A Trip to Sri Lanka

I took another trip to Sri Lanka some time ago. This time, I just stayed in Colombo the capital. Colombo is a kind of city where you can feel the atmosphere of a middle class culture. I mean all the trends in clothes, concerts, hang out places and all.

I can say Colombo or rather I should say Sri Lanka is a place with a huge obsession of the girls to be slim and sexy ( like the thing you see in Tehran these days) the normal dress code of a female there, is a very tight long skirt and a blouse which is almost what every girl is wearing. Compared to Kochin in India or I can say south India Sri Lankan young generation seems to be much more trendy and fashionable. And of course there is an aroma of romance every where you look. There are young couples sitting and talking and chatting.

Sri Lanka is a country with only 19 million people with a few percent Muslim and Christian, some Hindu and a majority of Buddhist. Muslim community is very distinct as it is in the whole Indian subcontinent. They look different and apparently do not comfort to the modern way of life that the new generation is picking up. They are mostly in small businesses and clothes shops. More or less the same strong community attachment like Muslims in India is seen in Sri Lanka too.

Sri Lanka basically is living on tourism and agriculture; mostly tea. I remember when I was in Iran we knew that there is a place which produces the best tea with the name of Ceylon and I always thought it was somewhere in India but guess what, the land we would call Ceylon is the same land which is now being called Sri Lanka. Actually Ceylon is what British used to call the place during the colonization. And I tell you by experience that in Sri Lanka you get real high quality tea. Even what people use in their homes which they say is not the best quality (coz the best one is usually exported) really stands out with taste and texture. I loved it.

In Colombo there is a cool uptown place called Seaface Road. This a very modern looking open area which faces Colombo's finest commercial buildings. Here you can see lots of couples hanging out, have a snack (well...that snack is a bit creepy to me.) and mostly sitting and enjoy the sea and of course make future romantic plans. I am going to post some pics form there but you know what I didn't dare to go too close to the couples and take a pic I felt they wouldn't like it.

After all Sri Lanka isn't a typical western culture even if it looks like one. I mean it is only 1 hour flight from here Cochin in Kerala which has a real conservative culture so let's face it if you open your eyes you see that the culture is not as western as it might look.

Besides, I can understand this coz it is pretty much like the culture in Iran and Tehran now where things happen in a more or less western facade but you cannot or donot choose to make an explicit show of it. All these made me understand that it is not ok to act like a senseless tourist and photograph anything that I like.

Ok here are some of the pics.
I will write about Sri Lanka more.