The historic St. John’s fish market is set to be moved to a brand new facility out of Colombo soon, so we went to check it out before it goes. The market is called historic, but it’s really just a concrete space covered in fish blood and teeming with fishmongers hacking up carcasses and buyers treading gingerly in rolled up pants and rubber slippers. I smelled like fish for a day afterwards and my car still smells like fish. Smells like dried fish now, actually, the scent matures. I am all for history, but moving the facility to a more modern location might be good.
St. John’s is the Mecca for dead fish. Most try to make a pilgrimage here after they die. There are piles of shrimp, cuttlefish, bloodied shark carcasses, giant tuna, lobster and more. People move large blocks of ice from trucks packed with sawdust, they carry that and fish on their heads to the market and within the market, jostling and bargaining, setting the price as the fish hits the ground.
Restaurants and families usually buy the fish wholesale, either for large numbers or to freeze and keep over a longtime. You have to wake up early, like 5 or 6, but the prices are apparently a third of what they’d be at the stores. The downside is that you have to wake up early and smell like fish for the rest of the day.
The government and ADB have built a new Rs. 1,700 million fish market at Peliyagoda, just past the big Buddha junction leading to the Negombo Road. The fishmongers are now saying that they don’t want to move since the vegetable markets and other connected industries aren’t moving, but they’re probably have to. I personally don’t think it’s a bad idea as the new facility looks much more modern. For all its historicity, St. John’s fish market is still basically a concrete space covered with fish blood and guts. The industry could use some modernization.
There is a longer story in this Sunday’s Leader, written primarily by Halik. With interviews and facts even
You should get the Sunday Leader to do a piece on all the ugly graffiti that is sprayed by moronic A/L students around residential areas near schools in Colombo, on street signs, on walls, on gates, everything. It’s making the city look like a ghetto while the government claims to be busy making it look “Asia’s miracle”
Indi should write a blog on those annoying little squares that appear on the TV screen precisely at the decisive moment.
Come to think of it Indi hasn’t been writing his blog for a few days.
Shammi,
you forget that Sri Lanka is a very pious, Sinhala Buddhist Nation, with people who live in peace and happiness under a great king who isn’t corrupt or motivated by greed and revenge at all. We don’t smoke, we don’t drink and we definitely don’t kiss or have sex.
These things are all alien to Sri Lanka and are ideas promoted by these dirty westerners and their dirty NGO’s who didn’t help us at all during our 30 year conflict or after the tsunami (they specially were not interested in ‘helping hambantota’).
These things are all part of of an international conspiracy against Sri Lanka, of which that General, who did nothing to help end the devastating war in Sri Lanka, clearly must be a part of. We must rally round our great king to protect Sri Lanka from these international conspiracies.
Sri Lankans are a great nation. Apparently if some foreigners hear of our great history, which clearly eclipses that of the Mayans, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Chinese etc., they will immediately prostrate themselves at the greatness of this tiny island located in the Indian Ocean.
I hope this will help you to appreciate the important role played by these squares, imposed by our great king who is not hypocritical in the slightest, in preserving our culture.
Actually we seem to have been quite broadminded until the prudish Victorian (British) ideals invaded our society. Consider the Sigiriya maidens and Isurumuniya lovers for instance, who existed under Buddhist regimes.
You didn’t really think the last comment was serious, did you?
‘Course! ;) Just feeling nostalgic……
We Sri Lankans are better than many other country people.
But what we are lacking is most of us are frogs in the well.
Don’t like to learn the international Language English.
In what ways exactly are we Sri Lankans “better than many other country people,” in your opinion, lal?