Hey there readers, as this has been one of my longer trips, if you have kept going since Day 1, then congratulations for your stamina. If you are however just starting out, I encourage you to look back at some of the earlier entries, not only about Sri Lanka, but also about some of the other places I’ve been able to visit over the past couple of years. Chances are fairly good that you will find something useful, and if not, then it’s almost guaranteed that you will find something to laugh about. With that out of the way, let’s get straight into Day 11 of my recent trip to Sri Lanka.
Unlike the previous evening, there had been quite a lot of noise coming into the room the night before. Clearly there had been some sort of a party nearby, and I think that the noise of the vehicles was also a bit more noticeable last night. However, with the wall unit air conditioner on, it functioned sort of like a sleep machine and also kept the room at a perfect temperature for sleeping. So, despite the noise from earlier in the evening, when I first woke up at 7:05 AM, I felt very rested. Yes, I was still a bit sad that I didn’t get to do the snorkeling with sea turtles, but that also allowed me to stay in bed later without any stress.
Still, I certainly didn’t want to hang out in bed all morning, so at 7:52 AM I got up, showered, and packed, then leaving the hotel at 9:17 AM. The location of the hotel was perfect for travel, so at 9:25 AM I was already in the bus headed back to Galle. This was a bit of entertainment in itself, as it appeared that I had got onto a disco bus. It probably would get old if doing it on a daily basis, but I rather enjoyed the music and the decorations which were included with my 200 LKR ($0.67 USD) bus trip back to where I would get my next bus for the day. Similar to when I had come here, I also noted that there were great views outside the window, as the road went right along the coast.
As the ride continued, at 9:59 AM I started to think that I could see the attraction of just hopping around some of these different villages between Mirissa and Galle. So many of the areas looked like nice places to be for a few days, especially if one is a beach person. I also wondered if these other villages were slightly less expensive than Mirissa, since Mirissa seemed to be the main beach town on the southern coast. Going back to the music, at 10:04 AM I also reflected on how I thought it was good that they were clearly playing local groups rather than international music. I also liked that the videos were not overproduced; for the most part, it was just images of the musicians themselves and some landscape. This made me think that there might be a greater appreciation here for actual music, rather than over the top costumes and fancy dancing. However, this might have just been the preference of this particular bus driver.
Up until 10:11 AM everything had been going along perfectly, but then we hit some sort of a snag. I wasn’t really fully sure of what was going on, but it seemed to be a problem with the engine. Regardless, the other passengers (almost all of whom appeared to be local) did not seem overly concerned, so I reasoned that maybe the engine just needed to cool down a bit? I don’t know what actually happened, but one way or another the bus was again in motion at 10:19 AM.
I had already been thinking that in a pinch, since I only had a maximum size carry on backpack as luggage, I could probably get off the bus and somehow easily get alternative transport to Galle. However, that was not needed, and at 10:21 AM, based on the signs, we were already technically in Galle, and then at 10:36 AM I got off the bus right near Galle fort along with the other final stragglers. Once more, as we had come through Galle, I thought that while staying in the fort itself had been nice, were I to come back on my own, I would probably stay in the actual city/town. I was sure it also had a lot to offer, and lodging would probably be cheaper for comparable quality.
Since I had arrived with a bit of extra time before catching my next bus, I went out wandering a bit with the vague notion that I would try to get something simple to eat for breakfast. I had been right that there were other interesting to see things in Galle, but my time was still limited, so at 10:58 AM I stopped a bit at Aravinda Food Cabin where I got some simple items to munch on for 500 LKR ($1.69 USD). They had more substantial food items available as well, but I just wanted something quick. Still, despite having paid only 500 LKR, I felt completely satisfied, and the food had also tasted pretty good.
At 11:21 AM I finished my food and started walking back towards the area of the main bus stop, intentionally following a slightly different route. Whenever I get a chance while traveling, and for that matter even when I have time at home, I try to switch things up a bit when I have the time in order to have new experiences. One never knows what might be seen along the way, and that was the case for instance when I saw this rather large dedicated “chest clinic” at 11:29 AM. I thought it a bit odd that such a large place in a relatively small city would be dedicated only to chest issues, but maybe it serves all of southern Sri Lanka or something like that? I suppose it may also just be a name which doesn’t mean much beyond the “clinic” part.
I arrived at 11:45 AM on the dot, as had been programmed when I booked the bus ticket with 12Go, and their representative Mr. Herbert was already there waiting along with another client. We set off walking and just three minutes later I was already on the bus; it had been waiting only for the two of us in order to leave. So, I guess that is what I get with the VIP assistance I had paid for, when I paid a total of $9.33 USD for the bus ticket. As mentioned earlier, I am sure that I could manage it on my own in the future, but if only using the service occasionally, the peace of mind bought by using this service, even having the bus wait for us, was more than enough to justify the cost. Doing a bit of investigating, I discovered that the local company provider for 12Go is Stef Lanka tours. Based on the limited interaction I had experienced with their workers, I would definitely contact them as an option to help me should I plan a future partially guided trip to Sri Lanka.
At 12:15 PM, just like when I came here from Colombo, a guy started going through charging people cash for the ride. Again, the same as last time, he didn’t even glance at me, even though I did not have a printed ticket to show this time. Those of you who have been reading along regularly know that the real cost of this bus trip is $2.66 USD, and it looks like most people just come, get in line, and then pay on the bus. Still, even at $9.33 USD, I considered what I had paid to be a bargain. I had complete peace of mind, and this comfortable air-conditioned bus still was much faster than going by train, as well as having many more departure time options. Like I said, it was fast, so at 1:15 PM we arrived at Makumbura bus station. From here I would need to get to Negombo, and I had not fully planned out how to do that.
However, I was at a central transport hub, so it seemed that it couldn’t be all that difficult to manage. Once again, I had the name of a recommended bus which I should take to the next bus destination in central Colombo. However, when I asked at the help desk, they just said “No” and pointed me to some other random line. I said, “So, I should take that bus?” This time there was no vocalization but just sort of a shooing direction towards the bus line. I figured that it was unlikely they weren’t going “away from” Colombo, and if it appeared that they were, I could always just get off at a nearby stop and take a cab or rickshaw.
So, at 1:17 PM I was in the random bus paying my 100 LKR ($0.34 USD) when the guy came around to charge us. This was perhaps pushing being adventuresome a bit far, but looking at Google maps to see our progress, we appeared to be going in the correct direction. Then at 1:22 PM a woman sat down next to me and when I asked if this bus was going to the Colombo fort area, she said yes. Thus, it seemed that all was going well. Furthermore, the bus was clean and reasonably well maintained. Unlike the other local bus I had seen a couple of days ago, this one seemed to have both buttons and a rope to pull in order to alert the driver when a stop was requested. Furthermore, it also seemed that people had the habit of using them. With that in mind, while I was certainly not “traveling in style at that moment,” I reflected that were I to return here, I would try to use local buses even more. Of course, that only makes sense if one is traveling with very limited luggage.
Providence was on my side, and at 2:29 PM I was off the bus at the central bus station and trying to follow the less than perfectly reliable Google map directions to the Negombo buses. I asked several people as I was walking, getting some significant variations in answers, but at 2:44 PM I was on the rather tiny Negombo AC express. Up until this moment, this definitely the most uncomfortable transport I had used during this trip, and had there not been AC, it would have been unbearable. The bus did not actually take off until 2:56 PM, picking up a few more people along the way, until we were completely packed in, including 6 people who were standing in the passageway at 3:13 PM. I suspected that they would have kept stuffing people in had there been the opportunity, but by that time we were on the highway.
Especially for such a full ride as this one, when the money collector started coming through at 3:16 PM, I thought it really would have made much more sense to charge people as they got on the bus. It was 310 LKR ($1.05 USD) for the ride, so I guess in financial terms it was still a bargain despite how cramped I was. Of course, had it been a longer trip, I would have thought otherwise, but at 3:48 PM I was already out of the bus at the main Negombo bus terminal. I could have taken a rickshaw or taxi to the hotel from there, but at that point I really wanted to stretch my legs a bit. Additionally, walking allowed me to see more of the city/town which I had not seen the last time I was here. I wasn’t lollygagging but also not rushing, and at 4:50 PM I arrived at the reception of Village Inn Resort.
Unlike the first two lodging choices I had paid for directly during this trip, this place wanted full cash payment up front. Using local currency, I paid the equivalent of $53.46 USD for three nights. The entryway to the rooms was well-maintained and sort of pretty, but there were clearly mosquitos. Once inside, I thought that the room was adequate, certainly nothing to really complain about at that cost, but also certainly nothing to celebrate. Oddly enough, there was a television in the room, but there appeared to be no way to plug it in, but it was certainly a large space, especially for just one person. At the end of the day, as long as it was clean, safe and reasonably comfortable for sleeping, that was fine with me.
At 5:13 PM I was back out on the street headed towards St. Mary’s Church Pitipana. Several days earlier I had seen on AllEvents that there was an annual Christmas Carol service scheduled there at 6:00 PM. It had actually been for this specific reason, that I had chosen these particular travel times to go from Mirissa to Negombo, since I understood that Christmas was supposed to be a big deal here, and I thought getting an early start at 6:00 PM would be ideal. In my mind it had made sense that there would be only one “St. Mary’s” church in Negombo, but just to be sure, I checked Google Maps and realized that it seemed to be much further away than the St. Mary’s church I had seen when I had been in Negombo a little over a week ago. It would be impossible to walk there by 6:00 PM, so at 5:21 PM I used the PickMe app to get a tuk-tuk, which arrived almost immediately.
We pulled up outside the church at 5:40 PM, and I paid the driver 650 LKR ($2.21 USD) even through the app said 541. I walked over towards the church, which was pretty enough, and thought that it did not look like there was much going on for a big Christmas event which was supposed to start in twenty minutes. However, there were a couple of people around, and I asked them, thinking maybe that 6:00 PM was a general start time, but in reality, it would be more like 6:30 PM or even 7:00 PM. Well, those of you who know about Negombo already figured out that the post on AllEvents was wrong. Their New Year’s Eve service was scheduled to begin at 11:45 PM.
I considered just hanging out in that area since it looked like a different sort of locale to explore, but on the off chance that the wrong St. Mary’s had been indicated, at 6:02 PM I again got another PickMe tuk-tuk to St. Mary’s grand street, arriving at 6:10 PM. The bill was 400 LKR ($1.36 USD).
Yes, you’ve guessed it, this was becoming a bit of a comedy of errors, but I had already suspected something like this. It appears that any rando can put things on these event apps, or at least on the AllEvents app. At the next church I spoke to one of the priests, and he told me that at 11:00 PM they would have Christmas Carols, with a special mass at 11:45 PM. I could have used this realization to be annoyed with myself for not having left Mirissa a bit later, thus having been able to do the snorkeling with sea turtles at 8:00 AM, but I was still glad that I had arrived and got checked into my hotel in Negombo with minimal stress before it was dark out. It probably doesn’t actually make a big difference, but especially when there is a degree of uncertainty involved with travel, doing it in the daylight always feels more secure than doing it at night . . . or at least that is the case with me.
So, now what would I do? I wasn’t thrilled about being up so late, but I had also specifically come back to Negombo to experience Christmas there. With no other plan in mind, at 6:15 PM I set off walking, thinking that at some point I would find a place to get some dinner. As I wandered, I had ended up in a mostly residential area, so there were not a lot of options, but at 6:47 PM I decided to try some random little local place.
I had two dosas, an egg omelette, and some small local fizzy drink for a total of 400 LKR ($1.36 USD). The dosas were actually quite tasty, and for the first time ever, I ate them with just my right hand and no utensils. None had been offered, and I figured I may as well try, once I had properly washed my hands and the prominently placed sink. So between this meal and what I had eaten earlier in the day, it looks like my earlier question about the cost of “everyday food” in Sri Lanka had been answered. You may remember that most of the meals I had eaten before this day had cost about 3500 LKR each. While those meals had been decent, and in many cases had even been buffets, I would not say they had been almost nine times better than the two meals I had eaten today. Clearly, I had been paying for and eating “tourist food”. While there was nothing the matter with that, it was nice knowing that I had the option to eat simpler, yet still tasty food for significantly less.
Although they had made the dosas and the omelette right when I ordered, this was a bit of an express eating situation, and at 7:10 PM there was no longer any reason for me to be there. However, I still had several hours before 11:00 PM. How would I fill the time? Well, one thing that had been missing from my express dosa meal had been something sweet, so at 7:15 PM I stopped in at another little local place, this one specializing in ice cream. There I ordered Badam milk ice cream for 200 LKR ($0.68 USD). The second place had a bit more of a “hang out here” vibe, and they even offered me tea or coffee, so I definitely could have dragged things out longer, but at 7:41 PM I was once more out on the street.
Sticking with the food and drink theme, at 8:41 PM I bought a large bottle of water and a rather large bottle of Coke Zero from a mini mart for 350 LKR ($1.18 USD) since I had not seen any bottled water nor water purifier in the hotel, and regardless of whether or not the tap water was considered safe, I did not want to take any chances with just a couple more days in the country. Having exhausted my interest in just “wandering around” I was back in the hotel room at 9:10 PM where I resolved to rest for a bit, and that is what I did until 10:00 PM.
After a bit of internal debate, I decided it was healthier for me to walk to St. Mary’s Church Grand Street. Also, even though I had already seen many of them, I thought it would be nice to once again see the frequent nativity scenes alongside the road and just take advantage of having no obligations to do anything else at the moment. After all, it was Christmas, and some allowances had to be made. I arrived outside the church at 10:44 PM, and as it was almost entirely empty, decided to just sit on the “Jesus bench” awhile and wait until other people started to show up.
It didn’t take too long for people to start wandering that way, and I wanted a good seat, so I entered at 10:50 PM. To their credit, at 11:00 PM sharp the church bells started to ring, and right after that they moved on to the Christmas songs and a special sermon. Despite not understanding anything, I was glad that I had come. It was especially interesting for me to hear “Christmas carols” which seemed to have no relation to those which I had heard before. I did however think it a bit odd that the only ones who sang were those in the choir, even though they put the words up on easy to see screens throughout the church. Maybe the custom here is just to listen?
Yes, I was happy I had come, but I was also happy to finally slip out at 1:16 PM while everyone was going up for communion. The church and the grounds outside were full, but everyone was behaving in a very orderly fashion. Maybe I would have stayed through until the end, but as I was tired and did not actually understand anything which was being said nor sung.
So, 45 minutes later, having completed my final comfortable walk of the evening, or my first one of the next day depending on your point of view, I was safely back in the hotel room at 2:00 AM. And that was how I spent Christmas Eve in Sri Lanka. Some might say that it was a bit lonely, but over the years I have grown accustomed both to being alone on Christmas and to being in places where Christmas isn’t really celebrated. Thus, being in a place where it was celebrated with such vigor was a very welcome treat. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, would you have felt bad about a Christmas Eve like I had, or would you have enjoyed the adventure? As always, thanks for reading along and let me know your questions and comments in the section provided below.
Travels with Jay 