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Published: January 3rd 2014
Unfortunately I didn't get to see as much of Colombo as I would have liked. A few days ago I woke up, drowsily put my foot on the floor and promptly fell onto the concrete floor. My foot was red, inflamed, painful and could bear no weight. After a couple of visits to the local hospital to see a doctor I was eventually diagnosed with cellulitis, given a cocktail of medications, with instructions to keep my leg elevated.
I couldn't think of a better place to rest up than my gorgeous villa in Unawatuna. I sat on the verandah reading, enjoying the tranquillity of the garden, and watching the squirrels (it turns out they're not chipmunks after all), monkeys, birds, with Tekla the dog watching over me.
By the time I got to Colombo a couple of days later, the foot was definitely improved. However it was still difficult to walk on, with purple bruises across the toes and on the ankle, so there wasn't really much walking to be done. Instead my activities involved going somewhere and sitting with my leg up. It turns out my "activities" were to largely involve eating!
I had arranged to meet
up with a work friend, Darshi, who originally hails from Colombo and is currently in Sri Lanka. What a warm welcome she had arranged! While we were both a little disappointed that I wasn't more mobile and couldn't see more sights, she picked me up and took me to the Mt Lavinia Hotel for lunch.
In theory Mt Lavinia is a few kilometres south of Colombo, but in reality it seemed to me to be a suburb further south in the sprawl that is Colombo. There's a lovely long beach, and sitting above it all at one end is the Mt Lavinia Hotel. It's a gorgeous old building, which dates back to 1806 when it was once the British Governor's residence, as the doorman told me very proudly.
The hotel also boasts a spectacular lunch buffet, with an excellent range of Sri Lankan foods. As well as being clearly labelled, there was also a small bowl of the raw product so you knew exactly which unfamiliar foods you were eating. As we walked around, Darshi would ask me, "Have you tried this one? No? Oh you must! .....This one's a speciality of Negombo, you must try it!.....this one's
from my father's village down south, you must try it!.....have you not tried this chutney? you must try it!......this one's bitter gourd, and it's called bitter for a reason, but you must try it!" Not surprisingly I returned to the table with a plate laden high. This continued later when sampling the dessert buffet as well.....one dish I tried called wattalappam reminded me a little of a crème caramel, however it is made with coconut cream and flavoured with cinnamon, cardamom and other local spices. It was quite delicious.
What was really surprising was that we did this all again at dinner time. After an afternoon rest period, she collected me from my hotel, this time taking me to the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, a very upmarket hotel in the city centre. Boasting around half a dozen restaurants, Darshi was keen to take me to the Seafood buffet, however it was full up. We went to another restaurant in the hotel, which also had a buffet, and the same process from lunch was repeated. I had eaten hoppers at breakfast, however now Darshi showed me how to have plain hoppers and egg hoppers with the curries. Then we had more
hoppers for dessert, this time with "jaggery", which is a sugar made from a palm, or coconut. I haven't eaten so much in a long time.
The next day I was on my own, so headed into the fort area to have a look around. The stupid foot prevented much walking at all, so I didn't explore much beyond the Old Dutch Hospital, which has been beautifully restored and now has shops, restaurants, bars and cafes.
I wandered a little aimlessly around the fort area to see what else I could see when a tuk tuk driver pulled up and offered to take me to see a festival with elephants. Well, the blessed foot was being troublesome so I jumped in. It was all very mysterious, he took me to a local lake with a little island in the middle and we walked around it (not helping the foot obviously), while I kept asking about the elephant ceremony. It was as if I hadn't seen enough elephants on this trip. Even when it became obvious there was no special festival, I kept asking and finally he dropped me off at a nearby temple, Gangaramaya. It is one of
the most popular temples to visit in Colombo, so it wasn't entirely a wasted effort. Plus the whole diversion costs less than a dollar.
My time was nearly up. A trip to Colombo wouldn't be complete with a brief walk by the sea at Galle Face Green, so that was my final activity. However given I didn't see much of Colombo this time round, I guess I have an excuse to come back.
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Tom Rooney
Tom Rooney Travels
Nice post
Great to follow your travels through Sri Lanka. I'm sorry to hear about the 'stupid foot' but it's great to read about Mount Lavinia. I stayed at the Tropic Inn hotel, not far from where you had lunch at the famous Mount Lavinia hotel. It's hard to believe such a gorgeous place can be so close to the hustle and bustle of Colombo. Thanks for the memories!