Dental Health Magazine Dental Health Magazine Issue 7 | Page 50

Issue #7, September 2017
50
Issue #7, September2017
We
LIFESTYLE : Travelling
in
arrived
Colombo
checked
into
Galleface
and
the
Hotel
which was a sort of
SERENDIPITY
IN SRI LANKA
‘heritage’ hotel in the
same light as the Raffles in Singapore,
except it had not been properly
refurbished then. By tradition we were
not given a key to the room and there
was always a dhoti-clad attendant
outside our room, waiting to open or
close our door as we come in or go
out, and just be there as some sort of
sentinel. I found it strange and a bit
unnerving at times.
The next day we decided to go to
Kandy, the cultural and spiritual capital
of Sri Lanka . It was a few hours train We declined but the young man
ride away. But for some reason the kept himself stuck us. And he as right!
train was so full of people your could When we arrived in Kandy, there was
hardly move in it. People were sitting an endless sea of people and it was
on the floor and at every available almost impossible to move around,
space, even on the roof. An eager- what more to find our directions. So
beaver of a young man approached us the young man Hassan, a Sri Lankan
and explained that Kandy was hosting Muslim, became our guide.
a grand Perihara (parade) that evening
for the inauguration of Sri Lanka’s
Second
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A R R IVA L
In February 1978
I spent an 8-day
holiday in Sri Lanka
with a friend,
travelling
through many
parts of the
island. It is
indeed one of my
most memorable
holidays.
President
Julius
I had never seen so many people
Richard crammed in one place as on that day
Jeyawardene. He offered me to be our in Kandy. Of course all the hotels were
guide and warned us we would never full but Hassan found us a room in one
find our way in all that enormous crowd, Mrs. De Silva’s Guest House at a very
what more an accommodation. central location. What a relief. We were
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