Blogs from Western Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 7

In Colombo Fort Station we took a train to Anuradhapura for five and a half hours. We were in 3rd class so we were squished to death and the seats were rare. Luckily, after two hours of insane agony and torture standing up by the open door of the train, we found seats. It didn't change much of the feeling of the time of the journey but at least my legs were at rest. The trip was flat and not much towns passed by and finally we arrived and we took a tuk tuk to the Montana Rest hotel and my room had the world's poshest and biggest bathroom with two shower heads and a ton of gadgets. After that I got told off for watching youtube videos when I was supposed to be writing the ... read more

I had asked many other tourists about Colombo and it seemed like nobody had anything nice to say about the capital of Sri Lanka. Everything we had heard was negative. People had told us that traffic was insane, that the city was noisy and polluted. We had also heard that it could be dangerous… My parents were even wondering whether it was worth stopping there. I was curious about the city, and I could not visit Sri Lanka without spending at least a day in the capital. So we kept it for the end of our trip, so that we would already have our Sri Lankan feet, that is to say we’d hope to be more familiar with the traffic, the local customs, the price of things… Well, it turns out that Colombo is a much ... read more

C’est toujours un plaisir de retrouver mes parents, et encore plus après 13 mois passés sur la route (en vélo et sac à dos). Nous avons opté pour une destination exotique et ensoleillée : c’est donc à Negombo, à 40km au nord de Colombo, au Sri Lanka, qu’on s’est retrouvés à 2heures du matin sous une pluie battante, alors que j’étais en train de me disputer avec le propriétaire de l’auberge qui n’avait que du mal à dire des français… Etant de bonne humeur, c’est en souriant que je l’avais invité à ne pas mettre tous ses œufs dans le même panier, mais je me suis vite rendu compte que j’étais face à un dégénéré sans le moindre sens de l’humour et surtout doté d’un tempérament ultra agressif et qui cherchait une excuse pour se battre. ... read more

HE SAID... Today we were travelling north-west from Mirissa to Colombo. We woke early at 5:30am and caught up on our travel writing before heading down to breakfast. The food was good – the hotel staff must have noted our absence at meals. I had an egg roti, freshly cooked omelette, freshly squeezed juice and tea. After breakfast we organised our packs, checked out of Hotel Silan Mo, jumped into the minibus and hit the express highway for Colombo. We entered the outer suburbs (or “outer skirts” as our guide suggested) of Colombo about 11:30pm, and after spending 30 minutes in heavily congested traffic we arrived at the Independence Memorial Hall. We loved the calm atmosphere of this open air monument to Sri Lanka’s independence the first time we visited Colombo two weeks ago, and the ... read more

HE SAID... After a comfortable flight from Singapore (just under four hours), we touched down at Bandaranaike International Airport at midnight. The airport is in Katunayake, which is 40 kilometres from Colombo. We had a reasonably quick transition through customs, although standing in a slow moving queue to get our passports checked and stamped was a little tedious in the humid midnight air. We made our way out of customs, found our pre-arranged transfer vehicle and sped off towards Colombo, arriving at our hotel (Taru Villas Lake Lodge) around 1:15am. A very tired hotel manager was waiting up for us, and after some preliminary paper work, he showed us to our room. The place was amazing, with heaps of room. We dropped our packs, showered and crashed at 2:30am. After just four hours’ sleep, we woke ... read more