Sri Lanka was never a top priority on my travel bucket list, but after hearing several friends rave about it and seeing the price of the plane ticket I was convinced. It was worth it. Although not in my top ten, heck even possibly my top twenty places I wanted to visit, Sri Lanka was absolutely beautiful. After our hectic work schedule prior to departure, we opted for a relaxing start just outside of Colombo in the beach suburb of Mount Lavinia.
On our way to the beach.
Our extended month in the desert had left us on a search for all things unKuwaiti: nature, colour, revealing clothes, pork, booze, dancing, music, and interacting in public with the opposite sex. All things that would shock and scandalize our regular lives in Kuwait. The biggest thing for me being surrounded by things that weren't beige and covered in dust was the most refreshing thing yet. One of the hardest transitions in living here has been the stark landscape. Also being able to have some bacon on your burger doesn't hurt either.
The beach at Mount Livinia, it's not the best one I've ever been to, but it was a really great place to relax and read a book. In the distance you can see Colombo.
The restaurant we dominated for several meals a day, for several days.
However, we did manage to venture into Colombo. We got a tuk-tuk driver to take us into the city, where we wanted to hit up the market. Upon arrival at the Manning Market, just outside of the old colonial area referred to as the Fort, it became clear that despite our guide book's write up, that this was a place that tourists rarely ventured. Our tuk-tuk driver whisked away and we began to make our way down the dirt paths, through the small tin shacks that contained a variety of produce and household goods. The air was thick with humidity, smelling of over ripe fruit and car exhaust. Curious stares followed us as we walked along, and occasionally dare to take a photo. In my time living and travelling abroad, I have found that most places although foreign from the everyday norms I grew up with, can still be warm, inviting and like you belong. This was not one of those times, although I did not fear for my safety, there was an uneasiness, a strong sense that we were unwelcome there. It was odd, because as we carefully walked amongst these people going about their daily lives and weekly purchases, that uneasiness was such a contrast to the rest of our time in Sri Lanka, where stories of our home, lives, families and careers were exchanged with locals and we felt completely at ease. Our short tour of the market ended, we made our way back to the gate where we had originally entered, personally I was doubting whether we should have left our oasis just a few kilometres down the coast. We debated our next move, and then found a tuk-tuk driver and asked him to take us to the old dutch hospital, the guide book recommended it as a must see thing in Colombo, but I was starting to question its reliability. The tuk-tuk driver told us he knew where it was, and asked if we wanted to go strait there or see some of the sites around. I cautiously agreed, not sure if this was going to be a scam of some sort. It wasn't.
Our new tuk-tuk guide took us in loops around the old city, stopping at temples, monuments, Parliament, he pointed out old buildings built by the Dutch and British, the high end hotels, making sure to tell us which cricket player stayed at which one, of course those tidbits where completely lost on me. There was a snake charmer, which based on the non deadly bites on his hand, I'm pretty sure his cobras had their fangs removed. We paid him anyhow, not sure how I felt about the ethics of animals' fang removal versus the safety of me being close to live poisonous animals. It was only a couple months before in Kenya where standing outside the cage of a black mamba, I wondered if my health insurance policy considered attending a snake show an "extreme risk activity" and therefore wouldn't cover any treatment.
We were dropped off at the end at the Old Dutch hospital. It had been built in the early 17th century by dutch nuns, it has sense be transformed from a heath care facility to a collection of restaurants and shops. We had lunch at a small tea shop, where I had a peach tea soda, it was brilliant. We did some shopping and made our way through the city to the train station to purchase our tickets for the following day to Kandy. We passed old building, some abandoned, others transformed it to roti shops, corner stores and banks.
On our way to the train station, we go turned around and asked a man for directions, and got pulled into the classic scam of, "oh no, its so far, here take a tuk-tuk, only 100 rupees." We whizzed past the monuments and buildings that had been previously pointed out to us that day, in the opposite direction of where I was certain the train station was. Well of course the tuk-tuk did not take us to the train station, but instead a gem wholesaler, which honestly may have been more along the cut glass line. Classic tourist trap. When we wandered into the shop we were greeted by a very friendly gentleman who told us all about the different types of gem stones that could be found in Sri Lanka. At the end of speech he clasps his hands looking very kindly at us and ask "What would you like to see?" To which Hylin happily told him, "well honestly, we aren't really interested in Gemstones."
We left the shop to relocate our tuk-tuk driver who was no where to be found. We flagged down a new one and made our way back long the same roads and monuments to the train station in the direction that I was sure it was in. We secured our tickets to Kandy for the next day at counter 12, which was located no where near counter 11, or 13, in second class express for a grand total of $2 a piece.
We grabbed another tuk-tuk who took the long way back to Livinia, but we made in time for sunset.
Our last day in Livinia was spent on the beach with our books and the sun, it was perfect, we waited until the dreaded time we had to leave at noon to make our way to the next destination of Kandy. It was worth it.
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