Moving On - Arrived this Morning in Sri Lanka!

Part of our goal in this Around The World trip is to go places we've never been before.  And Sri Lanka is one of those places.  It used to be known as Ceylon, and they grow a lot of tea here.  It's a rather large island nation of 22 million off the southeast coast of India.  We flew here way too early this morning from Bangkok, after leaving Cambodia. Here are some things we've seen and experienced already:

How can you have a half hour time zone change?

    So you know when they land the plane and say "welcome to so and so ... Please note the time change from this to that?" 

    Well, when you arrive in Sri Lanka (pronounced Shree Lawn Ka), they come on and say, "please adjust your watches to one and a half hour ahead of Bangkok time."  Hunh?  

    I though all time zones had to be an hour apart?  Isn't there a rule about those kind of things?  Like, where did they come up with that?  And why?  

    So when it's say 6:00 AM in Portland, it's 7:30 PM in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.  Very confusing, I still can't get over that one ....

How many Sri Lankans can you fit on a commuter train?

     A story:  We went into downtown Colombo this afternoon to take care of some business and make travel arrangements to take a train up into the mountains in a couple days.  We also had dinner there in a small local cafe (I'm gonna blog about food sometime soon).  The food was freakin' spicy and intense!

     One of the travel things we have to do real quick is go to the American Embassy to get more pages put into, or added to, my passport, which is getting dangerously close to being full.  Every time you enter a country, they stick a visa in there which often takes a full page.  So we contacted the American embassy in Sri Lanka and made an appointment to get more pages inserted so we can keep traveling.  

    So we were going to catch the commuter train back to our Hotel. It just so happens that there is a train station about 200 meters (yards) from our hotel.  

    In fact we rode the local commuter train into town in the first place. It was an interesting trip, about thirty minutes, as the train ran right along the seashore. I was sitting across from Fiona and as I looked out the window, it looked like we were riding the rails across the ocean!  A cool moment in time ...

     However, when we made our way back to the train to head back to our hotel, it was rush hour, and it seemed like the entire city was heading home at the same time and it was crowded, like totally maxed out!  You had to push your way onto the train.   And it was hot, over 91 degrees F.

    So we eventually get on and hang on for dear life in a train that is WAY TOO Crowded.  In fact, I did some quick math and figured there must be close to 400 people like in one train car.       You are pressed together in ways that are not polite, or safe, and barely decent, with sweat (and smells) that test your will to live. 

    You not only have to stand the whole time, you have to stand completely still, because for starters you can't move, and secondarily, you will be accused of molesting someone. 

    As we jumped off the commuter train, I took a picture of people trying to load on.  It just seemed insane.  And one guy who helped us escape said, "well, that wasn't so bad ... !"

But Hey, we survived ...

     And we got back to the Hotel in one disheveled piece, and well, it's hard to complain when this is what it looks like.  A walk on the beach (did I mention our hotel is right on the beach?) and ... I guess you can forget about all the grief when you can relax with this: