Colombo, Sri Lanka

Colombo World Trade Centre Twin Towers

Travel Dates 1st-3rd and 11th-12th March 2015.
Click on any picture to see a larger version.  

I arrived at Colombo Airport refreshed after a good night’s sleep between flights at Kuala Lumpur KLIA2. The Tune hotel was a vast improvement on its cramped and basic predecessor at the old LCCT terminal. The price is a little higher but there is no longer a requirement to pay extra for basic necessities such as towels and soap. Layout was similar to a standard Ibis hotel but there was one significant omission for an airport hotel: no telephone in the room meant no wake-up call service. I could not rely on the faint alarm on the cheap watch I bought in a Laos market after I left my phone in Luang Prabang. I improvised by leaving the netbook plugged in with an alarm set to be sure I would wake on time for my morning flight.

At the time an Australian dollar equalled 103 Sri Lankan Rupees. I used 100:1 as a rough rule of thumb for price comparisons; thus 1000LKR = AU$10.

 

The contrast with communist Laos was startling on arrival. The immigration officer hardly looked at my US$35 pre-paid e-visa, then swiftly stamped my passport and cheerfully welcomed me to his country as he handed me a promotional brochure for the Dialog tourist sim card.  

There is a cheap bus from the airport to the centre but it was humid and hot outside so I decided not to try the public transit system this time. I paid 3000 rupees to the taxi arranger in the arrivals area. The car was a clean modern hybrid. 

As we left the driver held his hand out and yelled “300 rupees”. I cannot speak Sinhalese and that seemed to be the extent of his English. As I had paid for the trip in advance I could not see why I should pay more. He repeated the request several times without success then, obviously upset, drove past the on-ramp to the motorway and headed to the coast road. It was one of those serendipity occasions. If he had spoken English I would have asked him to take the back roads and scenic route. Later I discovered the motorway toll was 300 rupees. I enjoyed the interesting ride through the residential suburbs with much of the journey beside the canal. 

The One-Day-International Cricket World Cup was on in Australia at the time, with Sri Lanka a major contender.  Kids playing cricket on improvised pitches was a sight I saw often during the trip.

I discovered that hybrids may be wonderful cars for fuel economy but in Colombo’s heat and humidity his air-conditioner could not cope when we were stopped at intersections. Possibly he had it set that way, because the hybrid cab I took back to the airport two weeks later did not have the same problem.

Finding the City Beds Regent Hotel was difficult and stopping in front of it impossible. The driver spent a lot of time on his phone after I provided the hotel’s number, eventually dropping me around the corner where I was met by the hotel receptionist. I decided quickly I would find a different hotel when I returned before my departure from Sri Lanka. My review is on Booking.com dated March 6^th: Comfortable bed, cramped room, typical Sri Lankan en-suite. Ten days later, after experiencing four more Sri Lankan hotels I would probably have been a bit kinder.

Despite the standard of the hotel the location was perfect for my purpose: near the station and close to the centre of town. I spent most of the next two days walking around the district getting a feel for the place. I was between two worlds. Wealth to the west, comparative poverty to the east. 

To the West were Colombo’s own twin towers World Trade Centre, old government buildings and five star hotels. 

On Sunday, when I arrived, the district was uncluttered, quiet and almost empty. It became busier on Monday, populated by business people, politicians and government employees. I started exploring by wandering down to the Old Dutch Hospital shops and restaurants, opposite the World Trade Centre, for a late lunch. 

As I passed the Colombo Hotel en-route I was diverted by an enticing sign to their balcony restaurant for a simple lunch of soup and beer. 

The views were interesting and the breeze six floors up was pleasant. 

This was the Hilton taken from the Colombo Hotel terrace.

A few minutes later I tested the 20x zoom on my Fuji EXR770. Once again I was reminded of the relaxed attitudes to working at heights in Asia. This man was cleaning windows high up on the Hilton, using a safety rope attached to something inside the window.

These people appeared to be making a commercial. I encountered them a couple of times while wandering near the Dutch Hospital.

 

When I walked East I wandered through the railway station, the markets and the bustling crowded life of the real city.

 

 

 

On Sunday evening I walked down to the Colombo Fort railway station to find out which platform my pre-booked train to Ella would be leaving from the following day. 

Beside the main station entrance was a room prominently displaying a "Tourist Information" sign. I presumed that would be an official rail information desk, similar to those we have at major stations back home. Be warned, if you intend travelling from Colombo Fort. The correct sign should be "Tour Agent".

I waited a while for the man at the desk to become free, as he was finalising some trip details with other customers. He introduced himself as Mr Sampath, answered my question about platforms quickly but then asked if I had a ticket and what my plans were.
 

Mr Sampath, Colombo Fort Tourist Information Centre

To cut a long story short he eventually sold me a tour. My intentions had been to take trains between Colombo, Ella, Kandy, Sigiriya, Anuradhapura and back to Colombo. I had done the research and knew the fares and accommodation prices. But after my Indian experiences I also knew how useful it could be to have a car and English-speaking driver. When he offered accommodation for seven nights (Ella x 2, Kandy, Sigiriya x 2, Anuradhapura x 2), the train back to Colombo plus car and driver for five days for the Ella to Anuradhapura section, negotiated down to LKR98000 I decided to accept. It was a couple of hundred dollars over my budget but simplified the trip a lot. I felt a bit rushed after that when he requested cash in advance; not via credit card. I told him my ATM limit was below that so we settled on half deposit and final payment in Sigiriya. At that point he rushed me into a tuk-tuk which took me to the nearest ATM and back again at breakneck speed.

The reports following this will show that it was not a bad decision, but there were some problems. The first occurred when I returned to the hotel and decided to do some checking. In hindsight I should have spent a bit more time checking the papers I was given and asking more questions about hotel locations. None of the phone numbers on the poorly filled out document I had been given worked. I was a bit stressed about that until I was able to contact his representative late the next day for to be reassured I was not the victim of a scam. I was not a happy camper until then.

In the evening I strolled to a restaurant near the Dutch Hospital and encountered the first of many shrines with very loud amplified recorded prayers and music. 

On Monday I discovered an excellent breakfast restaurant in the foyer of the World Trade Centre Building, almost deserted at that early hour. I needed help to work out the ordering system but eventually enjoyed eggs and some items similar to samosas and good coffee.

 

After wandering the Dutch Hospital District on Sunday and the railway environs Monday morning I took a tuk tuk to the south to look around away from the tourist centre. 

 

Later, after my trip to the interior of Sri Lanka, I spent two nights relaxing further south in Mt Lavinia, oddly named for a beach suburb. There is a romantic story behind the name. 

The suburb is named after the Mt Lavinia Hotel, situated on a bluff over the ocean. The hotel was originally built as the Governor's mansion for Sir Thomas Maitland, the British Governor from 1805 until 1811. Among the many greetings for the new Governor when he arrived on the island was a performance by dancing girls. He fell in love with one of the troupe named Lovina, but the differences in their station forced their love to be secret. He built a mansion south of Colombo near her village of Galkissa; close enough to have a 300m long secret tunnel from her home to the wine cellar of the mansion.

Mt Lavinia Hotel Forecourt

Eventually he was recalled from Ceylon to become Governor of Malta. The romantic story claimed his beloved threw herself off a cliff after his departure;  the records show him in a better light as she received a substantial pension from him sufficient to build her own house and live well for the rest of her life.

The Terrace Pool, Mt Lavinia Hotel

The building had a chequered history after that, including being the centre of planning for the conquest of the central Kandy kingdom by the British in 1815; falling into decay for years when London decided not to fund maintenance; a period as an insane asylum; then revival as a luxury hotel for visiting British after the rail line to Colombo passed by the door in 1877. At some stage the building became known as Mount Lavinia, after the governor's lover, and the nearby area became the suburb of that name. In WWII the building was again occupied by the British as a supply base and military hospital. Now, it is again a luxury hotel.

View from the Terrace Bar, Mt Lavinia Hotel

Unfortunately the tariff was above my budget so I stayed nearby in the Sunhill. Instead I enjoyed an over-priced beer on the Terrace for the experience. 

The following were pictures taken while wandering aorund the Mt Lavinia region on foot.

For the night before departure I moved to the Airport City Hub Hotel, near the airport. It was a good choice, inexpensive, pleasant and comfortable.

 

I flew out via Kuala Lumpur to home next morning uneventfully. I enjoyed the luxury of my Premium flatbed on AirAsia, purchased much earlier at a discount, for the final 8-hour flight.

I had a stroke of luck when I arrived home. I missed the first bus for the connection at Tweed Heads to Pottsville and decided to spend the 40-minute waiting time in the shopping centre. I dropped in at the Optus store and discovered I was due for a free new phone provided I renewed a 2-year contract for their service. My old HTC, left in a Luang Prabang restaurant, became a brand new Samsung S4. A nice end to the trip with no need to contact the travel insurers.

Cheers, Alan

From Home to Hondarribia via Kuala Lumpur and Paris

On my way again. This is the most I pack on a trip. The carry-on is the backpack, with all my vital 'cannot lose' items in it including my net-book, travel bookings, chargers, medications and similar items. The other bag, which I check when I must, is mainly clothes and not a disaster if it gets lost.

Travel Date 16th-19th June 2013.
Click on any picture to see a larger version.

This post is all about 'getting there'. It includes some tips on what to do in preparation, and some hints on what not to do from my mistakes. If that part of travel bores you, skip to the next post :)

I initially wrote my trip reports of my visit to Europe and Morocco in 2013 on Facebook. Now that I have finally posted all my China trip reports I have decided to post the Europe trip here; that also lets me add more pictures. I wrote some first thoughts, exhausted because sleep escaped me, on the TGV train en-route from Paris to Hendaye. Which, I found when no-one at the Montparnasse information centre understood my fractured French, is pronounced On-day. 

The transport plan was:

• Home to Tweed Heads bus (1hr)
• Tweed heads to Varsity Lakes bus (1hr)
• Varsity Lakes to Brisbane Airport train (1:45)
• Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur air overnight (8 hours)
• Transit KL 17 hours 6am-11pm  
• KL to Paris CDG air overnight 12 hours
• Transit Paris and bus to Montparnasse 6 hours
• Montparnasse to Hendaye six hours.
• Cab to Hondarribia.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, an experiment to save time and money. But I won't do this again. Next time I will do as I have in the past and plan overnight stays in transit cities. There are so many advantages to that practice, not the least being adequate sleep and reducing jet-lag.

I started the journey as I walked out the door to catch the 14:02 bus from the stop just five minutes' walk down the road in Pottsville. The intention was to connect with the 14:55 from Tweed Heads to Varsity Lakes rail station, connecting there to the Brisbane Airport train. The bus arrived ten minutes late. As a seasoned traveller I allow for things like that. Just as well, because the knock-on effect led to every connection being missed, but I still made the flight comfortably after two hour-long bus rides and just under two hours in the train. The flight departed on time at 11:20 pm.

Oh, to be wealthy and fly in business or first class. Only a dream. Instead I was back again in cattle class hoping for at least an empty seat beside me. Forlorn hope. Apparently I was not the only one taking advantage of Malaysia Airlines discounts to KL and Europe. There was not an empty seat on the long flight in the A330. Economy seat pitch is similar to most airlines – squashed for a six-footer – but at least the recline was better than Air Asia and full service was included, including beer, wines and spirits. The meal was nothing to write home about, effectively a pastry similar to a sausage roll filled with chicken and vegetables. Breakfast was more carbohydrates than anyone should eat at any time of day, but among the excess was a small sausage, some mushrooms and something that looked like scrambled eggs but lost any resemblance at that point. Still, better than no non-starchy choices at all.

I arrived in KLIA a little after 6 am. I passed swiftly through immigration, which was impressively well-staffed with no more than one or two people waiting at any one time. That was a dramatic improvement on my previous experiences in KL at both sides of the runway (KLIA and LCCT) and nice to see.

 
On the flight from Brisbane to KL I tried, but failed, to sleep. I felt grotty and jet-lagged; my main desire on arrival was a shower. The only option at KLIA was to spend $20 at the airport hotel for the privilege of using the bathroom. Pre-trip research on the web indicated better possibilities at KL Sentral, the main rail and bus terminus in town. There are cheaper options from the airport to the centre, 9MYR ($3) each way by bus, but the train is well worth the price of 35 MYR ($12) each way. Inside the KL Sentral complex I eventually found the showers. Look for the little blue 'Bilik Mandi' sign on the wall:

For 7MYR I was given a towel and the keys to a changing room. As the place is unisex I wore the towel from the room to the toilets (squat) and the showers.

 

 

If I appear to have a fixation with showers, believe me that can be priority one after a long, sleepless night and jet-lag. The facilities were basic, but well worth the visit. There is nothing like the feeling of refreshment from a shower after a long flight. Despite the lack of sleep I eventually felt capable of wandering Kuala Lumpur.

I spent a leisurely day re-visiting some places I had been before, especially the area around Bukit Bintang for its shops, cafes and restaurants. To fill in some time I bought a ticket on the KTM to Petaling to wander a locality away from tourists, have a snack in a street cafe, and get a feel for the area.

Finally I was back at the airport for dinner before departure on time at 11:40 pm. I had hoped for an empty seat beside me on the massive A380, but once again I was disappointed. Malaysian Air's marketing campaign was certainly filling the seats. I saw very few vacant seats and none near me. The midnight dinner was more generous than the previous flight. I chose braised beef which could have spent a little longer being cooked.

Sleep escaped me again. It didn't help that the Chinese lady immediately behind me appeared to have a sinus condition which required the loudest catarrhal clearing of the passages I've ever heard, without warning at hourly intervals. As I had the seat laid back and she leaned forward it was a startling experience each time.

The flight had a few small rough spots but was generally smooth, as was the touch-down. I would fly Malaysian again, but I may blow the budget on business class next time. Note that as I add this to my blog MH370 is still missing but I would happily fly Malaysian despite that.

We arrived in Paris CDG Terminal 1 about 6:30 am local time. By the time I had cleared immigration (quick) and waited for my bag at the carousel (slow) it was 7:30. Why is my bag always in the last bunch to arrive on the carousel? Another of life's great mysteries. 

My earlier web research helped me to quickly catch the internal train to terminal 2, grab some Euros from an ATM and connect with the LesCars bus to Montparnasse at 8:11. It was advertised as a 50 minute trip. That did not allow for Paris peak hour traffic. Two hours and twenty minutes later we arrived. I bought the TGV ticket on the web some months earlier when a discount of €40 appeared for a short time, probably an error but it was honoured. When I bought the ticket I deliberately chose the 12:27 departure to allow for late flights or similar contingencies. A wise move. I spent the waiting time consuming an all-liquid early lunch in a café opposite the terminal: coffee followed by a glass of pleasant house red, a French onion soup and a beer. Despite my weariness it was a very pleasant interlude, including a chat over lunch with a couple travelling home from Venice to Rennes.

First class was pleasant. The train was comfortable but not as fast as my previous experiences of European high speed trains and also suffered from a delay for unspecified reasons.

 

 

I arrived in Hendaye at 7pm in pouring rain. The cab driver charged a set off-meter fare of €20 for the short 'international' trip to Hondarribia in Spain and then deposited me in the rain at the Paradores Hotel back door instead of the Palacete. Eventually, damp and weary (thank goodness I included a folding umbrella in the side pocket of my backpack) I found the Hotel Palacete. After re-discovering the bliss of true Spanish Tapas at the local restaurant I fell into bed weary but happy at 10 pm, a little over 2 1/2 days in real time after I left home. Miraculously the next morning I had no jet-lag, so I spent the day on a relaxed tour of Hondarribia.

Cheers, Alan