Sri Lanka Day 2: Shopping and Massages

Our second day in Sri Lanka dawned with a tasty home cooked breakfast consisting of dhal, sausages, an egg curry-type dish and what I think was sambola (the dark orange element on the plate) and appams - noodle like in consistency but almost pancake like in shape... I'm not doing a great job of describing them so here's a picture. They were delicious!

Breakfast: sausage, sambola, dhal, appam, egg curry

After breakfast, Samia and I headed to Odel shopping center, which is essentially a large department store selling clothes, baked goods, tea, and souvenirs. While checking out some of the items, we stumbled upon the bakery where I found these cupcakes... Not sure why the obviously identifiable characters were renamed? Maybe it's a copyright thing or something?

SpongeBob SquarePants: "Mr. Bob"

Cookie Monster: "Cookee"

Oscar the Grouch: "Green Monster"

Big Bird: "B Birdy"

Elmo: "Elm Monster"

For someone with a love of elephants as well documented as mine, Sri Lanka was basically like hitting the jackpot. Anything you can imagine putting an elephant on, you can find there. I picked up some window hangings with little elephants on them but otherwise managed to avoid elephant overload. For example, I managed to pass this stand several times without succumbing to the adorable elephant toys.

Temptation 

After we finished our shopping, we headed over to the Dutch Hospital area of the city. This is a shopping center designed around an open courtyard with a few shops and restaurants. More importantly, it is also the home of one of the Spa Ceylon parlors. Our host, Sumitha, had very kindly called in appointments for us while we were shopping so we were able to head straight into our treatments after a quick snack. Samia had opted for the head and foot massage while I went for the whole body option. I figured I would never see a 90 minute full body massage for 60 dollars again so I went for it. And I didn't regret it for a second!

Massage oils and lotions at Spa Ceylon

Blurry picture of the private room

After our lovely spa experience, we arrived home to find that our host Raju had arrived with 'short eats' - little tea time snacks designed to tide you over until the next meal. These had a variety of fillings although fish seemed to be the common factor in several of them. They reminded me a lot of British pasties... but were infinitely more flavourful.

Tasty short eats 

After resting for a bit, Samia and I joined the other 'kids' for a quick meal at Commons, a restaurant close by to where we were staying. We ordered a variety of rotis, breads with different fillings such as chicken tikka, four cheese, etc. Since my photos of the food didn't turn out great, I instead offer you a few pictures of my lovely dining compaions. Sumitha and Raju were even able to join us towards the end of the evening... just in time for my obnoxious photo taking! Lucky them... :)

Sumitha and Shehani

Samia, Ashwini and Raju

Sumitha, Caitie, Samia, Raju, and Ashwini

Sooraj and Evan 

Samia, Sooraj, Caitie, Shehani, Sumitha, Ashwini and Evan