Lanka - A Small Sashay

Hey, I happen to have a Tamil friend in Sri Lanka and also a lovely Dutch Sinhala lady friend there...and this is good news:``visa on arrival`` that means I could send them a mail and ask them to greet me at the airport...how much money did u say was needed for a respectable stay there?

God, i wish i could go to Sri Lanka now... one day InshAllah...

Arti,

I`m a little in coming to this. . .your travelogue was very nicely written. Yes, I hope travel`s made easier in our part of the world. Though I`m not too sure the idea`d be too favorably received by the powers that be; humanising the enemy is seldom a top concern with them.

More power to you and your kind,

Aamir

``and no stuka, am not a journalist by profession at all - rather a boring marketing person, tho` i plenty of times wish it were not so. sighh! ``

ummm, thanks...you just made other marketing folk (like me) feel real real good!! :(

hello everybody!

so much for my name! ok, lets see, its pronounced as follows - ar - as in ardent, ti - as in tea. and yes, buxi - is much like bakshi in anand bakshi!

i honestly wish there was more of free travel in this world, especially between neighbouring countries. i say that not so much as to patronise `political peace making process` as it were, but just as an honest traveller. its a pity that with so much common in terms of history, language, culture - just hopping across is the most difficult thing to do. tho` admittedly i`ve actually put one foot across the loc - quite a few years ago when i was living in j&k.

and no stuka, am not a journalist by profession at all - rather a boring marketing person, tho` i plenty of times wish it were not so. sighh!

Your article brings me back memories of the time when I found myself roaming the streets of Colombo for a week, about 3 years ago. And needless to say I have been in love with Colombo ever since.

I totally identify with comparison to Singapore in Nazarhayatkhan`s reply. I had landed in Colombo after living in Singapore for a while and I guess both being tourist oriented, could be one of the reasons of similarity, besides other. But I loved the more natural feel of Colombo as comapred to showcase cleanliness of Singapore.

A day spent in Mt. Lavina Hotel and the ride back to city on train, which travels along the sea, is just one of very fond memories of that week.

A good travelouge.

When I visted Lanka, we were invited to a home. The meal had a coco-nut ingradient in everything - tea , curry and so on. While we like an odd coconut piece once in while, coconut is alien to our Punjabi (or even Pakistani ) taste buds. We could barely gulp the concoction and not showing to the host how distatsteful it was to us.

A popular dictum proven wrong by Lanka is that with almost 100% literacy, it remains a poor country. And it had all the ingradients of Singapore - even democracy.

Is it because of the insugency - but that is a long story.

Re: Urstruly, #2

``just two four letter words``

Man, you`re hilarious!!! Good catch!!!

Ref arjun_m #5

[arti is usually written as aarti so the pronounciation has a long ``aah`` at the start..its ``aah``rti rather than ``art``i as most westerners would pronounce arti.]

You could write it as `aaaaaaaarti` and Westerners still won`t get it right. After all, Aaron is pronounced with the `aa` sounding like the `a` in `bank`.

[is buxi like bakshi?(like in Anand Bakshi)?]

One would presume so. Just like Dixit for Dickshit.

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Temporal:

``am a big proponent of free(er) travel between countries…specially as hostile (and ignorant) as our two countries… if our peoples are allowed freer access they will find out so much more in common with their neighbours…it is this ignorance that breeds the hostility that in turn is fanned by the vested interests in our countries at suitable political intervals… ``

Hhear Hear!! I agree. Even if people to people contact does not help in easing political issues (take Chowk for example) it cannot harm it either. In fact, even the biigest haek will be a dove when travelling to the other side for fear of getting his ass kicked. Can you imagine Uurstruly going Oye Hinduon in Mumbai? Or Arjun going BWAHAHAHA Paki ..insert hostile statement...`` in Karachi??

Arti:

Welcome to chowk!…interesting write up…next time visit one the tea plantations on your way to kandy that is open to public…the real thing…more educational...

digression:(or cyber dreamin’)

…look forward to the day when turbulence level in relations between india and pakistan lower down to the present levels between canada and usa…pack a bag and drive, walk, boat, train or fly over…from bombay to colombo as the crow flies it is 1519 kms and mumbai to karachi is only 542 kms…

…am a big proponent of free(er) travel between countries…specially as hostile (and ignorant) as our two countries… if our peoples are allowed freer access they will find out so much more in common with their neighbours…it is this ignorance that breeds the hostility that in turn is fanned by the vested interests in our countries at suitable political intervals…

rgds,

t

enjoyable piece. hope you get to travel more.

A very cool travelogue!! Welcome to Chowk and look forward to more writings from you. Are you a journalist by profession?

I like your name - just two four letter words