Wer yu fro?....Saudi Arabi?Lebano'?I get asked often during my travels and as well here in Sri Lanka...I am from Italia, I reply!!!!.......it's fun to know I am a citizen of the world though... also the "pope" must be one and he is following me... roads have been cleaned up and surface marking painted to make it look nice for his arrival (sadly everywhere else remain old and run down)...just today I was in Kandy that is the spiritual capital of the country and where in his main temple is preserved one tooth of the Buddha....I didn't care for either of them and went running around the lake with monkeys crossing over electricity lines using their tails to balance, so as the squirrels that seem to be the local mice, and some poor stray dogs and cats that have a tough life in poor countries like this...
this first week has been pretty intense and I have started to learn about the betel leaf and the areca nut that are very popular all over South East Asia, basically it stands as the coffee or the cigarettes for the westerns, or the coca leaves for the Quechua people.
The habit to chew them evokes euphoria and has some unclear medicinal purposes locals say but it also has a strong symbolism for sexuality and spirituality, yet on the downside people frequently do spit out a red thick saliva and have a serious teeth blackening problem!!
another curiosity about the betel leaf is that it was used by the old president as symbol for his political party, the winner had a swan and another one a elephant, the symbol is important as well as clever because illiteracy is a serious issue and a betel leaf, or a swan or a elephant picture would facilitate the voting.
another interesting thing I have encountered is the common reuse of school kids' excercise papers perfectly glued into bags of various shapes for fruit, nuts or snacks from the street vendors......or just old pieces of paper handed out as receipts in shops or buses...talking about buses on the one I caught today I enjoyed the performance of a guitar player that joined the sellers of newspapers, water, snacks, fruit and lottery tickets!!!
a country obsession, that is not new to me, is the stress for their skin tone/colour, it makes me smile to think that "whites" would pay for a nice tan and "darks" strive for a lighter skin!!
on advertising boards are usually used lighter skin Sri Lankan celebrities or people and in shops is possible to buy creams that...... (see yourself...)
I am also struggling with communicating here as the country has officially two languages and even if Singhalese are the majority I still don't understand who is who!! and which one of the "thank you" -Nanri- for tamil, or -Istuti- for singhalese I should use... Karuna Karala is the singhalese for "please" yet it sounds quite swahili or african or little japanese to me...so do town names like Kotagala, Dambatenne or the town where I ended up tonight Katunayake!!!!
I have hardly found a fluent english speaker even though I have to recognize that people here have been very nice and genuine, yet they should check some translator here and there...that's what I found browsing accidentally a wedding and ceremonies brochure....
feel free to join my journey by commenting or suggesting me....
this first week has been pretty intense and I have started to learn about the betel leaf and the areca nut that are very popular all over South East Asia, basically it stands as the coffee or the cigarettes for the westerns, or the coca leaves for the Quechua people.
The habit to chew them evokes euphoria and has some unclear medicinal purposes locals say but it also has a strong symbolism for sexuality and spirituality, yet on the downside people frequently do spit out a red thick saliva and have a serious teeth blackening problem!!
another curiosity about the betel leaf is that it was used by the old president as symbol for his political party, the winner had a swan and another one a elephant, the symbol is important as well as clever because illiteracy is a serious issue and a betel leaf, or a swan or a elephant picture would facilitate the voting.
another interesting thing I have encountered is the common reuse of school kids' excercise papers perfectly glued into bags of various shapes for fruit, nuts or snacks from the street vendors......or just old pieces of paper handed out as receipts in shops or buses...talking about buses on the one I caught today I enjoyed the performance of a guitar player that joined the sellers of newspapers, water, snacks, fruit and lottery tickets!!!
a country obsession, that is not new to me, is the stress for their skin tone/colour, it makes me smile to think that "whites" would pay for a nice tan and "darks" strive for a lighter skin!!
on advertising boards are usually used lighter skin Sri Lankan celebrities or people and in shops is possible to buy creams that...... (see yourself...)
I am also struggling with communicating here as the country has officially two languages and even if Singhalese are the majority I still don't understand who is who!! and which one of the "thank you" -Nanri- for tamil, or -Istuti- for singhalese I should use... Karuna Karala is the singhalese for "please" yet it sounds quite swahili or african or little japanese to me...so do town names like Kotagala, Dambatenne or the town where I ended up tonight Katunayake!!!!
I have hardly found a fluent english speaker even though I have to recognize that people here have been very nice and genuine, yet they should check some translator here and there...that's what I found browsing accidentally a wedding and ceremonies brochure....
pineapples delivery.....
the view from yesterday's train ride from Haputale to Kandy...
feel free to join my journey by commenting or suggesting me....
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