Colombo (and other cities) - Days 102-107
- Meghann
- Nov 17, 2017
- 5 min read
Finally off to a new continent - Asia awaits! But it was quite the sleep-deprived, jet-lagged journey to get there.
Once again, the Larson's were lovely hosts the evening before our departure - a brand new grill, tasty sausages, and Katie's baked goods mmmm. All topped off with a viewing of the finale of West World.
We had an early morning flight and were immediately asked to show our Indian visas despite us not spending any time in India (our flight was into Delhi but we had another flight booked out to Sri Lanka right away). A few days prior to leaving, we thought that it might be a good idea to get a [somewhat pricey] Indian visa, just in case. And good thing we did! Phew. Flight to our London layover was nice and smooth. Watched a whole bunch of movies - the ones I watched were quite bad and cheesy (Aloha, Rough Night, Baywatch) while Ben opted for more quality flicks (Ghost in a Shell, Edge of Tomorrow, Life).
Our original plan for this 20 hour layover in London was to have Samm and Emily show us around. Too bad the dates coincided with their South African honeymoon. Fortunately, our friend Maggie, Samm's sister and long-time London resident, was gracious enough to let us stay with her! Thanks Maggie!
Time zone changes are awful. We arrived at Maggie's at 11pm, which was actually our 5pm. Sleep came easily and quickly enough since we were up early that morning for the
long flight. But we set an alarm and forced ourselves to wake up at 9am (our 3am) - boy that was rough. It helped to walk around a bit so Maggie took us walking along the canals (Who knew London had canals??) and we had breakfast on a little boat-restaurant in aptly named Little Venice. To help keep us awake, we decided to go on a long walk up towards the Camden Lock markets. And they are awesome! Tons of little shops, food vendors from every cuisine imaginable (including an arepa stand from Colombia, gross), and lots and lots of twists and turns. We definitely got lost multiple times. After a nice lunch, our exhaustion started to set in. Ben almost had to carry me back. We packed up once again and headed back to Heathrow for our red eye to Delhi.
Given our exhaustion today, you'd think we'd be able to sleep well on the flight. Nope. For one, we just couldn't get comfy. Plus, baby. Crying all night. So we dazedly caught up on some Silicon Valley - so funny. Jin Yang is the best.
Delhi airport is so chaotic. Lines everywhere that most people just ignore anyway. Terribly slow service. Took us a few hours to get through immigration on arrival then checked back in for our flight to Colombo. But we finally were able to use Ben's priority pass to get us lounge access! Free food and drinks, hot shower, cozy seats, wifi. The dream.
During our Mumbai layover, we had to go through a lengthy emigration process. Something wasn't right with our info in their system and no one seemed to be able to figure it out. It took so long that we had to sprint to our gate. Jeez this country. Finally made it to Colombo though! And passed out immediately.
Whoops slept until 4pm. Jet lag, man. Finally got moving and walked around our little beach area in Mount Lavinia to try to find dinner. This guy, David, ended up walking with us for awhile and we got to chatting. He said he'd take us to a little turtle conservation area up the beach. He was a nice guy, told us about Sri Lanka and gave us some recommendations. I was fully on board to embrace the local love but Ben was a bit skeptical. He did end up asking for a tip at the end, which was a bit weird. But harmless. Twenty four hours after arriving in Colombo, we finally had some food - vegetable curry and chicken masala. Not the best food, but nice scenery right on the beach!
We actually woke up at a decent hour today - 10am! Getting better at least. We took a tuk tuk to downtown Colombo to explore the touristy sites today, starting with Gangaramaya temple. Full of really neat Buddha statues of all sizes and a dope fig tree (we would soon learn that these holy fig trees are everywhere). Across the street was the Seema Malala temple - not as neat, but beautiful spot right in the middle of a lake. The park around the lake was full of locals on their lunch break so we walked around and people watched. It was our first experience with people straight up eating with their hands! Pretty wild to watch at first.
Midday in Colombo is hot. Very hot. We were in dire need of some AC so ducked inside of some higher end hotel lobbies to cool down. The Hilton life is plush (sorry Ty). Maybe one day we can travel in luxury like this.
One more stop on our downtown Colombo tour for the day: the Pettah markets. Chaos. Ben was a tad overwhelmed (and hot again already) and wanted to leave immediately. Good thing we didn't end up visiting India, don't think we could've handled it as our first stop in Asia.
We got to experience our first street food tonight - street kottu! It was absolutely delicious. Enjoyed it back at our hostel with a few beers while streaming the Chelsea game and playing cribbage. We'll call this a Bruden-style evening. Likely the last of this type of night for awhile since our visitors begin arriving tomorrow - starting with Tyler!
The goal was to wake up early, grab a nice breakfast, then make our way over to the hotel to greet Tyler when he arrives. But, we overslept - damn it, jet lag. So instead, we quickly showered, threw our stuff in our backpacks and rushed over to the Cinnamon Lakeside hotel only to be greeted by Tyler. But what a greeting! Big hugs all around. We grab our day passes and lounged all morning by this huge, dope pool. Felt great and super relaxing.
In an attempt to get in some history/culture of Colombo, we signed up for a Colombo City Walks tour with Mark that had phenomenal reviews online. We did not get Mark, however. We got Shenelle. And Shenelle was not phenomenal. She was incredibly dull (Possibly a robot?) and made horribly bad jokes after which she would awkwardly pause far too long for response. But we got a few free drinks from it and were able to explore the Fort and Pettah areas for a few hours before our night train to Trinco!