2014, Day 314 - First impressions

Despite the late arrival this morning we were still up pretty early so after killing some time on the internet we had breakfast provided by the hotel.  It was plain European type breakfast fare but it did the trick.  We decided to head out to one of the markets after getting cleaned up.

A short time later we were leaving the hotel and found a trishaw driver (a trishaw is the local version of a tuk-tuk).  Because there are four of us he had to call a friend and soon we were headed off to the market.  We waded in to the produce section and it wasn't until after we left that Melissa confessed that she was the object of cat-calls and a few pinches.  I guess a nearly six foot tall red-headed woman is hard to miss but I hadn't expected that she would have garnered such unwelcome attention.  Which made us reflect that the markets here have a lot more men working at them than in much of Asia and resolve to look out for each other a little more closely in the future.

Lest you get the wrong idea, the young man pictured was friendly and a perfect gentleman.

Once we left the market our drivers took us to the old town hall so we would have a look around.  It is not really a museum but the doors were open so we had a look around and signed the guest register at the instance of one of the gentlemen inside.

Then Saman and Yoga, the drivers we had hired, took us to a Hindu temple.  There was a lot of elaborate statuary some of which they tried to explain to us but the language barrier coupled with brain-frying heat meant a lot got lost in translation.

When we left it was to head over to a restaurant to meet some of Francene's friends for lunch.  As luck would have it we arrived within minutes of each other and were treated to a nice meal.  I had my first sampling of Sri Lankan food and I think we're going to do just fine here.

Once we had our fill it was off to do a little shopping before heading back to the hotel to rest.  The long day prior was taking its toll and all we wanted to do was get out of the heat and relax which is exactly what we did until dinner time which took us away from the hotel for a little while to enjoy a meal where the ambiance was probably better than the food.  Oh well, you can't win them all.

Now I think it is time to consider an early night...

Fuji X-T1, Fujinon 56/f1.2R
56mm, f2.8, 1/125 sec @ 200 ISO