2017 Sri Lanka – Colombo
12th February 2017
When we planned our holiday it wasn’t until I bought the visa online that I discovered that it only lasted 30 days. We were staying 34 days in Sri Lanka and as our flight was already booked we were committed to those dates. We enquired about a visa extension in Colombo at the start of our holiday and were told we could get it during our travels which was wrong as it had to be done in Colombo. There was the possibility of just turning up at the airport with an expired visa and hoping for the best but I read too many unpleasant stories from people who had tried. Some got away with it and others were taken into an office to be interrogated and banned from entering the country again for five years. There was no choice but to travel early to the immigration office on the day our visa expired which meant we weren’t able to use our first-class train tickets for that journey. We had to pay for a three-hour taxi ride and be dropped off at the immigration office.
I left Federika at the office and went with our luggage back to the hotel before re-joining her. The immigration office was in total chaos and we had to queue at five different places which took most of the day. So despite being desperate for tourist income, the government thought it would be a good idea to limit visas to 30 days. Any longer and tourists would be punished by charging them double the price of the original visa and making them jump through hoops to get an extension. The office was packed with tourists who had done the same as us and resented having to waste a day of their holiday in that way. How many millions of dollars did Sri Lanka lose every year from people who limited their holidays to 30 days which we certainly would have done had we known the situation.
We splashed out to stay at the Cinnamon Red Hotel for our last few nights but it was a disappointment. Despite being only two years old the hotel had a major fault with ventilation. We rarely used air conditioning so turned ours off as soon as we arrived. A few hours later our room was very damp and when we told reception they gave us the bizarre instruction to not turn the A/C on. We didn’t want to be forced to use A/C so they moved us to a different room which was no better and after more messing around we gave up. The hotel knew that some of their rooms were damp and their solution was to give two free cupcakes to anyone that complained.
The last few days in Colombo were pretty uneventful. It was Poja Day again (full moon) and that month was an especially big one for Colombo as all the dancers and elephants walked around the city centre instead of a suburb like the previous month. We saw it all when we started our holiday so we just took a short walk near where it was taking place and saw a few performers but we didn’t want to be held prisoner like the last time. I assumed like in most countries, participants in these kinds of festivals did it for fun but I was surprised to learn that in Sri Lanka it was big business. Every month there was a festival somewhere in the country and these same dancers went to each one and got paid. The elephants were privately owned and rented by temples for their festivals. Depending on the distance, they were either delivered by lorry or they walked there. They were even hired for private parties. What a way to impress your friends. To literally have an elephant in the room.
With nothing much to do, we went to the National Museum one morning. I always liked the idea of going to museums and for the first couple of exhibits I would look at them and marvel at their age and imagine someone using it 2000 years earlier. Ten minutes later I become overwhelmed with fatigue and the desire to never see another old pot for the rest of my life. The problem with museums is they defy the golden rule of entertainment, “Always leave them wanting more.” No one in history has ever walked out of a big museum saying, “That was really good but I wish they had more exhibits.”
Our last night was perfect and started back at Galle Face Hotel for Bellinis. We went there on our first night and loved it but must have missed the star attraction. An official-looking man marched slowly from a hotel door followed by a Sri Lankan bagpipe player complete with kilt and sporran. They walked ceremoniously down the two hotel terraces to the edge of the property overlooking the sea. Stopping next to a flagpole the official pulled a string which lowered the Sir Lankan flag so he could take it off and store it overnight before putting it back the next morning. While the bagpiper was wrestling with his instrument in an effort to play a tune, the official couldn’t untie the flag. The bagpiper’s face grew redder and redder while he wished he had taken up the guitar instead. Of course, everyone loved it and it gave us an excuse to have another Bellini as we couldn’t possibly go before he had untied the knot. 
After a pleasant walk along the promenade buzzing with parents and happy children, we passed a huge building site which was part of a ten-year development paid for by the Chinese. A shopping mall and heaven knows what was being built on reclaimed land. According to our tuk-tuk driver (they seem to be the font of all Sri Lankan knowledge), the last prime minister had sold large parts of Sri Lanka to the Chinese and the ordinary workers would get little in return. He claimed that the entire workforce for the project was Chinese so there were very few jobs for locals which I would have thought would be the main condition of allowing such a project. I am sure it was more complicated than that but everyone we spoke to felt they have been sold out by politicians. Then again, I suppose all citizens of all countries felt that way about their governments.
Finally, we arrived at the Ministry of Crab. A superb and well-run establishment which despite being large and expensive you had to book days in advance for lunch or dinner. We had a fabulous meal of crab in chilli sauce. I had been gradually building up my chilly pain threshold and I thought I was getting there but it had a really sloppy sauce which covered my mouth and went up my nose so parts of me not normally exposed to chilli were set on fire. [sg_popup id=”17672″ event=”inherit”]
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The next day our flight was at 10 pm and because of all the trouble we had at the hotel they gave us a free 6 pm checkout. There was a lot of work going on at Colombo airport so I was dreading checking in but I was surprised at how quickly we got through. In the duty-free area, we discovered that Colombo must be the only airport in the world that doesn’t accept its own currency. They only accepted major currencies but gave change in Rupees which we couldn’t spend or take out of the country.
As always, we both really enjoyed our holiday although it wasn’t as cheap as we were expecting due to 30% tax being added to everything. It made hotel prices around the same as Croatia but with nowhere near the same level of service. I had assumed prices would be similar to India but one man we had spoken who to spent every English winter travelling between India and Sri Lanka said India was around half the price. I was also a little irritated at the number of times I was told I was not allowed an alcoholic drink even on Independence Day, the one day of the year you would think alcohol would be compulsory. Even when it wasn’t forbidden the government made licences so expensive it was beyond the means of smaller restaurants so they had to serve it illegally or not at all.
On the plus side, it was certainly a beautiful country and I can’t say I ever remember such warm and friendly people. The tuk-tuk drivers (when they weren’t trying to sell us something) were a delight to talk to. One driver charged us the correct fare rather than the inflated tourist one but was so entertaining I ended up giving him three times what we agreed. In between bursts of telling us how happy and honest he was, he burst into song. It was one of those kinds of impromptu and unique memories that made a trip worthwhile and they are things you can never plan for.
Now we come to the end of our Sri Lankan adventure 2017 and it is time for me to say “Kuṭpai” until next time.
2017 Sri Lanka
