Colombo and the pre-Christmas mayhem!

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We were taken, first thing in the morning to the Tropic Inn proper. After a hearty breakfast of toast and Ceylon tea (well you’ve got to!) we were shown our room. The room was lovely with Aircon, cable TV and wireless internet; it was great, especially for the price. Our first day and we were jet lagged so just a stroll down the beach and up to the main road sufficed. We found a big shop, bought some snacks and two, very tasteful, flashing, Santa hats (for Christmas day of course). That evening we ate in our hotels restaurant, it was nice and very reasonable too. We spent the night calling our families using Skype (best invention since the interweb!).
Next day was spent sleeping and being generally confused as our jet lag hit us like a ton of bricks, much cable TV and internet usage was had.
We ventured further a field later in our stay to a mall called Majestic City, it was the opposite of majestic, it was hell! Just a couple of days till Christmas and it was “no holds barred” shopping for the people of Colombo. We both went our separate ways in the mall to hunt out an appropriate present for each other, something small and reasonably inexpensive. Ooooh, it’s so exciting!
We took a trip to the bazaar in the centre of Colombo on the 23rd, we expected to find a busy, bustling bazaar with the vibe (or similar mood) to those you would find somewhere like Istanbul, wrong! Think Birkenhead market, Knuts Corner market (Belfast) or another similar market somewhere else in the UK. You know the sort, cheap jeans, school bags, polyester shirts, cheap shoes etc. Not a single spice, curio, craft, antique, silver, gold, jewel stall in sight. What a disappointment.
We were picked up by our minibus to go to Kandy at 11am; it took us four of the most terrifying hours to get there. Ever tried overtaking three trucks, on a bend, up a hill, without dropping down a gear, in a twenty year old minibus with a big ass Leyland coach just an inch behind you and one coming straight for you? We were nearly the filling in a big Leyland coach sandwich!

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