I will try to give an unbiased, clear account of our time Colombo and hopefully give no clues to you, the reader, that I hated it, bloody hated it.
Ooppps - failed already. I'll start from the start.
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| Colombo Sunset |
We landed to Colombo and everything went okay. Flight landed, collected bags, even got a free visa - woohoo! We got a taxi to our guesthouse and that's where things started to go awry. A very nice driver, he seemed so anxious that we enjoy our time in Sri Lanka. So much so that he insisted that if we wanted anything, ANYTHING, to ask him. How nice you say? Indeed. Travel advice, accommodation, even much coveted tickets to the Cricket World Cup quarter final (his sister worked in the ticket office). Anything we wanted he would provide. For free even. What a friendly people you say? Indeed.
The next day we wake bright and early with one thing in mind. Our Chinese Visa. We didn't want to process our much needed visa for China in India as apparently it's one of the worst places to do so (according to people on the Internet and they can't be wrong). So our plan was to process our visa in Colombo, go to the hills for a few days, back to Colombo to collect it and head to the beaches. Not to be. We missed the visa processing time so we had to wait till the next day. Perfect opportunity to do some sightseeing in Colombo.
We walked around, camera in hand, looking like typical tourists only begging to be ripped off. While taking pics of a glorious sunset, we were approached by a man us asking were we going to the festival. We said we didn't know of any festival and he went on to tell us that today was a special day, that a holy temple that only opens one day a year was open today and it was so special that he had been given the evening off work to see it. We should not miss it. We said we might go but we wanted to take photos of the sunset first. He got very insistent and left in a huff. Peculiar... We then walked a few minutes and spotted a snake charmer. He asked if we wanted to take pictures holding the snakes and we figured a good photo opportunity. After the pics, he demanded 50 quid. Stunned, we managed to talk him down but still were annoyed as he had approached us not the other way around. What fools we were! Next minute another man approached us, telling us to hurry to see the elephant and the temple before it closes for the year. He was going home from work and would share his tuk tuk with us. Nice of him huh? We hopped in, eager to get away from the snake charmer rip offs.
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| Elephant for the Temple... Really? |
Well out of the frying pan and into the fire, this guy was as bad. He brought us to the temple and was so overcome that we had decided to visit his country all the way from our own, that he had to, as his patriotic duty, show us around the temple. We began to get suspicious when he knew the dates and details of every pillar and post in the temple, but it was interesting and beautiful and there was a king elephant so we soon forgot our suspicions. At the end of the temple he asked did we want to go see where the elephants were kept at night. My love for all things elephant-like said yes without seeing the obvious scam. The waiting tuk tuk brought us to a local green area and there were 2 huge elephants camped out with their mamuts. We were brought over to feed and rub one - happiness! After our time with the elephants we told our patriotic friend that we would part ways with him. Only for him to insist, INSIST we go to see the gem expo that was, coincidence, today also. Smelling a rat (finally) we said no but he was insistent, and I like shiny things, so we went. Okay I'll admit it, I'm weak, I fell for the sales talk and I bought a necklace there. But it was pretty... No doubt Mr "on his way home from work" got a huge commission. So outside the gem shop we told him we were done and thanks for his kindness but he demanded to drive us home as his country wasn't safe at night. We (the suckers) agreed and once we got dropped off were hit with a 100euro bill for the last 90mins, 50 for the guide and 50 for the driver, even though we tried to let the driver go several times. Annoyed, angry and self conscious from the crowd who were gathered around us (drawn by the guides protestations) we threw the equivalent of 20E at them and stormed off.
Our first scam and thankfully we didn't get caught for too much. But between snake charmers, people on their way home from work, and tuk tuk drivers who were constantly doubling the price of things for us, we were sick of Colombo and it's rip offs. Time to get our visa done and get out of here.
We handed in our Visa and were told to come back in 5 days (but at the same time given the general impression that we may or may not be given said visa - Que anxious feeling that Alan was going to kill us for his solitary trip to China).
We ate lunch in a posh hotel that had stunning views over the harbour and spent an enjoyable few hours looking out at the ships and tankers coming in to the busy port. That is, until we realised we were the only ones who were enjoying the view. Everyone else was standing around a small television, glued to the screen. The Japanese earthquake and devastating tsunami had hit. This would be awful enough on its own if it wasn't for the fear factor it brought with it to the Sri Lankan people. The 2004 tsunami that hit Thailand so badly and hit 3 coasts of Sri Lanka and killed so many people. This new tsunami brought with it a lot of fear.We were advised to get to higher ground.
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| Train to Kandy, Stunning! |
So we did. With a very enjoyable train ride to Kandy, Sri Lankas hill station. We got to our guesthouse, a lovely house up in the hills surrounded with green. Green trees, green grass, green bushes. It was like our eyes remembered we were Irish all over again. And our guesthouse did have one more thing in abundance - monkeys! They were everywhere, in the trees, on the roads, sitting on fences, on top of cars and in one situation being chased out of a house by a woman with a sweeping brush (monkeys are desperate thieves and are not welcome in peoples houses).
We spend a few days in Kandy and even though it appears to have lots to do up there, it didn't. The town was dull, the people didn't speak much English and although there were lots of sights and things to do around Kandy, no one could tell us how to get there to do them. We spent a lot of time online watching the horrors of the Fukishima nuclear power plant unfold.
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| Temple of the Sacred Tooth |
But there was one nice attraction that we enjoyed seeing in Kandy, a monastery that houses a tooth from Buddha himself. It would seem that on his funeral pyre a monk reached in and pulled out his incisor tooth and brought it to Sri Lanka to be worshipped. And judging by the crowds of pilgrims that surrounded the temple every day it's quite the tourist trap! Apart from the tooth, the most interesting artifact there was a stuffed elephant. Not a furry toy, Raja the royal elephant whose job it was to carry the tooth of Buddha on pilgrimages, became a national treasure and after his death was preserved with the art of taxidermy to be displayed for ever. Yes it was creepy.
So back to Colombo we went to get our visas (approved!) and catch the evening train to our next stop on our tour of Sri Lanka. Mirissa beach.
Elaine (16th of March 2011)
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