My post about Colombo is in no way indicative of the week-long trip in Sri Lanka. All my impressions about Sri Lanka were super positive until we reached the capital. I generally dislike capitals but Colombo managed to push me over the edge.
Why Colombo
I read so many travel blogs and stories where readers were urged to skip Colombo. The only travel blogger who is positive about the city is Adventurous Kate. My friend and I decided to travel from Kandy to Colombo (and not to Negombo which is closer to the airport) because he really wanted to visit a casino on the last evening like we did in Goa. I would’ve preferred going to Negombo and doing a canal cruise, but with the blog post of Adventurous Kate in mind I conceded.
Arrival
For the first time since the start of the trip we took an A/C bus from Kandy to Colombo. It was freezing! We left Kandy at 5:30pm and we arrived at 9:30pm. Then we had to take a tuk-tuk from the main bus station to our hotel. The first two tuk-tuks we asked didn’t bother assisting us because they didn’t know where we were going. The third offered to help us out for quite a steep price. The arrival at the Whitehouse Residencies was impeccable. We arrived quite late (around 11pm) and the guys still treated us like royalty. Every floor with three rooms has its own breakfast area and we were served drinks while we waited to be checked in.
Getting Scammed All Day Long
First impressions of the city weren’t too bad. We had a delicious breakfast in the hotel and we decided to walk from the hotel to the Fort area which would take us 50 minutes.
Scam 1
About ten minutes into our walk we were approached by a guy who told us he was walking home from work. He had had a night shift in a hotel. He asked us some questions and then he told us we met him at the perfect time because he could take us to a ceremony with Buddha’s hair. He made it sound like a special parade would take place. We had already seen Buddha’s tooth in Kandy so our first response was no thank you. He insisted and I started caving because I didn’t want to miss out on something special… We stopped a tuk-tuk who immediately knew what the guy was talking about. The guy shoved himself next to us in the two-seater tuk-tuk and we were on our way, without discussing a price with the tuk-tuk driver. When we reached the place, we found out it was just another temple. There were hardly any people there and we would have to pay entrance fee.
As I was taking off my shoes I realized how stupid we had been, the guy took advantage of us by getting into the temple for free and waiving his tuk-tuk fees. I put on my shoes again and we left.
Scam 2
The same tuk-tuk driver was waiting at the entrance for us because we hadn’t paid him yet. We were angry with him for not telling us the full story. We told him to drop us off at Pettah for 250 LKR (1,50 euro), which again is not cheap. Pettah is and old commercial area in Colombo, famous for its bazaars. He agreed, he drove a few minutes and then he stopped. He told us he couldn’t drive into Pettah but it would be in the street on the left-hand side.
We believed him. My friend gave the tuk-tuk driver 400 LKR and he refused to give him change. First we took it as a joke, but when the “joke” lasted a few minutes my friend told him he was done with the situation and he would call the police. That’s when the driver handed him the change.
Scam 3
We were nowhere near Pettah… We walked into the street on the left. Nothing in that street resembled an old town with a bazaar. We were being ogled by all the people around us which scared me into putting my Nikon camera in my bag.
By asking people we found out that we were 2.5 km away from Pettah. We decided to skip Pettah and to go to the Fort instead. It was early in the morning but we had had enough of the deceiving and haggling. Nevertheless, tuk-tuk drivers kept coming up to us; to the point where my friend started answering them in Greek.
It was hot, humid and people kept pointing us in the wrong direction. I don’t know what they were getting out of it, but if they were trying to make sure tourists would put Colombo in a bad light, they got what they wanted.
Fort
When we reached the Fort I was relieved. I had been on edge the entire journey. The stream of people approaching us was never-ending but I knew where I wanted to go. The Dutch Hospital.
Let me give you a quick history lesson: like almost everything in Sri Lanka the fort was built by the Portuguese in the 16th century. The Dutch conquered the Fort in 1656 and used it to protect their trading resources. Colombo became the centre for Dutch administration so the Fort had to be designed in such a way that it would offer protection against attacks from the sea and from the interior of the island. The Dutch destroyed part of the Portuguese fortifications and reconstructed them to take advantage of the natural strength of the location between a lake and the sea. Nevertheless, the fort was under siege many times by Sinhalese kings from Kandy. The British took over from the Dutch and Colombo became the capital of the country.
We had already found a Dutch Hospital in Galle, the one in Colombo is more famous and it feels like a safe haven in the busy city of Colombo (until you go to the toilet and get shouted at by the toilet ladies…) There are many nice restaurants inside (we visited Harpo’s Colombo Fort Cafe) and some souvenir shops where we ended up doing most of our shopping.
Fort to Galle Face Green
The walk from the Fort to Galle Face Green was pleasant, but we were still accosted by people at every turn. One time we fled into a shop to stop a guy from talking to us, and he waited for us to come out so my friend looked him in the eyes and asked him why he was following us. This threw the guy off and he walked away. Regardless of all these incidents, the Fort houses some absolutely stunning buildings.
Galle Face Green is blissfully quiet during the day. It’s basically an urban park/promenade right next to the ocean. Nobody bothered us here, so that was really refreshing.
Galle Face Hotel
We didn’t know what else to do in the city, since we didn’t want to take any more tuk-tuks or talk to anyone; so at 4pm we went to Galle Face Hotel which is known for its beautiful sunset view. We were there a little early for the sunset so instead we killed our time by playing with the cutest little squirrels.
If you’re interested in how to train squirrels, check out the pictures below for instructions.
After waiting for 2 hours, we were rewarded with a gorgeous sunset.
Departure
We decided to go to the cinema rather than the casino because we couldn’t bear getting scammed any longer. The cinema turned out to be full so instead we made our way to the airport, much earlier than planned.
Scam 4
Of course, it wouldn’t have been right if we wouldn’t have been scammed one final time. We asked the tuk-tuk driver to drop us off at the place where the airport buses leave from. He took us to a random area in Pettah and asked the bus driver whether he was going to the airport. The driver said yes. This bus took us everywhere in town. The driver asked everyone to pay apart from us. After 1.5 hours we reached the airport, kind of…
Actually, we were nowhere near the airport because we still had to walk around 20 minutes to reach it. On top of that the driver asked us to pay 250 LKR which is expensive for a bus ride. We didn’t feel like arguing though so we paid the guy, took our backpacks on our backs and walked all the way to the airport.
Conclusion
At the airport we had to wait for three hours to even check-in and then three hours to board the flight, luckily there are nice shops in Colombo Airport so we could easily kill the time. If you have a flight at 4am like we did, don’t do what we did. Book a hotel in Negombo and stay there. Better yet, avoid Colombo altogether. One day was way too long. It’s a pity I had to end my stories about Sri Lanka in this way, because as I said before Colombo is not indicative of the rest of the gorgeous country. Sri Lanka is one of my favourite countries so far, and I will certainly go again to visit the cultural sights to the North of Kandy, but I will never go to Colombo again…
