Cricket World Cup Final Today!

         Right when I think I won’t have anything else to talk about, I think of a bunch! As I may have already said, Sri Lanka is crazy about Cricket, I mean absolutely fanatical about it. Today is the Cricket World Cup final, and it just so happens to be that Sri Lanka will be playing against India. Everyone is abuzz about the game and I doubt anything will get done at all tomorrow once the game starts. I have had the last three days to try and learn how Cricket is played, but I still honestly cannot figure it out. The game just does not make sense to me and to me it is boring to watch. Especially since Cricket matches can last six or more hours. Despite my misgivings I will be donning a Sri Lankan Cricket team jersey and joining all the locals in watching the game. I probably will skip the first few hours of it and join in towards the end when it really gets good. Either way, if Sri Lanka wins today, I should have some pretty fun stories to tell about it in my next post.

            A couple observations I have made so far about the Sri Lankan people are that they are genuinely nice people. They all say hello to my friend Hannes and I, and they all smile at us when we make eye contact. However, one thing that does bother me is they definitely are not afraid about staring at us. Whenever Hannes and I walk into a place that is full of locals, we can feel every single set of eyeballs just mad-dogging us the entire time. But it is more out of curiosity than anything else.

            Sri Lankans also do not have any concept of personal space, absolutely none. They have no problem with being in each other’s personal bubbles. When I was at the ATM the other day, the person behind me stood literally right behind me, I felt his breath on my shoulder as I was withdrawing money. The guy was not trying to see my PIN or steal my money; he was just simply waiting in line. But it did sort of freak me out a little bit. On top of that, they have no qualms about being in each other’s business while being packed like sardines into a bus.

            The Sri Lankan language, called Sinhalese, named after the ethnic Sinhala majority is one of the complex languages I have ever seen. It takes ten letters put together in seemingly random order just to say thank you.  Fortunately for us though, just about everybody understands English. Most of them only simple English, but quite a few can carry conversations. It is also nice that almost all signs are posted in English, Sinhalese, and Tamil. Tamil is the language of the ethnic minority in Sri Lanka. They are the ones that were fighting against the government in a civil war that lasted 20 years and only just recently ended. Most of the fighting happened in the North of the country, so we are not exposed to any of it. Apparently though the North is a dump in comparison to the South.

            Today we went by bus to the city Galle to check out this old Dutch Fort that was built in the 1500s or maybe 1600s. I was a little apprehensive about getting on one of those buses for the reasons stated in a previous entry. But the two buses we rode in were quite mellow compared to some of the suicide buses we have seen. In all honesty, part of me was hoping to get a bus with a suicidal driver, just because it would have been absolutely crazy. But in the end, I am fully content with getting two rather mellow bus drivers.

            The Dutch Fort was absolutely massive. The walls were at least eight feet thick. The Dutch actually built an inner wall and an outer wall and then filled the middle with dirt. Once atop the fort, it had an amazing few of the entire town and of the surrounding bay. The Fort was pretty cool and a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. Inside the Fort there was little town with shops, restaurants, temples, mosques, hotels, everything. Almost like a separate town from Galle. 

Link to pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=352336&id=502975049&l=3b94ed4af8
 

           Inside the Fort, we walked by a Mosque where young boys were memorizing verses of the Koran with rhythmic chants, it was quite surreal and cool to watch and listen. I am not quite sure if we were allowed to watch or not, but we slipped away undetected. There was also a very cool Buddhist temple inside as well, but it was closed to the public.

            Hannes and I are quite popular with the school children. While at the Fort, there were hordes of kids on field trips. When we walked by a class they would all yell, “hello!” and ask us how we are doing and where we are from. The schoolgirls especially liked us, as they would yell at us to get our attention from inside their buses. They didn’t really want to talk to us for they just wanted our attention.

            I met my first fellow American today, from Oregon. He never told me his name, or if he did I forgot it already. But that is not important. This guy may be one of the most interesting men in the world. If I had to guess he is probably between 55 and 65, chain-smokes like nobody’s business, and looks like he’s been through hell. Where he makes up for it are his experiences and travels. This guy has not been home in about three years and has been traveling the world for the last 30+ years. I have no idea what he does for work, all that I do know is that he sold his home and has no plans on going back to Oregon any time soon. Some of the things he’s done and places he’s gone are just mind blowing. For example, going on a month-long safari from South Africa to Kenya. Spending 20 of the 30 days camping in the savannah. To vagabonding through Australia, India, Malaysia, it seems you name the place he’s been there or knows somebody who has. The mold was definitely broken after this guy was made. And if left unchecked, he will talk unabated for hours, I found this out the hard way. But I didn’t mind, since his stories are interesting. He wants to come with us to Arugam Bay, so that should make the 6.5 hour drive more interesting. The guy is like a walking encyclopedia and almanac, I am going to try and soak up as much as I can from him.

            That’s all for today. PEACE.