Foreigners in Colombo

Quick story (no doubt one of many) from my weekend in Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka. On the Friday night we met up with some friends at the Gallery Cafe. We had a really good laugh and it was nice to be out socialising again. When we finally headed home at 2am it was in a tuk tuk. I was surprised by the number of police and soldiers around and the number of people they stopped and searched. I was wondering if we'd be searched but each time we approached a check point our driver stuck his head out and shouted "foreigners officer"! Apparently there's no need to search the "foreigners"! It's funny because it's quite non PC at home to refer to people as foreigners. Here it's almost a compliment. It stops you getting searched and judging by the number of clubs with signs outside saying "foreigners only" it's thought to be a good thing. Don't know that I'd be happy with that in Scotland and not sure how the average Sri Lankan feels about it. Anyway the constant "foreigners officer" made us laugh - or maybe that was the alcohol!!