Colombo is only a little over 3.5 hours flight from Kuala Lumpur, so why not? The first thing I noticed in the airport is their duty free has the standard stuff like alcohol and chocolate, but they also sell a full range of appliances like washers, dryers, refrigerators and TVs. I’ve never seen that before. Maybe there is a very high duty on those items.
We took a taxi to our Airbnb, although we should have taken an Uber. Lots of people were pushing taxis on us at the airport and I think we ended up overpaying, although it was still reasonable from my perspective, $20 for a 1 hour drive. Uber is great when traveling because 1 – you don’t need any local money, 2 – you don’t need to communicate with the driver, you set your destination in the app, the the Uber GPS tells the driver how to get there, 3 – no negotiation of price or tips.
Yanmei outside our Airbnb after we did a bit of grocery shopping.
The next morning Yanmei wanted to go to Pettah Market, so we ordered an Uber. In one of the few letdowns I’ve had with Uber, the driver dropped us off early because the traffic was so bad, which was probably true we could walk as fast as the car. The market was only a few blocks away but we became lost. I thought we were in Pettah market because there were hundreds of stalls selling various goods from shoes to cellphones. Yanmei kept asking me where the fruits and veggies were. Finally she asked a local and we found out the produce market is called Manning market and was nearby.
Soon we found the correct market.
After that we went to the train station to get tickets and then to the National museum. We saw a lot of school children visiting the museum. I saw some sketching images of the items on display. I remember doing that when I was in high school, having to draw something on a field trip for art class, haha. Anyway it became a recurring theme in Colombo, seeing students everywhere, which is a pretty big contrast from our other destinations so far. The fact that our Airbnb is near 3 schools probably contributed to it.
Sorry for the vertical video.
We headed home and then went out later to see the sunset on the beach, although we dilly dallied too much and missed most of it.
The next day Yanmei was tired, so I headed out on my own. First I went to Gangaramaya Temple, which is a relatively new temple (12 years old I think) which has a relic of Buddha’s hair.
Remove shoes to enter.
A lock of Buddha’s hair on the gold pedestal. It was a strange temple though. It felt like it may have previously been the residence of a hoarder that was tidied up an made into a temple. I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but it was full of what I would call junk, much of it with no religious significance. At first I thought it was donations, but then I found out how new the temple is and most of the stuff looks older than it.
Anyway after that it was a short walk to Seema Malaka which is another Buddhist temple on a island in a small lake inside the city.
After that I headed towards Independence Square. Along the way I passed Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre, with some more students on a field trip.
Independence Square.
In the distance you can see more kids 😀.
On the way back I saw some guys playing cricket.
I wish I’d kept clicking the camera because right after this a fielder dove in from the left and stopped the ball from crossing the rope, which would have been 4 points for the batter.
The final stretch of the walk home. Unfortunately the video isn’t as stable as I’d like, I just clipped the camera to my shirt.
David