Colombo, Sri Lanka
“It’s not Delhi”
We didn’t visit Colombo until the end of our three weeks in Sri Lanka. As developing-country big cities go, Colombo is not bad. The air is relatively breathable, the driving habits somewhat sane; there is a complete absence of cows and other large animals wandering around, there are no ox- or human-drawn carts. The heat is unbearable, but that’s true for most of the places on our itinerary.
The first part of our visit we stayed at a faded glory old British colonial hotel – it was the place to be seen a hundred years ago. It was down in the “Fort” area, where all the government buildings are. Though there has been a ceasefire for a couple years, the government still had troops stationed every half block or so with machine guns; sections of streets were blocked off; and it was absolutely forbidden to take pictures. It was a little spooky. Given the faded glory, the night we arrived we went looking through the area for a decent place to eat; ended up in a miserable “thought-it-was-upscale” Food Court in a shopping center — we found out later that our hotel lobby restaurant was outstanding as well as personable and inexpensive. We ate there for the remaining nights of our stay.
At the official end of our tour, we headed off to one of the residential areas where we stayed at a delightful (and, unfortunately, expensive) boutique hotel. After two weeks of traveling down-scale, it’s nice to have predictable, functional hot water, air conditioning, and food. We had high-speed, albeit expen$ive and unreliable Internet access, and we spent most of the time getting caught up on email & uploading our website.
Our big adventure in Colombo was discovering the “House of Fashion”, probably the most famous store in all of Sri Lanka. As you know if you read your clothing labels, a fair share of the world’s garments are sewn in Sri Lanka. And some of those make their way to the “House of Fashion”, to be sold at prices 10% of what you’d normally pay. We went on a weekday morning, and it was packed, mostly locals but also in-the-know foreigners. Tommy Hilfiger, Adidas, Nike shirts and pants for $1.50 – $2.00. Here’s Scott (right) looking for clothes (he bought more than Kathy).
After our couple of days back in the “first world” Colombo bungalo, it was with some trepedation that we headed off for our second tour, through southern India – while we had greatly enjoyed our trip to Rajasthan last year, it wasn’t an easy visit – Delhi was so dirty and polluted; there was always the risk (and actuality) of food poisoning, etc. We’d heard that southern India was easier to visit, but one never knows…..
We didn’t visit Colombo until the end of our three weeks in Sri Lanka. As developing-country big cities go, Colombo is not bad. The air is relatively breathable, the driving habits somewhat sane; there is a complete absence of cows and other large animals wandering around, there are no ox- or human-drawn carts. The heat is unbearable, but that’s true for most of the places on our itinerary.
The first part of our visit we stayed at a faded glory old British colonial hotel – it was the place to be seen a hundred years ago. It was down in the “Fort” area, where all the government buildings are. Though there has been a ceasefire for a couple years, the government still had troops stationed every half block or so with machine guns; sections of streets were blocked off; and it was absolutely forbidden to take pictures. It was a little spooky. Given the faded glory, the night we arrived we went looking through the area for a decent place to eat; ended up in a miserable “thought-it-was-upscale” Food Court in a shopping center — we found out later that our hotel lobby restaurant was outstanding as well as personable and inexpensive. We ate there for the remaining nights of our stay.At the official end of our tour, we headed off to one of the residential areas where we stayed at a delightful (and, unfortunately, expensive) boutique hotel. After two weeks of traveling down-scale, it’s nice to have predictable, functional hot water, air conditioning, and food. We had high-speed, albeit expen$ive and unreliable Internet access, and we spent most of the time getting caught up on email & uploading our website.
Our big adventure in Colombo was discovering the “House of Fashion”, probably the most famous store in all of Sri Lanka. As you know if you read your clothing labels, a fair share of the world’s garments are sewn in Sri Lanka. And some of those make their way to the “House of Fashion”, to be sold at prices 10% of what you’d normally pay. We went on a weekday morning, and it was packed, mostly locals but also in-the-know foreigners. Tommy Hilfiger, Adidas, Nike shirts and pants for $1.50 – $2.00. Here’s Scott (right) looking for clothes (he bought more than Kathy).
After our couple of days back in the “first world” Colombo bungalo, it was with some trepedation that we headed off for our second tour, through southern India – while we had greatly enjoyed our trip to Rajasthan last year, it wasn’t an easy visit – Delhi was so dirty and polluted; there was always the risk (and actuality) of food poisoning, etc. We’d heard that southern India was easier to visit, but one never knows…..