Wasswold Sri Lankan Adventure Day 8

Wasswold's Sri Lankan Adventure- Day 8

It was time to load up the bus for our last leg of our Sri Lankan journey. We headed along the coast north up to the city of Columbo which is the nations’s capitol and is home to approximately 5 million people. It is a very busy city but is very progressive with high rises and a financial district like any other metropolitan city. We found an Italian restaurant owned by an Italian immigrant and enjoyed pizza and gelato! I didn't think I would have done that on this trip! 

We saw adds for this cracker everywhere so Maleen bought me some. Dave's description was accurate- thick saltine without the salt.

We stopped to watch this man attach a container to the palm tree to collect the sap. The sap is used to make Arrack- a coconut whiskey. 

A police station 

A supermarket chain. It is owned by Cargill but we don't know if it is the same Cargill we are familiar with in Fort Morgan.

Cousins!

We also made sure to visit the famous Odel department store which is like a  Macy's with all of the inventory in less square feet. It was packed so it was a little overwhelming but I stayed with it and was able to score a few items! They have an Embark line within Odels and the sale of these items help the stray dogs in Sri Lanka so I made sure to buy something there. We have seen  quite a few of these dogs during our visit and I felt the need to do something to help those who can do more.

Back on the bus, some of us decided we needed extra suitcases (too much shopping!) and, since we would have more room, additional pairs of elephant pants to go in them! Both items you find plentiful and cheap at the roadside markets. Because the roads were so busy and like most downtowns, no places to park, we came up with a plan. The locals ( who would ensure a good price and prevent the tourists from getting run over) would jump off the bus with some appointed few, while the rest of us stayed on the bus to drive around while they shopped. While waiting for the mission to be accomplished,  Maleen took the remaining few  of us to what remains of the Colombo fort. It is just a small stone arch surrounded by high rises. The guard there directed us to only take pictures of the fort and not the bank next to it. I guess he thought we may be staking out the joint! We were able to find our shoppers again to pick them up and they were successful on their mission!

All that remains of the Colombo fort.

We checked into the Galle Face Hotel which is a beautiful old hotel built in 1864 and has housed famous people such as Mahatma Gandhi, Prince Phillip, Carrie Fisher, Roger Moore, and now the Ostwald/Wasson gang! Our tour guide used to work here and elected to sleep at his Colombo apartment because “this place is haunted!” Hmmm…. Well, there  was no time to waste on the paranormal because we had to hustle down the street to the Kingsbury hotel which is Dave’s favorite place to watch the sunset at their rooftop bar. We made it in time to watch a partly cloudy sunset. Being near the equator, the sunsets in Sri Lanka were around 6:30 pm and were very short but Happy Hour was not so we stayed awhile!

Galle Face Hotel

Rooftop bar at the Kingsbury Hotel- they know Dave by name!

Cheers Sri Lanka! We will miss you!

Later, we had our tour guide and bus driver join us for dinner since it was our last night with them. It is hard to believe that we leave for the Maldives in the morning. The nice thing is that Dave and family are going with us. After dinner they went home to get ready and we will meet them in the morning at the airport.