Welcome to Sri Lanka, where the scenery is always green, the palm trees are ever present, and there's lots of interesting stuff to look at. 🙂
In the following photo, you can see a shop selling woven goods. There's a stretch along the road between Colombo and Kurunegala where there are quite a few of these shops all together, selling pretty much the same types of goods.
Behind the shop, you can see a king coconut palm. King coconut palms are orange in color with very little flesh but lots of coconut water that's delicious to drink.
In this next photo, you can see a motorcycle on the far right with a lock box on the back of it. Lock boxes on the back of motorbikes is common enough in Sri Lanka, and they can be used to transport everything, including pizza and other restaurant food.
The shop itself looks like it sells foodstuffs. And just to the right and partialy hidden by the shop is a banana plant. Banana plants grow everywhere in Sri Lanka. Everywhere.
In this photo, you can see a roadside stall set up where you can buy king coconuts for drinking along with other produce. If you buy the king coconut, you can opt to bring it home whole or you can choose to have the seller use his huge knife to slice the top open enough for you to get a straw through.
Here we have another shop selling woven goods. And bananas – the green clump hanging from the ceiling on the left hand side of the photo.
The round woven objects that are tied together in a long clump on the right hand side of the photo? Those are used for steaming string hoppers.
This photo was taken in Kurunegala – you can tell from the mountain in the background. The guy on the left side of the photo is pushing a big cart.
Here we have a shop selling clay pots and other household goods. When the shop is closed, the blue metal grating encloses all the items and is locked.
Here we have my mother in law buying bananas and papayas from the back of a truck.
I know, I know. In the US, there's a meme about not buying shellfish from the back of a truck. Or if you buy something from the back of a truck, it's hot. Not so in Sri Lanka. LOTS of stuff is sold from the back of a truck in Sri Lanka. It's just an easily transportable shop that makes it easier for the shopkeeper to get around and make extra cash.
And those bananas? Yep, they're fat and short. They're around the same diameter as most bananas you see in North America but with a much thinner peel and they're usually around, oh, four or five inches long. And they're GOOD! Flavourful. 🙂
The guy's also selling papayas. My mother in law has one in her hands in this photo.
