Day 2 – 22 January 2019

Sri Lanka – Colombo

Backpack Lanka Hostel

Spent 11,800rps ($90)

Today has felt like a whirlwind. We’ve only been travelling for 2 days and it already feels like two weeks. I think because so much changes in a day, it’s hard to think back to what you did that morning, let alone the day before.

Today we got the train to Colombo, this journey started out with Tim experiencing his first tuk-tuk. After the driver getting pretty lost he ended up taking us to the central rail station, 10 minutes further than where we needed to go, and we paid 100rps (70c) for it. Even with the detour we still caught the train which cost us 100rps each for a 3rd class ticket. 

Luckily there was only two platforms in Negombo so the train station was easy to navigate. We hopped on a quiet carriage and stood with our bags next to the open doors. Doors do not exist on Sri Lankan trains, even the ones that have doors have them jammed open, I don’t think you could close them even if you wanted to. On speaking to Gill, my Sri Lankan friend, about this she described the culture as “number one priority is a cool breeze, safety is at your own intelligence”. I guess this is something that western people would never even be trusted with. Either we’re idiots, or the incidents in less developed countries go unspoken/unactioned. Anyway, what a feeling being able to sit on the floor next to the open door and watch the world go by. I chose not to take any chances dangling feet over the edge or trying to get the perfect Instagram photo swinging out of the carriage. It was a great first experience, but not one I’m willing to push the boundaries of life and death for. There was so much observing to be done; people walking down the tracks, hanging out their washing and the landscape was so colourful. We sat next to locals for some of the journey, people here are just the friendliest, smiling at you all the time and offering you seats. 

We arrived in Colombo and were extremely grateful for the PickMe app (equivalent of Uber) to book tuktuks. Haggling a good price can be such a task when you have no idea what you should be paying. This way everything was metered and the driver had our location on a map. 

After dropping our bags at the hostel we headed straight for the Galle Face Hotel, a five star hotel which was built in 1846. It’s right on the oceanfront and has the most beautiful view when sat in the Verandah restaurant. From here we could see where China is creating its own part of Sri Lanka, literally extending the country by dumping sand in the sea. 

This is where we had our first Sri Lankan curry. I had yellow vegetable and Tim had chicken coconut. It’s presented with the rice wrapped in (what I assume is) a banana leaf, with five little dishes of different curry/condiments and two poppadoms. The curry is served on the side and you just dump it all onto the rice together and enjoy. There were so many flavours, so many combinations to try. I’m so excited to have more curries here, I could eat curry day and night for the rest of my life.  

To finish the day off we decided that we’d go watch the sunset from a rooftop bar called OZO. We only had an hour until sunset, so we walked back to the hostel for a quick costume change and jumped in a tuktuk to the bar. Luckily the guy took the route along the oceanfront so we were able to catch the best of the sunset from there. His driving shaved 10 minutes off the estimated time of arrival, centre road markings mean nothing to anyone here. If there’s space on the road, they’re driving in it, even if it’s into oncoming traffic. I’ve not seen one crash yet, they must know what they’re doing.

A few side notes/stories to remember:

• During our post lunch tea/coffee I had marks all over my arms and legs, panic set in and I googled what it could mean. Bartonella or Lyme Disease was the diagnosis. After half an hour of research, we realised it was how I was sitting on the chair, leaving imprints of wicker. This level of paranoia is new, I hope this isn’t a sign of ageing…
• Once we got to the top of OZO, I struggled to enjoy any views of the ground below, fear of heights is getting worse. It’s the thought of falling off the edge, I get flashes of it happening and then it hurts to go near the edge or look down. Somehow need to get over this, will look into