Bloody hell I had an awful nights sleep. The Ocean Front Hotel is built of concrete and is all hard surfaces, and any nocturnal noises get bounced into my ears. The main train line to Galle is also twenty yards away, and trains rumble through regularly and sometimes toot their horns just to make me feel worse. So I felt LIKE SHIT at 8.00 when the alarm went off. After a shower I felt half human and went down for a proper Sri Lankan breakfast, String Hoppers. It is thin rice noodles served as a pattie, accompanied by chicken curry, dhal and coconut sambol. That was followed by a plate of fresh fruit. Staying “regular” ain’t gonna be a problem in Colombo!
Thus reenergised we walked up Galle Road for coffee at the exceedingly posh Galle Face Hotel. It is so posh the main doorman wears a white dress. It is actually a white sarong and white jacket with puffy sleeves, but he looked like a pantomime dame at a wedding. The coffee lounge overlooks the sea on one side and a lovely lawn on the other side.They actually have men with catapults to scare off any crows that bother diners outside the hotel. The wifi was really good, which is what you expect if you pay £200 a night. So we relaxed for an hour, sipping our coffee and enjoying the ambiance. The bill was about £4, less than two coffees at Nero in Teddington!
Fort is the historic heart of Colombo, but there aren’t many historic buildings left, and what remains are mostly badly maintained. The city wants to be another Singapore or KL, but doesn’t appear to be interested in its heritage. Cargills the old department store is decaying and looks unloved and the Grand Oriental Hotel looks like a seafront Victorian pile in one of the scruffier English resorts. It has a bizarre statue outside of an Englishman (complete with pipe) being pulled in a rickshaw by a downtrodden looking local man. It says a lot about the political order a hundred years ago, when the white men lorded over the brown men.
The Sambohdi Chaitiya dagoba is a Buddhist stupa built in 1956 that sits on legs over the road. The climb up many steps to the viewing area is worth it for the view of Colombo docks. A huge new dock is being constructed, and a big sand dredger was spraying a constant stream of sand to create new land to build on.
Our last destination today was Pettah, an area of street markets, a world away from shiny modern Fort. I honed my haggling skills by buying AAA batteries and a crappy plastic belt. I probably payed over the odds, but I was happy and the stall holders were very happy. My final haggle was getting a tuk tuk back to the hotel for two hundred and fifty rupiahs, it was worth it.
timharnesstravels 