the most populated city in Sri Lanka, with over 5.6 million inhabitants. Huge cities are generally not my favorites, but this city spoke to me. Perhaps because it has been in existence for over 2,000 years due to its strategic location on the East-West Trade Route. Its primary export has morphed many times over the centuries: rubber, coffee, spices, tea, cinnamon, etc. With the demise of coffee due to overplanting, an enterprising young Scot came to Ceylon and commenced to perfect the planting, growing, cultivation of tea. Robert Taylor was the wizard of producing tea in Ceylon publishing many papers on his discoveries. Then another young Scot immigrated to Ceylon. The two young Scots, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Lipton, collaborated and our beloved Lipton tea was born, right here in Sri Lanka! Mr. Lipton devised the little paper envelope in which it is still sold today with, Glory Be, the precise same amount of tea leaves inside! This information brought to you by our beloved Dr. Sherry, OLife Enrichment Speaker. Any error in content is due to my poor memory not her presentation. Excursions to tea plantations were available, but I have been a tad under the weather and chose not to over exert myself. Instead, I chose "Colombo by Night" and "Panoramic Colombo". Both very good tours!

As The Insignia seems prone to do, we visited Colombo on a holiday weekend/week/more. This holiday was in celebration of the May full moon. Yes, we have 12 full moons each year, and yes they celebrate all twelve of them, just not with as much enthusiasm as in May. Several times one or another guide attempted to explain why this May full moon was more special than the other twelve. Most I could discern was that it had something to do with Buddhist Monks, past and present? Almost all commerce is halted. The streets are lined with coconut oil filled paper lanterns. The Buddhist flag waved from everything, everywhere. Trees were adorned with colorful lights in the colors of the Buddhist flag, orange, white, red, blue and yellow. A single tree was decorated with one of the five colors while its neighbor in another and so forth.

May Full Moon Day decorations.

The leader of the beautiful young folk dancers.

Our guide for the evening tour was a very well informed young college graduate who seems to be very proud of his homeland if a little less than approving of its former leaders. It seems first came Covid ending tourism and most other enterprise, then came economic disaster resulting in the ouster of the President and then most recently, bankruptcy. We saw many construction projects in varying stages of incompletion due to the country's complete financial collapse. During the British rule and perhaps prior to their reign, beautiful architectural wonders were created. If I understood correctly, much like our historical landmark designations, the exterior of these buildings must be maintained in their original style. Great idea but the country simply lacks the money to put where their mouth is. (Unfortunately, in my estimation, further increasing their dependency on China.) Another newly constructed most spectacular landmark was dissed by my first guide as the proverbial straw in the country's financial collapse - The Lotus Tower. According to this guide, while acknowledging its beauty, doesn't even bring in enough money to pay for the electricity it uses not to mention maintenance. His perspective/opinion/political position. Another guide proudly pointed to it as a beloved symbol of Sri Lanka while having various practical purposes. He stated that its reason for being was for improved communications. Rather than build an eyesore, build a beautiful structure utilizing their national flower, house restaurants, and afford tourists a panoramic view of the city. Sounds good, multi-purpose wifi/cell phone tower. According to a shipmate who went to the top, there is nothing else inside the tower except the viewing station. No restaurants, no businesses, no visible communications equipment. Hmm! Whom to believe? Regardless, it is certainly one awesome landmark which no one can dispute!

Colombo is almost entirely Buddhist with a smattering of other religions. Did not see a cathedral, however. Sri Lanka gained its independence from the Brits in 1948. While I am a proponent of independence and home rule, I question whether this was the best financial decision for them. The majority of these gorgeous landmarks were relics of colonialism. Few, if any, were financed from their local economy. We saw a perfectly manicured ninety-nine acre public park, Victoria Park which seems to be well used and appreciated. Oh, while circling the park, I learned from our guide that the "Queen's Necklace" of Mumbai referred to Queen Victoria. Duh, they have had more than one queen over the centuries now haven't they. Speaking of Royalty, the ship dutifully arranged the showing of the coronation this week for the many Brits aboard though I think more Australians, Kiwi, US and Canadians watched than Brits.

We drove past the Presidential Palace, now empty; the old parliament building; a huge structure of Colonial design housing the Colombo equivalent of Neiman's; Independence Park; and a race course though I was unable to hear the nature of the races. All past glory except for the "gifts" from China. Our young guide repeated the old adage, there is no free lunch. You think the world will ever accept the truth in that statement? A criticism of the now ousted President is that he was intent on giving the people everything they wanted to the determent of a sustainable economy, buying their vote so to speak. Is there a lesson to be learned therein?

My day tour encompassed many of the same landmarks, but I had learned the night before the right side of the bus offered more photo ops, so that's where I plopped myself. An added feature allowed on this tour was a stop at Independence square with a chance to snap pics and stretch our legs. An unexpected bonus to me was Michael Jackson! As soon as I stepped off the bus, he jumped on my shoulder intent to play with my face mask, sunshades, camera, hat, hair, you name it. Such a fun experience! I, of course, had a friendly conversation with Michael's owner who guessed me to be from Germany (now that's a new one) but when I told him I was from Texas, he said, "US, no? Then you must know who Michael Jackson was." They also had boa's one could drape around one's neck. NO THANK YOU! After a contribution to Michael's upkeep and with a degree of regret, I moved on to explore Independence Square. Such a cute little monkey, soft, clean, playful, adorable.

Someday I shall learn to take selfies.

Fickle little monkey soon found another shoulder to grace.

Included in the night tour was a stop at a very grand hotel, The Cinnamon, for dinner and the Sri Lankan Traditional Cultural Show. The dinner was delicious, the drinks superb (passion fruit and gin, I believe) and the Cultural Show enchanting! What a wonderful experience! As luck would have it, I encountered the lovely dancers after their performance and was allowed to take their photo. Only one of these ladies seemed to speak English, the other three some local dialect/s. There have been so many unbelievably fantastic things about this trip not the least of which is a brief glimpse into the life of so many varied cultures. Beauty abounds in this great big wonderful world.