Peter and I were seated at a table on the mezzanine floor of
the Hotel Leningrad. From where we were seated, we had an excellent view of the band stand and partial view of
the dance floor, below. The stewards and stewardesses were coming to us, one
after the other, to check on our order. Peter was getting restless; we couldn’t
order anything, because we did not have the local currency with us, to settle
the bill. After a little while, we found that we could exchange Dollars into local currency at the Hotel but the rate was not so good! We needed the money, so we exchanged some dollars anyway. We had money for the evening, and definitely some extra, too.
We were relieved, and I was happy now, as we had enough money to settle our bills. Without wasting time, we
ordered for a bottle of Vodka with grapefruit juice and, guzzled down a few, very rapidly.
A few minutes later, two young ladies and two men came up. As there was no
table for all of them to sit they were standing near us and was watching the
band playing and the people dancing downstairs. Peter told one of the men, if the
ladies wished, they could occupy the vacant chairs of our table. The ladies, before the man could even decide, turned around
and sat with us. One of the ladies was smoking, and Peter offered cigarettes to the
other. She declined, but the lady who was smoking
asked if we had Marlboro cigarettes. I immediately gave one of the
Rothmans. She was delighted and started examining the sides of the packet.Now that we were rich with local currency, we offered drinks to the ladies and the men. One of the ladies who smoked, poured a drink and gave the bottle and glasses to the men. With that, the bottle was almost over and Peter ordered another one. The young lady was given a cup of coffee. After having about two drinks Peter and I started talking with them. The young girl who was seated next to me introduced herself as Erina. The other lady was her sister in law and one of the men was her brother and other one was a family friend. A little while later Erina’s brother called his wife and Erina to go downstairs to dance. Soon after, they left the table and I too went down to the restroom. When I was walking up, Erina’s brother signaled to me to come down. When I went up to them he said, "This is my sister, you dance with her but do not try to be funny." I understood his message and said "Yes" and joined them in dancing. When we finished and came up, Peter had been wondering what had happened to me! After another round of drinks Erina's sister-in-law invited us to their house. We left the place after settling the bill.
After about a 20 minute walk we entered a housing scheme. We continued drinking and eating the sandwiches offered by them. Peter was in good spirits and started singing Sinhala pop songs and I
too joined him. It was about 11.30 p.m and it was time for us to leave as
we had about a 30-minute walk to the ship.
As we were leaving Erina told me that she
would like to meet me, the following day at the same place.
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