Serendipity in Colombo

 

What a surprise Colombo turned out to be – we have never been here before and there is not a lot of information around so we had nothing really by which to gauge this port. We had originally booked a Princess Tour (our first) to go to Kandy, the ancient capital. However when we watched the port talk, we discovered that Kandy is 3 ½ - 4 hours drive from Colombo, and we didn’t fancy sitting in a bus for eight hours, so we decided to cancel those tickets. From the talk, there seemed to be lots of interesting things to see around Colombo, so we decided to stay in town.

 The port gates are 4 kms. from our dock, so we had to catch the ships shuttle, which dropped us at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, in the centre of the commercial district. Once again, it was rush hour and the traffic was crazy – little three wheels tuk-tuks weaving in between the cars, buses, motorbikes and pedestrians. At the hotel we spoke to the concierge and said that we wanted to find a taxi who would give us a tour of the city. He walked us over to a taxi, where the young driver spoke acceptable English, and we asked him the price – 3400 rupees for four hours – sounds a lot but in reality, it was about 30 dollars, so we jumped at the idea and climbed in.

Life can be full of serendipitous surprises when you are in the right place at the right time and our first stop was exactly that. These Sri Lankans have the longest names I have ever seen, and I can’t  pronounce our driver's name so I will call him Colombo.

As we set off from the hotel, Colombo said that the first stop would be the Asokarayama Buddist Temple, the biggest in the city. This drew a few looks and inward groans cause we are feeling a like we have seem too many temples on this trip, but we kept quiet and that was a great decision, cause we had two highlight experiences at the temple.

As we were walking around and listening to the stories of the temple, we heard music and chanting, so we asked what was happening. He replied that it was JUST a Buddhist wedding, and did we want to see it.

Well, of course!!!

We walked to the other side of the temple, where we had seen some preparations being made earlier, and watched as the musicians and dancers escorted the groom, his family and entourage up the stairs. The wedding ensembles were spectacular traditional creations of red velvet and gold braid with white ‘skirts’. At the top of the stairs a young boy of about three stepped forward and washed feet of the groom - he was all smiles as he  was presented with a tiny gold ring by the groom when he had finished and ran around to show the ring to all his relatives, as small boy do!!
Once the groom was standing in place beside the altar, the musicians and dancers left to meet the bride at the street and escort her into the ceremony. She was beautiful in traditional dress in a rich heavy cream silk which was delicately embroidered at the front, and semi-backless, accompanied by her family and attendants.
After they were led up the stairs, the dancers put on a display of acrobatics, somersaulting across the floor to the applause of the guests.
Down in the museum section are a lot of objects which have been donated to the temple, from what I could understand they are as a way to show gratitude for the spiritual guidance they have had – there were watches, old computers, money, coins, gem stones, furniture and almost anything of value. One display case held the most precious Budda according to Colombo – it was minute – about ½ cm high - and its value was because of the intricate carving on such a small scale – the case had a magnifying spot in the side to get a better look.
While we were in museum, the second highlight happened for me. A group of elderly Sri Lankan ladies filed in (like a seniors bus excursion, I guess) and when they saw me taking photos, one came across and tugged at me, and then stood in front of me and smiled – she wanted her photo taken. What followed was pure delight, as they all jostled to get into the photos and then see themselves on the display at the back of the camera – all the while accompanied by hysterical laughter as they saw their photos and pointed out their friends. I had just as much fun as they did watching the pleasure that such a simple thing brought to their day – although neither of us knew a word of the others language.
Our tour continued around the main sights – the National Museum, hallowed ground of the Sri Lankan National Cricket ground and practice academy, the Australian Embassy and then onto the Independence Memorial Hall.
Sitting on the steps at the hall were a group of six and seven year old school children who were on a school excursion and had just finished eating their lunch. We were captivated by their beautiful smiles and big brown eyes – our guide spoke to one of the teachers and she said that they were learning English – and when they knew that we spoke English – a couple of the girls came over to speak to us. ‘What is your name’ and ‘one, two three, four, five’ accompanied by cute giggles as they told us the English that they had learned. They also lined up for photos – you can see from the photos that kids are the same worldwide – the girls put on their mature smiles and sat quietly while the boys jumped around and showed off!! Another fun interlude – I won’t remember the details of the dates of the Independence Hall, but I will always remember the wonderful kids we met there.
As we were leaving, we saw the students from a private secondary school – and the teachers wore saris in the same colours as the girls uniforms – a rich blue colour.
At the end of our tour, we said farewell, and then went into the adjacent shopping mall, billed as the most modern in Colombo for lunch. I ordered a Marsala Dhosa, since we had cooked them in Mumbai – like a huge crepe made from chickpea flour - it was enormous with four different spicy dipping sauces on a silver tray – delicious and cost 240 rupees – less than $2!! Bargain!!
We had expected to spend a few hours at the mall, but it wasn’t what we had expected as far as the shopping goes, so we made the best of the other facilities – I had a manicure for $3, while Arnold had a $8 haircut and then we both had reflexology foot massages for about $12 – what a great afternoon.
After meeting up with Jo and Garry we found a bar and had a cold drink – Pineapple Mojitos - before returning to the shuttle bus and saying goodbye to Colombo.
A large group of about 100 passengers left the ship in Mumbai for the overland trip to the Taj Mahal and they embarked again in Colombo, so we spent a couple of very pleasant hours sitting out on deck with a cold drink - listening to their tales from the tour as we sailed away from Colombo, after another wonderful day.

Note - For future cruisers to Colombo – Princess charge $8 each way for the shuttle into town. I couldn’t find any details about private tours on the internet when we were booking, but when we came back to the port, I spied a stand for Private taxi tours, so I went over to speak to them about their services – they are the only company allowed by the port authority onto the wharf, they charge about $15 per hour, and will custom a tour  to suit you – one couple I spoke to went up to the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage, about 2 ½ hours from Colombo in a van, for $100 for eight passengers for a full day – cheaper than the shuttle per couple into town - and they were very happy with the tour – their driver spoke good English. We didn’t use them so I don’t have firsthand experience with them, but they may be worth checking out if you want a private tour –according to the brochure their internet address is www.jettyhiringcarassociation.com

    Captain, throw off those lines and let us head to Kuala Lumpur, our last international port as we make our way back to Australia……….