Blogs from Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka, Asia

I think I am ready for the tour . I have slept quite well , I am sure the melatonin has helped ,and the temperature +32 In the day and @26 at night is no longer so oppressive. Still crazy hot but I am no longer gasping . It is always a shock when I leave my room but a real treat when I return . It was wise to come earlier but 2 days would have been enough . Colombo is a big sprawling place and with the help of tuktuks I saw most of what I wanted to see. The city tour was good . Having an explanation of what things are and how they came to be is important . Religion is a big deal here . Buddhists dominate and there are many ... read more

Wednesday 5 February 2020 cont'd A quiet afternoon, as we were both weary. I had a kip. Lights out 10 pm. Thursday 6 February, 2020 A reasonable night's sleep. Alarm set for 7.00 am. Both of us awake just before. We packed and readied ourselves to leave. Our plan was to leave our suitcases at the rooms and travel light to the visa office. A 10 minute walk to the Immigration offices. The area of Battaramulla, was all hustle and bustle. We went through security and followed directions into the adjacent building up to the fourth floor. We found the first desk we needed and they told us to go and stick our pictures on to our visa applications. Glue was provided! Back again and we were issued with a number to go and sit and ... read more

Thursday 30 January 2020 Our next adventure, six weeks in Sri Lanka. We are flying early on Friday from Larnaca, so decided to stay local the night before. Our packing preparations had been happening for the last few days and we had packed most things on Wednesday. So after a few final things were packed and shut the house down we left at 1100 am. There was a final errand, which concluded quickly enough and we were on to the motorway at Paphos around 1200. As we hadn't yet eaten and had all the time in the world we thought it would break the journey, to have something to eat at Limassol Marina. We eventually found our way in to the Marina and parked shortly after 1 pm. It was raining, so we headed quickly into ... read more

After about 420 kms of riding our last full day was a 150 km drive to Colombo initially along a new toll road to the outskirts of Colombo where traffic slowed to a crawl. Brief stops made at Independence Square & Parliament as well a brief orientation drive around the old town before lunch & browsing at the Barefoot Fairtrade store, a showcase of handicrafts from around the country. After lunch we took a walk through the bustling Pettah Bazaar. Colombo is now a big modern city set on a huge natural harbour where office blocks stand shoulder to sholder with Colonial-era buildings reflecting the different eras of the Portuguese, Dutch & British empires. China is now the new empire, building huge new towers plus a massive sand reclamation of prime land around the port so ... read more

After researching the many ways to see the sights of Colombo, from the budget version of the negotiated tuktuk to the super expensive jeep, we all decided to do the City Sightseeing tour, in the red open top bus. It seemed quite pricey for where we are, 30USD, but it picked us up from right in front of the hotel and dropped us back here 4 hours later. We had to go to breakfast at 7am and it wasn’t even a school day. It arrived at 7.45 and drove up to the Galle Face Hotel where we had to wait 20 minutes for some Aussies who’d been given the wrong pick up time. 2 more got on at the next hotel and that was it, 7 of us. We first went round the Fort area and ... read more