Mickey D's Sri Lankan Style

So after the movie we decided to go for a walk along Galle Road. I wanted a roti which was easy enough as there are many stands open late at night, it was just a matter of finding the one I wanted to buy from.

Chris knew of a specific stand that she thought I might like. We found it and was hoping to get a certain type of roti, vegetable and cheese, but they wouldn't make it for me and tried to sell me other food items. I then tried to get them to make a me a cheese roti which they had displayed on the menu, but for whatever reason they said they couldn't make that (No cheese maybe?).

We left that stand and headed for the arches, the golden arches that is.

The McDonald's was open and not crowded, another thing was that it was nice and cool and very clean. As with pretty much every restaurant you go to it was an all guy staff. They spoke good English, all wore ties and they were very friendly and attentive. The nice thing is that they brought the meal to our table. I ordered a Big Mac meal.

I know the question you're asking, did it taste the same? Absolutely, right down to the two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun and the french fries too!

They don't have a drive through window, instead in the road next to McDonald's they have the menu painted on a wall and you drive up and park your car and someone comes out with a radio to call in your order.

Somewhere buried deep in my blog is my posting about the McDonald's in Montevideo. Again, very clean, nice friendly staff, but they did have girls and guys working behind the counter. I think there was something like thirteen McDonald's in Montevideo. I think there are only two, maybe three in all of Colombo.

My Name is Kahn or Bollywood Meets Forrest Gump

A collective HUH? From my blog readers. "My name is Khan"?, "bollywood"? whatchutalking bout Doc?

Chris and I saw the movie "My name is Khan" last night, and wouldn't you know the Washington Post had an article about it in the Sunday edition:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/04/AR2010030405760.html?hpid=topnews

So if you haven't guessed without reading the article it is an Indian movie, it was subtitled but some portions were in English.

In my opinion the movie portrayed the U.S.A. in a bad light, just about every stereotypical bad American was in the movie.

But the "Forrest Gump" connections, I wasn't sure, but the more I thought about it, absolutely. So here I go:

MNIK = My name is Khan FG = Forrest Gump

FG = Forrest has a special gift, running
MNIK = Khan has a special gift, repairing things

FG = Meets the President
MNIK = Khan meets the President

FG = Life is like a box of chocolates
MNIK = My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist

FG = Has a personal mission, goes cross country.
MNIK = Has a personal mission, goes cross country

FG = Life changes because of a hurricane
MNIK = More or less, life changes because of a hurricane

FG = Forrest calls his Mom, Momma and his wanna be girlfriends name is Jenny
MNIK = Character named Momma Jenny

FG = Wins the Medal of Honor
MNIK = Momma Jenny's son dies in the Iraq war and is awarded the Medal of Honor (They don't say this but it is displayed with his picture)

FG = Ends up in Georgia
MNIK = Khan ends up in Georgia

There are probably a few more connections that I can't think of right now, I'll add them later as I think about it.

Fixing the rails

Judging by the clanking and the loud voices early in the morning as well as prolonged train horn blasts, I knew that there must be workers doing repairs on the railroad tracks.
I watched them move the heavy rails in place, and noticed that many of them were only wearing flip flops! I also noticed to older men sitting across from each other cutting the rail with a hacksaw! I can't imagine how long that was going to take.
Here are some pictures I took.

More Perahera Festival Pictures