Blogs from Western Province, Sri Lanka, Asia

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Asia » Sri Lanka » Western Province » Negombo March 4th 2024

This is the final week and is one that always brings mixed emotions. A sadness that the trip is coming to an end but joy about returning home. Sri Lanka is certainly a beautiful country and across two trips, eight years apart we have seen a reasonable amount of what it has to offer. Saturday and we had booked a safari through our accommodation in Wilpatthu national park. It was another early start, 6am and in keeping with the place we collected our picnic basket with our breakfast. The park entrance was only 15 minutes away and we paid our 22,500 LKR entrance fee, that's 34€ each. We had a jeep to ourselves and our driver was Namaal and he was great at spotting things. Most people go expecting to see leopards and are usually disappointed, ... read more
Mother and baby
Look at those eyebrows
Sandbar chat

Asia » Sri Lanka » Western Province » Colombo February 22nd 2024

Day 1 It’s going to be a long day! It was an early start this morning. The alarm was set for 5am. I’m am definitely not a morning person, and even though this is an exciting day, I do not get up easily! I do have a, ‘what I need to do plan’ in mind, but it fit really goto plan! When Ross arrived at 5:50am, I wasn’t quite in order! I didn’t get a drink, didn’t eat my toast, but at least had a bottle of water ready, and managed to put some lippy on! So not the best start to my day! Luckily for me, here is a coffee kiosk at Brough station… thank goodness, so at least I can still start my day with a coffee. I guess I’m going to have plenty ... read more
Ashkar - my driver

Asia » Sri Lanka » Western Province November 12th 2023

12 KASIM 2024 PAZAR Bu sabah havuz safasını kaçıramazdık … Hiç olmazsa memleketten taşıdığımız mayolarımızı amorti ediyoruz… Kahvaltıdan sonra, otobüsümüzle Colombo’ya doğru hareket ettik .. Tabi ki , yolda, alış veriş için bir mağazada durarak … Gezi başında, yükte ve pahada hafif ürünler seçilirken, sonlara doğru artık yükte de ağır olabilen ürünlere doğru bir evrilme var… En hoşuma gidenlerden birisi ,bir adet yılan oynatma sepeti …Havaleli olması açısından valizde de yer de tutmaz !!! iyi seçim…Kutlarım … Başkent Colombo, 5.5 milyon nüfusu ile ve modern mimarisi ile göz dolduran bir kent… Kentin adı üzerinde rivayet muhtelif…Bir kısmına göre Khola-Ambothota’dan ( Yeşil mango ağaçları ülkesi ) türetilmiş.. Şehrin ambleminin bir mango ağacı olması teoriyi biraz destekliyor .. Diğer b... read more
ANI OLSUN
GÜLEN BUDHA
SÜRÜSÜNE BEREKET

Asia » Sri Lanka » Western Province » Mount Lavinia November 10th 2023

10 KASIM 2023 CUMA Erkenden uyanıp harika havuzun tadına bakalım dedik…iyi kararmış çok memnun kaldım.. Kahvaltıdan sonra tekrar yola vurduk … Yolda, Türkiye saati ile 9:05 te Atamızı anarak, saygı duruşunda bulunduk… Bize bir vatan bahşeden Atama ve tüm silah arkadaşlarına selam olsun …şükran borçluyuz… Şaka maka yola çıkalı bir hafta olmuş… Önce Kandy gölü kıyısında durduk.. Alış veriş bağımlıları dağıldı.. Aşağı yukarı 8 -9 saattir herhangi bir şey alamadılar …onları anlıyorum.. Bu Kandy gölü, Safa şeyi bir Raja tarafından 1807 de suni olarak yapılmış bir göl.. Aynı zamanda, mütevazi bir isimle “Süt denizi”olarak anılıyor… Balık avı yasak ve suni olması hasebiyle her yıl göl biraz küçülüyormuş… Bunu yaptıran Kıral Sri Wicrama göl kıyısına küçük bir saraycık kondu... read more
QUEENS HOTEL
CAFE MUSEUM
ANA YÜREĞİ

Asia » Sri Lanka » Western Province » Colombo November 9th 2023

9 KASIM 2023 PERŞEMBE Sabah erkenden yola çıktık… Chennai’den 9:40 uçağı ile bugün Sri Lanka ‘ya geçilecek … Chennai hava alanına zamanında vardık ve 11:30 civarında Sri Lanka’nın başkenti Colombo’ya vardık . Uçağa bindiğimiz andan itibaren bir "ayıboğan" dır gidiyor...hostesler herkese "ayıboğan" diyor .. Ben de nereden anladılar diye merak ediyorum .. Meğerse ayıboğan diye duyduğumuz "aybowan" ,günaydın,merhaba demekmiş...aklınızda olsun... Sri Lanka, Hint okyanusunda bir ada ülkesidir . 1972 de Sri Lanka adını almış daha önceki adı Ceylon ( seylan ) … Bu marka çok kuvvetli olduğundan hala bir çok ürünü ( özellikle Çay)..”Ceylon” diye pazarlıyorlar … Marka değiştirmek, belalı bir iştir …bilirim … Tarihine biraz değineceğiz ama yeri gelmişken söyleyeyim burası eskiden kahve... read more
SRI LANKA HATIRASI
DAVULLAR ZURNALAR
BUDHA VS

Asia » Sri Lanka » Western Province » Negombo May 15th 2023

Recently I listened to a play about Kafka and his absurdist writings by Alan Bennett. The inimitable Toby Jones played Kafka....Funny how I should bring it to mind as we came through immigration in Bandaranaike Airport. First stop was the queue at foreign passports. We waited patiently here chatting to a fellow Aussie only to be told we needed to complete an arrival form. A sign or information prior to the queue could possibly have been helpful. The computer forms did not work, impossible to choose the flight number you arrived on so hard forms were searched out and completed. Queued again to be told that although we were only staying for less than two days (supposedly visa free) we need to go the visa office queue. No visa officers in sight, it was past eleven ... read more
Lunch at Dutch Trails
Contemplative
Exotic plant

Asia » Sri Lanka » Western Province » Negombo May 6th 2021

We had to return to Saudi Arabia for additional work. However, at this time, people were barred from flying directly from UAE to Saudi, so we had to do a 14 day quarantine. Most people were going to Bahrain as it was a shorter route. However, we decided to try somewhere a little different - if we are going to be stuck in a hotel for 14 days, why not try to make the most of it?? Maldives was on the table.... but work probably would not go for that! However, it was suggested Sri Lanka was open and after looking, the hotels were actually cheaper though the flights were a bit more - it would even out and we would be happy. Initially, it was supposed to be 4 of us, but then the client ... read more
Morning fiserman
Dinner at sunset

Asia » Sri Lanka » Western Province » Negombo March 19th 2020

For the sake of completing this journey on the blog, I will simply say we returned home after an arduos and fraught time. Then commenced a 14 day self isolation period.... read more

Asia » Sri Lanka » Western Province » Negombo March 14th 2020

Wednesday, 11 March, 2020, cont'd After a slow start we headed off at 10.45 am, simply walking North. Bought water from the supermarket, that we call fat man's, for obvious reasons. He told us the first corona virus had been found in Sri Lanka, yesterday. Looked in souvenir/craft shops on the way up to foodcity. We have a small list of things needed presently, but didn't find anything on the list. We bought other things instead. Then over to Tecso and found one item that we were looking for. Time for refreshment. The coffee bean & tea leaf cafe provided us with an ice blended hazelnut and an ice blended black forest drink. They claim to have invented ice blended drinks in 1963 in California and are world famous for them! Anyway it was something different. ... read more

Asia » Sri Lanka » Western Province » Negombo March 11th 2020

Monday 9 March, 2020 cont'd We left the room at 6.40 pm to find some dinner. Down to the main road and turned right. We stopped at a a restaurant called Sherryland, a few buildings down. The menu looked ok, so we went in. The waiter came for our drinks order and we asked about alcohol, as it was Poya (full moon) day, the waiter spoke quietly and said there was no alcohol. But if we didn't tell anyone they would mix a drink at the bar and could serve it that way. So no bottles of beer were seen on tables. Pat had a gin and tonic and I had a coke. For food we had a burger with chips and chicken stir fry with rice. Food was good, bill was LKR 3311 (GBP 13.97). ... read more




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