This month is quite busy
for my little girl as we have been entertaining quite a number of Filipino
visitors. It’s actually a cool
thing – I wouldn’t have expected to have quite a number of friends visiting Sri
Lanka. It’s not really on the
average Pinoy’s list of must-go places… at least not yet and I do hope Pinoys
will realize what a beautiful place Sri Lanka is, how very different (which
makes it interesting!) and very similar it is to the Philippines. But I digress.
T, A friend from
University came this week to join C for a quick trip to Maldives over the
weekend. He had a night and whole
day in Colombo to spare and I pulled out my “no fail” Colombo itinerary:
Day 1
Dinner at Gallery Café
Window Shopping (actual shopping
for C) at Paradise Road Shop at Gallery Cafe
Day 2
Gangaramaya Temple
Lunch and (Window)
Shopping at Barefoot
Hangout At The Apartment
(Window) Shopping at Odel
(Colombo’s biggest mall chain)
(Heavy) Merienda at
Gallery Café and Shopping at Paradise Road (shop at Gallery Café)
Gangaramaya Temple and
Odel Shopping were the two things our officemates took us to during my first
trip here in 2009 (for a conference) and I kind of got the idea there.
Going into Gangaramaya
Temple is free and you can basically take pictures everywhere. If you wish, you may also make a
donation for its various causes.
 |
| Inside the temple |
It has a “museum” and a
collection of gifts from other Buddhist countries. Museum in quotation because things are kind of just strewn
all over with reason but without rhyme… it’s grouped together into similar
items but a bit too disorganized for my taste. In short it was not “manicured” but I guess that is its own
appeal.
There was a huge elephant
when I first came in 2009 however our driver told me the poor elephant died
last year. There is another
elephant but it’s smaller. I just
got a little scared because it kind of “chased” us and I was wearing Luna. It’s not the old big one but an
elephant nonetheless! Freak out
moment!
 |
Going around just be
prepared to go barefoot as you have to leave behind your footwear to go into
the temple and other areas.
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| Barefoot T |
To cap it all off, I
wanted my friend T to get the full “Temple Experience” and looked for someone
who could give us the pirith noola,
a thread tied around one’s right hand as a protection from bad luck. Luckily we were able to get one and of
course Luna girl too!
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| Luna and her pirith noola |
And how did Luna girl like
it? Well she screamed her head off
when we arrived (she was disturbed from her sleep) but quickly fell back asleep
and kind of slept most of the way through. I guess the temple gives some kind of relaxing vibes even
for babies! T observed that it is
a place that is conducive for prayer and meditation.
 |
| the sleeping traveler |
After the temple, we went
to Barefoot for some window shopping (T didn’t like anything there) and lunch
at Barefoot Café. T liked the
chill vibe which is elusive in Singapore (where T is based). For some practical reasons, we hung out
first in our apartment where we changed Luna’s nappy, had her afternoon feed
and I had to give nanny/cleaner’s weekly pay. After resting, we headed to Odel where you can find more
souvenir treats. Because T liked
what he ordered when we went to dinner at Gallery Café, we headed back there
for some merienda. T also bought
some pasalubong at the shop.
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| photo grabbed from T |
That was the short
itinerary we had for T which he said he enjoyed! Yipee! One
satisfied guest! Luna and nanay
are happy hostesses with the mostess!
Locations:
Gangaramaya Temple is at
Sri Jinaratana Road, Colombo 2
Odel, 5 Alexandria Place,
Colombo 7
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