I reflect on on my absence from my personal blog while in Colombo for work, recalling a previous visit twenty years ago / In questa riflessione, nata durante un viaggio di lavoro a Colombo, ripenso alla mia lunga assenza dal blog e al ricordo di una mia precedente visita di vent'anni fa.
I am at the entrance of the pagoda of Gangaramaya in Colombo. As in the the pagoda compound everybody is walking barefoot, I take off my shoes and walk towards an old man sitting a table. Old style, black framed glasses. He sits at a table and issues tickets to foreign tourists. ‘100 Rupies, sir’ he says and opens the receipts book to issue mine. I put my shoes in a plastic basket and pay. […]
It is afternoon. Raining here in Colombo. We have packed our things and tonight will fly out. We will fly home. During this trip here in Sri Lanka I always knew that it is a one way trip and that it will end in Europe. BUt this feeling never got so real as now. To me it has been a journey in anothe rtropical country, and coming from Cambodia we would also go back there. […]
We are back in Colombo. The idea of this diary was to follow with short stories the various stages of our trip in Sri Lanka, but it did not work out very well. One reason is that during the Christmas and New Year we ahve been in very small places and tried aslo to choose guesthouses not directly in the town or village. Access to internet has therefore been reduced and so the possibility to […]
So we are now in the South. In a small fishing village called Mirissa. The new year has come and we want to wish to all of you all the best. Electricity is now out and the PC will shut down in few minutes. I do not have the time to update you about the Christmas in the mountains, the train journey to Neuwara Elya and the great views from Haputale. I will do so […]
Kandy. The name of this town in the hills of Sri Lanka reminds me of a young woman and in some way does not seem to fit with the country other towns name. We are at about 500 meters of altitude. The town is spread over several hills covered by jungle. The houses seem to dissapear under the thick layer of trees. In the middle of the town an artificial lake borders the Tooth Temple, […]
So here we are. This is warm and humid Colombo. We thought to have left the moonson behind us in Cambodia, but here it is again. I am writing from the home of a friend, Denis, whom we know from Phnom Penh. He has recently moved here with his wife Olga to work on peacebulding issues a sector which is quite relevant in this country. Our Olga is sleeping upstairs. A long morning nap after […]
“If you don’t know where you come from, you don’t know who you are”. This is an old saying that I suppose has been coined by travellers long time ago. The need to keep a link with one own place, to feel roots and identity is in human nature. For some more than others, but it is there. I am thinking about this while in Bangkok, waiting for the taxi to pick us up and […]