Sri Lankan New Years

Well it all shut down... everything... It's big party day here in Sri
Lanka so don't expect to go shopping, or find a tuktuk or pretty much
anything but chill, relax or seek something that doesn't require the
labour of others.

Yesterday was a bit of a trip... Several things happened, you won't
believe this...

Remember Crazy Bitch? Claire from Kandy who ran out on the tab for
the hotel? Well, Siri and I had just gone to breakfast down the beach
and were walking back, when who do we see sitting on a sun-chair
outside of our very own resort?

OMFG.

So anyways, we made a crafty dash around the side of the fence and up
to our bungalow without being seen. We let the management know the
phone number for Rodney's Guest House in Kandy and suggested that they
give it a call. Turns out she wasn't staying at our place anyway,
just loitering around for a while.

So she told us she was going to Dubai, flying out of Colombo the day
she left. Of course she also told us she didn't fly out before Kandy
because it was cloudy. Interesting.

We were walking around the town a little bit and it seemed everywhere
we went she was near. Then we sat to dinner and she came up and sat
down. She said "we need to talk" and I proceeded to dress her down
for running out on the bill and told her she should leave and we were
dining alone this evening.

If she has seriously thought she had done nothing wrong, she would
have had no need to come up to me in an apologetic manor. I think I
restrained myself pretty well from not really tearing a strip off of
her, but I was still pretty rude and she left without much to say.

Now, if that wasn't weird enough.... The very same day, there I am
sitting on my porch when out of no where I see a guy getting thrown in
the sand with his arms bound behind his back with twine. WTF, I think
to myself.

I run down the stairs to see what is going on and there are two guys
surrounded by about 10 guys with bamboo sticks and they are getting
there asses kicked. One of the guys tells me they were staff at our
hotel last week, but they robbed some tourists for about 2500 USD
worth of stuff and then fucked off. They were caught about an hour
ago and the police didn't have enough evidence so it was time for a
little bit of vigilante justice.

Nothing like Corporal Punishment in the morning.

Anyways, they yelled stuff at the guys, not in English of course, but
they agreed to something, they were untied and all the guys beat them
with a bamboo stick until it was frayed like a broom stick. They were
able to walk away after, but they were going to feel that for a few
days.

I wonder if this should have phased me differently? Police corruption
in some countries is so bad that it is impossible to use the law for
its purpose. Is this a acceptable alternative? You can bet none of
the men standing around would be so silly as to be thieves any time
soon after seeing this. It didn't cost the tax payers money to keep
them in jail or through the courts and they got their knocks to pay
for their crime.

This is the second time on my trip I've seen "street justice" but this
was by far the most brutal.

Anyone got thoughts?

Blanket party comes to mind on this one. It's brutal but normally effective.

Yep, so it was an exciting day...

OH, one more very important thing. I found a place that makes the
single best burger I've eaten in AGES. Real beef, lots of garnish,
greasy and omg it was wonderful. I went back and had another the next
morning.