Blogs from Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 17

Hi Everybody! If I ever take a trip like this again, I am not going to arrive or depart an airport after dark. It is frightening to go into an unknown place and especially at night. On our flight, there was one Caucasian lady. We approached her when the plane landed and asked her a couple of questions. She worked for the Asia Foundation, a human rights organization. We were thankful for her help and advice. We were able to locate a kiosk run by our hotel, the Colombo Hilton. They got us a taxi and we felt safe leaving in it. We had to ride approximately 40 minutes to the hotel. We were stopped numerous times by the military police. The driver would turn on the inside light, the police would shine a light on ... read more

Serendipity in Sri Lanka (2004)-Part I This is not a thesis about Serendipity in Physics, Chemistry or Biology or any other science, but a blog about how I found THE star sapphire in Sri Lanka, which I was searching for in Nepal. Please refer to my blog Kathmandu Nostalgia, and my misconceptions about the ‘Polarization Effect In Star Sapphire”. Well, I owed it to Bunny. I had to buy a star sapphire for her now (And, of course for Bambi also) or bust, and I DID go bust in buying the start sapphire, believe me. We went to Sri Lanka just before the Tsunami of 26 Dec. 2004. (And that is why the tsunami affected us more than it normally would have done. We could picture exactly the sports stadium in Galle as well as ... read more

So, our adventures have led us to Sri Lanka. Adam and I arrived in Colombo after 32+ hours of travel. We left from Atlanta, GA on Friday night, Aug. 25 and arrived in Sri Lanka on Sunday night, Aug. 27. Amazingly, it was not too bad, despite the fact that I badly injured my pinky toe while packing the night before we left Atlanta. I'm pretty sure I broke something since it is sticking out the wrong way, bruised and swollen nearly 5 days later. I even got wheelchair assistance in Hong Kong. Another wheelchair was requested for arrival in Sri Lanka, but after getting off the plane, it looked easier to just limp my way out instead of wait for someone to come wheel me to a lift somewhere, just to go up half a ... read more

Back home for a few days. Had enough time to hang out with the dogs, Kobe and Spark :) Hung out with the family, - my uncle, aunt, grandma and cousin... I(t's wonderful to come home :) ).... and even managed to go out on Saturday - and catch up with a few friends from Perth too before we headed for Europe...... read more

Well after missing our express train from Kandy to Colombo, and then standing on the platform watching the next train go past in slow motion as we didn't think it was our train, we eventually managed to jump on a bus... Oh the joys, to be fair the bus was air conditioned and pretty clean but the music was shattering on delicate ears... A few hours later and we're dumped off at the bus station in Colombo so after a few taxi driver haggles later we’re hurtling down Galle road to South Colombo and the Mount Lavinia Hotel for our last night in Sri Lanka. Wow - we arrive and it's pretty posh, I don’t see too many backpacks put it that way. Our room matches the rest of the hotel and we're not disappointed as ... read more