Chilling at Ceylon Pics!

Vacation at Lanka!

Almost every day since my return from Srilanka last week, that I have been thinking about penning down the amazing experience of having toured a foreign land. And today, I finally found the time to do this. This trip full fills one of my few birthday resolutions I had taken this year.

Srilanka is a colourful country. Still retaining every bit of the natural greenery and the old colonial buildings of British architecture.

Statues of Buddha are found all over place with postures identifying them as an Srilankan, Chinese or Japanese Buddha.

On arrival at the Colombo airport, which was absolutely sophisticated and high-tech, we first visited the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, which was about 3 hrs drive from the airport. This place is known for the elephant orphanage where there are hundreds of elephants.

We got to see several of them in different sizes having their morning bath in a beautiful river on the roadside. The sound of the elephant amidst the gushing waters was very refreshing.

We reach a place called Dambulla for an authentic Singalease lunch. Sooooooooo spicy! This country dwells only on FISH CURRY from morning break fast to dinner! Dambulla is famous for the Rock temple of Buddha. The Dambulla rock temple as it is called, was built by king Walagambahu in the 1st century B.C. and it is a World Heritage Site. It is the most impressive of Sri Lanka's cave temples. The complex of five caves with over 2000 sq. metres of painted walls and ceilings is the largest area of paintings found in the world. It contains over 150 images of the Buddha of which the largest is the colossal figure of the Buddha carved out of rock. This place was very divine, peaceful and quite.

The next day we visited the Spice garden in a place called Matale. There is nothing great about this place, as the name signifies they claim to be making pure medicines, creams, cooking spices etc that is unavailable anywhere else. I bought some of the so-called pure alovera cream which is said to improve my complexion… lets see! From there we drove towards Kandy. This is the place where our former Chief Minister, MGR was born. Also, Kandy was the last capital of the Sri Lankan. The name "Kandy" conjures visions of splendour and magnificence. Many of the legends, traditions and folklore are still lovingly kept alive here.

We drove around the beautiful lake of Kandy and visited a gem museum. The best part was the cultural show, which depicted all the art forms of Srilanka. A temple of Buddha called the Tooth Relic was a visual treat. It was like a huge palace decorated with cravings and engravings in stones and precious gems with an etched golden roof. Tooth Relic where the tooth of Buddha is preserved and worshiped seems very divine and the traditional Srilankan drums and the trumpet in the background were really enchanting. Overnight stay at the Mahaweli Reach Resort on the banks of the Mahaweli River and the late night swim in cool waters of that massive pool in resort was a true holiday experience.

We drove towards a hill station called Nuwara Elliya on day three. Having been tossed in the heat in Dambulla and Kandy, we finally got to experience some chillness…well as we drove higher and higher over the hills 8282 feet altitude, the weather turned really cold. The scenic beauty of this place and the climate was exquisite and serene. After a city tour of Nuwara Elliya, we got to meet a friend who resides in this place. We had ball of a time with Prashanth at the Gold Club at Nuwara Elliya. This is supposedly one of Asia’s largest golf courts with 18 holes. And above all, Prashant’s house, which was facing a tall beautiful hill, was amazing. Trust me… I have never seen such a stunning house. It was just lavish…and it had fittings brought from different parts of the globe. Best of its kind! Hmmm…it’s all about money honey.

It took us seven hours to reach Bentota from Nuwara Elliya on day four. Once again, the drive down the hill was great! The lush green waters of the Indian Ocean was incredible. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to venture into any of the water sports due to large crowds. However, the time we spent on the shores of the roaring yet tranquil Bentota beach hand in hand with each other is priceless! Shopping inside Serendib Resort at a Tamilian shop was a lot of fun! Srilankan sun set (cocktail) along with a seaside candle light dinner was out of this world.

Next morning we packed our bags to Colombo…. Yeah…we reach ‘House of Fashion’. Shopping was just ok… nothing wow about this place. Well ofcos, they had lots and lots of skirts and I did pick up a couple of them. But you know what… this four or five storied shop does not have a trial room. You can see women standing around every corner trying out clothes in the midst of pillars and clothes stands. I certainly did not want to do this, so just stopped with a few, which I though would fit me… yes, they do! We also we went a mall called ODEL… quite a plush place. It was only in Colombo that one could see some hip crowd. We stayed at the Grand Orient Hotel build in 1919 annex the harbour. The view from the restaurant was splendid. Huge vessels including the navy fighters and cruise ships spread across the port, all illuminated at night, was astonishing. But photography prohibited…sad! The entire city of Colombo still retains the colonial building established during the British period. The city gets into a lull at 7.00pm and wakes up not before 11.00am. Most of the roads and lanes in Colombo are under high police protection and it looks like this city is always at red alert. Can you believe ….we actually had to go through security checks at five different points while we wanted to go to the Colombo beach for a morning walk? The beach was just behind our hotel. No cameras allowed in the beach. Some roads leading to the beach and one side of this beach was completely closed. Want to know why? Well…The President and his wife were doing their exercise, lol. On the way to the beach, there were about two to three odd men who approached us every 15 minutes saying they saw us at the Grand Orient Hotel and suggested places we should be visiting in Colombo. We showed no interest in listening to them. Having walked a few steps ahead, an auto (called a tuk tuk) driver told us that the guy who approached us was part of the Mafia gang and was trying to manipulate us. Good heavens…

The first look at us, gave the message that we were Indians… well that’s still ok but it also communicated that we were South Indians, Tamils. Ohhhh that’s bad! The situation in Colombo still remains hostile. Though nothing seriously went wrong with us during this trip, I could sense a level of tension that still exists in the relationship between Srilanks and South Indians. Their moves were quite rugged and strange like on the warpath. I really wonder what the Tamilians living in Srilanka are upto? A peace treaty is the need of the hour.

Tag line...

A call Taxi ahead of my car read Surya Travels. Well… nothing wrong with the name. Below the name it said: surya means sun and we mean shinning holidays. I definitely didn’t know this! Hahaha…

Spoofing in advertising

For a moment it seemed a cool concept and a hilarious idea. But very soon I found it extremely dumb and stupid. Well… am referring to the new TVC of Nestle Munch chocolate.

The commercial clearly criticises the Cadburys ad of ‘Aaj Pehli Tarikh Hai’. The script goes like this… there is a guy who sits in front of a Munch chocolate wanting to eat it. The cuckoo from the wall clock comes out and says ‘Aaj Dhooseri Tarikh Hai’ and immediately another chap, possibly a friend jumps in and says “Arre Bhai, ye Munch hai, isse kisi bhi din kha sakte hain (My friend, this is Munch and it can be eaten on any day of the month)." Happy to hear this, the boy eats the Munch. The script is soo poor and the cast is even poorer.

The easiest thing to do is to criticise intelligent ideas. Am sure the agency JWT, would certainly deny the fact that this is clear spoofing. But in my opinion Munch's attempt has fallen flat and there isn't really much to counter the Cadbury campaign, which has proved to be clutter breaking. Spoofing, if not executed well, runs the risk of reminding the consumer of the original brand. In this case, it seems to have done just that.

Some facts: According to industry estimates, the chocolates segment in India is valued at about Rs 2,000 crore. About 71% of this market belongs to Cadbury and 25% to Nestle. The rest includes players such as Amul and others. In this Cadbury Dairy Milk has a share of about 35 % and Munch owns 10%.