Day 2 Colombo 28 July

Liz woke with a start: it’s 3 pm and over slept. Whew, not really.

First task of day is to organise train tickets to Jaffna ( up north) as we have heard that this can be difficult, given Liz’s extensive Indian experience, this will be easy... no so. Apparently big holiday in Sri Lanka, as it is full moon and everyone is travelling. We can only get tickets for the 30th and are forced to spend an extra day in Colombo. 

With tickets in pocket, we find a cool place for coffee and fruit salad breakfast. As tea is the preference hot drink, coffee is pretty expensive and to be kind, pretty ordinary.

We head back on the streets and our first tuk tuk ride...these 3 wheeled vehicles are everywhere here. Everyone keen to take you for a ride, get sick of knocking back offers of  “ tuk tuk Sir”. Of course to stand out various scams have arisen where they make friends with you and offer help to see “ special place on ...special day”. Well we did fall for this once and ended up at a gem shop instead of the temple. We got there eventually, and only a couple of dollars poorer; so no serious damage. Now eventually at the Gangaramaya Buddhist temple, we see some of the oldest Buddhist relics in Sri Lanka, ( though Stuart thought he was in a second hand shop that didn’t manage to sell much...). It was a pretty special place.

Left here to walk past a lake: the smelliest place! Like a giant tooth abscess, and looked like green paint. Liz, after 35 years of nursing doesn’t normally come close to dry retching much but this nearly got her. We feel like they are a few decades behind in environmental issues: hope they learn quicker than the rest of us.

We made it a shop called “Barefoot”, bit of a SriLankan institution. Opened in 1964, selling clothes, homewares and souvenirs. All made locally. Cafe out back in the shade. Curry and rice for lunch; superb. 

Tuk tuk home for nap. We are all over Colombo, well this tiny corner anyway.

The sunset occurred while we were on the beach front area known as Gallè face park on the waterfront. Some good waves behind the signs warning you that death may occur if you swim here. Dinner was at a long standing beachfront street food shop known as “nanas”. Fantastic food, warm beers no so good.