One Way Ticket

One hour and 10 minutes in the air brought us to this mixture which now is called Sri Lanka, but which has been named by many different peoples over the centuries. Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Portuguese, Dutch, English, Tamil, Indian, indigenous people and the recent arrivals (tourists) all have named this beautiful island. We stepped off the airplane onto this island which is lush and green, even though it is not the height of the flowering season. We also noticed that in comparison to where we had been, the streets in the towns and countryside looked so much cleaner. The traffic flows without the constant vehicle horn noises and is less dense. People here dress in a more western style. There are very few colorful saris. It just seems very different yet somehow familiar.

The pace of this tour is less strenuous than the Indian tour. For example, in India a temple visit, because of the size of the complex, may take 2 to 2 1/2 hours in very hot, humid, crowded, sweltering to melting conditions. Here the visits in general are shorter in time and there seems to usually be some breezes to help cool us. Another difference between this tour and the previous one is that on this tour there are only 12 of us. We are now in day eight and folks are loosening up and are more relaxed, joking and laughing. We are a real bunch of characters and could be in a short story written by Bill Bryson or Garrison Keeler. We have a 6 foot two muscle man, an actress from New York City, a woman aerospace engineer, a physician from Brooklyn, couples from Seattle and Indiana, and two elderly travelers whom you know.