Blogs from Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 13

Just set up my Travel Blog, Sitting at home. Tomorrow train to London at 6.15am. Tube to Terminal 5. Flight to Mumbai at 10.30am. Arrives 12.40am on the 19th - meet Josh and Tom in airport. Flight to Columbo on the 20th at 3.40am. Arrives 6am. Keep you posted... read more

Trip to Colombo: July 6-12, 2008 Transit to Singapore via Singapore Airlines on July 6. One night stay in hotel in Singapore. July 7 - my trip going to Colombo. Philippines is 2 and half hours ahead of Sri Lanka time. DAY 1 IN SRI LANKA The hotel transportation picked me up in the airport. On the way, I have observed that Colombo is just like one of the Philippines provinces. The roads, the houses, the train, buildings and the people make me feel am back on the 70s. On the other hand, it’s nice to see men and women walking in the streets wearing their traditional dress (sari for the women) on different colors. I feel am in a déjà vu seeing some Filipino women wearing Maria Clara in the Philippine streets. That’s what’s nice ... read more

I can't believe how quick my time in India has gone! I feel a moment of sadness when the custom's guy stamps my passport. That's it I've left India and all my new friends behind me :( Then it's quickly replaced by excitement - I'm on plane back to beautiful Sri Lanka, somewhere I've already been lucky enough to visit once and this time I'm here to see Helen for her wedding. No one else seems to be getting off the plane in Sri Lanka, they're all in transit on to London. I get to baggage reclaim and sure enough on the last baggage carousel my lonely backpack creaks slowly round and round. I pick up my bag and head through customs half expecting to have that usual sinking feeling when I realise there is no ... read more

Heute war hier gleich dreifacher Feiertag: 1. Vollmond fuer die Buddhisten 2. Karfreitag fuer die Christen und 3. Prophetengeburtstag fuer die Moslems. Demensprechend rausgeputzt sahen die Leute in der Stadt auch aus. Ansonsten hat man hier an Feiertagen echt Muehe einen Geldautomaten zu finden: Die sind alle in der Bank, und die ist bekanntlich geschlossen.... sehr eigenartiges System. Da ich zum Abschluss viel zu viele Rupien uebrig habe, goenne ich mir noch einen Aufenthalt in der Lounge am Flughafen (5 Euro). Ist nichts besonderes, aber angenehm, um die 3 Stunden rumzukriegen, die man hier besser vorher da sein muss. Die TukTukfahrt zum Flughafen (20 Minuten) zeigte wieder die angespannte Situation hier im Lande: Wir wurden erst auf der Strasse zweimal angehalten und mussten uns ausweisen, und unmittelbar vorm Flughafen nochmal. Ins Terminal kommt sowieso nur wer ... read more

Hello, My third week in Sri Lanka seems to have gone very quickly! Last Sunday we took a long train journey through the beautiful Hill Country, arriving in Bandarawela - 7 hours by train but the fantastic views made it seem shorter. In the evening we went round to the house of a local family (friends of our tour guide) for some traditional Sri Lankan cooking (my contriubtion was chopping a few spring onions!). They gave us tips on managing the traditional eating with our hands (we all went straight back to cutlery the next night!). We then had a fabulous two days walking in the mountains (about 30km split over two days), walking through remote tea plantations and villages. From schoolchildren to tea-pluckers, everyone was posing for photographs and curious to see their digital image ... read more