Time seemed to flow slowly and leisurely. The journey felt like being constantly told, ‘There’s no need to be in such a hurry.’ It had the laid-back atmosphere I felt when I visited Okinawa. In hindsight, maybe the 4-hour flight delay on the way there was a foreshadowing? On this day, 7/22, there was supposed to be a 2nd-anniversary party for IS-san’s company, our tour leader for this trip, at our hotel in Colombo. We, the visitors from Japan, were supposed to join, but our expected 17:25 airport arrival ended up being around 21:00. Hence, we were only able to join the party just before the hotel’s reported end time. But then, Sri Lankan time took over! In the end, starting from IS-san’s belated greeting, the ceremony went on and on, and it didn’t conclude until the date changed. The hotel staff provided services until the very end.
From the second day onwards, schedule delays of 1 or 2 hours were the norm!
Even a meeting with a member of parliament, which was deemed ‘absolutely must not be late,’ had a one-hour delay. But the honorable member didn’t get angry and greeted us with a smile, even serving us Ceylon tea.
In any case, there was a sense of time flowing oh-so-slowly. If you’re not used to this, it can become overly stressful. It might not be suitable for impatient people.
