Colombo, Sri Lanka

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

We’ve crossed the Indian Ocean and have arrived at Sri Lanka, an island famous for its elephants. There were no elephants for me, though, as I toured the southwest coast of this tropical nation.

Where am I?

So, what’s been happening?

This morning when I woke up, I stepped outside onto my balcony and this is the sight I beheld.

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But, my plans today involved very little of Colombo because I’m was my way to Negombo, a little tourist village on the coast north of Colombo.

The bus left at 10:30am and I was on it! It was about a one hour drive up the coast. Before we could get on the expressway to Negombo, we had to leave Colombo. Now, all that I really got to see of this city was the port area which is totally industrial. It’s hard to judge the conditions of anyplace by limiting your exposure to an industrial area, but that’s pretty much all I got to see as well left the port. There were a few new residential developments that I saw. For example, here is a new apartment complex that we drove by.

If you only look at the small picture on this page, those buildings look pretty nice, and they are. But, if you click on that photo to see a larger version and then zoom in on the balconies, you’ll see that there is either an economic condition at play, or that I’m just a victim of culture shock. Are clothes dryers very expensive, or is this just a cultural thing? I really don’t know.

Along the expressway to Negombo I saw people living along a canal in homes no better than plywood shacks in shanty towns. In fact, all through this day it seemed to me that there are very wealthy people and organizations as well as very poor ones. Most people seem poor by US standards, and there seemed to be a very small middle class.

On the way, the tour guide was filling us in on the history and the makeup of Sri Lanka. He told us that the island has had many names, most recently Ceylon.

He also told us that christians are in a very small minority: only about 4.5% of the population. However, in Negombo (where we were approaching quickly) there is a christian majority.

I saw plenty of evidence of that as we entered the outskirts of the town. There were catholic churches on every other block. I still saw plenty of muslim women and even a Hindu man, but I think that the number of churches tells the story.

As we got closer to the beach where our resort-for-the-day was waiting, the scenery became more colorful.

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Our destination, The Jetwalk Blue Resort, was a rather nice place to hang out for a few hours, at least by my own personal feelings on the matter. It is a very high end resort by standards in this area, but it felt more like some beach resorts in Mexico. It was nice enough, but it was most certainly not the Four Seasons. Here are a few photos of the resort to give you an idea of what I mean.

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And perhaps the most picturesque view to be found at the resort was the beach.

Of course, my personal favorite area was the hotel bar! It’s not that I just can’t stop drinking (I know what you’re thinking…be careful…) but I had several motivations to be there:

1. The bar has A/C and it’s 90º+ with equally high humidity
2. The bar has cold beer
3. The bar has good wi-fi

And since I’m talking about beer, would it be a coincidence that these were the two beers I had?

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I was thinking that if this had been a nude beach I could have enjoyed Lions, and Tigers, and bares. Oh, my!

I also inquired (as I often do when traveling) as to what the official (or unofficial) national alcoholic beverage is. Every country seems to have one. So does Sri Lanka. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Arrack.

Arrack is made from coconut palm sap. In Sri Lanka it is typically a very refined spirit. I would say that it tasted much like a good añejo tequila but with a slightly lighter body of flavor. It was really quite good. I had two shots before we left.

So at the end of my visit to Jetwing Blue resort, it was time to pay the bill. Two bottles of beer (750ml each) and two shots of Arrack. Four drinks. Total amount of charge: $16.00. And remember, this is a bar in a resort! The price was fantastic. (I wish the beer had been.)

Well, anyway, at 3pm it was time to get back into the bus for the one hour ride back to the ship. At this point, though, it had obviously become rush hour and the roads were packed. Everybody was crawling along regardless of the direction one was headed. As we got deeper into the industrial area around the pier where we were docked, I started to notice the trucks. I didn’t recognize any of the brands! I guess I’m used to seeing Ford, Freightliner, Mack, White, and other American brands. That’s not what I was seeing here.

Although I saw lots of Lanka Leyland trucks, the most popular ones seemed to be from the Indian automobile company, Tata.

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Needless to say (and many of you will agree with the “needless” part) between the expressway and the port, I saw a lot of Tata’s.

<groan>

Just as I thought we might never reach the ship on that day, the Amsterdam came into view.

I was back on the pier and just outside the ship by 4:30pm, but I had to go investigate that permanent marketplace on the pier. I shopped for clothes or other keepsakes but I couldn’t find anything to my liking except for (another) cap, so that (and this page) are my memories of Sri Lanka.

Back to the room, open a bottle of cold, cold wine and prepare to depart. That was my plan for the rest of the evening. And we all hate smog, but it does help to create pretty sunsets.

Departure

At 6:00pm we had to do something that happens at every port of call: we had to sail away. So here, my friends, is our sad sail-away. Well, not too sad, I guess, because it was also happy hour! Cheers!

As we sailed away toward the western horizon, it looked just like this:

So, what’s coming up?

Tomorrow is a day at sea. Stay with me as I’ll be announcing the “What is it?” animal and you won’t want to miss that. Huh? Right?

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

G’night!