Travels with Kathryn

I can’t believe its almost over. It all seems to have gone by very quickly, but in a way, I suppose that is the difference between going on a “normal” 2 week holiday as opposed to 7 weeks in China.

So, we left Kandy yesterday morning to do our final journey into Colombo. I will only have one afternoon/evening in Colombo which in retrospect is simply not enough time to do any of the things that I wanted to do. I shall have to come back. No more rain today, but it is overcast, so it was not the clearest view over to bible mountain:

It was a longer drive than anticipated to Colombo and you can certainly tell you are in the capital, tower blocks, and so much traffic. As well as being the capital, Colombo is also the biggest city in Sri Lanka with a population of 5.6 million people. This became the capital in 1815 when the British colonised Ceylon (as was) and many of the buildings date from this period as the British turned what was previously a military outpost to a populated city, including building the governors mansion, old town hall and buildings which we shall be seeing later on our city tour.

Our hotel is situated in the Colombo Fort district/district 1, so we would be very handily located if one were staying for more than 1 night. However, we did have probably our worst view of the whole trip:

It was a quick turnaround to head to Barefoot Ceylon. This is an extensive handicrafts store established in 1964 by Barbara Sansoni. It was full of so many lovely things, but I managed to restrain myself to one large bag full (everything is packed,  but I will photograph and add later). 

Then it was off on our city tour. This was something of whistle stop tour of view from bus/take a photograph (hence why I know I need to return.

Our first stop was Independence Square. This was built to commemorate the independence of Sri Lana in 1948 and is very similar in design to the audience hall in Kandy (although this is made of stone rather than the Ceylon Ironwood). The statue is of the first prime minister (from 1947 until his death in 1952) and “Father of the Nation” Don Stephen Senanayake having emerged as the leader of the Sri Lankan independence movement that led to self-rule in Ceylon. This is also the location where prime ministers and other Sri Lankan national treasures are cremated,  and they were just, erm, tidying up, from a recent cremation.

Photographed below is the Galle Face Hotel. As you may gather from said photograph, this was not taken by me! However, we did drive past it, along Galle Road, and therefore it counts. This is the last Coming Home reference for me. Judith lived on the Galle Road as a child, and at the end of the book comes to stay with Uncle Bob at his house on the Galle Road. I suspect there has been some re-development as this road facing onto Galle Green (the former colonial race tracks) and the sea behind is now mainly large fancy hotels and administrative buildings. It is also the location of the Galle Face Hotel this claims to be the first tourist hotel east of the Suez Canal and is also where Judith attends various events. I am not sure I would be able to afford to stay there, but I shal definitely have a visit next time.

The drive bys continued, and some highlights are below:

We also stopped off on the road which leads down from the National Gallery and this is where local artists set out their paintings to try and entire a passerby. There was an interesting mixture, many things I would never want on my wall in a million years (particularly some chocolate box oil types), but a few others did catch my eye:

Our final stop of the day was Petta market. This sells absoutely everything and is a wholesale market which is open to the public, so was very busy. We have been to busier places, but this was the first place on this visit where I was reminded of the volumes of people/tuktuks and general craziness of India. As you can imagine, I was rather enjoying myself! Part of the reason this market is so busy is because Colombo is of the Port of Colombo, and this is the busiest port in the Indian Ocean acting as an Asian terminal.

And that was it. The sun has set on my final day in Sri Lanka. We returned to the hotel waving off our driver Hayma and bus assistant Roy. It is going to be a bit of a come-down having to carry my own bag, open my own vehicle door, and have no one passing me biscuits out on a tray throughout travelling. I ahve now learnt that not only must one have a driver, one also must have a bus assistant. It is a pivotal role.This was also (obviously) the final night with the group,  so we had a final rooftop drink and a final meal (crab curry of course!). With one exception (who was agreed upon by everyone else), this has been an excellent group and our guide, Janith has done a really great job with us – including dealing with three “falls”, one hospital visit and one extreemly difficult client efficiently and compassionately with (selfishly importantly) no impact on my holiday. The boy done good. Intrepid never lets me down, and I think that for the people in the group who this was their first Inrepid/group trip, we may have some converts….

And that was it, we waved off Janith, hugged each other goodbye (the offer stands of a meal in Hoppers for anyone passing through London) and then bed before my long travel day tomorrow where I am going to have to lift my own bags. The horruer.