Sightseeing in Colombo

11^th March 2017

We all slept well overnight and met for breakfast at The Verandah at 8 am. It was our first chance to have a bit of a look around in daylight, so we took a few outdoor photos before breakfast, before settling in for our meal.

Looking out from the Terrace Restaurant

Terrace Restaurant and Bar

Pool Bar

Today, we have a morning tour of Colombo organized and our driver, Ryan, will pick us up at 9 am.

In the meantime, the verandah restaurant is beautifully fitted out, is open at the front, and looks out over the ocean. The food selection is excellent and after some fresh tropical fruit, I was straight into the Sri Lankan curries. They were indescribably good.

As it neared 9 am went headed back to our rooms to get our gear for the tour, and met Ryan back in the foyer on time. It became clear that another wedding was about to start, and the wedding party were sitting patiently in the foyer dressed in traditional Kandayan costume.

Our first stop on the tour was to get a local SIM card for our phones. As they would not give us one without seeing our passports we had to make a short trip back to the Hotel to get them. The wedding was now under way, and the welcoming party, and bridal party were making their way down the corridor in front of the hotel to their function room.

The Welcoming Committee

Wedding Party

Finally, the SIM cards were supplied, and John has his phone up and working.  I bought my old iphone 3gs to use and it seems to have a battery problem. If I can’t sort it out I will use my iphone 6.

The tour eventually gets under way and we cover much of the old part of the city, where the old colonial architecture dominates.

Cargills Building

The Oldest Mosque in Colombo

and The Baptist Church next to it

The Mayors Office 

Buddhist Cultural Centre

We are also surprised at the amount of new construction under way, including a few new International Hotels and apartment buildings being built by Chinese Developers. Naturally the latter are close the waterfront on some of the best real estate in Colombo.

We stopped to have a walk around the Memorial to Sri Lanka’s Independence. We are told that the architectural style is Kandyan, as Kandy was the seat of the monarchy until the British took over.

Further stops were made at a Hindu Temple, where a snake charmer got a bit too close for comfort, giving Sharon a bit of a fright.

And another stop was at the Museum of Natural Science, which needs a lot of work. We were chased around the museum by a local who provided us with a lot of unsolicited commentary, blatantly seeking a tip. The only bonus was that he did know where the light switches were, so could actually see the very tired displays, and readily volunteered the light on his phone so we could read the captions.

Most of the tour was in the mini bus driving around with commentary from our driver, who is very good and willingly answers our many questions.

On the way back to the hotel we stop by the famous seafood restaurant, The Ministry of Crab, to see if we can get a dinner booking. Sadly the only times available are 5pm, or 9.30pm, but there was a vacancy for lunch if we were interested. As we are unlikely to be back, we accepted the lunch option, and farewelled our driver, as we are only a short walk from the hotel.

The restaurant is very slick, and is owned by a couple of the Sri Lankan Test Cricketers.

Unfortunately the crab was disappointing and very expensive.  The crab was undercooked and the pepper sauce bland and cold. Sharon and John had the prawn curry hotpot, which looked like a better choice. I would not hurry back here, as I am sure there are much better options elsewhere, but their marketing is impressive.

There was a bit of rain whilst we were having lunch, but it was fine when they shuffled us out to accommodate the next booking for our table. We can see a storm brewing so do not waste too much time walking back along the seafront to our hotel.  There were plenty of interesting sights along the way to entertain us, including many notices about the dangers of entering the sea and we also walked past the local Surf Life Saving Station.

Not a Natural Beach ???

Life Savers ready for emergencies

The Waterfront was lined with food stalls , all selling the same "appetising" snacks

Approaching our Hotel

The storm did come, not long after we were comfortably back in our hotel, with some good thunder and lightning. Carole was out of the pool pretty quick when the lightning started.

We decided to dine in tonight and had a few drinks in the terrace bar before enjoying another great Sri Lankan Buffet in the Terrace Restaurant.

So, what were our overall impressions of Colombo.

It has a fair way to go before becoming a tourist mecca, with not a lot here to attract tourists at this stage, other than the excellent food, and very friendly people. There are a number of large hotel chains building new hotels here at the moment, which I am sure will provide the necessary boost to get the place going. The Chinese are making significant Investments here in property.

In the meantime, it is just another developing Asian city reminding us a lot of parts of Malaysia in the early 1980's,  probably a bit less developed than we expected, but within expectations. The highlight has been the hotel which is World Class.