Ayu Buyon

Well, I am back!

After a 2 week sorjourn in London, which was quite an experience for me and Tim, I felt happy to be home. Sleeping on my thick comfortable bed and eating my usual meals (chinese dim sum, fishballs, yong tau foo, fried koay teow, rice with dishes) and drinking teh tarik from porcelain cups made me glad that I was not a permanent resident of Britain!

Unlike my sister who has been there for the past 30 years, this was my second trip. Each time after flying into England, I will be suffering from homesickness. Homesick for teh tarik and chinese food!

Our journey started on 25th July in the afternoon. We chose Air Lanka as it was the cheapest. At RM3k per person round trip from KL to Heathrow, it was a real steal. The only snag was the short transit at Singapore. We had to disembark at Changi and let the authorities rummage through our bags. Singapore was so much stricter than KLIA. Tim lost his favorite scissors key chain. They made him threw it away at the security check. From Singapore we flew for 3 hours to Colombo. Air Lanka is not too bad if you don't mind the food. Sometimes the food you want may not be available thus you would have to eat whatever is available. In my case it was some kind of cheesy pasta that neither looked nor tasted appealing.

 It was about 9 pm Colombo time when we touched down. Bandaranaike airport was very sparse. Small black chairs lined the arrival and departure halls. Looking at the chairs, I was just thinking 'how could we possibly lie down on those uncomfortable chairs'. They look like office chairs with their low backs and small seats. Yet I could see many transit travellers having a shut eye on them.

The immigration officers who stamped our passports did not seem too friendly. One guy even asked us why we were in Colombo until his colleague told him that we were in transit! There was only one restaurant but many small stalls selling handicrafts. There was one duty free shop and a shop selling electrical items.

However we were delighted when Air Lanka told us that we were to be given accomodation at the Jetwing Star due to the long wait till 6 am for our connecting flight. God is good! We met a Pakistani family travelling back to Karachi who was also given accomodation in Colombo while waiting for thier connecting flight. I told him 'Wasn't Pakistan the place where Osama was killed?' The friendly father told us that Pakistan is really safe and a nice place to visit. They told us not to believe everything we read in the papers about Pakistan!

Thank God for Air Lanka! We will certainly consider flying her the next time although we may have to endure the food on board.

AYU BUYON (Singhalese for Welcome)!