COLOMBO, SRI LANKA—IMPRESSIONS

∙ WHAT WE DID/SAW/EXPERIENCED
          ∙ I wanted to sleep in, but Bill wouldn’t let me.  We had to meet “Louise” (aka “happyglobetrotter”) at 7:45 a.m. for a private tour booked for a group of 29.  When we got to the pier near the area where other people were picking up tours, we couldn’t find our bus (“Sri Lanka Tours”).  The first thing we saw was two military men, standing on top of a building.  There was a 50-caliber machine gun, and one man was carrying a sniper riffle.  We were told not to photograph any officers we may see (they’re “sensitive” about that).  Bill and Louise went to look around, but still couldn’t find them.  Louise had to reboard the ship to get the phone number to call, and the guide told Bill he was at the “front gate” in a red bus.  He didn’t have access to the port, so we had to meet him out at the gate – about 2 kilometers away!
          ∙ We piled 10 people into our cab, and others either walked or took their own cab.  We exited the gate (called Gate 3), but couldn’t find our guide there, either.  Bill and Mike set out to find our bus and learned there are six gates, and our guide was at Gate 1, far away.  Meanwhile, we started worrying about Bill and Mike, who’d been gone for a while in what looked like a dangerous place, so Jeff and I set out to look for them.  They returned, and Jeff and I were now “missing”.  Soon after, Bill came along and found us.  Our bus was finally there, about 9 a.m., when we were supposed to have left at about 8 a.m.
          ∙ We drove through heavy traffic and chaotic road conditions for about 2.5 hours.  Louise had allowed two additional persons to join our group, so we had 31 in total.  But they had changed busses on us as well, due to hydraulic problems in the first one.  The new one only sat 28 comfortably, when we were supposed to have a bus for 30.  The two add-ons promptly took two of the "good seats", so three of us (who'd booked early) had to sit in a rear area, on top of the engine.  There was no cushion, and it was very hot and uncomfortable!  Along the way, we blew a tire and had to stop for it to be changed.  We noticed, as they were doing that, the tread was bald on both front tires, too!
          ∙ Others (on HAL tours, e.g.) were visiting the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, but that was an observational visit only (i.e., to see them fed or bath in the river).  We, instead, visited the Millennium Elephant Foundation, where we got to ride an elephant! We were also supposed to hand feed fruit to the elephants, touch them and help wash them in the river, but these things really didn’t occur.  A couple people did ride the elephants to the river, where they were sprayed with “elephant water”!
          ∙ We were supposed to have time to purchase lunch, but this never happened.  I had nothing to eat all day.  Our guide never said a word about his city or country.
          ∙ After returning to Colombo, we visited Kelaniya Temple, one of the few places that "the Lord Buddha" allegedly visited. It housed some beautiful paintings, dating back as far as the 1800's.  This was a separate tour on HAL, so we combined two into one, for only $55 per person.  It was miserably hot (over 100) and humid.
          ∙ Everywhere we went, we saw lots of “tuk-tuk’s”:  these colorful little open-aired, 2-person vehicles unique to this area
          ∙ “The brochure said”:  We were supposed to have time left to drive through Colombo and see the Gangaramaya Temple, the Galle Face Green, Galle Face Hotel, Independence Square, Vihara Maha Devi Park, Town Hall and the Colombo National Museum – due to our guide’s late arrival and tire blow-out, this didn’t happen, either.
          ∙ Knees, shoulders and midriffs had to be covered completely in the Temple, and shoes had to be removed.  And I so wanted to ride an elephant in a bikini (kidding)!

∙ THOUGHTS/IMPRESSIONS
          ∙ Bill said, “next time Sondra wants to sleep in, I’m going to curl up and go back to sleep!”  The only thing that “saved” the day from the comedy of errors was the good spirits and humor of the group.  I would have thought the two people who joined us late would have taken the “bad seats” in the back, but they didn’t.  They quickly grabbed good seats for themselves and let others, who’d been signed up all along, take the bad seats instead.  Other good-spirited people took turns with the rotten seats.  (The nature of people . . .)
          ∙ As for the port:  not my favorite.  I certainly couldn’t recommend “Sri Lanka Tours”.  They were the worst guides yet.  We felt lucky to return safely!  In this instance, we got just what we paid for – a cheap tour!  Kelaniya Temple was pretty and interesting, but it’s difficult to justify a visit here just to see that one sight.  Nor did a 15-minute elephant ride (fun as it was, momentarily) justify a 5-hour drive through the crazy Sri Lankan streets on that bus!
          ∙ The most interesting thing here was the “look” we got, especially from women, at the Temple.  They stared at us like they’d never seen anyone like us.  But they were friendly about it.  I would smile and say “hello”, especially to the young girls – and I always got a smile back.  They don’t get many cruise ships visiting here (not a big surprise).

MILLENNIUM ELEPHANT FOUNDATION

KELANIYA BUDDHIST TEMPLE

SIGHTS FROM COLOMBO, SRI LANKA