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One of the most discussed topics in Sri Lanka today is the the unrest in our neighbourly Maldive islands with the democratically elected president Mr. Ibrahim Nasheed’s resignation. Many Sri Lankan websites and bloggers have been writing a lot about it. But these articles focus almost exclusively on current Maldivian politics and maybe some bits of Maldivian history. However among these I came across a rather different kind of blog post written in Sinhala language with a title saying something like, “What Should Be Sri Lanka’s Strategy on the Future of Maldives!” It’s a very thought provoking article because I don’t think many Sri Lankans have ever thought about the enormous geo-political and strategic advantage Sri Lanka has in possibly taking control of the Maldives territory when that country sinks into the Indian Ocean in the near future.
Google Satellite map of Maldives and Sri Lanka
If you are not familiar with the Maldives you may wonder what all this talk about the country sinking is. Even though the country has 298 square kilometers of land and about 1200 islands, the highest point of the Maldives is said to be just 2 meters or 7 feet. The average ground level of the country is 1.5 meters or about 5 feet above sea level. This has made Maldives officially the lowest country in the world!
Now with global warming, the sea level is expected to rise a meter or two in the Indian Ocean by the end of the this 21st century. So sadly it is very likely we may witness a slow sinking or submerging of the majority of the Maldives within our lifetime. The Maldives may be the Atlantis lost to the sea in the 21st century.
What Will Maldivian People Do When The Maldives Sinks?
Maldives currently has a population of about 400,000. So when the country sink into the ocean what are these people going to do? Their only option will be to migrate to other countries. As climate refugess these people can get visa to most countries of the world. I heard sometime back that Australia and some other coutries had said they will grant citizenship to Maldivians when it sinks. But in recent years the Maldivian government has given serious attention to this issue. They say they don’t want to be climate refugees living on dole-out. So they have setup a special fund using money from their booming tourism industry to buy land in foreign countries like Australia, India and Sri Lanka. So one day when the country submerges Maldivian people will have their own land in foreign countries to move to.
Who Will Control Maldivian Territory Without Local People Or Visible Land?
If as predicted, the sea level rises a meter or two the majority of Maldives land will submerge and the local population will have to leave the country and become citizens in foreign countries. In that case even though the Maldivians may retain rights to the lands and territory they will not likely be able to function as an independent country with a government would.
Also though the country will become inhabitable for normal living, tourist resorts that are raised above sea level and built can will still function in even when Maldives goes underwater. So big question arises when their is no local population and government, who will control the current Maldivian territory?
My guess is it will be one of these following global or regional power houses. As it is situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean in one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes whoever controls Maldives territory will wield a lot of geo-political power.
1. The Indians
2. The USA (Another Diego Garcia for the US In the Indian Ocean?)
3.The Chinese
4. NATO
5. Britain with Europe
There is a slim chance for even Sri Lanka to take control of the Maldivian territories when the country submerges. That is if we our Government and private sector can build a strong partnership with Maldivians now like investing and consolidation on Maldivian tourism and other sectors and most importantly inviting them to settle in Sri Lanka and making sure the largest share of Maldivians who migrate settle in Sri Lanka.
A Special Malay Rice Dish Called “Nasi Goreng”
Have you tasted Sri Lankan Malay foods? Frankly, until recently I handn’t. So I went with a friend to have dinner at this place auspiciously called as the, “Malay Restaurant” in Dehiwala Hill Street.
When we went we saw they had several special Malay dishes I wanted to tryout like Malay Dum Buriyani, Mee Goreng Egg Noodles and Malay pickle mixed Arabic rice. In addition they also had other general Sri Lankan food like various kinds of mouth watering Buriyani, Pittu, Parata, Naan Rottis, Lamprais, Burgers and Sandwiches. These food looked good too. I think people generally like this restaurant if I were to go by the crowd of people stopping their vehicles and waiting for their take away food order in front of the Malay restaurant.
Because we can’t taste all the dishes at once, my friend and I settled on a special Malay rice dish called “Nasi Goreng” mixed wit Sea Food. The top photo here shows the Malay rice dish we got (which I photographed before eating so that I may one day write about it here on Sri Lankan News Online) . I assure you this Nasi Goreng rice dish stuff tasted as good as it looked. It had a unique taste of its own. If you really want to know the taste like any food cousines its hard to describe but imagine something like what sea food like cuttle fish and buriyani rice mix dish taste like. They also had this Nasi Goreng rice dish with Chicken, Beef or Mutton to select but we went with the sea food.
Their menu card was surprisingly detailed about the special Malay foods they had on it. For instance this Nasi Goreng rice dish was describe as made out of basmathi rice, stir fried vegetables, pineapple stew, Chutney, egg Omelette and Chilli Paste.
While their dinner with this Malay spice rice stuff was excellent, I was disappointed and felt cheated out with what I got served for dessert. You see, for dessert on their menu we could select 1) Wattalappam, 2) Cream Caramel, 3) Ice Cream Topped Fruit and lastly 4) Fruit Triffle. The first three dessert are their in almost all Sri Lankan restaurants so my friend and I thought to go for Fruit Triffle. That was a bad idea. Their Fruit Triffle turned out to be nothing more than Custard Pudding topped with Jelly. Add insult to injury, it was premade and was a very small quantity in a small yoghourt cup like disposable plastic container. Not worth Rs. 50 let alone Rs. 150/= we were charged for the dessert.
But despite the bad experience with that dessert I’d recommend this restaurant for their well made and special Sri Lankan food belonging to the small Malay community of this island. Its not every where you find authentic Malay food restaurants in Sri Lanka like this one. So if anyone wants to try out Malay food in Sri Lanka this will be a good place tryout.
Price wise this restaurant is a middle class Sri Lankan restaurant with food not very cheap nor very expensive. The one portion of asi Goreng rice dish we got was Rs. 380 and it was enough for two hungry 25 year old guys. The place caters to the middle to lower upper class citizens of Sri Lanka I think but it suitable to take even a foreign tourist guest you have. It is also a very busy place (specially on weekends) so you have to wait at least half an hour before they serve the food. Take away orders are not that delaying and they also seem to get lot of takeaway orders on small call center like reception area they got here. I must add a word about the the restaurant’s staff. They are not the most friendly or cooperative but that maybe because I caught them at the busy time.
Overall they do have some very tasty and special Malay food dishes with Malay sounding terms (they give a full glossary like menu leaflet, see in the photo below). So you might like to try out these Sri Lankan Malay food stuff sometime here.
Update: This Malay food restaurant also has a good updated website with food prices, contact details etc. at www.malayrestaurant.lk . Their sites homepage says, the restaurant, located at the heart of Hill Street at No. 115, Hill Street, Dehiwela with a well equipped kitchen attached, which recently underwent expansion and the restaurant too underwent expansion to accommodate more dining guests, and will be very soon to accommodate four fold of our present capacity of dining guests.
Here are some photos of the Colombo Dehiwala beach. From faraway it still looks beautiful and picturesque. But when you go and walk around the beach all kinds of swear words will come to your mouth.
I’m sad to say, Dehiwela beach is on the fast track to become another polluted and garbage filled stretch of city beach, like you find in so many 3rd world developing countries. That’s really sad because this is a prime asset for a developing country like Sri Lanka.
This first picture shows a photo of the Dehiwela beach I took about two years ago (somewhere in 2009). The beach was even then polluted and not taken care by local government or any other organization. However it was not as polluted as now it is today. Just compare it with the next picture which is a recent picture of the Dehiwela beach stretch taken from almost the exact same spot.
 This prime sandy beach on closer inspection is always littered with garbage and dirt. Walking on the beach can sometimes be like waking on a minefield because of broken pieces of glass, rusted tins and bottles left by beach party goers, beach side restaurants and visitors.
Here are a few more recent pictures I took for Sri Lanka News Online, that shows an entirely different aspect of the beach you might miss or overlook when you go there.
The above picture is a place where a large dirty water drain that brings the dirt water from all houses and buildings of Dehiwela town flow into the Indian ocean. These are local government maintained constructed water drains that leave the dirty water to flow without any filtering and polute the ocean. When these drains near the sea they become almost small canal and don’t have any concrete walls or bunds in the side of drains. About 50 meters from the sea the constructed drains stop. There after the poluted dirty water of the drains are left to find its own way to the sea.
As you can see in the pictures here this results in small poluted and stanant water ponds forming near the beach. You can imagine what kind of mosquito’s and health hazards might be breeding in these filthy ponds. The stench near this drains are also sometimes unbearable.
There are several large public drains like this one that stop short of flowing into the sea their dirty water and instead form dirty water and garbage filled ponds like this on the Dehiwela beach.
I hope some Local MPs and Government officers of the Dehiwela and Mount Lavinia Municipal Council into this matter and save beach.
Update: Just after finishing writing this I foundout that another Sri Lankan blogger had also been blogging about same topic at the same time. Check his post called – Drains And Canals.
Even though Sri Lanka is a small and developing country, it currently has one of the busiest container port and largest harbour in the world. The Colombo port in Sri Lanka which is currently ranked as the 29th busiest port in the world in Wikipedia’s list of world’s busiest container ports.
Above Pic: A New 1.5km long container quay of Colombo Port, spreading out to the Indian Ocean from the shores of Colombo.
However as you can see in the photos here which I took recently, a mega expansion project is going on at the Colombo port. This Colombo port expansion project is going to it 3 times as big as it is now! That means when this port expansion project is over (within 2 years), Colombo port will be set to become one of the 10 largest and busiest ports in the world!
According to the previously mentioned Wikipedia world’s busiest port list, Colombo port handled about 4 million TEUs (or Twenty-foot equivalent units of containers) in 2010. That made it the 29th busiest port in the world. This itself is a impressive record for a country like small Sri Lanka, considering that world famous and busy ports like New York City (ranked world’s 19th) handled only 5.3 million TEUs in 2010.
When the Colombo Port expansion project (called the Colombo South Port) is complete the Colombo Port will have the ability to handle more then 12 million TEUs annually. According to current world port statistic that will make Colombo Port able to claim the 9th or 10th place among the top 10 busiest ports in the world.
Above Pic Shows construction work going on 24/7 at Colombo Port expansion project. The strange shaped objects in the foreground are the giant concrete boulders that are used to fill the sea, reclaim land and build the new quays of the port.
S0 look forward very soon for the day our port will beat world famous ports like Rotterdam (11.1 million TEUs, Busiest Port in Europe) and Los Angeles Port (6.5 million TEUs, busiest port in North America). Not bad for a small 3rd world country no?
What is the best place to buy clothes in Sri Lanka?
I get queried often about the fashion stores in Sri Lanka, shopping in Colombo and about Colombo cloth shops. So I made the below list of the what I think are the Top 10 Fashion Stores in Sri Lanka.
 Nolimit Fashion Store in Wellawatte, Colombo 6
This list of top 10 fashion and cloth shops in Sri Lanka is based on my experience and observation. Such a top 10 list is always a judgmental call and I’m sure not everyone will agree with it. I’d love to see you come up with your own list of top 10 clothing stores in Sri Lanka. You can leave your list in the comments below or post in your blog and let me know so that I’ll link to your post from SriLankaNewsOnline.com)
My Top 10 Fashion Stores in Sri Lanka
1. Nolimit Sri Lanka
2. Odel Sri Lanka
3. Fashion Bug Sri Lanka
4. House of Fashion Sri Lanka
5. Hameedia’s (Menswear specialist)
6. Ranjanas (Pettah, Colombo 11)
7. Kandy Fashion Store (Kiribathgoda)
8. Ranjanas (Pettah, Colombo 11)
9. Bavery Street Sri Lanka
10. Romafour (Bambalapitiya, Colombo 4)
I may eventually get around to write in detail about each of these leading fashion stores in Sri Lanka. In the meantime out of these top 10 fashion stores, here are some details and my experience and opinion of the best and largest fashion store, NOLIMIT Sri Lanka.
The Nolimit Sri Lanka Fashion Chain
What makes me say Nolimit is the top fashion store in the Sri Lanka are their 20 or so showrooms located throughout the country. In addition they also sell cloths at reasonable prices, have a large selection of clothing available in their stores. The cloths are also of acceptable quality and the staff are quite helpful when you ask their assistance. Nolimit showrooms are also very modern and look like any international fashion chain stores such as Addidas or Levi’s showrooms in Colombo.
As for the products they sell, Nolimit offers all kinds of clothes and accessories for men, women and children. Their cloth prices are reasonable and within reach of average Sri Lankan citizens buying ability. Nolimit showrooms also have the biggest collection and selection of clothing types and designs I have seen anywhere in Sri Lanka. So personally, I’m a big fan of Nolimit even though their cloths are not of the high quality I expect for the money I pay.
Below is a snapshot of some shirts and a t-shirt I bought from Nolimit and their sister store,Glitz recently. They are not designer cloths or the of the best quality nor were they the cheapest in the market but overall I’m happy with them becausse they look good and they are comfortable to wear. My more fashion conscious cousins and friends have also said they look good and are made of good mixed cotton and polyester materials.
Nolimit Sri Lanka is also the unmatched leader in this fashion store business in the country with around 20 showrooms so far which are located in strategic towns and cities across the country such as Colombo, Kandy, Dehiwela, Mount Lavinia, Rathnapura, Negambo among others. No other fashion store or clothing shop in Sri Lanka has so many outlets. So NOLIMIT in their advertisements claim they are biggest fashion chain in Sri Lanka. They are also opening more clothing showrooms all over the island. In fact, their popularity is such that in recent years they have also garnered fear and hate attacks from certain extremist groups in the country because the owners of this store is from the a minority community.
In the last year or two, the owner of Nolimit seems to have split his single flag-ship fashion chain into 3 fashion chains named Nolimit, Glitz and Pallu respectively. So in addition to Nolimit clothing showroom, they have opened several large specialized fashion & clothing stores in Colombo called Glitz and Pallu. The Pallu chain of showrooms specialize in traditional and eastern clothing such as expensive Indian Saris, Panjabis, Shalwar Kameez, etc while in Glitz chain seems to be aiming to become a high class fashion store with expensive and designer clothing.
In the meantime the normal Nolimit shops you find all types of clothing from really cheap ones to expensive items. They also have some discount cloth shops called NOLIMIT Discount Store. I have visited one of their discount shops in Dehiwela Hill street and found it had some decent cloths for dirt cheap prices. You can find more about Nolimit through their website at www.nolimit.lk
So what’s your experience with Nolimit and other Fashion Stores in Sri Lanka? Feel free to share them below.
Here you see some photos of the Dehiwela Flyover bridge over the Colombo Galle Road at the Dehiwela Junction. At a glance anyone who looks at this flyover bridge which was built at record breaking speed of just three months in 2009 will see it as a sign of big development in Sri Lanka. However as you will learn from the things I will tell you in this article the reality is far from development or progress for the country.
This Dehiwela Flyover Bridge is Read More [...]
Most of the people think detecting counterfeit money using technological devices is done only at banks. However this is no longer true. As you can see from the photos here, today even normal retail shops in Sri Lanka have started to use technological devices known as counterfeit money detectors to detect fake money. I managed to take these photos of one such device for Sri Lanka News Online at a mobile phone selling shop in Ratnapura area.
This first photo shows the counterfeit detector used Read More [...]
If you visit Trincomalee area in North Eastern Sri Lanka you can find many tourist attractions to occupy your time. Some of them are the hot water springs in Kanniyayi, the Trincomalee Harbour, the Pigeon Island, the old Dutch Fort, the Nilaveli beach and other beaches for surfing, scuba diving, fishing and whale watching, not to mention the town itself with its blend of people with their different cultures and traditions.
Out of these famous locations in Trincomalee, the old Dutch Fort is perhaps the Read More [...]
An elephant walks in front of the Elephant Park hotel after a bath in MaOya river – (Photo was taken by my cousin in a recent visit to Pinnawela
If you want to get the most of a visit to see wild Asian elephants at Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka then you have to be ready to spend sometime there. However many tourist both local and foreign visit the Pinnawala elephant sanctuary as a drop visit of few hours. I think thats Read More [...]
After 15 years of plans and just idle talk from authorities, the Marine Drive in Colombo that currently runs parallel to the Galle Road is now being extended to Dehiwela. The first stage of the new Dehiwela Marine drive road seems to be the construction of a bridge over the old Dutch canal that separates Wellawatte from Dehiwala. Upon hearing about this bridge’s construction a few days back from a three-wheel driver, I thought lot of people who suffer the traffic blocks in Dehiwela Galle Read More [...]
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