My Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) experience was within the city of Colombo, the capital and largest city within the country. I didn’t have an excursion planned through the ship so I made arrangements with some friends on board to do our own excursion. Ryan opted to sit this one out, so it was just me, Julie, and Tom.
We made our way off the ship to our meet-up location for our tour guide. Of course, we had no idea where we were going and didn’t understand the person who tried to give us directions. So, after a roundabout long trek that included walking through a construction zone we finally found our guy. We piled into the car and off we went, Tom in front and Julie and I in the back seat.
Our first stop was to the Galbokka Lighthouse, a deactivated lighthouse that was built in 1952 and only about five minutes from the city center. Two things struck me about the lighthouse. First, was the fun black-and-white checkered patter on the seaward side of the tower.
The second thing that struck me was how the lighthouse wasn’t really near water. At all. In fact, this is the view (of land) from the lighthouse:
It turns out that the view used to be water, but they’ve been reclaiming land to create a new city. And that city is supposed to be a tech city on par with other high-end cities – in only a matter of years. So basically that photo is a great ‘before’ picture to be compared to photos of the same view in a decade. I’m hoping it’s like the before and after photos of Dubai.
Anyway, after the lighthouse we went to the next stop – the Economic History Museum of Sri Lanka.
So, here’s the thing. That sounds boring. And when I walked in I thought it would be. But then I read this sign:
And for whatever reason I found the sign hilarious. “What the hell am I to do with a truckload of fish?” It was just fantastic that this was the first thing you saw in the museum to help explain early barter systems. And the rest of the museum was actually interesting. It turns out that Sri Lanka mints coins and prints currency for other countries. In fact, they had a lot of currency on display from other countries, including this cool coin display that I kinda want to do with our leftover coins from various countries we’ve visited.
After the museum we headed off to explore some of the city. As we began a brief walking tour, we came upon a tiny little building that was a prison cell of the last King of Kandy, King Sri Wickrama Rajasingha. Apparently he was kept in this tiny cell after the British attacked – and was kept here for close to a year before being deported and living the rest of his life as a prisoner of war. BUT WAIT. That’s not true. That’s just what we were told. A little digging after-the-fact and I stumbled across a website that says the truth is the king was on house arrest and the little cell was actually a guardhouse until the 1950s at which time the false legend came about, likely as a “post-colonial Sinhalese identity project.” So, fake news. But we were led to believe it was real for a moment, and I think our guide thinks it’s real. Here’s the cell:
After the (fake) prison cell, we walked along the street and saw Australia buildings, the Cargill’s (the largest grocery store chain in Sri Lanka – the original store), and an impressive red-and-white candy-striped/checkered mosque – the Jami-Ul-Alfar Mosque. The mosque was jaw dropping in its uniqueness. According to Wikipedia, “Before other landmarks were built, some claim that the Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque was recognised as the landmark of Colombo by sailors approaching the port.” Not too hard to believe given how the building looked like a giant after-dinner peppermint.
After a little more wandering of the streets, we found a tea shop and Julie did a little shopping. It turns out that tea from here is extremely popular. According to Wikipedia, “Ceylon tea has been described as not only a geographical descriptor but also a pillar of Sri Lankan culture, heritage, and identity.” I don’t know. I don’t drink tea for the most part, and couldn’t think of anybody who would appreciate a souvenir of tea, so I just perused and smelled the varieties but didn’t buy anything.
After a lot of sniffs of tea, we found our next stop – a Hindu shrine in center of the city. Sri Kailasanathar Swami Devasthanam, or Kapikaawatha Shivan Temple as it is also called by its devotees, is the oldest Hindu Temple in Colombo. It was incredible to look at with its intricacies and colors throughout. We stayed on the outside rather than go inside.
In the above picture, you can see our next destination – the Lotus Tower. It’s the tallest self-supported structure in South Asia and 19th tallest tower in the world. It looks like a giant lotus flower (hence the name). The lotus symbolizes purity within Sri Lankan culture and is also said to symbolize the country’s flourishing development.
The tower functions as a radio and television broadcasting antenna but also gets a lot of revenue from allowing tourists such as us up to the top for spectacular views of the city. And up we went for a 360-degree view of everything we could see on the relatively clear day. Here’s a photo from the top. You can just see our ship in the distance. I waved to Ryan while up there. He said he didn’t see me. Haha.
After the tower we made our way to Viharamahadevi Park, the oldest and biggest park in the city, which had a big statue of Buddha in it. Quick snaps of the Buddha:
We then went to Independence Memorial Hall, a monument built for commemoration of the independence of Sri Lanka from the British rule. The most notable things about the hall were a) the breeze inside the monument was spectacular and surprising, and b) there was a guy outside the monument with a baby monkey and a huge cobra that he had “dancing” to music. No photos of the cobra/monkey because I didn’t want to be hassled for money. Instead, here’s a boring photo of the building itself, from the inside where the breeze was incredible.
After the hall, we said we wanted some Wifi (for Julie to post her blog) and the tour guide took us to a jewelry store where we had to watch a video and then decided it was too much pressure for Julie so we didn’t actually stay. I found it funny because it seems like every ship tour has a stop at a jewerly store, and then here we were – going to a jewelry store. And who did we see – a whole bunch of guests from the ship there for part of their excursion.
Anyway, that concluded our time in Sri Lanka. We actually felt like we saw a ton and were ready to get back. The guide was going to take us to one more temple but we passed and just wanted to get back to some food and air conditioning. My last thing I’ll share is one souvenir I got – courtesy of Julie – a pair of pink underwear:
It turns out that Julie’s digging into Sri Lanka revealed that it is a prime place for clothing companies to do business, including Nike, Ralph Lauren, and Calvin Klein. AND apparently it’s the top place for undergarments to be manufactured, like for Victoria’s Secret. So, she has been equating Sri Lanka with underwear. So when she saw somebody selling underwear on the street, she stopped and bought a few pairs. I got the pink pair. Not exactly sexy, but a good souvenir nonetheless. 😊