Episode 2: Thailand

After Sri Lanka and a large gathering of friends, the next phase of the tour plan called for meandering through Thailand and Malaysia for a couple of weeks- the first time I have ever vacationed solo.  More than anything else I was looking forward to the food, which made me a bit ashamed of myself considering all of the history, natural beauty, and culture these countries have on offer.  But I can't help it.  I was born in Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian food in my mouth, and I was finally coming home to Southeast Asia more than 3 decades later.

A shout-out to the Russmetes-Gebhards of Miami who gave me a detailed tutorial on the ins and outs of Thailand while we were in Colombo- and some local Thai currency pocket money too.      

Bangkok.  I landed in Bangkok, took a ride into town, checked into the hotel on Silom Road, and immediately did what I had dreamed about doing for years: walk the streets of Bangkok.  I was not disappointed.  What an intense and colorful experience.  Bangkok is like a big, ragged playground in the heart of a country where having fun in all that you do- work or play- is a traditional and serious priority.  If I were forced to choose one word to describe Bangkok, it would be capital R, Raw.  There is a palpable sense that the city is making stuff up as it goes along- it's more of a place for the Joker than Batman.

Most memorable from that first walk were the smells: nasal sandwiches of good smells, then bad smells, and good smells again within single city blocks.  The good smells could be from some combination of animal of earth or sea, noodle, and vegetables shallow-frying with spices and batters over high flames.  It could be those fragrant flowers being sold near the Hindu temple, or from one of the gardens.  You don't want to know where the bad smells were coming from.  Whatever it was often marinated for days on end in the scorching hot sun and overflowing storm water from torrential rains.

Bangkok is a sprawling, disorganized metropolis of 12 or 13 million which seems to go on uninterrupted for miles and miles.  There are dozens of imposing and contemporarily designed skyscrapers spread out over geographically diverse sections of the sprawl, and numerous cranes announcing more to come.  Bangkok is one of those few urban parts of the world that successfully house the very old next to the very new- for comparison Mumbai comes to mind.  Both rich and poor somehow coexist peacefully too.  The most efficient, economical, and fun way to get around are the motorcycle "taxis" which are basically dudes with bikes, for hire.  As with everything else, the price of each trip is negotiable.  A 200 bhat quote for anything can usually be banged down to 70 with a little skill, patience and the traditional greeting, "Sawadtee Krap!"  It's recommended that you wear a helmet, and hang onto the dude tightly.

Shops and street vendors hawking food, clothes, tourist services, rickshaw rides, fake watches, or real younger sisters were seamlessly intermingled with stray animals, 5 star hotels, beautiful gardens, modern shopping malls, embassies, and ancient temples.  Handsome trees somehow survived among the heavily-traveled sidewalks and smoggy air.  Shifty characters lurked around street corners and gave you elevator eyes.  Cautious tourists with cameras and maps passed by furtively.  Half-crazed white-haired European hippies talked to themselves while walking around in circles.  No doubt some cats who had arrived in the 70's never left, mentally or physically.  Transvestites (aka Lady-Boys) gave you a warm smile.  I began to understand the frightening ramifications of a great line by Paul Giammati's FBI agent character from the Hollywood movie shot locally, The Hangover 2. "Bangkok has him now."  Other movie titles such as Bangkok Dangerous and Bangkok Adrenaline also began to make sense.  There was certainly law and security here, for I never once felt truly unsafe, day or night, but you couldn't completely let your guard down.

I immediately connected with Bangkok; there was no question that I was born in this general part of the world.  This was my kind of place.  It was time to get a real taste.

The Grub.  I have a serious affinity for Thai food, as do most of my friends and family.  Fortunately we have a number of first-rate Thai restaurants in New York City.  It's little wonder that Thai is catching up to Chinese as one of the most ubiquitous restaurant choices in practically every town and city in the United States.  Its flavors and preparation methods are simple, and generally easy to like, whether you prefer spicy food or not.

On a few delicious occasions I found a perfectly balanced dish- that harmonious blend of subtle Thai flavors such as lemongrass, coconut milk, fish sauce, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, fresh chilies, dried chilies, papaya, garlic, soy, and shallots in just the right ratios.  All very fresh, which makes all the difference.  I had meals at places that ran the gamut from nicer hotel restaurants, to holes in the wall and street cart vendors.  The most memorable dishes I had in Bangkok were a very good tom kha gai soup, soft shell crab in red curry, a fiery hot lemongrass salad that was a true sweet, sour and spicy revelation, chicken with cashew nuts with plenty of dry roasted chilies, and delectable Thai fried rice.  I was getting food made as spicy as I wanted it on a regular basis for a pittance.  

Fortunately or unfortunately my palate is highly discerning and easily disgruntled. There was one critical disappointment in the food department.  Over the week in Thailand I was unable to find a well-made plate of pad thai- that famous national dish of pan-fried broad rice noodles with peanuts and proteins, and one of my favorite dishes from any culture.  As with any well-prepared Thai dish, numerous ingredients go into it and the timing and proportions have to be just right.  It's hard to find consistently high-quality pad thai anywhere.  It just may have been bad luck, considering I visited the recommended spots.  You can't win them all.


Tourist Spots  No visit to Bangkok is complete without Wat Pho and the Grand Palace next door- vestiges of the royal bloodline going back centuries and still uneasily ruling the roost today. Wat Pho is a gigantic temple complex of over 1,000 Buddha idols and images, including the golden reclining Buddha statue which at almost 50 meters long is the biggest reclining Buddha in the world.  It was largely built in the 1700's although renovations and additions have been made over the centuries.  Even a perfunctory visit requires many hours in the maze-like complex.  Funny enough I found this guy whose shirt indicated he was NYPD S.W.A.T. Had he followed me here?

The Grand Palace is the most visited tourist destination in Bangkok- and home to the Kings of Siam and the Emerald Buddha since 1782.  It's an absolutely stunning collection of buildings, and brought to mind comparisons with the Forbidden City, which was my favorite destination in China some years back, or the Mughal stronghold Red Fort in India.  The Grand Palace can be combined in a day with Wat Pho, but wear sneakers and be prepared to do a lot of walking if you are interested in seeing all the intricate architecture and artwork.  It's a fun little game to imagine all of the palace intrigues that must have occurred within those confines- the backstabbing, closed door compromises, coronation ceremonies, dangerous liaisons, torrid affairs, declarations of war, and maybe even some ruling.

Kanchanaburi. One of the day trips available from Bangkok is well worth doing- a visit to Kanchanaburi province which is West of Bangkok.  Kanchanaburi has several spectacular things to do, including the famous Bridge Over the River Kwai built by Allied POWs under Japanese internment during World War II- after which the 1957 film was named.   The film took some dramatic liberties with history, but earned 7 academy awards that year and is considered a classic to this day.  I would recommend the bridge, the surrounding resorts and Buddhist temple, as well as the film.

Nearby that infamous bridge is the famous floating market, a massive shopping complex set up along the Kwai River backwaters, where most of the merchants operate off of boats.  What's for sale?  It could be flowers, clothes, hats, fruits, vegetables, or most impressively, snacks and meals.  The boat handlers have become adept at all types of cooking on these little floating shops, including deep frying.  I had a nice, cheap bowl of lemongrass-infused noodle soup at the market, as well as the chance to pet a baby elephant.  Such a marvelous creature.  Included in most of the package tours, you also have the opportunity to take a boat ride around the swampy backwaters.  All of this is certainly worth seeing and doing, but none of it compares to the main event.

A little ways down from the floating market is the tiger temple- an animal reserve and nursery run entirely by a local monastic order.  The concept behind the monastery is to bring in wounded wild animals, nurse them back to health, and open the doors to curious tourists.  Most of the animals being cared for are tigers- and unlike anything I've heard of or seen elsewhere in the world, guests are invited to pet a number of the tigers while staff take photos.  I first heard of the concept through the Loans of Karachi, who had just visited the tiger temple as part of their honeymoon itinerary.  The whole idea scared the crap out of me.  But it had to be done, so the Loans get a shout-out here.

No regrets.  Tigers are mystical, majestic beasts and I had never seen one that wasn't locked up in a cage until now.  They ooze a rare combination of raw power and beauty.  Their ability and desire to rip humans and other large mammals apart is well documented, and the Lonely Planet guide in my hands cautioned tourists to stay the hell away after reports of some poor visitors before us getting mauled.  So here we were, a bunch of foreigners sitting in the tour van, putting on a brave face as we hurtled toward what promised to be a cool but frightening experience in a third-world country where they wouldn't even bother asking you to fill out a waiver.  And for some dumb reason, I engaged in an untimely conversation with my German travel companion about the travails of Siegfried and Roy and the Lonely Planet warning.





Hopefully these photos speak for themselves.  Petting the tigers brought me in touch with some sort of primal instinct, a combination of fear and joy.  Most of them lazed about in the afternoon sun and looked at us with bored eyes, a disconnect from what I very well knew they were capable of doing to me within seconds.  The well-trained tigers were used to daily human contact
from the staff and visitors, and were supposedly on a regimen of feeding and exercise later each day that took the piss and vinegar out of them.  They seemed to have an appreciation and understanding that the monks had taken care of them, many since being little cubs.  Their fur felt soft and greasy.  The monastery's rules advised us to avoid approaching them from the front, and to only touch them behind the head.  I wasn't going to push the envelope on this one.  We conjectured whether the consistently docile, gentle animals were drugged, but the monks claimed they were not.  My guess is that they were simply lazy and uninterested in man meat, but that factor would never have taken away from the magic for me anyway.  Another few tourists expressed concern about how the staff and monks were treating these beasts- keeping them chained, for example, or whether they were being cared for ethically.  An American volunteer answered that she decided to work there to find out for herself- and she was satisfied by what she saw and learned.

Would I recommend it?  For sure.

  

Phuket.  It was close to a couple of weeks since I'd left the snow behind at JFK airport, and I hadn't set foot on an Asian beach yet.  I spent an hour with a helpful Thai-born Indian travel agent on Silom Road in Bangkok to work out my itinerary, and besides Bangkok and Kanchanaburi, the goal was to make my way to a beach resort.  The leading options were either Phuket or a combination of Kho Samui/Kho Pnang, and three days in Phuket turned out to be the most viable arrangement.  Phuket is the most developed, and by some accounts best beach resort in the country, with many decades of experience catering to tourists from around the globe and a wide variety of options for accommodation and entertainment.  I was advised to stay in Patong, which is more or less like the main drag on the island for young people like me without access to a car.

If you like beaches, you will like Phuket although if you want to avoid people and noise Patong is not for you.  Crystal clear blue water stretches for as far as the eye can see, with dozens of public and private sand bars all along the coastline.  Resorts and hotels dot the rising hills overlooking the ocean.  The large island of Phuket is surrounded by hundreds of other little islands displaying fantastic cliff faces and vegetation.  Seafood, coral, and sea life abound.  This part of the world combines a laid back island vibe with the natural surroundings to match.  Excellent accommodations and food are available at bargain basement prices, as there is plenty of competition.

Modern Phuket started out as a colonial Dutch/French/British tin-mining concern in the 1600's.  Smart locals in the latter part of the 20th century recognized the economic potential of the area and abandoned their sleepy mining and fisherman existence en masse to help the foreigners build a world-class tourist trap.  The result is both fun and a bit disturbing just like Las Vegas: a big, contrived metro area with a transient population of tourists. All of the physical and cultural amenities are geared toward a Western audience and funded by largely foreign investors tied up with Thai elites from different parts of the country.  There is an uneasy truce between the foreigners who come to enjoy themselves on their terms, and the locals who are trying to make a buck by providing those amenities to them.  It feels a bit exploitative, and here I was as a part of it.  I could sense a mild wariness from the Thais here that I didn't see in Bangkok.  On the other hand, the local population was palpably benefiting from rising wages and higher standards of living as I kept reminding myself.  I decided that reconciling these issues was above my pay grade.

There sure was plenty to do.  I went on an amazing island tour by speedy jet boat, which included snorkeling in the warm and clear waters near the boat.  It was my first time and a thoroughly enjoyable experience- with dozens of species of marine life easily visible through the goggles.  Fish swam all around us and nipped at our fingers.  I made a number of friends of all ages from Europe, and some amiable Swedes shared a warm beer with me.  One of them had decided to stay some years ago and opened up his own restaurant.  A common theme in Thailand is that some visitors can just never leave.

I also got to witness my first evening of Muay Thai kickboxing at Patong Stadium.  This was a very cool experience, as I had spent a lot of time watching the sport grow in the States and had a passable familiarity with the sport.  My friend Jason is an enthusiastic fighter who came to Thailand to train pretty seriously.  The stadium was a chaotic mix of locals, who drank heavily and placed verbal bets by waving Thai bhat bills around and shrieking at each other, and foreigners largely drinking the scene in for the first time.  A local band sat in a top corner of the stadium banging on drums and playing wind instruments.  I got some good ringside seats, which included a free neon green muscle shirt.  The show started with little 6-year-olds spiritedly beating on each other with their skinny little arms and legs.  As the bouts went on the fighters got older and bigger: 10-year-olds, then 14-year-olds, on to the serious adults and progression by weight class.  The fighting became better as we got into the adult semi-pros: more skilled, more controlled, and more strategic.  A couple of female fighters got into a fierce battle.  There were 8 fights in all, every one of them worth watching.  The sense of tradition, spirituality, and respect were always present, even with some of the older fighters from abroad who were very good.  And every single fighter was ripped.  Overall I think the health benefits of the sport and adherence to tradition outweigh the criticisms that some have.

The nightlife in Patong is big, loud, and always on 365 nights of the year.  Right off the main beach there was a strip of bars and restaurants with a street in between swarming with endless waves of tourists.  Waitresses follow tourists around trying to drum up business for their establishment.  Tailors and touts tried to hawk their wares.  It reminded me of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, except with largely white customers and Thai staff.

Phuket was a fun time, but once is enough.  On this trip I learned that I'm generally not fond of traveling alone, and unable to spend much time sitting on a beach without getting restless.  I made plenty of new friends but found the down time in between socializing to be boring.  All of this is good to know.

A Hindu tale displayed at Bangkok International Airport

Thailand is an awesome place, one that has a special connection for those of Indian origin- there are cultural, religious, and historical similarities that make the nation recognizable and approachable to us.  It's no coincidence that a large and thriving Indian community has set up shop in Thailand.  But unlike India and most other nations of the surrounding region, Thailand managed to avoid outright colonialism by a European power by cleverly co-opting would-be invaders against others in the neighborhood.  The Thais have survived generations of upheaval and intrigue, but have largely remained the masters of their own destiny.  And they have managed to have fun doing it.  Along with the other nations of the regional council known as ASEAN, Thailand has an excellent shot at staying relevant and advancing its role in the world further in the future.

Mahanth's Freedom Tour 2012, Part 1: Sri Lanka

The circumstances of life offer each of us opportunities both exciting and banal every now and then.  The question is whether to capitalize on them or not.  In my case, late 2011 conspired to present a decision I found pretty compelling: the chance to take an extended leave from work, to travel to new and distant lands relatively cheaply, to embark on personal journeys of spirituality, fitness, and culinary adventure, to start some new entrepreneurial projects, to do a study of Asian global cities by wandering their streets on foot, to see my parents and some friends again after multiple years.  Plus, I've always wanted to say "I'm on sabbatical."  Freedom Tour 2012, anyone?  The choice was made after several months of mulling.

Since late January I have been to Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and just a few days ago landed up in New Plymouth, New Zealand.  I now sit near the beach in summertime, in the shadow of Mount Taranaki which I intend to climb in the coming days, and of my parents, who are trying to discourage me from climbing said mountain.  There's nothing like home cookin', even if it's served down under and finished with kiwi fruit for dessert and parental rejoinders about my mortality as an aperitif.

All were new countries to me, sort of except Malaysia where I was born but had not returned to for 32 years.  It's been an amazing trip so far, and I will end up in India come April to visit my ancestral places, meet relatives and friends, and explore new territory in that fast-changing nation before returning to the United States.  While I tend to ramble on, some of you may find these accounts interesting, especially if you've never been.  

Relevant sidebar:  OMG it's SO awesome to fall off the grid for a while in this information age as I have done.  After years of monitoring work and personal emails, work Blackberry and personal cell phone both with text messaging, Facebook, IM, and a snail mail box filled with endless streams of junk mail and bills, limitless chores at home and errands outside, I nearly completely unplugged from it all and "went dark" for the last three weeks without the hand-helds... though it takes a while before your hands forget to stop anxiously feeling around for some "gadgetry" every ten minutes.   

SRI LANKA

I would like to dedicate this blog entry to my pal Krishna and his new bride Neesha, to the extent that one can dedicate a blog entry to anyone.  The fabulous wedding hosted by the couple and their families in Colombo was four days of joyous celebration for a big group of us college buddies and spouses from abroad, and this mini-reunion was the first bookend of my 2012 tour.  For more than 10 years I had vowed to make it to Colombo to witness Krish getting betrothed whenever it might happen.  As floor mates, roommates, or housemates, through four years in college we were never very far apart- generally with him barely talking, and me talking too much (shocking).  I wouldn't have missed this important moment.

I touched down in the capital city of Colombo (more big town than small city) on January 25th and was pleasantly surprised to find many differences from the urban India I know.  The contrast in temperature was overwhelming- in New York there was heavy snow on the ground as the plane took off from JFK, and Colombo was sunny and low 90's- a body-shocking 60 degree swing.  I was expecting to find a mini-India vibe with similar landscapes, food, and culture but in fact Sri Lanka is unlike anywhere else in South Asia.  The people are thoroughly laid-back in the classic island sense, which is good when it comes to relaxing near the beach, but not so good if you are trying to get through immigration at the international airport and the requisite duty officer is sleeping at his desk (true story).  Along the road from the airport to the city visitors can observe large Buddha statues, colorful Jesus statues, and Hindu shrines all intermingled in the suburban centers- which were an excellent sign of religious and ethnic tolerance.  After two decades of brutal civil war only just ended in recent memory between the Tamil Tiger separatists and the Singhalese-majority government, after blood-curdling atrocities committed by both sides over many years, I was glad to see numerous outward signs of harmony in Colombo, Kandy (the country's second city), and some of the rural areas that I visited.

There is much positive to say about the Ceylonese folks.  Commerce seems to be moving along, tourism is growing rapidly now that it's safer to travel the small country's various parts, plenty of new infrastructure construction is underway, and on a related note foreign powers such as China and Malaysia appear to be investing heavily here.  Global NGOs have substantial operations performing good work.  I was surprised at how clean and organized Colombo was, how nobody was urinating on the streets, how white foreigners weren't being ogled by everyone as they would be in India.  Well-maintained gardens and roads spread through the town.  I did not see much of the Sri Lankan beaches but my understanding is that they are comparable in quality to other Asian destinations with the benefit of lower cost for holidays.

To follow the larger theme we're finding throughout Asia, Sri Lanka is clearly going someplace, forging ahead for the better especially in urban centers, where a thriving middle class is apparent and people are starting to enjoy a higher standard of living, as evidenced by shopping malls, theaters, electronic equipment stores, and fast-food restaurants being frequented by a burgeoning demographic profile.  Whether this lifestyle and modernity in general will seep into the heartlands and lift up the rural poor is still an open question, like it is for India, China, and others.  I am not so sure and the local elites I spoke with were not definitive, either.  The next question is whether Western culture and the local culture can coexist harmoniously- a dilemma for all of Asia.

In Colombo, Team Georgetown stayed at a nice resort called the Cinnamon Grand.  While we took advantage of the standard amenities- gym, spa, pool, tennis courts, shopping center, and poolside bar- for me the hotel's food was most memorable.  On the first day I reached the hotel very early in the morning, well before sunrise, and was on my own for a while.  When the elaborate breakfast buffet opened up at Taprobane, the in-house Sri Lankan restaurant, I was floored.  Here was the bright sun rising over the resort's shiny goldfish-laden lagoon.  What commenced next was a non-stop tour of food consumption featuring both Western and Eastern breakfast treats: an omelet made to order with extra chilies, string hoppers, hoppers, three different kinds of spicy and delicious sambals, sambar, and chicken curry.  A wide selection of breads, pastries, and fruit were sampled along with a cup or two of very tasty coffee.  The meal was awesome in every respect except one: I was quite sad to find my belly was filling up and there was no more room to eat more breakfast morsels.  The heart was saying yes, but the stomach was saying no!  There were, however, four more mornings of breakfast buffet to have, these times with company.

But that was nothing.  At a different part of the hotel lies the restaurant Lagoon, where several of us agreed we had found that most precious of edible treasures, literally the best seafood I've ever eaten anywhere.  I can happily say this without an ounce of exaggeration.  Customers come by, pick the specific fish, prawns, lobster, squid, or crab they want to eat from the front counter, all incredibly fresh or still alive, and then pick the type of preparation and sauce they prefer.  The chefs prepare each item to order right then behind the dining area.  Recommendations are given on request, and after sampling 7 or 8 different dishes over two different evenings, every single one divinely fresh, delicate and perfectly seasoned, several of us came to the consensus about what a highlight this place was.  Beer and lobster thermidor, dude!

Among the more interesting things I did in Colombo away from the wedding was to shadow my friend who works at an American money management firm as he went to a series of meetings with local company CEOs and CFOs for the better part of a day.  At each meeting all of the classic problems with doing business in South Asian countries became painfully apparent: high levels of political meddling in industry by certain individuals, opacity, and the strange propensity for companies to conglomerate into half a dozen unrelated industries under one corporate umbrella.  For example, a beverage bottling business might also invest in real estate, telecommunications, and agriculture. The executives were very nice, but also exceedingly casual; none of the meetings started on time, and the staff at the securities firm that set up the meetings often had no idea which room we were supposed to go in, resulting in unexpectedly long tours of buildings.  While the war is over, tourism booms and the economic outlook is looking up, without naming names I would suspect that overall corporate management will need to reach for higher standards before they can expect to become world-beaters.

The wedding ceremonies were lively, colorful, loud, and plenty of fun and in that they are similar to weddings in India.  The main wedding event was on Saturday during the day at a large Hindu temple in Colombo.  Other receptions and parties, all with grand meals served, took place on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday to make it a solid four day affair.

Real men wear sarongs.

The day I reached, unable to fall sleep due to jet lag, I jumped right into things.  As I arrived on Wednesday, I got the chance to spend some quality time at Krishna's family home during the day, and it was a bustling hive of activity.  Workers, maids, delivery people, and numerous relatives were busily moving in and out of the house.  I watched Krish make at least 20 phone calls to go over logistics for events and guests traveling from around the world.  It was quite hectic, but this surreal tableau was all part of the experience for me, as I was still trying to get over the fact I had been trudging in dirty snow just the day before.

Day one ended with an organized dance practice as I was inserted into a performance by Krishna's school friends and cousins representing the boys' side in a friendly competition at the cocktail party scheduled the next day.  Representing your side in song and dance is taken seriously in Hindu weddings, so I was putting my all into it, while offering the group some comic relief during practice as well.  And of course, we got rave reviews.

The next four days were a blur of activity- wedding functions, meeting up with old friends, making new ones, eating lots of food, and exploring different corners of Colombo.  Fancy lunches, high tea, doubles tennis, swimming, and conversations about careers, relationships, and parenthood abounded.  The final event was the Sunday night reception, which featured literally the best bharatanatyam performance I've ever seen, with India's leading mother and daughter dancing duo uniquely fused with local Sri Lankan musicians holding a lively drum beat.  With a former President and an ex-Prime Minister of Sri Lanka along with a smattering of High Commissioners in attendance, Sri Lankan Special Forces (see left) were standing guard at the Hilton to prevent an international incident.

After Colombo, the newlyweds and a few others of us joined up at Nuwara Eliya, the world-famous tea estates at the top of some steep hills and about an intensely curvy and climbing 6 hour drive from the capital.  The altitude brought some very welcome cool weather and mist.  We stayed at a beautiful hill resort called the Heritance Tea Factory, which was in fact a tea processing facility operated by the British for many decades of colonial rule.  Almost all of the original architecture and machinery were kept intact in this fascinating building, and if you closed your eyes for a minute it felt like being transported back to the 1800's during the height of the British Raj.

The tea estates make up just about the entire local economy of the region, with hundreds of workers plying the trade of growing, picking, and processing fine teas for the rest of the world to wake up to.  The views of the surrounding hills, lakes, and water bodies are downright breathtaking.  Thousands of rows of tea plants and other green vegetation at various heights stretch as far as the eye can see, dotted with women in colorful saris working the land.  On the first morning at the estate, a couple of us went on a brisk guided trek through the estates and forestry.  We visited a local village to see how the locals lived, while learning about the many species of birds, trees and plants that call this place home.

During the trek I also participated in an engaging political discussion with an elderly British gentleman, a fellow traveler who had traversed the length and breadth of America for work over many years.  He has observed town after town in the heartland fall into decay from an outsider's point of view, and we lamented the current state of affairs in Western civilization.  From the heights of the Nuwara Eliya tea estates, we both thoroughly denounced the Tea Party, which brought home that educated people around the world were monitoring the phenomenon with great concern just as many Americans are.  He had several memorable quotes: "After World War II during reconstruction I think that was your country's best time," he said earnestly, which made me rather proud to be American.  And at the end, "Isn't it nice how two people of different ages and from different places can share the same ideas?"  Agreed.

On the way back to Colombo, from where I'd fly to Thailand, we stopped for several hours in Kandy, the second city with a sweet name, and at one point the capital of kingdoms of yore.  Kandy is famous for the most important Buddha temple in Sri Lanka, and allegedly the home of Buddha's very tooth.  Inside the temple is an illustrated account of how that tooth came to be there- and the great hardships taken on by Buddhist devotees to move the tooth from place to place facing massive obstacles.  This temple housed the finest collection of buddha statues and artwork I have ever seen- including gold, marble, precious gems and stones, ceramics, and other materials.  Kandy was worth visiting just for this, and it was a good halt in the road trip for lunch as well.

There is much else to do in Sri Lanka, but I only had a week.  I've heard about the amazing beaches, the ruins of ancient civilizations up north, museums, and other trappings of the British Raj that I missed on this trip.  One thing is for certain: I will be back.  For now I'm satisfied with having come away with the best bharatanatyam performance and best seafood meal of my life within a week.

And if you're not bored to death, you can come back here soon to read about Thailand... here's a teaser, I got to pet some real live tigers out there- like another MJ once used to do.