Found In Ceylon

Well, duh. Ayubowan doesn’t just mean good-bye. It also means hello, blessings, and all sorts of nice pleasantries. You say it while bowing a little and putting your hands together as in prayer.

But don’t get the idea that people are ayubowaning each other all throughout Sri Lanka. No one has greeted me in this way in the last five days, nor have I see anyone say this to anyone else. So much for that.

During the chaotic five-hour ride from Colombo to Matara, three words popped up everywhere and eventually turned into a mantra: Lanka Ashok Leyland. It’s on the front and rear of 75% of the buses and about 60% of the trucks here. A quick Google search a few minutes ago reveals that it’s the local car chassis corporation here.

Anyway, so I have been in Sri Lanka for about five days now (although it is a little difficult to keep track of time here, like on any other big trip). I’ve been staying at “Pointe Sud,” Nerissa and David’s home in Kamburugamuwa. It’s a gorgeous Indo-British colonial home perched atop a large hill overlooking the Indian Ocean. While the immediate surroundings are green lawns with coconut trees and banana plants, we are unmistakably in the middle of the tropical jungle. No big animals prowling around, though.

Nerissa, David, and their son, Sammi, are U.K. ex-pats who have been living here in Sri Lanka for about five years. Included among the many community projects they manage is the Rohana Special School, the place where I’ll be volunteering, probably officially starting tomorrow (I have a meeting with the principal today).

Living on an estate with eight house staff serving you three meals, afternoon tea, and lime drinks is not the typical way a volunteer begins his shift in a Third-World country, and I remind myself of that fact every day. Still, the ocean views are unbeatable, the sunsets mind-blowing, and there’s never been so many stars twinkling above the hundred-odd fishing boats whose searchlights mark the night horizon.

When I get more settled in — that means moving out into a guesthouse in Polhena in the next couple days, and starting at Rohana — I’ll definitely be able to blog more. There’s so much to say, really!

(Again, writing from the iConnect lounge in Singapore Changi Airport)

I gotta make this one quick, because I’ve got a 8:15 shoulder massage and shower appointment. Trust me, I need it. I know I’m staying at the Hilton tonight (for just one night, people!), but still, I want it now and not seven hours and an half-ocean later.

Singapore, wow. I blazed my way through Arab Street, Little India, Chinatown, Clarke Quay, Parliament Hall/City Hall, and the monstrous megamalls (Suntec City, CityLink, and whatever else’s in between those two).

Seriously, I didn’t plan on going into malls, but that was the only way I could get to the world’s largest fountain, the Fountain of Wealth. And I got to make a wish there!

Anyway, I went into a mosque, a Hindi temple, and a Buddhist temple which contains one of the last three remaining teeth of the great Buddha himself. No, I didn’t see the tooth. I asked to see it, but I didn’t really understand the answer the monk gave me, but ok.

The blogger I mentioned earlier couldn’t make it, so I went at it solo all day.

While in Arab Street, I passed lots of street cafes, so I was starting to get hungry. But then I came down with a serious case of food phobia. I couldn’t figure out what the hell I was looking at in any of those cafes (other than the rice). I saw yellowed fish, red stews with floating blobs of something-but-I-didn’t-want-to-know, and ripped, semi-dried pieces of meat.

Me, Adam, scared of food? I paced around the blocks for about ten minutes trying to figure out what to do. Finally, I just picked a place–Qayyum’s Kitchen–and the woman behind the counter asked what I wanted. I shrugged my shoulders and said, “I have no idea.”

She suggested a beef laska. Now, that I know. I bought it for $2 and by jove, it was absolutely delicious. Whew. Got over that.

Later on in Chinatown, I got a Thai coconut–the guy hacked off one end of it and put a straw in it for me to sip. I hated it and threw it away.

Anyway, Singapore, lotsa fun, wore myself out, that, now gotta run to the massage lounge. Next time you hear from me, I’ll be in teh Sir Lank!

(Writing from the iConnect Lounge in Singapore’s Changi Airport)

So that was the longest night of my life, I think. See, here’s how it works. The sun set around 7PM in California (to be more specific, we were on I-5 in San Clemente) on Monday night, so that’s about six hours of darkness. Plus a fourteen-hour flight shrouded in complete darkness except for the last half-hour. So that totals out to about 19.5 hours of nighttime.

Cool. Wasn’t that bad.

And, really, how could it be bad when you’re riding Singapore Airlines? I now agree that their reputation as the world’s best airline is completely warranted. While the coach class is still unmistakably coach-looking, the seats have some minor improvements over any other seat I’ve tried. The seat bottom and lumbar regions are both inflatable, which my lower back appreciated. And when you recline the seat back, the bottom slides forward a little, too, so you get to stretch out more. And there’s foot rests, too!

So, yeah, it was nice. I think I slept for eight or nine hours during the first leg to Taipei.

But Singapore Airlines also wins the “most deaf-friendly” airline in my new Moleskine journal. Their safety video actually has an INTERPRETER signing in the lower-right corner. I took a video of it; will upload on YouTube later. I could understand her…she used a mixture of ASL and international-like gestures, all with a very polite, but stern tone.

And the interactive TV system is just crazy. You have more than 70 films on demand. Of course, the American films aren’t subtitled in English, but most of the foreign films are, so I watched Four Stars (French), Jasmine Women (Chinese), and The Taxi Thief (Spanish). Slept through most of the first one and the last one. I recommend Jasmine Women. I really wanted to watch an Indian film to get in the mood, y’know, but I didn’t find any of the film synopses appealing.

Altogether, three meals were served–two on the first leg and one on the Taipei-Singapore leg. Oh, that’s right, I got to spend a half-hour at Chiang Kai-Shek Taipei International Airport (TPE).

The airport was pretty dead (it was 5:30 AM), but I had the pleasure to try a squat toilet for the first time in my life. It wasn’t the worst thing ever, but let’s just say that my aim needs some work. I also am not sure if I did it backwards or not. I really couldn’t figure out which end was the front end.

The flights were delightful, the food was great, the flight attendants were overly polite (as they should be), I got to Singapore safe and sound, and I’m looking forward to the third one which departs in about three hours.

That’s “bye-bye” in Sinhalese. A quick shower, one last check of my worldly possessions, a squeeze for my now-lame Toby (see my other blog for a pix of her), and then it’s off to Los Angeles.

Gosh. I’m already feeling homesick. It’s a little scary, goin’ out all by yourself into a whole new country in Asia. Who am I to do such a thing? I’ll find out soon.

But first, Singapore looms! After a 14-hour flight to Taipei, an one-hour layover (I don’t change plans), and then a four-hour flight to Singapore, I’ll land around 11 AM and have about 11 hours to explore the quintessential city-state. And, thanks to the magic of DeafRead, this deaf blogger and I will be meetin’ up for a local Singaporean’s tour of the area. Hopefully.

After that, it’s Ceylon all the way, baby.