Hi there loyal readers, for those who have been following along regularly, you may have a bit of whiplash, since it may seem that I only just now got back from Beijing, but if you check the dates, you will see that I had actually just got really behind with the entries on the recent trip to China, and am now trying to keep the same backlog from happening with the trip to Sri Lanka. It is a bit odd that this was my first trip to Sri Lanka, as it is so close to where I live in India, but I have also not yet visited Mysuru, and that is just a two-hour train trip away. Still, especially since coming to work in southern India, I had always thought that I would eventually need to get around to visiting to Sri Lanka, and this way it finally happened. I would be remiss if I hadn’t mentioned that like several other great trips I have taken, this was actually my friend and co-worker Dorothee’s idea.
I will skip past the whole trip to the airport, as those who follow me know that I always opt for BluSmart, and once again I was not disappointed with their service when they showed up a bit early to pick me up and have me at the airport by 6:55 AM. Unfortunately, after having entered the car, I had checked my messages and saw that the flight would have a delay of a couple hours. However, since Dorothee was in the same boat, I thought it would be okay for us to just hang out and chat for a bit, which we did at a cafe outside until entering. Thus, it was not until 11:20 AM that we were actually on this non-stop, ninety-minute Sri Lankan Airlines flight to Colombo. Since Dorothee and I had booked separately, we were not sitting next to one another, but despite having refused to pay to get out of the dreaded center seat, there was a couple who asked me to move so that they could be together, and I ended up having my favorite aisle seat.
The flight itself was fine, but then for 90 minutes, pretty much anything would be acceptable. Still, despite how the plane looked a bit run down inside, I was impressed how in such a short time they served a nice juice and a surprisingly edible cheese and vegetable calzone before we touched down at 12:57 PM. At Dorothee’s suggestion, I had got my e-visa ahead of time rather than doing it on arrival, so at 1:29, already having been greeted by our driver/guide for the week, Erik, Dorothee and I had also both bought Dialog SIM cards before exiting the airport. Now most of you know that I generally advise getting an eSIM before travel, but I had done my homework ahead of time and had seen that this would be easy to get at the airport and also significantly cheaper. I paid 2450 LKR ($8.35 USD) for a month of cellphone service on Sri Lanka’s most recommended carrier with 50 GB of data! In short, it was a bargain, and I suggest you do the same when travelling to Sri Lanka.
Before I go on further, I should clarify that the first week’s travel was part of a tour package which Dorothee had organized ahead of time. There were three of us who would be travelling, Dorothee, Laurianne (a friend and previous co-worker of Dorothee’s, and me). At times the costs of the trip were a bit muddled, since the transport, triple lodging and some of the meals were included, but most of the activities would have to be paid for separately. Starting out on paper, this looked like it would be a bit more expensive overall than my standard trips, but I also doubted I would be returning frequently, so figured it would be okay to splurge. So, the upfront cost paid by each of us for the basic tour of seven nights was $695 USD per person, not including airfare, which can generally be managed at around $300 USD round trip from Bengaluru. Mai globe travel agency had handled all of our arrangements. Laurianne had flown in from Shanghai, so her ticket cost would of course been quite a bit more. Anyway, back to my first impressions as we exited the airport.
As we were on our way from the airport, I could see a lot of similarities to India, but at least in this area it seemed very clean, and more like a village than an actual city. It also looked like there was a lot more Christian influence around this area than what I was used to seeing in India. Our first night was not actually in Colombo, but rather in Negombo, so at 2:00 PM we were already pulling up out front Pledge Scape hotel.
Our triple room was lovely, including the view of the sea from the balcony, but my single bed was as had as a stone floor. Still, our intent was not to spend more than one night here, so I figured it would be fine. After quickly putting our things in the room, we headed straight out to do some sightseeing, even though Laurianne, who had arrived the day before, and had already been out to see a bit on her own. However, she had saved the “big stuff” so we could see them together the first time.
Our first stop along our self-guided walking tour was St. Sebastian’s church, which we came across at 2:52 PM.
We left there at 2:54 PM and continued walking towards the next church on Laurianne’s list.
While it was only 29 degrees Celsius (84 F), it was a bit muggy and anytime we were in direct sunlight the heat seemed especially intense despite me having my trusty travelling hat. However, it was only a short walk, and at 3:05 PM we were at St. Mary’s Church on Main Street.
After just about five minutes, we decided to head out once more in order to take advantage of the remaining daylight. Also, clouds had started to quickly roll in, and we were a bit worried that it might start raining heavily. We also had a sort of general plan to find a place to eat. Connected to the same, Dorothee took us on a bit of an adventure sponsored by Google maps to find a highly rated nearby eatery, but as frequently happens with Google maps, the place seemed to no longer exist. So, at 3:40 PM we decided to jump into a rickshaw and head back towards the hotel.
It turned out that this had been an excellent idea, since by the time we saw Chef Crab restaurant where we decided to eat at 3:49 PM, there was already a torrential downpour!
There were a lot of mosquitos, but Dorothee had some pleasant-smelling repellant which she passed around and that mostly dealt with the issue. I ordered the squash soup and a pork dish, which was actually quite nice; whereas Dorothee and Laurianne opted to share a crab dish which they acknowledged had been “alright” but not that filling. As we were soon to discover is normal in Sri Lanka, it had taken quite a bit of time for the food to arrive, but we weren’t in a big hurry either. The bill for the three of us was 10,098 LKR ($34.41 USD), which we would discover would be fairly standard throughout our trip. Incidentally, thanks to Laurianne, this trip we were all trying an app called Tricount in order to facilitate expense sharing and tracking during the trip. It was still raining a bit, but at 5:31 PM we dashed out and were back in the hotel just two minutes later.
There we rested a bit, and then as it had already stopped raining, decided to see if there was a place we could get an evening drink nearby. Dorothee and I also needed to get cash out of an ATM, as it seemed that most places in Sri Lanka had either a strong preference for, or only accepted cash. So once more, at 6:18 PM we were out the door, but quickly discovered that while there were plenty of ATMs available, no place “could serve” alcohol since it was a full moon. Evidently, every full moon in Sri Lanka is a type of holiday, and alcohol sales are prohibited. However, as we also soon found out, that prohibition is a bit tongue in cheek, since one pub owner suggested that we might be more comfortable sitting upstairs (where we would not be easily seen by those who would pass by), telling us that of course alcohol sales were illegal, but he might be able to help us.
For obvious reasons, I won’t mention the name of the place, but after we arrived there at 7:11 PM and were ushered upstairs, I had a lovely Blue Lagoon and a Bay Breeze. I am not sure what Laurianne and Dorothee drank, but we all seemed satisfied, and the bill when we left at 8:36 PM was 10560 LKR ($35.98 USD) for the three of us. From there, it was a short and comfortable walk back to the hotel, where we arrived at 9:02 PM.
So that was our first day in Sri Lanka. So far things had been going great, and I was really looking forward to the actual tour which would start the next day. The only downside so far had been my rock-hard bed, but I assumed that would just be for one evening. Starting to get to know Laurianne had been wonderful so far, and Dorothee and I also always make good travelling companions. Of course, if you want to really start to see some fancy Sri Lankan sites, you will have to continue reading Day 2. In closing, as always, thanks for reading along, and don’t forget to leave your questions and comments in the section shown below!
Travels with Jay 