Yep, we made it to Sri Lanka after a short flight on a quite empty China Eastern Airlines flight. Biggest hiccup was at check-in at the Maldives departure point, where they wanted to see our Sri Lankan visas… which are e-visas and therefore have no “physical” stamp.
Eventually they gave in and simply allowed as through. Anyway, that’s something to bear in mind in this age of digital convenience.
We arrived middle of the night at Colombo, and couldn’t find our pickup driver. There were dozens and dozens of drivers waiting, but no one for us. Luckily, a very kind and helpful official (I think he was some sort of driver organiser) approached us and phoned our hostel for us. They said our driver was there, we should just look… After a bit, the organiser-guy came up to me again, and said he had spoken to our driver by phone, and had arranged that we should meet him outside by the post office. I was very impressed by the help!
Anyway, the hostel was cheap, and showed it. But serviceable for the 1.5 nights we were there.
Breakfast on our first morning:
And the reception area and pool
We spent a day in Colombo, in the Fort and Petta areas. We took a local bus the 4km from the hostel. That was an experience in itself. In fact so much an experience, that I didn’t manage to get my camera out to take a photo.
We walked about 20km through the market at Petta to a food court in the Fort area. Malene says it was 1.5 km, but I disagree in the heat and humidity.
Some pictures of the market area…
Lunch at the food court.
And a race home to the hostel in some tuktuks.
