Blogs from Western Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 9

Days 1&2 After a long journey overnight from the UK, and a very smooth experience through immigration, we collected our bags and were met by the travel rep "Trevor", who presented us with flower garlands. Our driver for the trip is Indy, he has a longer name but that's easier to remember. He took us on the short journey to Negombo. The surrounding roads reminded us of a mixture of Thailand and India, with small shops all professing to be hotels, tuk tuk's and a certain amount of dirt that you only see in Asia. The welcome drink of fresh pineapple juice was refreshing whilst we checked in. The rest of the day was our own and as we approached the hotel Indy had pointed out a couple of reputable places to eat and somewhere to ... read more

COLOMBO - 7th April An early morning arrival in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka and we were heading out of the city to the hill country town of Kandy. Colombo is situated at the crossroads of the great spice routes, it is the country's largest city and leading port on the west coast. This is our second visit and they have not stood still as far as development of the port area. The country now has a separate cruise ship terminal so it looks as though they encouraging more ships to visit. There is a lot to take in if you choose to stay in the city with the must sees mainly being Churches, Temples and Mosques. The most important and impressive being, Wolfendahl Church, the oldest Protestant Church, St Lucia's Cathedral in the Kotahena ... read more

We arrived in Colombo airport a bit worse for wear. Our traveling had left us without proper sleep for 35hours. We managed to find a taxi desk and easily got transport sorted to Cinnamon Red ,our hotel, in the city centre. This hotel was proper fancy. We had tea and coffee in the rooms and an infinity pool on the 26th floor overlooking the city. We even treated ourselves to a buffet breakfast which was amazing. We spent the first full day on the roof sunbathing, relaxing, recovering and mainly waiting for Jodi’s parents , Jayne and Paul, to arrive from their flight from London. We did have a few walks around the city but we found it quite expensive in my standards. On the Sunday before we left colombo we took a lovely stroll down ... read more

Relaxing, resting, recovering from the jet-lag, acclimatising to the hot (34c) & humid weather and generally having a good time is the order of the day, at a beach hotel in Negombo on the West coast of Sri Lanka, prior to setting off on a "round the island tour". Colombo was an interesting city - we were slightly surprised by the numerous well maintained old colonial buildings, wide tree-lined streets and busy but not chaotic traffic. On a day trip to Colombo we chanced upon a noisy colourful ceremony in a Hindu Temple - chanting, banging of drums and smoke - while, in comparison, the Buddhist Temple was quiet with many Buddha statues and praying monks. Old Colombo, down by the port, was a maze of busy narrow colourful streets, small shops and a lively atmosphere. ... read more

Our Sri Lanka Adventure over the Chinese New Year 2016 The Chinese people are expected to travel back to their homes over the Chinese New Year. This is the largest migration of people at any one time, and it makes for interesting travel. Flights must be booked at least 6 months ahead of time, train tickets sell out and hotels are full. Sri Lanka, prior to 1972 known as Ceylon, lies just off the Southeast coast of India. According to Wikipedia, it has a documented history spanning 3,000 years, with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of great strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to World War ll. It lies only 18 miles from India and is ... 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