Sri lanka - Day 9, 10

We were coming to the close of our splendid vacation and had decided to keep most of our shopping activity for the last day and thats what we did for most of the ninth day. There is different types of shopping that one can do in Colombo. One is the fancy mall kind with all the air-conditioned western outlet stores, cafes and restaurants and then there is the local malls with the local or regional brands with clothes and handicrafts and what not and then there are roadside shops with unbranded stuff, copied versions of popular brands etc. All kinds of shopping are useful, price differential is massive and level of bargaining varies at each place.

We spent most of our time at ODEL, Majestic city and Cinammon Grand, and got most of the gifts etc we had in mind during that time. I think the whole experience took about 4-5 hours which was quite a decent effort from my part. Came back to rest for a bit. Later on, ventured out for more sight seeing. After a long erratic tuktuk ride trying to find the place, we got to 'flag and whistle' but found out it had been booked our to a private party for the evening. Went to dutch hospital instead which is oddly named but is an absolute must-visit for anyone who comes to Srilanka. It has a very parisian style open air courtyard with plenty of bars and restaurants surrounding it. Its located near the sea so theres fresh breeze coming through in the evening. Theres live music as well and the entire experience is just magnificent. Had our dinner there, which was superb icing on the cake to our fabulous trip.

Next morning, we were off to the airport, where we utilized the last of our local currency for any leftover shopping stuff and we were up and away before noon. A really awesome trip.

Srilanka - Day 8

There are so many poems written, pictures taken, books written and general thinking associated with the sea and there is such strong reasoning for it. Took a nice long walk along the beach, listening to the waves, the sea gulls while keeping an eye out for a dog lurking around (hate stray dogs). The ocean waves were really big around that time and no one dared go into the water. It was as frightening as it was majestic.

We checked out of our hotel later that afternoon, it had been a nice quiet and peaceful time but as were leaving a large contingent of cyclists and a bus load of beach goers were checking in. We were happy to have avoided the rush.

Srilanka is a pretty small country, but they sure do have made it interesting to travel internally, apart from the scenic road route we had taken coming to Trincomalee, some claim, you can take speed boats to literally go around the country within a day or alternatively you can take the air-taxi which is a short little ride in a small little plane to go to 4-5 different places. We did so for going from there to Colombo. It was a nice littleflight of 50 people, which was very multiethnic - group incl arabs, chinese, indians, various europeans as well as locals. Loved the idea and wonder how successful it is financially.

Pretty much all our trip had been planned and booked using tripAdvisor and that had been awesome so far, but the booking i made in Colombo at TheOceanFront was a mess-up. Had booked for one week later. Though there was space at the hotel, the manager charged us a hundred bucks extra, which was reasonable i suppose, but a taxi related incident later helped me realize it had more to do with my Pakistani passport than anything else. Just hope they didnt mix anything in our drinks! They had a nice view of the ocean from their terrace which also had a jacuzzi (didnt work) but it was nice clean place overall.

Captivating View

 Went for dinner at chutneys at cinammon grand which is a popular choice for dining in Colombo.

Thaali Dinner

Also visited Kama the nightclub around 11 or so which is too early. Visit after midnight. Its trendy, fashionable but pricey!