I went to Sri Lanka from 22 - 27 July for the PAQS conference and presented a paper on project management. We stayed at Cinnamon Grand Hotel, the conference venue. Everything was spot on - the opening gambit, the papers, the hotel, the dinners, the hospitality and my presentation. Not to be missed of course is the shopping - when in Sri Lanka you must buy their tea, spice and gemstones. I also managed to grab a few pieces of sari and a few ayurveda products.
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| Friends who doubled the joy |
I don't know what to expect in Sri Lanka as there is not much written about the country other than the upheavel and the Tamil Tigers. There's no highway nor any toll and most of the road are two-lane. But to my surprise Colombo is clean, the people are friendly and smiles are in abundance, those in the retail are not pushy, the tourism business not irritatingly commercialised, and even the custom officers had smiles and apologised before checking and when they delayed us. Every RM34 gives you 1,000 Sri Lankan Rupee. Travelling around is easy as there are the ever-present tut-tut that cost only 200 Rupee and could housed 1-3 people. Taking the taxi or van would cost more but the beauty is that it could accommodate as many people as you are comfortable in!!! What more can you ask.
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| The ladies that rock the beach |
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Sr Ong and Dato' Isahak singing
their hearts out in baritone |
We were so happy and relaxed in Sri Lanka that during the barbeque dinner at the beach, the Malaysian delegates just got up and dance crazily to the live retro music. I may be blamed for that as I urged them since the atmosphere was so alive with music of my era - saturday nite fever, abba, bee gees, beatles, boney M and the likes. The place was dimly lit and everybody was busy eating and not looking. Shazali started it when he said "Mak kita kata kena ikut cakap ketua tapi ketua kena start dulu". So we can't disappoint Shazali's mum, can we? Than others began to join in. Hope what happens in Sri Lanka stays in Sri Lanka and nothing got put in the You-tube!!! During the last dinner, the Malaysian delegates sang "Rasa Sayang" with Amnah as the lead singing the pantuns.
Kudos to IQSSL for an excellent organization of the conference with excellent papers under the able leadership of iron lady Prof Chitra.
