Day 2

Buffet breakfast of fruit salad/cakes/toast and jam overlooking the harbour, well done The Grand Oriental, she may be showing her age, like me, but she does dish up a good, complimentary start to the day!
Walking anywhere, even up the stairs here, is a mystery to the locals, staff keep insisting I should get the lift, and rickshaws follow me even the 5  minutes to Galle Face, unable, or unwilling, to believe I want to walk!
An English ex-pat befriended me whilst I was browsing in the World Trade Centre, and offered to get me an ‘honest’ rickshaw driver for a sightseeing tour.  So off I went in the tuck tuck, and immediately we stop, the driver takes me to a temple, I part with money for a photo, and 5 minutes later, the same routine…at which point I decided my idea of honest and his were not the same.

in the tuck-tuck, courtesy of the guide!

In fairness, when I told him enough and that I would pay half and go, he suddenly became genuinely pleasant…I reckon it was simply that he thought I was rich, so  money was no object…but its expensive here compared to India anyway, and I’m back-packing, not on holiday!
We spent a pleasant hour (1,000 sr rupees, about £5) buzzing between temples, along the lake, over to Independence Square, and along to the park where elephants work/roam, elephants are everywhere here, and currently being prepared for Colombo’s annual temple festival, so many stalls selling elephant decorations, floats being prepared, offerings built, great fun to watch, though I’m sorry for the poor elephants.

At Independence Square, the British built memorial and garden at the hand over in 1948….the Dutch Catholic church tower is behind.

The lake is gorgeous, as are the birds, herons, flamingos, magnolia trees, honeysuckle, I could be in Hyde Park, the pedalos ply for tourist trade, ice cream/popcorn sellers abound, and the yellow MacDonald Arches clash with the temple towers.
I leave my ‘friend’ at the famous Barefoot Art Gallery, where I had a pleasant tea in the shady courtyard. This is a popular haunt for ex-pats and tourists, with multi media art, a shop selling designer fabrics and designs, jazz music playing in the background with the smell of real coffee….just like a mini Lewes, apart from the 35 degree heat!

making friends with wooden sculptures at Barefoot Art Gallery

This town is such an odd mixture of architecture, the French and Dutch glorious historical buildings overlooked by massive skyscrapers, and the shacks of the slums and bazaar alleys which snake off the westernised main road. The street vendors sell unfamiliar food; mainly fish based chapattis or sweet cakes, but also superb spiced olives/fruits. Today’s supper was spiced pineapple, very chilli based but good, plus bananas, fried tapioca strips and an ice cream, watching the sunset as the army went through their exercises and school children celebrated sports day on the green opposite.
Off to watch BBC and find out what else I have missed in the world…I have plans to visit the museums tomorrow, but I also love just wandering in Colombo, absorbing the difference culture and the new sights and sounds. Ceylon certainly isn’t India, despite the obvious similarities; it’s a country in its own right in every way.

standing looking pensive outside the Hindu temple…the colourful figures loom in an enormous tower behind me,