Touchet travelers: March 21, 2024 Colombo, Sri Lanka, 45 days to go of 138

Today is a half day. Half day at sea, and half day in port.

Mike is walking and the room is being cleaned, so I went to the Explorer Lounge to work on yesterdays blog. I don't know what the occasion was, but this is who was walking around the ship public areas with treats. Yum!

We arrived to Colombo, Sri Lanka around lunchtime. Our provided excursion a "Snapshot of Colombo" was suppose to leave at 4 pm. There were shops just outside of the ship that we wanted to look at, so we went out early. Now we have had shops on the port grounds before, these have permanent buildings we have not seen in other ports. Much nicer for the people selling and us buying. While we were out there after our excursion it started to sprinkle, then rain harder after we made it back to the ship.

Max our Excursion Manager was standing just off the gang plank, and he said if you are ready to go on your excursion we have buses ready. We jumped on an earlier bus. No shopping for us right now at least.

This is a get acquainted to the city tour. I don't know that I could get myself anywhere in the city from the tour, but we did get an over view.

These two buildings show the English influence on the city. They were in the country and Sri Lanka was part of the British Empire for 130 years.

This is the market place in the city. The people come here to shop because things are made in China and less expensive than what they could find in a supermarket, or shopping center.

Look how busy these streets are. Traffic here is not as bad as Vietnam, but it still is bad. There is many more pedestrians on the streets.

This is a part of a Hindu Temple. They love bright colors, and there is a story in every part of the decorations.

They use the lions to grace the doors of many buildings. I believe this was a small Buddhist Mosque.

This is the Gangaramaya Buddhist Temple, the outside wall is the first picture above, the statues were outside giving you a taste of what awaited you inside.

Every Buddhist temple includes a tree, so this is a representation of the real tree.

Every temple is filled with small treasures. Most are brought by someone who has come and prayed for something in front of Buddha. When the prayers are answered they must return with an offering to thank Buddha for answering their prayer.

China gave this temple a room full of identical small white statues of Buddha. To the right is the Buddha's that Thailand gave to the temple. These were small child size. Impressive

This is the Bodhi tree in this temple. This tree is more than 200 years old. We were told that the reason for the tree is you can find enlightenment sitting under a tree.

The crocodile above is in the room of offerings to the temple and Buddha. I found it interesting they felt the need to put a bag over the mouth and teeth. This country has no warning signs for any dangers, and no handrails. Our guide says they feel people know not to get close to edges, or watch their step.

This is me out side the front of the Temple.

What building does this remind you of? It is built to look like our White House. This is where the Mayor of Colombo resides and has her office. It needed a paint job.

To the right is an animal in Independence Square.

I love the sign below "This is a place of National Significance. Keep Discipline" Such a simple request.

This is a statue of Sri Lanka's first Prime Minister.

Below is the building behind the above statue. It had pictures around the sides that told the story of their independence from the British and their history.

Ok, I am being tested once again. At Independence Square there was a snake charmer. Mike went to take a picture, and the man covered the snake. He wanted $5. Mike offered him $1. and he took it. Mike got his picture, but so did about 15 others who did not pay for the opportunity. Our second time by he tried to get Mike to take a picture with another snake a Boa in the bag. We also saw that he had two snakes in the bowl. Our guide informed us that when snakes are used like this they have their poison glands removed. I still don't like snakes.

On the left is the Lotus Performing Arts Center . It was built by their government and half was paid for by China. It only seats 1,269 people in this large city.

The pictures to the right are students in the Art college selling their paintings on the street. These are permanent structures that have a place to store the paintings when they close. Very clever idea

This is a Mosque, and their minaret, which is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. The Minaret is used to project the Muslim call to prayer.

Here is our embassy in Colombo.

These two pictures show the military presence all around the city. We were not told the government is everywhere, and always listening, but it had the look of it.

This is the oldest British hotel in Colombo. It is located right on the beach and in front is a long strip of green open area. During the British occupation this area was used for Polo, and riding their horses.