In both countries, many autos are carefully decorated, although the methods differ from one place to another. In Sri Lanka the autos themselves come in all range of colors: blue, green, red, pink. The metal guards that separate you from the driver are often elaborately curled, with three-dimensional loops and swirls on the sides. Seats are pleated in designs or recovered with colorful images sealed in plastic. There were flaming skulls and eagles with American flags. One auto even had a Philadelphia Eagles football sticker inside.
My favorite decoration in Sri Lanka, though, was these bumper-sticker- type turns of phrase written on the sides and bumpers in strange English. Below is a collection of the bits of wisdom I saw during our time there, reproduced exactly as they were written:
Try and try one day we can fly
Eyes that never cry are eyes that never see
Simple life make a man successful
Money is full of pain
Love is honey, life is money
Still waters run deep
Trying to forget you
No name, no past, nothing to lose
Love is hony, life is joley
All that glitters is not goled
Let me think
Face is the mirror of heart
Manners make a man
Better you don't come my way
Life is flower until mother lives
A hungry man is an angry man
Live by your own values
Don't be jealous looking at me
Why this frenzy of killing
And finally, my favorite,
Faint heart never won fair lady
All words to live by, surely.
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