Hours and hours and HOURS stuck in traffic with dust, grime & pollution flying at your face after a hard day at work. Not fun.
Hours and hours and HOURS in the sweltering heat. We have no air conditioned pajeros nor defenders full of white clad bodyguards to shoo other vehicles out of the way so that we can get home quickly.
The government is on a rather violent mission of beautifying Colombo which at the moment consists of ripping up and tearing down pretty much everything in sight. Roads dug up, pavements drilled open, Colombo beautified and us, mystified. We might just be the miracle of Asia after all, for being a city that was built over the period of mere two months.
Oh well, once in a while they have to show the world where all the tax money, loans taken & donations received are going I guess.
The point being all the drilling, tearing and ripping has made life uncomfortable for all of us, making the already congested traffic of the city even more unbearable. Just the other day, we were stuck in one spot for 40mins without the vehicles moving one inch and it has been the case for the past two weeks or so. I wouldn't want to be dying during this period of time. By the time the ambulence reaches the hospital, my corpse would be crawling with maggots!
What's more, any sort of protests, rallies and the likes are banned in the country during this period as well. Ah well.....
The Katunayake Expressway would soon be open though. However, the end of the expressway being extremely narrow, traffic from all sides will be flocking at one spot making it near impossible to move. This is the case even now without the expressway being open, the entrance to Colombo from Peliyagoda on to the bridge which used to be somewhat wide is narrowed down to make way for the expressway. Going to work in the morning is a nightmare as it is. Just thinking about how it will be when the expressway opens makes me shudder with fear.
Talk is that the whole of Colombo will be in a sort of a lock down during the entirety of the event. The place will be crawling with delegates and their entourage, not to mention the batallions of security guards on tow. There is even talk of the delegates' own Rolls Royces being brought down. Now Sri Lanka is a small place and Colombo is even smaller with everything congested in a tiny space. Hell, I'm not sure if the Colombo streets are wide enough for a Rolls Royce to reverse!
Now wouldn't it be fun if we gave the delegates their very own official tuk tuk to ride around? The best way to explore Colombo is by tuk, everybody knows that. So why not give the delegates an authentic Sri Lankan experience? We could vamp em up with deco of course. We could stick the national flag of each delegate's country at the front of the Tuk. And Prince Charle's tuk tuk could have a fluffy crown on top of that with frilly fur lined curtains and all that. Fun!
All jokes aside, getting around Colombo during that period is not going to be fun. Lots of roads are going to be closed and almost all of Colombo's leading hotels and their environs are going to be quarantined, making me wonder how in the world are us common folk going to get to work. Whatever roads that are left will be congested with traffic and Colombo will be groaning like a man with constipation in the loo in the morning. Its going to be as painful as well. Colombo is a small place and makes me wonder, do we really have room to occupy all this?
Meanwhile the authorities are doing their best to distract the people from their painful lives, made even painful by the absurd measures taken to "beautify" Colombo by painting these rather glittery and grandiose pictures of CHOGM through media. Well, some people may be appeased and even excited but I sure as hell don't give a flea's tiny behind about CHOGM when I'm stuck in traffic for a good 3 and 1/2 hours, sweating like a grissly bear in a sauna, falling asleep and waking up every 5 mins in fits and starters only to find my legs badly cramped and whole body numb in the stuffy old staff vehicle.
And it'l only get worse from there. I sure hope that the authorities will do something about this since getting to work during that particular week is going to be practically impossible what with the roads being closed, certain areas completely closed off, security, traffic and etc. The only possible solution to me seems like a week of holidays for people who work in the Colombo area. People have already gone through a lot. I don't think anyone would appreciate spending further time on the road and getting harassed by security personnel on top of all this "beautifying" inconvenience.
Anyways, the Lady is rather disgruntled. Tired and fed up of the traffic, the dust, the grime and the traffic. Hopefully they will find a solution soon.
Hours and hours and HOURS in the sweltering heat. We have no air conditioned pajeros nor defenders full of white clad bodyguards to shoo other vehicles out of the way so that we can get home quickly.
The government is on a rather violent mission of beautifying Colombo which at the moment consists of ripping up and tearing down pretty much everything in sight. Roads dug up, pavements drilled open, Colombo beautified and us, mystified. We might just be the miracle of Asia after all, for being a city that was built over the period of mere two months.
Oh well, once in a while they have to show the world where all the tax money, loans taken & donations received are going I guess.
The point being all the drilling, tearing and ripping has made life uncomfortable for all of us, making the already congested traffic of the city even more unbearable. Just the other day, we were stuck in one spot for 40mins without the vehicles moving one inch and it has been the case for the past two weeks or so. I wouldn't want to be dying during this period of time. By the time the ambulence reaches the hospital, my corpse would be crawling with maggots!
What's more, any sort of protests, rallies and the likes are banned in the country during this period as well. Ah well.....
The Katunayake Expressway would soon be open though. However, the end of the expressway being extremely narrow, traffic from all sides will be flocking at one spot making it near impossible to move. This is the case even now without the expressway being open, the entrance to Colombo from Peliyagoda on to the bridge which used to be somewhat wide is narrowed down to make way for the expressway. Going to work in the morning is a nightmare as it is. Just thinking about how it will be when the expressway opens makes me shudder with fear.
Talk is that the whole of Colombo will be in a sort of a lock down during the entirety of the event. The place will be crawling with delegates and their entourage, not to mention the batallions of security guards on tow. There is even talk of the delegates' own Rolls Royces being brought down. Now Sri Lanka is a small place and Colombo is even smaller with everything congested in a tiny space. Hell, I'm not sure if the Colombo streets are wide enough for a Rolls Royce to reverse!
Now wouldn't it be fun if we gave the delegates their very own official tuk tuk to ride around? The best way to explore Colombo is by tuk, everybody knows that. So why not give the delegates an authentic Sri Lankan experience? We could vamp em up with deco of course. We could stick the national flag of each delegate's country at the front of the Tuk. And Prince Charle's tuk tuk could have a fluffy crown on top of that with frilly fur lined curtains and all that. Fun!
All jokes aside, getting around Colombo during that period is not going to be fun. Lots of roads are going to be closed and almost all of Colombo's leading hotels and their environs are going to be quarantined, making me wonder how in the world are us common folk going to get to work. Whatever roads that are left will be congested with traffic and Colombo will be groaning like a man with constipation in the loo in the morning. Its going to be as painful as well. Colombo is a small place and makes me wonder, do we really have room to occupy all this?
Meanwhile the authorities are doing their best to distract the people from their painful lives, made even painful by the absurd measures taken to "beautify" Colombo by painting these rather glittery and grandiose pictures of CHOGM through media. Well, some people may be appeased and even excited but I sure as hell don't give a flea's tiny behind about CHOGM when I'm stuck in traffic for a good 3 and 1/2 hours, sweating like a grissly bear in a sauna, falling asleep and waking up every 5 mins in fits and starters only to find my legs badly cramped and whole body numb in the stuffy old staff vehicle.
And it'l only get worse from there. I sure hope that the authorities will do something about this since getting to work during that particular week is going to be practically impossible what with the roads being closed, certain areas completely closed off, security, traffic and etc. The only possible solution to me seems like a week of holidays for people who work in the Colombo area. People have already gone through a lot. I don't think anyone would appreciate spending further time on the road and getting harassed by security personnel on top of all this "beautifying" inconvenience.
Anyways, the Lady is rather disgruntled. Tired and fed up of the traffic, the dust, the grime and the traffic. Hopefully they will find a solution soon.
3 comments:
Shit is it that bad? I levae very early so I generally have an easier time, never got so badly stuck anywhere.
Where was this, by the way?
Grin and bear I suppose, what else to do?
Where were you stuck for 3 1/2 hours?
Oh yes, it is that bad. All we have to do is bear alright, but at the end of such a day, even my face muscles are on strike, so don't think I can manage any grinning.
I travel along the Baseline Rooad in which entire lanes had been closed off most of the time for maintenance/beautifying purposes these days. As a result, the vehicles are limited to about 2 lanes and hence, the traffic. And it seems to be that they always choose to do this excatly at the peak hours! And for me, the way back home which usually takes about 40-50 mins has been extended to 3 1/2 hours.
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