Worship & prayers at The Temple of Consumerism

2 Wednesaday 22nd February

As we walked around Dubai airport we were impressed by the examples of excessive consumerism that we saw before us, and all that it represents. Whilst this isn't a picture of the cathedral like pillars of the airport shopping cathedral, this is my favourite image from those that I took in Simon's temple of consumerism.

Rails of scarves by Salvatore Ferragamo

After our spot of worship we took our second plane of the day to Columbo, Sri Lanka's airport. Some four or five hours after leaving the Temple of Consumerism we found ourselves in the completely contrasting atmosphere of the Arrivals Hall at Columbo airport; here you get an opportunity to walk through Duty Free on your way out of the airport, I suppose you could declare anything you bought in the Customs Hall, which comes next! In Duty Free you are immediately transported into a street market and we were amused to see you can even buy a washing machine. We wondered if this could be included in your luggage allowance!

After passing through the busy Arrivals Hall, we found ourselves still staring some thirty minutes later at Baggage Belt no 6, and started praying that our bags might be disgorged soon. Never one to be distracted from chatting if there is someone on hand who might be willing to oblige I found a kind chap from Dublin who counselled me thus - "I count myself lucky when I come out East if I manage to collect off the baggage belt the same number of bags as I checked in, and even more so if they are intact".

At that point my nervousness started to rise, and I noticed the adjacent plaque to Baggage Belt no 6 which resembled rather ominously a wall mounted church tombstone, and started to consider what we might have in the bag that we could manage without. It seemed inevitable it was my bag that was missing, it always seems to be my luck. 

However our luck was in, both bags limped around the now empty belt, they were intact as were our spirits. We gathered up our things and strode outside into the steamy heat and found ourselves in the eastern melee of the Columbo night, waiting to meet our guide.