We had a leisurely breakfast on our first day in Sri Lanka. The hotel has a lovely open oceanfront terrace that our breakfast buffet is being served on.
Grand wooden doors to the terrace.
Terrace had two levels of seating.
The view from our table to the other end.
The view towards the water.
There was a full variety of foods catering to various ethnic palates. I had an omelette from the omelet station. There was another station for crepes, french toast and waffles, but I resist. Judith is into the pastries and we finish off with some fruit. They have a pretty tasty finger banana variety on hand. Apparently there are many many varieties of finger bananas. Too bad they don’t supply them to the Canadian market.
We meet with our guide and we have a little session to go over our itinerary. The end bits are still up in the air because we can no longer go to Kerala and that part of the itinerary is still being finalized. Our guide introduced himself as Sura. It’s short for Surasigha and he’s immediately likeable from the start. We are starting the day with a tour of Columbo. We’re in a comfortable medium sized van which has rear sliding doors on both the passenger and driver side. I find that unusual because in Canada, you only get vans with passenger side sliders.
Our first site is the Pettah market. This is a bustling market area stretching several blocks. Sura tells us it will be very busy today because we’re coming off a 4 day long weekend as there was holidays over the Thursday and Friday and the market isn’t open on Saturday and Sunday. So, he has recommended driving through it. Personally, I love markets. It’s a sensory overload to wander through the stalls with all your senses being bombarded with sights, smells, sounds etc. I like going through markets to see what’s being offered, because none of them are the same. Today, I take a few pictures as we speed by, but don’t get my senses overloaded.
With many vendors taking over the sidewalk, people, motorcycles, 3 wheeled tuktuks and vehicles navigate the streets.
These men have carts full of a local fruit. Not sure what it’s called at the moment…
More street scene. There are lots of vendors on the narrow alleyways between the buildings.
These are king coconuts and only consumed for their juice. Green coconuts are also available and both their juice and flesh are consumed.
We pass by the National Hospital of Sri Lanka. It is located in a striking building in the heart of Columbo. The yellow brick trim provides an interesting contrast to the terra cotta brick.
The next building is the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH). This complex spans about 40 acres and has hosted international leaders and many other domestic and international exhibits. The building was completed in 1973 with a significant portion of the cost donated by China.
Banyan Trees. This is a particularly marvelous example of a banyan tree. These trees are important symbol in the Hindu religion. The caretaker is sweeping away leaves from this tree.
Independence Memorial Hall. This building marks the site where the formal signing occurred to mark self rule for Sri Lanka in 1948. It is located in Independence Square which was renamed from Torrington Square.
Nelum Pokuna (Lotus Pond) Mahinda Rejapaksa Theater. It was built in 2011 as the National Performing Arts Theatre but the following year, the President renamed it after himself. The theatre can hold 1288 people and there is an open amphitheatre that converts the front steps into seating.
Viharamahadevi Park is the oldest and largest park in Columbo, built in colonial times. Formerly known as Victoria Park, it was renamed in 1958. We stop and I take a picture of a giant Buddha statue. The Buddha replaced a large statue of Queen Victoria, the former namesake of the park. It’s interesting to imagine how the base of this statue would match a statue of Queen Victoria; today is looks a bit incongruous with it’s replacement.
Our next stop was the Gangaramaya Temple. Built in the 19th century it has become important due to its teaching school of Buddhism.
Main temple room.
Uncovered portion of Buddha and stupa figures. I liked the symmetry. In other buildings on the ground, there was also an eclectic collection of historical items including two vintage Rolls Royce and a Mercedes, porcelain, ivory carvings and furniture. Some of these items were left as offerings; others were used in their ceremonies or operations.
After our tour, we ended up being dropped off by our guide in the afternoon and returning to the hotel for a couple of hours (We did have a nap to recharge our batteries). Judith and I decided to go for a walk on the Galle Face Green in front of our hotel. Apparently it used to be used to race horses but has now become a popular gathering place. Kite flying appears popular and there are lots of vendors providing snack items. This is a picture of Galle Face Green from our hotel room.
On our way out on our walk, I take a picture of the hotel.
Half way down the green there is a pier which we go and explore and do the tourist thing which is to take our selfie picture with our hotel in the background.
As we leave the green, we run into a Sri Lankan who says that Judith reminds him of a teacher. We have a short conversation; he flashes an official Sri Lankan tourism ID and offers to show us a couple of places.
We have our spidy sense on, but Richi turns out to be a delightful guide. We end up walking quite a bit though the older sections of town that we had driven through this morning. We walk past the under construction Port City that is being built with Chinese funds and is scheduled to be completed in 2040. It is a huge infrastructure project that is basically building a new port, housing and connecting all of that with a new highway directly to the airport 45 minutes away.
We walk past the clock tower which was apparently used by seafarers to know when to return to their ships.
We see several other notable (mostly colonial era) buildings including a very tall tower that has been halted mid construction as the foundation is unstable and the building has already shrunk into the ground.
Richi. It’s not a great picture as he didn’t know I was taking it.
He then takes us to a gem shop and then we have light dinner together before he arranges for a Tuktuk ride back to our hotel. Judith and I say our goodbyes and thanks and head back, enjoying the craziness of the ride. He spend about 3 hours taking us around. We did exchange contact information — we’ll see whether anything will come of our chance meeting and his generosity to show us around.
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