Blogs from Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 5

The day awoke clear and hot. We didn't have a lot on our agenda before catching the train at 3:55pm so we decided the National Museum could be a good introduction to the history of Anuradhapura where we were destined. It proved to be awesome with a good coverage of the history of the various ancient seats of power in Sri Lanka's history. The omnipresent Buddhist faith scattered in amongst various rulers and races controlling the country painted a clear picture on how significant the religion is to most of the country. From the museum we went to an upmarket shopping complex that had been recommended. Shelley needed a couple of new tops as the Indian laundries had almost destroyed some of hers. Nice to sit down and order a flat white and a long black ... read more

Geo: 6.92747, 79.8484... read more

Colombo : airbnb - Ocean View Suite £24 p/n. Breakfast available ?We enjoyed our time in the apartment. It was tricky for our airport taxi to find but following instructions from Sashee to turn directly into the lane after the Colpetty MacDonald and continue down to the apartment block it should be no problem. I could easily identify the apartment from the road as I had Google mapped it previously. ?As a starting base I felt the apartment was a good central point, Tuktuk rides by the meter were very cheap. Without the meter the price was silly so be strict and confident and only take one you are happy with. Tuktuk drivers have there own territory and there is a guy running outside the apartment who is good enough. ?Having the use of the sitting ... read more

Geo: 6.92747, 79.8484Depart Heathrow at 2:15, very comfortable superior economy seat on a dreamliner. Two movies, two meals and a short doze later disembark at 23:30 body time, 5 in the morning Tamil Nadu time. Still dark. Immigration - completely unfazed that we are only staying 4 hours or so in their country. Change some money at rip-off airport exchange desk (£100 for 8,840 rupees - should be 10,000) walk in the dark past sleeping figures curled up on the ground to the departure terminal where we check in for our flight to Colombo. Much confusion because they want to see the credit card used for the booking, but there was a booking and a subsequent charge and different credit cards used, beyond their system's comprehension. At one point we had 5 young men staring at ... read more

Geo: 6.92747, 79.8484We had two days at sea between Phuket and Chennai. We continued to go to the quizzes and one time we managed a win. It was on a tie-breaker where we were asked to guess the age of our hostess. She is a tiny, French-Canadian called Karoline. I guessed 25, one other guessed 21 and a third 29. She was actually 27 so gave prizes to both myself and the third group. I like the way they always tell us we are competing for fabulously average prizes!! We won a key-ring with a light built in but at least here they give one each.Fletcher also entered the paper plane competition. The object of this was to make two paper planes and then try to fly them through a hoop held above one of the ... read more