( Overview
/ Sri Lanka 2024 - finally here!
Sunday 4th & Monday 5th
Sunday was all about travelling, firstly our lovely friend, Louise Furbank, took us to the coach station (trains cancelled due to strike so J had booked a coach)… 5.5hrs to LHR then a wait at T3 for about the same time again, we waited it out in one of the lounges so it wasn’t too bad. Boarded the flight around 9 and took off bound for Columbo at around 9.40pm…. Not a great night, sleep wasn’t amazing but pleased to touch down around 12.45 local. After a lengthy wait for luggage we were met by our driver on exit, grabbed a sim and some cash and whisked away from Negumbo, where the airport is located north of Columbo and eventually dropped off at Granbell Hotel. Has an amazing roof top bar so after a shower popped upstairs to avail ourselves of the hospitality. Cocktails were about £4-5, a large beer is about £2.5 and that’s in a nice hotel. Too tired to go very far so dined in the hotel tonight before going to bed early.
Tuesday 6th
Really bad nights sleep as not quite adjusted my body clock yet. Wide awake by 3am. Meditated and did a bit of a bed yoga routine, Managed to crack my iPad open so I could read and work out what we might do today, must have fallen back to sleep at 6.30 and then struggled to get up around 10. We went out and hit the streets of Columbo, walked around Sri Jinaratana Lake, watching all the huge pelicans. We visited the Buddhist temple which appears to float on the lake, but it also happens to sit just in front of a Marriot Courtyard hotel! Next stop was Pettaj Market area, which was just buzzing with life and people buying / selling stuff. We found a cafe and I just ordered rice with egg (I can’t face any meat / chicken etc) despite my best efforts there were quite a few mystery ingredients, needless to say I didn’t eat much but just enough to upset me (probably!!). After that we walked past Fort Station and made our way on foot back to the seafront. We walked until we came across a huge shopping mall and couldn’t resist going in and cooling off. Caught a tuktuk back to the hotel, which we really do love. Up to the roof top bar for a drink and then decided to try one of the other nearby hotels for food as there seems to be a distinct lack of decent local restaurants nearby, and thinking about it we hardly saw any on our travels today. I think locals mainly eat street food or dine at home, there were a few chain restaurants in the mall but neither of us fancied that. Headed to Movenpick and ended up ordering Thai food, it was delicious but we completely over ordered! We stayed up until midnight and set the alarm for 7am as we’re off to Kandy in the morning.
Sunday was all about travelling, firstly our lovely friend, Louise Furbank, took us to the coach station (trains cancelled due to strike so J had booked a coach)… 5.5hrs to LHR then a wait at T3 for about the same time again, we waited it out in one of the lounges so it wasn’t too bad. Boarded the flight around 9 and took off bound for Columbo at around 9.40pm…. Not a great night, sleep wasn’t amazing but pleased to touch down around 12.45 local. After a lengthy wait for luggage we were met by our driver on exit, grabbed a sim and some cash and whisked away from Negumbo, where the airport is located north of Columbo and eventually dropped off at Granbell Hotel. Has an amazing roof top bar so after a shower popped upstairs to avail ourselves of the hospitality. Cocktails were about £4-5, a large beer is about £2.5 and that’s in a nice hotel. Too tired to go very far so dined in the hotel tonight before going to bed early.
Tuesday 6th
Really bad nights sleep as not quite adjusted my body clock yet. Wide awake by 3am. Meditated and did a bit of a bed yoga routine, Managed to crack my iPad open so I could read and work out what we might do today, must have fallen back to sleep at 6.30 and then struggled to get up around 10. We went out and hit the streets of Columbo, walked around Sri Jinaratana Lake, watching all the huge pelicans. We visited the Buddhist temple which appears to float on the lake, but it also happens to sit just in front of a Marriot Courtyard hotel! Next stop was Pettaj Market area, which was just buzzing with life and people buying / selling stuff. We found a cafe and I just ordered rice with egg (I can’t face any meat / chicken etc) despite my best efforts there were quite a few mystery ingredients, needless to say I didn’t eat much but just enough to upset me (probably!!). After that we walked past Fort Station and made our way on foot back to the seafront. We walked until we came across a huge shopping mall and couldn’t resist going in and cooling off. Caught a tuktuk back to the hotel, which we really do love. Up to the roof top bar for a drink and then decided to try one of the other nearby hotels for food as there seems to be a distinct lack of decent local restaurants nearby, and thinking about it we hardly saw any on our travels today. I think locals mainly eat street food or dine at home, there were a few chain restaurants in the mall but neither of us fancied that. Headed to Movenpick and ended up ordering Thai food, it was delicious but we completely over ordered! We stayed up until midnight and set the alarm for 7am as we’re off to Kandy in the morning.
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