No, I said I went to a "Buddhist" colony.

See what I did there? I was working on that all day. It was between that for title and "buddhalicious", but that felt a bit irreverent. Besides, a Buddhist colony is actually much more accurate. Let me explain. (You may want to refresh your coffee first....this is a long post)

Today we were in Colombo Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was wonderful and candidly better that I expected. I was expecting a city similar to Bangalore India, where I was for 10 days back in 2018. I loved India too, especially the people and the food; but I didn't like how congested it was and I didn't like their approach to city-wide sanitation. Sri Lanka was everything I liked about India and none of the aspects I didn't. Sri lanka and India share another common trait....their countries are predominantly 1 religion, Hindu in India (94%) and Buddhist in Sri Lanka (70%). Religiously speaking, the 2012 census lists the Sri Lanka population as 70.2 percent Buddhist, 12.6 percent Hindu, 9.7 percent Muslim, and 7.4 percent Christian. This dominant religion has an impact on every aspect of life here. I don't know of any major demographic category in the US that makes up 70% of our population; not any particular religion, political persuasion, gender, ethic background or education level. So as an American, I'm not accustomed to it. The Buddhist temples here were amazing. Jaw droppingly beautiful!!! But before I delve into that, let me start at the beginning.

The entry into Colombo was quite different than every other port so far. We docked in a cargo port, so other ships there were HUGE shipping container ships. I actually got to watch how shipping containers are pulled off ships and stacked or moved to trucks.

I also discovered I can add a video to this blog!!! So here is a 60 sec video of shipping containers being organized like they are Legos. No kidding. The latter half has more movement.

We didn't get off the ship till 10 as we were waiting on friends who wanted to see the same highlights we did. None of us had a pre-planned excursion. We got off the ship and headed toward the taxi stand. But taxis aren't really too common here. The main mode of hired transportation are tuk tuks. They are 3 wheeled vehicles that are part motorcycle (in the front) and a car-like 2-seater in the back. They are VERY small and compete for road space against cars and busses. But somehow, the organized chaos works.

We needed 3 tuk tuks in total. Our 3 drivers were good friends so they did a good job of coordinating our sightseeing. 4 hrs @ $10/hr per tuk tuk. This was our driver.

We started with some of the large buildings near the port. Who knew that Sri Lanka had their own version of the world trade center.

And then we were off to the 1st of 3 temples we'd see today. The first was amazing!!!! Speechless in fact. Not a single bit of floor space, wall space or ceiling space was unadorned with some very intentional, very labor intensive, very beautiful artwork. As an artist myself (wood/carpentry), it stings a bit when people clearly don't appreciate the 1000's of hours people invested (in some cases, their whole lives) to bring to life something that will be appreciated by millions of people for generations. I call it the "eagle complex". When we were on an Alaskan cruise about 10 years ago, the first bald eagle we saw was amazing, so majestic, a true icon for Americans. The second one also was amazing, but perhaps a tad less. And so on and so on. By the hundredth eagle, we treated it like a TV rerun. I hope you'll have the time to click on each picture and appreciate the amazing workmanship and artisanship that went into each square inch of this first temple in particular. When I referenced a Buddhist colony in the blog title, you'll see why in bottom left photo.

I also learned there are only 3 types of Buddha statues, education, meditation and ground to body. Though when I googled it, the descriptions were a bit different.

• Meditation Buddha: The Buddha sits in the Lotus position with both hands in his lap, face up and eyes closed.

• Protection Buddha: The Buddha may be sitting or standing with a raised right hand.

• Happy Buddha: Usually depicted sitting and smiling with a rounded belly and bald head.

For what it's worth, there are many variations on Buddhism just like Christianity and Judaism.

We then went to the next 2 temples sites and their memorial to independence. These pics focused on the surroundings more than the interiors as these were less adorned internally. It amazes me how, despite weather and normal city pollution, these temples remained untarnished. We also saw a snake handler which was interesting. The snake was much less animated than the lady who had him draped over her shoulders.

Our final stop was 30 min of shopping at the famous Pettah market, which was an experience. "The Pettah neighborhood is famous for the Pettah Market, a series of open air bazaars and markets. It is one of Sri Lanka's busiest commercial areas, where a huge number of wholesale and retail shops, buildings, commercial institutions and other organisations are located." Being clearly American is a disadvantage here as they didn't negotiate much if at all. I sadly didn't buy anything as the sellers were EXTREMELY aggressive and not willing to negotiate. Many followed me around the market quite close...too close. So the lesson here, know when you're outnumbered and they're all in collaboration.

Believe it or not, that was 4 hrs. We didn't go more than a few kilometers from the port to see all this. The main excursion offered by Princess was to an elephant sanctuary, which required a 2 hr bus trip each way. The pics I've seen posted on our 2023 world cruise Facebook page were amazing. If you come to Sri lanka, you may want to consider that option. The other 2 main excursions were "the best of Colombo" and "Columbo highlights". Both were about $60-$70 pp and were in a big tour bus. We saw mostly the same sights in tuk tuks for $20 pp, so if you're not afraid of planning your own excursion, I recommend the tuk tuks.

Speaking of being afraid, I'd be remiss not to mention that Sri Lanka is currently a level 2 risk per the US state dept. That means "Exercise increased caution in Sri Lanka due to fuel and medicine shortages, civil unrest, and terrorism." Of course, that warning is for the entire country. We didn't notice any cause for alarm and our ship would have cancelled the port had there been a validated concern in Colombo specifically. But if you're cruising to 25 countries and 50+ ports, it's a good idea to sign up with the state dept for travel advisories.

We got back to the ship about 2pm and after a quick bite to eat, we got off the ship again to shop at the vendor tents set up on the dock. There's never a missed opportunity to provide shopping opportunities for tourists. That said, I purchased another elephant print shirt and my wife bought a dress that matches the shirt I got in phuket. Several of our friends agreed we'd all wear our elephant prints to dinner tonight. That should be a funny pic in tomorrow's blog. Another interesting note if you're buying clothing. I'm a Large in the US. I'm a 2XL here. And it's NOT because I've been on a cruise for 65 days.

We got back on the ship in time for another cultural immersion in the theater, called folklorico. These are some of our favorite shows. Local dance companies are invited on for a few hours late in the day but before the ship leaves port. They've done this in about 5-6 ports. The native dances and costumes are amazing.

I'd also be remiss not to mention a somewhat emotional moment I had today before leaving the ship. It speaks to the emotional journey of leaving your family for 4 months, something I know our armed services forces must experience but I hadn't since I've never left my family for that long. I had such an exciting and animated call with our grand this morning. She had so much to tell us and was so excited to see us, albeit on FaceTime. My eyes welled up and I found myself fighting back tears. I hadn't yet experienced that much emotion since the last time we saw her before the trip. It snuck up on me and came out nowhere. That tells me that at 65 days, my heart may make the next 46 days more difficult in terms of homesickness. We'll see. The next 46 days have almost exactly the same # of ports as the first 65, so there may not be time for homesickness. But I wanted to mention it so when I reread this in the future, I'll be reminded there's an emotional stake in the ground at day 65.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I enjoyed writing it and took extra time to ensure I represented the country accurately, pragmatically, kindly and candidly.