The Food Court Experience

Just across the street from our apartment is a shopping mall. In the basement level is a small food court. Probably all in all including the hot dog stand no more than 10 vendors. There is sushi, Sri Lankan, Indian, Chinese, ice cream/smoothies stand and a Pizza Hut Express.

It's not like visiting a food court in the U.S.A. They have common cutlery stands to get forks and spoons and you can leave your trays or dishes on the table as they have people to pick them up. In fact the men who pick up the trays and dishes are usually nice enough to take it from your table when they see you're finished.

For us a typical meal would be at Shanmuga's which is an Indian vegetarian place. We can get a belly filling meal for around 250 Rupees (Around $2.20USD). The different spices in the curry's taste so good. Finish it off with a trip to the ice cream stand or the deserts place and get an ice cream sundae or a personal sized apple pie for around $1.25. The goodies at the desert place are incredible. For me to call this just an apple pie is not doing it justice. It must weigh a solid 1 pound.

One interesting thing I noticed about the customers of the food court is that they are a different class of Sri Lankan's. To us going to the food court and spending under $10, well probably closer to $5 for two meals and deserts is a good thing, for most Sri Lankan's that is just out of the question. A Sri Lankan lunch packet sold on the street will cost about 100 Rupees and it is filled with rice and a good serving of curry.

I noticed that the kids that go there are definitely more Western, speak better English etc. You can tell the that the family's that visit the food court have money. Lunchtime the crowd is cal young professionals bunch.

The Movie Theater Experience

Just returned from watching Avatar at the Liberty Cinema Theater. It was a pretty neat experience.

First I went to the theater and purchased 2 box seat tickets for the 7:00PM showing. It was 400 Rupees per ticket. Regular seating was something like 235 and balcony seating 325.
I could have reserved and purchased the tickets on the web but I couldn't get the web site to recognize my national identity card number.

We caught a ride to the theater, although we could have walked. There was no lines outside but the place was packed.

We showed the usher our tickets and he escorted is to our box seat.

It was an enclosed box area on the ground floor in the back of the theater. It had its own door and 2 seats without a middle armrest for special close together snuggling.

I bought a Coke and bottle of water before the show began all for 100 Rupees, not even $.90USSD.

At the halfway point during the movie there was an intermission. The lines were pretty long at the snack counter. There wasn't much asides chips and bags of popped popcorn (Not the hot stuff) and peanuts. The prices were really inexpensive.

When the movie started again the entire theater was full of the sound of crinkling bags, it was pretty funny.

At the end of the movie we waited for the theater to thin out, it was kind of embaressing as everyone is looking at us, in our box seat.

Don't ask me about the movie...

My Flip Flops

Much like my luggage and boots I have (had) a great pair of flip flops. A good pair of flip flops have to be cheap and comfortable, mine were those. They have traveled with me to many countries and the bottoms have touched the sands of many beaches.

But my wife threatened its disposal on many occasions, I knew it would be soon.

So the other day she presents me with a pair of foo foo flip flops, purchased off of eBay. Who buys flip flops off of eBay? Isn't that against the law?

Well I said my goodbyes to my old flip flops and they went to the great beach in the sky.

My new flip flops got their inaugural walk this evening, not a very long walk.

Well guess what? Now I have a nice painful blister on my big toe! Flip flops are supposed to be comfortable, not painful!

The Day After the Elections

A ghost town. No other way to describe it. Now granted today was declared a national holiday by the government, but even on regular holidays here there is more vehicle and pedestrian traffic.

Today was the day that the Sri Lankan presidential elections winner would be announced. It was no surprise who won, the incumbent.

As mentioned before it was a rather messy election. Barbs thrown out on both sides. To think just last year these two worked hand in hand and now are enemies.

I kept up with the election results via Twitter which made for some rather interesting bits of information. It was pretty neat watching updates come in literally by the second.

The opposition (General Fonseka) and his staff was staying at the Cinnamon Lakeside, where Chris and I had dinner last Friday night. The army decided to surround the hotel. They said for his protection, he said to assassinate him. Last I checked he was still there. Could you imagine if the Army had surrounded John McCain's house the U.S.A. after the election?

I could hear the fireworks inside my office, my boss commented what we were both thinking "I hope that's fireworks". When I walked home it was a surreal scene to say the least. The streets are empty and covered in confetti, there is a rainbow in the sky, the sun is going down over the ocean, the humidity is so thick it's hard to breath and the sound of drums coming from the presidential palace.

Wondering what tomorrow brings.