Colombo City Tour

Yesterday at 6:55 PM local time, we flew from Dubai to Colombo in Sri Lanka. We booked our ticket with Fly Dubai, which is a budget airline. The system is a bit like Ryan Air, where you pay to check in your luggage, and food can be purchased on board. So, definitely eat well before your flight, as the prices are marked up! :o) It turned into a long night. We didn’t settle into our bed until 3 AM this morning. On the way to our hotel, our taxi was stopped three times by the police. We drove past government buildings, so all cars had to stop. But seeing a couple of tourists, the police just waved us through quickly. Not many tourists take the time to visit the capital. Colombo is loud and hectic, so many prefer to head straight from the airport to Kandy or Negombo. We spent a day in Colombo, and we definitely don’t regret it. We started off by taking the local bus, where you hop on while it’s still moving. It costs just 50 cents per person. Our first stop was Pettah, the old town filled with bustling bazaars. Each street has its specialty—gold and jewelry, hardware, or textiles. We met a stamp seller who was just persistent enough that we didn’t feel harassed. He was funny, spoke good English, and was more than happy to show us around. We didn’t want to buy his stamps, but we agreed that for 200 rupees, he could give us a tour of Pettah. He was quite the chatterbox! :o) Our new guide earned 10,000 rupees a month selling stamps and helping out in a shop. He even slept there at night. His family—his wife and three kids—lived in a small town 65 km away. It’s illegal to sleep on the streets in Sri Lanka, which is one of the biggest contrasts compared to India. The locals, both the poor and the wealthy Sri Lankans we’ve met, prefer not to be compared to India, which they feel sometimes intrudes too much. They also believe their culture is quite different from India—which they’re probably right about. The main religion here on the island is Buddhism, which is very different from Hinduism. For instance, you hardly see any cows roaming freely. Just for reference, our guide shared what other professions earn. A police officer makes 15,000 rupees a month, and a bank clerk earns 35,000 rupees a month. Not all shops would let our guide in, even though he was with us, so he patiently waited outside on the street. As a nice contrast to the hectic life in Pettah, we took the bus to the lovely Gallery Cafe, which used to be the office of Sri Lanka’s most famous architect—Geoffrey Bawa. Today, it’s like a museum where you can eat and enjoy tea in a small, quiet courtyard. The dessert table was once Geoffrey Bawa’s work desk. Because of the heat, we skipped the hot tea and opted for iced tea and iced coffee instead. In the evening, we were looking forward to “happy hour” at an Irish pub. Our tuk-tuk driver had quite the challenge finding the place. Unfortunately, it turned out to be closed. Instead, some locals recommended a restaurant called “Lemon.” It was located on a high terrace with a view over the city. It was such a cozy spot—and it wasn’t mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide, so we were the only tourists mingling with Sri Lanka’s high society! :o) Two mojitos, a bottle of chilled white wine, stuffed squid, crab, and two desserts cost about 150 DKK per person. That’s outrageously expensive for this country—but an unbelievably cheap price in Denmark for such a nice restaurant. With a good bottle of white wine in us, we were ready for more of Sri Lanka in style. At Lemon, three girls recommended a bar to us. We took a tuk-tuk to Cinnamon Lake Side, which had a super popular bar called 7 Degrees. It turned out to be a five-star hotel that doesn’t usually get visitors arriving in tuk-tuks. We were directed to the entrance in the parking garage. It looked funny to see a tuk-tuk among all the fancy cars. 7 Degrees was super cozy. From the terrace, there was a direct view of Cinnamon Lake, and a band was playing in the background. After a few more beers, drinks, and snacks like chorizo and tiger prawns, we left with a bill of only 70 DKK per person. People with a certain status and education speak English with each other. They also speak Sinhalese, but they say their first language is English. In movies, you suddenly hear the actors speaking English to each other. They switch between both languages. One sentence in Sinhalese, and the next could easily be in English.