The trip from Kuala Lumpur to Sri Lanka was 3.5 hours. As I mentioned in my last blog post, it was extremely delayed so by the time I got to Negombo Airport, it was nearly midnight, which is when I needed to check into my accommodation by. I decided to get a hotel closer to the airport since it would take over an hour to get into Colombo. I went to a SIM card counter that didn’t have a lineup (probably not the best idea since the coverage was extremely bad throughout my time in Sri Lanka, but oh well), exchanged my money to get some Sri Lankan rupees, and then walked outside the airport. As soon as I stepped out, I was surrounded by people asking if I wanted a taxi. I had looked up the price on Uber, and people were offering me almost double the price. Feeling overwhelmed, I tried to step back inside the airport so I could request an Uber (Sri Lanka uses Uber and PickMe), but there was a security guard that wouldn’t let me back inside. I asked if I could at least stand inside the door, so that I could get away from all of the taxi drivers. I requested an Uber and waited for them to come, and it was a ten-minute drive to my accommodation (This Is It Hotel), which (I didn’t realise until I got there) was a Michael Jackson-themed hotel – named after one of his final albums, an album that I had at home. When we got there, it was pitch black. The Uber driver seemed concerned and asked if I was sure that this is where I was staying. I was confused as well. Luckily I had gotten a SIM card so I was able to phone the front desk, and they opened the door for me. I noticed that my Uber driver had pulled over to make sure I got into the accommodation okay. I was taken to my room, which was themed for a couple who would have just gotten married. Not me, but I’ll take it! I didn’t get to sleep until after 1, which would have been nearly 5am Japan time. A fun fact is that Sri Lanka is on a time zone that is on the half hour from the rest of the world (like Newfoundland in Canada).
The next morning, I had a slow and lazy morning and didn’t leave until my check-out time. I requested an Uber to take me into Colombo, which would be about 3000 rupees (around $15). I like using apps for transportation because it’s a set price, and I can pay with my card so I can save cash for other things. However, I quickly found out that Sri Lankan drivers only like it when you pay cash. I got picked up and within 30 seconds of getting into the Tuktuk, he asked if I had cash. “Well yes, but I’ve already paid with card…” We kept going back and forth, but couldn’t understand what the other person was trying to say. He got out to get my accommodation owner so that she could translate. She said that he needed cash because he wouldn’t get the money in his account for 5 days. I explained that I would be paying twice, because they’ve already taken the money from my account. The driver told me to cancel the ride and pay with cash, but when I tried to do that, the app still wanted me to pay for the ride that I cancelled. I said that he would have to cancel because I wasn’t going to pay, so then he finally cancelled. Luckily I had exchanged some money at the airport because otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to pay him anyway! The ride was over an hour into Colombo, but I finally got to my hostel (one of two hostels I stayed in during my time in Sri Lanka, both of which were pretty grungy). We had a lot of difficulty finding the place – it was on a backroad and there weren’t any signs anywhere. It was also pretty sketchy, and there were quite a few homeless people sleeping in the entrance. The hostel owner was nice, and she warned the Tuktuk drivers. She said to always use the apps because they will rip you off otherwise. I asked where to eat and she told me to go to a place close by, called Sea Fish. I walked in, was barely acknowledged, and led to a table that hadn’t been cleaned (I had read bad reviews about the service here). However, I also read that it had good seafood. This was one thing I took advantage of in Sri Lanka, as most of the seafood was extremely cheap – especially compared to Australia and Canada. I got grilled shrimp with mashed potatoes, which was quite good! After that, I decided to check out some of the temples. I took a Tuktuk to Gangaramaya Temple. You had to pay the entrance fee and leave your shoes at the front (one thing that was annoying about a lot of the temples was that you had to pay for them to store your shoes, and you weren’t allowed to carry your shoes around). Luckily this temple didn’t charge for shoe storage. The temple was quite nice, and the inside was so bright and colourful! There were a few rooms that didn’t really have any significance to me, as I don’t know much about the Buddhist religion. As I was walking out of one of the rooms, there was a man with his wife and mother, who asked if I had seen the photos in the room. He led me back in and went through each of the paintings with me, explaining what they meant, and then he introduced me to his family. It was nice to have someone explain everything, only because they wanted to share – I always find that extremely special!
After exploring that temple, I walked five minutes to a smaller one, which was on the lake – Gangarama Seema Malakaya. I had to pay and leave my shoes at the front again. This temple was also very nice – calm and relaxing.
After exploring the temples, I wasn’t sure what to do but I saw that there was a shopping mall across the street, so I went inside just as it started to rain. That rain turned into a full-on thunderstorm! My plan had been to go to Galle Face Green, which is a local market along the beach where there are tons of food vendors. However, I wasn’t sure if anything would be happening in the rain. I decided to wait out the rain, since the forecast said it would stop within the next hour. But then, the forecast kept extending the time the longer I waited. It had started to get dark since it was 6pm, so I chose to order a Tuktuk to take me to a Vietnamese restaurant (I know – Vietnamese for my first dinner in Sri Lanka? But I read that it was the only Vietnamese restaurant in Sri Lanka and that it was rated quite high. Plus, pho on a rainy day sounded quite nice!). I went to Pho Vietnam, and enjoyed a really good pho and then got a Tuktuk back to my hostel.
When I got back, there was a girl from Israel there (Orel). We chatted for a bit and then she asked if I wanted to go for dinner. I told her that I’d come along and get a drink since I had already eaten. I was glad that I went with her since walking in the dark alone didn’t seem like a good idea. I got a mango mojito (quite interesting.. not sure if mint goes well with other fruit though), and she got the daal, which I tried – it was delicious (daal was one of my favourites every time I got food in Sri Lanka). We got back to the hostel quite late and then went to bed.
The next morning, I had breakfast at the hostel. I had said “no bread,” so they gave me some eggs and a couple bananas. I had a few things that I was running low on (face wash and contact solution), so I wanted to buy those since I wasn’t sure how easy they’d be to find in the rest of the country. Orel and another Israeli guy (Bar) joined me to the Pettah Market, which was quite busy! On the way, we stopped at the train station so I could get my ticket for later that day. I had booked my ticket online, but still had to collect it in person. It was so confusing trying to figure out where to go, as they had about 20 ticket counters, each for something different. I was finally able to get my ticket, and then we continued to the market. I found some contact solution and stocked up on wet wipes and hand sanitiser. I was getting quite hungry (unfortunately, not being able to have bread/toast in the morning always makes me hungry shortly after breakfast), so we went to a place called Arunthathee Vihaar. It was good, especially for the fact that it had air conditioning so we could get out of the 35-degree heat. I got the vegetarian platter and it was SO much food (I noticed that with most of my meals, Sri Lankans like to overserve. The amount of food that they’d give to just me could feed my whole family, and I was hardly ever able to finish a meal). I’m not even sure if I made it through half of the food, but it was still so good!
We headed back to the hostel and I instantly ordered a Tuktuk to take me back to the shopping mall. I had seen that there was a Body Shop there (which I was surprised about), so I decided to get face wash from there, instead of a random brand from the general store. However, they didn’t have any small bottles so I decided to just buy a huge bottle (which was quite expensive), and I’d have to buy small 100mL travel bottles later so that I could still fly with it. I got a Tuktuk to the hostel, grabbed my stuff, and then walked to the train station. I had no idea where to go, since I couldn’t find an information table with destinations and platform times, and none of the platforms had any information on them either. I went to one of the officers to ask, and he told me to go to platform 4. I waited and waited, but I still wasn’t sure if I was at the right place so I asked some locals, and they told me that I was fine. The train still didn’t come when it was supposed to, but after about a half hour, it finally came (apparently Sri Lankan trains never come on time, but the buses are usually quite reliable). I was on my way to Habarana, which would take over 4 hours (it was probably closer to 5 since it kept falling more and more behind). But I’ll save that for the next post. Love always
Prairie Girl Abroad 