A Ton of Fun at Midyear!
The heat might be suffocating but that doesn’t deter Sri Lanka’s ‘can’t bring us down’ attitude as we go full steam ahead… to have some fun!
You would think that June could be the hottest month ever to drape six yards of fabric around your sweltering frame. But since it is the wedding season in the island, someone you know must be getting married. So dust off your dancing shoes, dry clean your best dress or suit and practise those baila moves!
If you’re not into working up a good sweat on the dance floor by cutting the rug with friends and family all night long, perhaps a good way to blow off some steam would be to go rowing. As China celebrates the Duanwu (Dragon Boat) Festival by racing dragon shaped boats, here in Sri Lanka you can sign up for a team race, consume some good old Sri Lankan-Chinese grub and have a splash.
The fun becomes more cultural towards the end of July and in August with many locals flocking to the hill capital for the 10 day long Esala Perahera. The race for the best (and more importantly, available) rooftops can get pretty intense in Kandy… so make your reservations well in advance.
And while you’re caught up in the middle of the -island’s largest cultural pa-geant, don’t forget to explore some Kandyan delights.
Climb up the many stairs of The Soya Centre for some soya ice cream (the best in the country, according to yours truly), visit a pub for a cold one (you should know that one of Kandy’s coolest pub vibes is on top of a bake house), and simply drink in the sights and sounds of one of Sri Lanka’s most revered cities.
If the congestion of this traffic filled city isn’t for you, venture north to check out the Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil Festival, head south for the Kataragama Esala Perahera or stay in Colombo to enjoy the commercial capital’s Aadi Vel Festival.
There’s also a lot happening in the world of sports to watch on TV – tennis’ Wimbledon Championships, golf’s The Open Cham-pionship, the Tour de France, and Formula 1’s Belgian and Hungarian Grand Prix, not -to mention Sri Lanka’s cricket tour to the West Indies.
What’s more, Christopher Nolan’s The -Odyssey screens in July and is expected to -be a box office hit.
Since there are plenty of options to have fun, you can pick whatever catches your fancy. After all, in true Odyssey fashion, ‘each man delights in the work that suits him best.’
– Ruwandi Perera