Travel

Frantic in Stockholm (Part I)

When I logged into Facebook this morning, I saw a memory from three years ago. The memory included a photograph taken at the Bandaranayaka International Airport during my first foreign trip! And it dawned on me that I’m yet to do a write up about my visit to Stockholm Sweden.

I, along with two work colleagues, traveled to Stockholm on a work assignment. But, we arrived in Stockholm three days prior to initial meeting with the clients, so that we would have an opportunity to do some sight seeing.

When we arrived in Sweden, we took the Arlanda express, and traveled from Stockholm Arlanda AirPort to Stockholm Central Station. Next, we took the subway to “Slussen”, followed by a short bus ride to “Henriksdal” where we settled into the apartment that would be our home for the next two weeks. After having a bite to eat, we walked around the neighborhood, and did some grocery shopping before hitting the sack.

 

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Guildford Crescent to Jalan Pudu

Malaysia Airlines flight 178 was about to take off from the Bandaranayaka International Airport Colombo. Onboard were the very excited Mazarins, looking forward to a fun filled extended weekend in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I woke up around 6 am when the aircraft hit some turbulence. After a good stretch, and getting the sleepiness out of my system I looked out of the window to one of the most amazing views I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing. The aircraft was flying out of a light thunder storm above the Indian ocean, and slowly creeping into the air above the Malaysian Peninsula. The horizon, jagged with mountainous silhouettes, painted in shades of orange, red, and yellow was a scene straight out of a postcard. I looked back at the dark rain cloud, as I witnessed two flashes of lightening in quick succession. The first was a cloud flash, which just light up the dark cloud. And the next was a ground flash(technically it was above the sea), where I saw the bolt of lightening pierce the sky from my elevated vantage point. Soaking in the picturesque view, we touched down at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on 30th May 2015. The Mazarin excursion to Malaysia was now officially underway!!

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Evening at the Galle Fort

18th January 2015 was a hot and humid Sunday. I was home alone killing time watching movies and reruns of the past weeks TV series. It was around 11:30 am when I made a decision to get out of the house and just go somewhere, anywhere!!

Living in Maharagama, the first thing that came to mind was to take the highway bus to Galle. I’ve never taken the highway bus before, so I had a quick shower and a change of clothes, packed my camera and was on my way. The mid day sun was screaming down and I could feel my skin burn. Jumping on the Galle bound Air Conditioned bus was such a relief. It’s said that the time taken to travel from the Kottawa Highway Entrance to the Galle Exit is about 1 hour. And it takes about 10-20 minutes to get from Maharagama to Kottawa in light traffic. When the bus entered the high way and the ride became much smoother, I decided to pass the time by catching up on some reading. The bus finally stopped just passed the entrance to the Galle Fort and so began the adventure.

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