Day 5 – Columbo

Our plan today was to get the 9.25 train from Negombo to Colombo (Fort station). Our tuk tuk took us to Negombo station, which looks a bit scruffier than the stations than what we are used to. In fact it looks more like a disused  station that has been abandoned for twenty years. The ticket office opened at 9am and I boldly asked for a first class ticket on the 9.25. The clerk told me the next train is 10.30 and he only had third class. The upside is that the tickets cost us 40p for both of us. We have a reservation at the Ocean Front hotel, which is close to the main Galle Road in Colombo.

Inside the 3rd class carriage
As I write I’m sitting in a cafe drinking creamy warm tea watching the tuk tuks, motorbikes and buses rush past. Only a small fraction of the traffic are cars, people in Negombo are not wealthy enough to afford them.
The 10.30 to Colombo was an ancient bumpy train, at least fifty years old. We found somewhere to sit on bench seats that run down each side of the carriage. The forty kilometre journey took an hour and twenty minutes to reach Fort station, the terminus in Columbo. At every stop food vendors and buskers got on an off. There were also some disfigured and blind beggars who depend on the generosity of strangers.
At Fort station we bought our tickets to Kandy, which is our next destination in two days time. I bought second class which mean the carriage has a roof fan. The tickets were 280 rupees each, about £1.50, the same as a bus journey in London. Also to put things into perspective, I have just had a delicious mango drink in a lovely cafe which cost me 220 rupees. Train travel is a bargain in Sri Lanka!
Our home for the next two nights is the Ocean Front Hotel, which is in the Kollupitya district close to Galle (pronounced gorl ) Road, the main road to the south. We walked to Vihara Mahadevi park which is big and has many shady trees. Some of the strangler fig trees are inhabited by fruit bats hanging from the branches.
Next stop on our walking tour was Gangaramay Buddhist temple. It has thousands of images of Buddha, mostly small statues given by devotees. There is also a Rolls Royce donated by the Queen, and a full size model of an elephant.

A bodi tree inside the temple

Hiking over to Fort, the central business district and historic centre of Columbo, we went for dinner in the Dutch Hospital. It was built by the Dutch East India Company for its staff in the seventeenth century. It is now upmarket shops and eating places similar to Covent Garden. Our dinner was a delicious Mutton Curry with Lion lager. Then we watched a band playing very good covers, better than bands that used to play in the Red Lion in Twickenham. Afterwards we walked back in the dark along the coastal Galle Road, there was a warm breeze and it was a lovely end to the day.

A new apartment block near Biera Lake. it’s meant to look like that
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Day 4 – Negombo

It’s has been an “admin” day today.  Our aim on this holiday is to be free spirits, to go where the wind takes us, wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home. But all that hippy bollocks comes at a price. There is always a slight anxiety about not knowing where we will be in two days time, and how we will reach our mystery destination.

So this morning we went down the beach road to buy a local SIM for the very basic Samsung phone we use for travelling. It does texts and calls and a charge lasts for ages. On our way to the shop we heard a scrambling in the bushes over the wall, and saw a five foot long monitor lizard dashing through a thicket. I’m glad I didn’t see at at night when we were walking home in the dark.

The roads are not well lit. Last night I stepped back to avoid a sharply turning tuk tuk, and almost fell  down a big concrete drain. That could easily have been a broken leg and a very short holiday.

Returning to the Serendib we walked down the beach. It is very wide and quiet, considering it’s the holiday season. The beach doesn’t have loungers and umbrellas like most resorts,  so there are no comfortable spots to enjoy the beach for a few hours.

The Rimini Restaurant is a blue shipping container with a gazebo dining area. It is very basic, but friendly. Some Swedish customers sitting next to us ordered a beer. It was a long time before it arrived, then it came by tuk tuk! The owner was out of stock and had to send out for more beer.

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Outrigger sailing canoe on Negombo beach

Day 6 – Colombo

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!

Coffee lounge at the Galle Face Hotel

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.

Colonial statues outside the Grand Oriental Hotel

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.

Buddhist stupa near the port

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.

Day 3 – Negombo

On our way to the beach this morning a tuk tuk driver offers us a tour of the town. My finely honed bartering skills managed to knock down his price by hardly anything, I must practice more! He was a chatty man, and like to look at us as he chatted, which caused him to almost shunt the car in front, luckily Julie shouted and he braked!

First stop was the beach to see loads of fish drying on mats and a very smelly by fascinating fish market. There were tuna, barracuda, sardines, squid, octopus and plenty I didn’t recognise. The big local fishing fleet goes out as far as the Maldives for its catch.

The people here are mostly Catholic, but there are also Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists, just like London!

 

Day 2 – Negombo

After lazing by the pool for a couple of hours reading “Sapiens” I got a bit restless so we went off to explore Negombo. Almost as soon as we got to the main road a tuk tuk driver approached us and offered a tour of the town. I thought I ought to barter, and knocked him down about 20%, which made me feel better an I’m sure he did well out of the deal.

Our first stop was the fish market on the beach. Outside the gutted fish was drying on mats. Inside fresh fish was sold by stall holders, sometimes only a few fish on each stall. The fish was caught by the substantial local fleet, which ventures out as far as the Maldives for its catch.

Our driver took us to the old Dutch fort, only the gate exists with as stone engraved 1688. On the other side of the gate was the waiting room for the prison, which holds 1,600 prisoners (according to the driver).

The town is predominately Catholic, but the locals are also Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu, so quite like London in that respect.

We are now sat by the pool as the sun goes down, but 6pm it will be dark. The local birds make all sorts of interesting noises. Fortunately the cawing crows has now gone elsewhere, they sound just like crows at home.

Buddhist temple
Catholic Church
Drying red squid
Dutch Fort gate and tuk tuk driver

Day 1 in Sri Lanka – Negombo

We arrived in Sri Lanka on January 4th, after an eventful flight from LHR. I was watching a film (Captain Fantastic starring Viggo Mortenson) when a guy in the row in front of me passed out! An appeal on the PA brought over a doctor who attended to him for half an hour before he recovered, thank Heavens! I slept a little on the plane, with my knees jammed into the seat in front and sat bolt upright, not my favoured sleeping position. The AC was on high for the entire journey, so I had to wear my coat.

We arrived on time at Colombo International and a car was waiting for us to take us a short way to the Serendib Guest House in Negombo, a beach resort just north of Colombo. The guest house is clean and comfortable, with a lovely garden and pool. The Main Street in Negombo is lined with restaurants, hotels (on the beach side of the road) and tourist tat shops. In fact it look pretty much like resorts in Thailand, Vietnam and Bali, they all have the same facilities to bring in the tourist dollar.

Avoiding the pizza and burger joints, we ate rice and curry at the Kamlo restaurant. It was fresh tasting food, without all the thick brown sauce that covers English currys, really delicious. The local beer is called Lion, and is like Tiger or Singha, typical Asian lager, and just right with curry.

I’m typing this in a coffee shop which is more expensive than Richmond, but has excellent wifi. It’s good to support the local economy!