Seeing Colombo, Sri Lanka

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Colombo is Sri Lanka’s largest city and former capitol before the government moved its administrative offices down the road to a new site. Most government bureaus remain in Colombo including the army and navy and foreign consulates. Our tour in modern buses begins at the Kelaniya Buddhist Temple where we see a variety of Buddha’s, including a large reclining one, and wonderfully decorated walls and ceilings in shoeless feet. Our city tour passes by the famous Clock Tower, Pettah Bazaar, Colombo Fort, and British built Old Parliament Building, President House and Town Hall. We passed through the residential district of Cinnamon Gardens and the large campus of the University of Colombo plus Independence Square enroute to the National Museum. The museum has a vast collection of early religious idols and other artifacts. Our sumptuous lunch at the modern Cinnamon Hotel is a great forerunner for the Hindu Temple, being prepared for the religious holiday commencing the following day. Multiple porcelain portrayals of the many gods (Hundu’s have 13 million of them) set this temple apart from the Buddhist ones. We finish our visit to this active city with the obligatory stop at a gem store. If you’ve seen a small jewelry story in most of the world you’ve seen this store. The most interesting aspect of the stop was watching our large bus turn around in a very small, between buildings parking lot. Back to the pier and the ship for evening entertainment “that couldn’t be missed”. Our cruise director, Ray Solaire, is a master puppeteer, singer and general all around entertainer. His black light show with a variety of puppets and songs was a wonderful capstone to our day.

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