Working in Sri Lanka, 2005

The week before

Preparations and packing

Just two weeks before my flight to Colombo things got heated up in Sri Lanka. The foreign minister of Sri Lanka was assassinated cold-bloodedly in Colombo and the already fragile peace-process between the Sri Lankan goverment and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) seemed to hit a wall. I grew a little worried what might happen and how everything would turn out to be. Fortunately after a few days and inquiries from the representatives of IAESTE Sri Lanka I calm down. They assured me everything seemed to be normal and that I shouldn't worry about it too much. There would also be a welcoming committee waiting for me in the airport when I arrive. That made me feel happy.

Everything was ready for the trip and I spent the last weekend in Lappeenranta with my friends. I tried to pack as little as possible because I would be traveling alone and carrying a suitcase in the streets of Prague is not a comfortable idea. So all my clothes, papers, shoes, electric widgets and souvenirs fit into two backpacks (see the picture below).

Traveling light with little stuff.

I would like to remind that this wasn't everything that was necessary for the trip. The traveler's to Asian countries need vaccinations of different sort and also it is recommended to consider malaria medication. I myself took 7 needles into my shoulder (Twinrix, Japanese Eucapahl..something and the basic polio, tetanus and one more..) and in addition I decided to start with the malaria medication.

Last night with friends in Lappeenranta
(from left Pekka, Esa and me).

The last night I spent in Helsinki at Kimmo and Ilkka's place (Thanks guys!). It was nice to have some company before starting the trip on my own.

August, 29 - September 4

Flight trip

My flight plan was to go along the route Helsinki - Prague - Dubai - Colombo. The flight to Prague left on Monday 29th in the afternoon. There was no problem and I arrived to Prague at 6pm local time. The idea was to go walking and sightseeing in the city before sleeping in a hostel close to Holesovice station. I decided to leave my bigger backpack to the baggage holding at the airport and carry only the light pack. This turned out to be a clever idea because the weather was so warm there in Prague (around 26C degrees) that the sightseeing would have been impossible with two backpacks.

Prague

Prague (the little I managed to see) was a very interesting city with lots of historical buildings and monuments, cheap cafes and restaurants. The Charles Bridge (Karlov Mast?) and the Old City really impressed me, not to mention the huge medieval castle, which I unfortunately was only able to see from a distance due to lack of time.

Karlov mast (Charles' bridge) from the down stream.

"German" style in Prague's Old Town.

I tried to find something original from the city but in a hurry I ended up eating a pizza (it was authentic Italian though!) and saving my money. The beer was good also. In the hostel I met a nice Englishman whose name was Matt. He was on an interrail trip across the Eastern Europe and halfway through (Good luck Matt on your journey!).

Cathedral (or church) in the Old Town.

Hostel's beer cellar in Prague (Matt, me and some others).

Dubai - Colombo

On Tuesday my journey towards Sri Lanka was to continue. After a good night's sleep I headed straight from the hostel to Ruziny airport. I didn't have much time because the departure was at 2pm. At the airport everything went nicely although there were some arabs flying to Dubai and they managed to hold the only check-in desk for almost an hour before the queue started running smoothly. The reason might have been that they had a lot of family with them and obviously it was really important that they were not seated randomly.. Anyway in the airplane I sat next to a Srilankan who was coming from Norway (where he worked) back to Sri Lanka for holidays. I used my possibility to ask him about his country.

Dubai airport (and some Arabic).

The transit in Dubai was fast and I didn't have time to check the world-famous Dubai DutyFree. The plane was cleaned and refilled in an hour and we (the passengers) had to walk to the other end of the terminal through security check and back to the same gate. Kind of silly now that I think of it. The flight had lasted 6 hours to Dubai and I thought it was going to be another 6 hours before Colombo so I could sleep well and arrive fresh in the morning to my new temporary home town. Instead it was only 4 hours and they served some dinner which I didn't want to miss so I ended up sleeping only one and a half hours.

Arrival at Colombo

Early on Wednesday morning I arrived to Colombo airport. There were no problems so I got my one month temporary visa (which I have to extend later). The customs officer was eager to know what I am doing in Sri Lanka and why I am here mainly just because I was white but still he was very hospitable nad polite. Outside the airport I was greeted by Prebeth and Asanga, two local IAESTE members who welcomed me to their country. They had come to pick me and another trainee that would come few hours later.

A short and interesting note from airport. If you wanted to go inside the airport to the arrivals section you had to buy an entrance ticket (!!). This because the Srilankans always escort their relatives if they are coming or going to abroad. Many uneducated Srilankans have to go abroad, mainly to Far East countries, to work on the plantation because there is no work in Sri Lanka. The unemployment rate is close to 60 percent. So also when I arrived there were lots of Srilankans sitting on benches, looking like spectators in a sports event.

The first day was a little bit of shock. My first impressions were the shanty towns in the rural areas of the city, chaotic and noisy traffic, unclean streets and of course the heat and humidity that hit me right in the beginning. The people were interested of foreigners and always came to talk. Of all these things I have to say the traffic is the most spectacular. Cars, buses, tuk-tuks (three-wheelers), trucks, bicycles, pedestrians, tractors (and even one wagon pulled by a horse) using the same bumpy roads, and when you add the speed that they use it's a wonder that nothing happens in the city streets. Locals have a saying that if you can drive in Sri Lanka, you can drive anywhere in the world. I'm starting to believe that and definitely I'm not going to prove that!

Accomodation

I am living 10 kilometers south from the centre of Colombo, in an area called Dehiwela. It's a good area with all necessary services, shops, internet-cafes and restaurants close-by. The apartment is one part of a bigger house rented from a Srilankan couple. In the apartment we are three foreigners, two germans, one boy, Michael, and one girl, Marion, and me. There are only two bedrooms so I share mine with Michael. There is also a small kitchen and a living room, bathroom and a small yard. It's a good apartment but only it is missing a heating device. So instead of cooking in the evening we are eating local take-away food. It's good, cheap and sometimes fiery spicy! So far my stomach has adjusted itself pretty well thanks to the help of locals who politely point out the most spicy dishes. Our landlord and landlady are a really nice older couple. They help us with everything we need and sometimes invite us into their place too for a chat or a snack. There is also a servant in the house. He doesn't speak English so we have to try to learn a few words of Sinhalese to keep up with him.

Workplace

On the second day I already went to visit my workplace. It is a branch office of IFS (Industrial & Financial Systems) located little south from the center of Colombo. The office building is quite big and there are some 400 workers working in different organizational departments. The training department is on the 8th floor and there are quite nice views from the balcony over Indian Ocean and Colombo city. Fortunately the building is well air-conditioned so I don't need to be sweating during my working hours.

My working consists of a training program with the IFS-used technologies (few weeks) and after which I will be joining some project for the rest of my training period. Instead of starting on the 5th as I planned I joined the training program right away on my second day in Colombo. The worktime is from 8am to 5pm and there is a lunch break at midday (the company provides some local food for lunch in the cafeteria) and two coffee breaks also. Everyone at work is very nice and helpful to me and I got to know my colleagues from the training program quickly. In general everybody in this country is very polite to others, especially to foreigners.

Another helpful thing is that I can use my computer at for personal things also, so I don't need to go any Internet-cafes after work to check my mailbox. The contact information can be found from the end of this page.

First weekend in Colombo

During the first days I got to know all the other foreigners (all from Germany, strange!) who came to Sri Lanka to do their IAESTE traineeship and also the local IAESTE members who have been helping us alot. Our local meeting place turned out to be a restaurant called Lion's Pub. The name of the place refers to one of the most well known lager beers in Sri Lanka, the Lion beer. It's nothing special though, drinkable. The place is nice, nothing special either, and a tuk-tuk distance away from our home.

The first weekend went by getting familiar with our neighbourhood, Dehiwala, and checking out the local beach at Mt. Lavinia. There are plenty and plenty of different shops here: clothes, tailors, food, drinks, shoes, jewelries, etc.. And the most interesting part is that the shops are all really small packed with stuff. Sales personnel speak English in most cases and in European standard the prices are cheap. So while I was getting to know with local shops I found some clothes to fit myself into local look, straight pants and collar shirt, that's what everybody is wearing here.

Mt. Lavinia beach is just half an hour walk away from our home and it is the closest beach to Colombo. When the monsuus season is not here the locals go there to bathe on weekends. Now there were only a few people because the monsuus season is just starting. The sea was also much rougher than normally because of the winds. The beach was nice with a view of Hotel Mt. Lavinia to the south and Colombo towers to the north. Few hundred meters north from Mt. Lavinia the beach changed into piles of rubble and dirt, tires, dirt bags, plastic sacks were lying everywhere, dogs and crows wandering and looking for pieces of food. There were the marks of the Tsunami everywhere. It was a sad sight and the people hadn't cleaned up the beach yet. I don't know whether it is an economical question or not, but in any case it was a sad sight.

Beach towards Colombo center

Beach towards Mt. Lavinia hotel

On sunday I managed to do some sports for the first time when I found a small park near our home. It was just 400 meters long when I ran around it, so I did some 10 rounds before I felt exhausted in the 30C degree sunshine. Maybe I will try to do some more running by the evenings when it is cooler. There is also a gym just across our home street and fortunately the workers in my company get to go there for free. So I will try to start going there also.

September, 5 - September 11

A routine week

On monday I had to get used to what would be my routine week. Every morning I was to wake up at 7.00am to eat some breakfast (continental non-spicy; cereals, milk, fruits..) and prepare myself for the workday. As our landlord was working as a consultant up in the center of Colombo and my work place is on the way he agreed to give me a ride every morning he would have a normal workday. That was really nice of him and it also gives me few extra minutes to sleep longer in the mornings. Workday lasts until 5pm after which I normally stay at the office for a bit longer to read and send emails, continue with this story or just hang around and chat with my colleagues. That means I have about 3 to 4 hours of free time in the evening and of which only 1 in the bright time. That all goes really fast, walking outside, shopping groceries or other things, doing laundry or meeting friends. In this sense I am fortunate compared to my flatmates who work by a textile company further away from the city. The company provides them with a ride to the work and back but the flipside of the coin is that they have to leave at 6.00am in the morning and they return as late as 8.00pm in the evening. So practically they just work and sleep during the week.

Main street, Galle Road, in Bambalapitiya, Colombo.

The first half week went by easily eating the food from one or two different take-aways but already on the second week we started to get bored of the same food. It was always rice accompanied with chicken or some vegetables. There were other things to buy as well but we found out that they were guts, pieces of what the birds or animals had in their stomachs so we decided not to try them just yet. During the second week I also experienced some problems handling the spicy food, my stomach had a different opinion of what was good for me than my mind. So after being in the country for one week I got sick, some familiar cold throat, stuffy nose and fever (not fun when it is 30 degrees Celcius!). Fortunately I recovered in a few days with some rest.

A hindu temple close to my workplace.

In work we started learning about IFS Applications, programming tools and frameworks that they use in developing software applications for clients. So far the tools have been new to me (although principles behind them are familiar) so I have been motivated at work learning new things. I hope the experience that I can get during my training will be useful in other work places too.

Weekend with IFS at Beruwala

On the second weekend my company organized an annual weekend trip out of the capital. This time they headed some 60 kilometers south to Beruwala and they also invited me to join the trip. We left early on saturday morning and drove about one and a half hours on the main "highway" from Colombo. The highway was what seemed to be a normal road and there was again all kinds of traffic from pedestrians, cyclists and animals to buses, cars and tractors. So the traffic didn't move really fast, maybe at an average speed of 40 km/h.

It's me enjoying the Beruwala beach.

At Beruwala the whole company (about 400 people) were accomodated to two different hotels, Hotel Riverina (which was a bit fancier) and Hotel Club Palm Beach. I was lucky to find myself from hotel Riverina. It was really nice to be able to relax yourself in an air-conditioned room after sleeping for one week with only fan to cool you off and mosquito net to protect you. During the day we were offered lunch and dinner buffet and the company also provided soft drinks from the bar. There were also some events like volleyball, sandcastle building and rope pulling (Tug of War). I took part in the volleyball tournament but our team lost the very first match and we were out of the tournament. In the evening the workers played some "dramas", comedy acting in sinhalese. It looked really funny but I didn't understand anything! For the nightpeople there was also some dancing at the disco.

The girls took part in Tug of War also.

Sandcastles after the competition.

On sunday the events continued and people enjoyed the services of the hotel and the beach. The beach (just outside the hotel area) was very nice (check pictures). Sand was very smooth and the water clear and warm. It seems that since the temperature doesn't drop below 25C degrees the water is always warm. I didn't mind that.. Finally in the afternoon we headed back towards Colombo in the AC-equipped buses. I was feeling still somewhat sick, fighting the away the flu when I got home.

September, 12 - September 18

Monday morning was not nice. After the trip to Beruwela I was so tired that the flu got worse: fever, headache, diarrhea and only 2-3 hours of sleep in the night. So I decided to have a sick-day from work on Monday. It is not a nice experience being sick when the air temperature is close to 30. Fortunately by Tuesday I got better and on Wednesday I was feeling already like normal. My flatmates have been sick also, having a flue or cough every now and then. I'll try to make sure it won't become a habit of mine as well.

The plan for next weekend was to do some traveling. I really needed to find a hat for the hot climate and a new pair of sandals. There is a story behind my old sandals and why I need new a new pair. On my second day in Colombo I was walking to the local grocery shop to buy some food. It was already late evening and quite dark. The streets were not familiar to me and I was not really used to the traffic, so instead of walking on the road (like I nowadays always do) I walked on the narrow pavement. Halfway to the grocery shop I suddenly stepped into a hole in the street and fell half way there, lost my sandals and got some scratches. In the dark I couldn't see the small sewer holes that are not covered here. Fortunately the holes are not big so I didn't go through but I lost my sandals. As a lesson I remember now to always watch my steps when I'm walking on a dark street. Anyways during the week I managed to acquire these things.

At work we went forward with the workshop and training. It's nice to get some experience working with a framework and seeing the positive aspects and negative aspects of it in practise. Sometimes the negatives sides really give me a headache, since you really have to stick to the conventions and standardized mechanisms. Other times things progress smoothly so I don't have anything to complain. :)

Weekend at waterfalls and beaches

Ready to start on Staurday morning (Sebastian,
Michael, Pubudu, Marco and Susan).

On friday we decided that the destination of the weekend trip was to be a waterfall in the hill country and later the beachside in the south coast. Saturday morning we started in the morning at 9am from Dehiwela towards Matagama. We were eight people, five foreigners and and three locals. The first part of the bus trip took about two hours to Matugama where we were supposed to change the bus. The whole bus trip we had to stand and the bus was crowded also. In the beginning the idea of standing for two hours sounded crazy but finally it was suprisingly easy. In Matugama, which is a small town with bigger bus station junction, we bought some lunch, rice'n'curry, as usual to take-away to the waterfalls. The bus change didn't work because it happened to be a Poya-day (full-moon, a buddhist and thus also Srilankan holiday), we would have had to wait for nearly two hours. Fortunately we managed to hire a van with a driver for the eight of us. With the van we continued our trip to the waterfall of Maakelielle (that's what the name sounded like). On the way we took one wrong turn and ended to a Srilankan army camp. It was somehow funny because the camp was a Srilankan army camp but everywhere there barrels and signs of 'UN' standing for United Nations.

Waiting for the bus at Matugama.

Secretively take picture of the army camp.

The waterfall itself was not a big-size fall, at least that's what the locals said. To me it was quite nice and the biggest after Niagara falls. But of course you cannot go swimming next to the Niagara falls so the comparison is inadequate. We had our lunch at side of the waterfall, bathed in the river and rapids and did some water-slides in the safer rapids too. It was all really nice and refreshing. The water was also warm despite the fact that it was flowing rapidly. This was something that I wasn't quite used to with freezing-cold rivers of Finland. We also explored the rapids and chains of small falls down the river. The nature, jungle I would say, was remarkably diverse, lots of plants, trees, birds, bugs etc. Even some fishes were living there between the falls. At the the river I saw the biggest spider of my life (so far). It was no tarantula but still close to the size of an adult's fist. Down the river some 500 meters from the falls we found the same army camp again.

The waterfall at Maakelielle.

Waterfall from the top.

The afternoon at the waterfall was really nice but we had to leave in order to get to the south coast by the evening. Our van driver took us back to Matugama where we were to change to a bus First to ALuthgama (on Galle road) and then toward Galle and Unawatuna. On the way to Matugama we saw the bus that we thought about using broken down, being repaired, so we were lucky not have taken that one. The bus trip went again standing from Matugama to Aluthgama, but from Aluthgama to Galle it was close torture. All the buses coming from Colombo, stopping at Aluthgama and continuing to Galle were packed full. Somehow we managed to squeeze ourselves in the bus and ride another 2 hours to Galle and continue some 5 kilometres past it to the small seaside village of Unawatuna.

Boys bathing.

Waterfall from the bottom.

The village of Unawatuna was more relaxed resort than other towns I have visited so far. It is full of houses that rent out guest rooms for tourists and locals at fair prices. There are also some hotels and touristic restaurants by the seaside on the beach. We stayed few hundred meters further away from the sea in a guest house of two rooms. It wasn't anything special, beds, fan and a shower, but it was enough for us. The price was only 600 Rs. per room per night. The beach at Unawatuna is said to be one of nicest in the south coast. It was a shape of laguun and thus protected from the rough sea. It is also very idyllic in a relaxing way. I liked it very much. Especially swimming at midnight in the light of the full moon and not feeling cold at all!

Main street at Unawatuna.

Typical Srilankan boat.

The next day we spent at the beach, swimming, walking around the village and the beach, trying some skim-boarding (my German flatmate brought one with him) and snorkeling. The day was very enjoyable and well=worth the painful bustrip from Aluthgama to Galle. But the torture was just to begin. On sunday afternoon to start our journey back home we took first a bus to Galle in order to queue to a bus and get good seats. We had to queue for one hour and fortunately we got seats in the bus. The bus trip took some 3,5 hours and I really regretted for my seat. The seats are designed for people with 1,5m of height maximum. And when standing people are leaning and trying not to fall while the bus drives the bumpy roads, speeding and breaking, it was not a nice experience. By the time we reached Colombo I didn't have any feeling in my butt and walking was really difficult after getting up. Of course it all went by but the in future I think I will prefer standing in a bus. But to sum up it was a really enjoyable weekend outside the hustle and bustle of Colombo. Big thanks to our Local friends Asanga and Pubudu (and Sidanda(?))!

Right side of the laguun beach.

Left side of the laguun beach.

September, 19 - September 25

During the week I didn't have much time in the evenings because there was going to be a reception day on sunday and I was to make a presentation about Finland. So the week went by working during the mornings and afternoons and preparing the presentation in the evenings. Couple of days we had some nice monsun showers. It is sunny and warm and all of a sudden it starts raining cats and dogs. The picture below works as an example.

Our landlord's car in monsun shower.

WOMAD in Colombo

On saturday I decided to go check out the WOMAD (World of Music, Dance and Arts) festival in downtown Colombo. The theme of the festival was drumming and they had a free session on the saturday evening. Five different artists performed on a stage build up on the "grass field" of Gall Face Green; Drummers from Burundi Africa, a group from Japan, a band from Cuba with Billy Cobham and some Indian drummers. So the artist list was pretty international. There was also one group from Mobitel (try to guess from the picture where this country is..;)

Galle Face Green towards the WTC towers.

Galle Face Green towards the WOMAD stage.

The area of Galle Face Green was really pleasant. It was full of locals with families spending some time together in the afternoon. Kids were flying kites, so the sky was full of them. The walking promenade was just next to a short stripe of beach and the sea, and on the north side rose the towers of WTC Colombo. The promenade was sided with small CocaCola kiosks selling snacks and beverages and crowded with street vendors selling small food.

Sunset from Galle Face Green.

Mobitel group in action.

The festival session gathered quite alot of people and the mood and going got better by every artist. I enjoyed most the Japanese Tiger group and Cuban Asere with Billy Cobham. The Mobitel group were just playing same songs although their costumes were fancy and reminded me of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Japanese Tiger Drummers playing.

Finally Cricket!

On sunday we had the long remembered and debated IAESTE reception day at the University of Moratuwa. The participants were the foreigners, local committee members and also some senior members. The program for the day was presentations, speeches, traditionalities and a match of cricket! The presentations about Finland, Germany and Sri Lanka went nicely. I also learned something new about the other countries and the feedback on my presentation was also positive. The interesting traditions included a buddhist oil lamp hand-decorated with hundreds of flowers and the national anthem of Sri Lanka. The national anthem sounded actually quite beautiful although we had no idea of the content.

German (water) drinking games.

Lake at the campus where they practise rowing.

Later after the lunch and a free chat we headed for the cricket field of the university. There was a professional(!!) game going on but we had some space in the side of the field. I had tried to watch the game many times from TV but never I really understood the rules. Now after a short learning session the basic rules quite simple but I think the locals didn't tell us all the nyances and variations of the rules. In any case we played one short match (without tea breaks) and it was a lot of fun. The batting was of course most fun but I enjoyed trying to pitch the ball. It was very challenging because in the pitch your arm must be locked from the elbow. In the beginning it was difficult to get any power in the pitches but eventually and after few tips from the locals I already tried (and almost managed) to throw some bouncing spin balls! :)

Amateurs preparing to play.

My cricket swing looked too much like golf swing.

September, 26 - October, 2

Negombo

Negombo is located just some 40 kilometres, one hour drive, north from Colombo, on the west coast. It's location related to the international airport of Katunayake (10km south from Negombo) makes it ideal for last destination on a holiday. Fortunately the day we headed to Negombo wasn't our last. We were just the three of us from Dehiwela flat, me, Michael and Marion.

The bus to Negombo started from the bus station located in Pettah district of Colombo. Pettah is famous for its bazaar-like streets and alleys, full of small shops and tables selling pretty much everything you can imagine. The price can vary from really cheap to way too expensive, as can the quality too. It is also quite easy to lose direction in the streets and fortunately we ran into a colleque of the germans who helped us to find the correct bus stop. This time instead of using a normal bus we took one of the more comfortable A/C buses. The price was double of the normal but the comfortability level at least triple! No overloading, everybody got a seat and the air was definately conditioned, no need to sweat like a pig.

Negombo centre.

Trip from Colombo to Negombo took one hour but I never actually knew when we left Colombo and when we arrived in Negombo. That's a problem here. All the road sides are built up with houses and buildings and it's impossible to see behind them. So the road to Negombo was an unending line of houses and suddenly the driver told us we are there. The centre of Negombo doesn't differ much from other Sri Lankan towns. The traffic is bustling and noisy, lots of people and small shops side by side. One of the curiosities of Negombo is its fish market. Negombo is famous for its fishermen and Oruwa-boats. We spotted one fishmarket down on the coast and they were also preparing the fish there. Preparing in this case means leaving them in sun to be dried. The picture was quite unappealing and the odor was horrifying.

Drying fish at the docks.

Negombo beach and some Oruwa-boats.

The guest houses and hotels were located on a street called Lewis Place north of the centre. It was just a short tuk-tuk ride away. There we checked also the beach and it wasn't so special, bit dirty and also some annoying souvenir sellers. So it was not the quiet beach I am still looking forward to experience. A triple-room from a guest house (Dephani) cost 900Rs total. The room was simple but clean and had a bathroom with shower, so it was well worth the money.

Negombo lagoon.

We rented some bicycles to see the town and move around for the evening before dusk. Price was okay, 150Rs per bike per day, and the bikes worked but were nothing fancy. The first idea was to go around the Negombo lagoon south of the town. There was supposed to be lots of water birds to see. Instead of getting around the lagoon all we managed to do was to cycle along the small village streets for the delight of local people. I guess they don't see everyday three white people cycling in a line.. The villagers said it was impossible to go around the lagoon (that's how we understood their message) but there were couple of places where you could see the part of the lagoon. Anyway we returned to our guest house well before it came dark for our own safety.

Some boats by the lagoon.

Cycling through the village areas.

For sunday we had thought about a boat trip on the coast but since the coast didn't seem so interesting we forgot the idea. Instead I went swimming in the sea for an hour or so. The sea seemed to be rough but the coast was shallow, so you could play pretty safely with the waves. One weekend I really have to go down south to try out surfing. And perhaps I could look for a bodyboard just to have some fun on the beaches with medium-sized waves. The only problem is to find one. If you go and ask for one from any kind of shop (no matter if it was sports shop or not) they will try to sell you something else. In my case the something else was a volleyball, then a blowable bathing madress, after which I gave up the idea for that day.

Sunset at Negombo beach with birds.

After the morning bathing we headed back to Colombo well in time to spend the afternoon there. On the way home we paid a visit to the bazaars of Pettah for some shopping. I was feeling tired being in the sun so I postponed my shoppings for some weekend in the future. All I found was a VCD of classic episodes of Looney Tunes! Really hilarious, reminds me of my childhood, with road runner and bugs bunny and such characters. Rest of the sunday went by taking it easy at home and turning the red on my face to sun tan.

Bazaars in Pettah.

One more thing I have to say from the weekend. From the bazaars of Pettah I found the newest thing where Finnish Nokia had entered. It was kind of funny, see the picture below. Also I think the Finnish candidates for next years elections should take some points from the way campaigning is done here with the posters (see below)!

Nokia's newest, reeelly cheeep price!.

Now this is campaigning!

See next month for more action..