Spa Day to Slave Island

Perhaps the most daunting thing abroad is finding a good hairdresser.  Here in Colombo all the women have long hair tied back into ponytails or buns.  Even if I had enough hair to wear that style I wouldn't!  So I took the plunge and went into this very trendy salon.  Of course the receptionist couldn't have cared less that I was there and kind of shrugged her shoulders and pointed out a chair to me.  Fortunately it was at the station of this really nice young guy, Ravi.  I told him flat out what I didn't want and he sent me off to the shampoo guy.  "Oh my lord", was the shampoo guy awesome.  He 'pooed my hair for fifteen minutes!!! "Wah!  So goood!" Ravi gave me a great cut and then 'cuz I was all relaxed and happy I went for the 1/2 hour hot oil/head massage.  At first I was all," I don't deserve this", but by the end of it I was like, "this is my birthright goddamn it!"  


G and I have been getting out and about town.  The boys are loathe to go walking so it's kind of fun to poke around with him like old times.  One of the more interesting and slightly intimidating areas of Colombo is known as "Slave Island".  Originally I guess it was a marshaling point for the various slave traders who have come through but now it is a more muslim area and extremely old and cool. Unfortunately there is still a lot of tension between the various religious groups here and people were a bit more guarded than I expected or maybe they were so surprised to us that they were caught off guard!  All the buildings are cheek by jowl and a crazy mix of businesses and homes.

"Snack anyone?"

This is the station for the train that runs by our place several times a day.  When I think about it we've got so many noisy things going by, trains, buses, mosques blaring, that I don't even notice them any more...dunno if that's a good sign or not! So this is where we'd be leaving from if we took the train down to Galle.  I believe it goes along the same route as the one that was devastated by tsunami.  Gosh that nearly 10 years ago.

 People obviously aren't afraid of colour!  These were but a few of the interesting buildings there.

This was part of wall surrounding some sort of community center.  Each panel had some sort of message painted on it, ie., religious tolerance, education.  This one however, was quite interesting because it's highlighting prevention of dengue fever.  Check out the mozzies in the shrouds approaching the patient!  Kind of creepy/cool.  On a side note; someone at the High Comm has already contracted dengue!  So it's not just the poorer neighbourhoods.  Well I'm off now to try and resolve our internet problem.  I can barely download anything!  Our speed is soooo slow I'm forced to come to the mall, drink coffee, write and veg!  Sheesh!  First world problem!