My decision to stay in Colombo puzzled the taxi driver –why stay in the city, he insisted, despite my explanation that I wasn’t here for the beach. And the drive in certainly isn’t pretty, but after India the roads are wider, the shops bigger, the electricity stays on (!) ….’India Light’ looks a fair description, at first glance.
The Grand Oriental Hotel here has seen better days, but it has a quaint charm. Plus, a/c which works-a bath (minus plug, but I have one, hehe!) and a comfortable bed and pillows….and those three things are worth the relative cost of staying in the capitol!!
I’m also in Colombo Fort, the very heart of the city, and 5 minutes walk from Galle Face, the promenade along the sea thronged at sunset by the usual crowds and stalls.
Too exhausted to do much after arriving at lunchtime bar sinking into the bath, lying on the comfy pillows, and watching BBC for the first time in weeks (I discover David Cameron really is in India, that’s what the locals were on about!) until I staggered out late afternoon to join the evening procession.
First impressions here…skyscrapers/historic buildings/shops/tiny alleys…like London but very hot! And despite the sense of familiar western comforts/lifestyles, a stronger sense too of ‘them and us’.
In India, everyone wants something, from anyone/everyone…nothing is personal. Here, at least in the city, there is a strong Ex-pat community, and immediately I was targeted as ‘wealthy’, followed by beggars/rickshaws/touts, and accosted, albeit politely, by the office girl in the hotel here who asked if I could help her get a British visa!
The police here leap out and stop the traffic for westerners to cross the roads, the armed guards at the palace and the naval bases by the hotel smile and wave…machine guns held aloft in mock salute….I feel exposed here, despite, or maybe because of, the number of white faces.
The Grand Oriental Hotel here has seen better days, but it has a quaint charm. Plus, a/c which works-a bath (minus plug, but I have one, hehe!) and a comfortable bed and pillows….and those three things are worth the relative cost of staying in the capitol!!
I’m also in Colombo Fort, the very heart of the city, and 5 minutes walk from Galle Face, the promenade along the sea thronged at sunset by the usual crowds and stalls.
Too exhausted to do much after arriving at lunchtime bar sinking into the bath, lying on the comfy pillows, and watching BBC for the first time in weeks (I discover David Cameron really is in India, that’s what the locals were on about!) until I staggered out late afternoon to join the evening procession.
First impressions here…skyscrapers/historic buildings/shops/tiny alleys…like London but very hot! And despite the sense of familiar western comforts/lifestyles, a stronger sense too of ‘them and us’.
In India, everyone wants something, from anyone/everyone…nothing is personal. Here, at least in the city, there is a strong Ex-pat community, and immediately I was targeted as ‘wealthy’, followed by beggars/rickshaws/touts, and accosted, albeit politely, by the office girl in the hotel here who asked if I could help her get a British visa!
The police here leap out and stop the traffic for westerners to cross the roads, the armed guards at the palace and the naval bases by the hotel smile and wave…machine guns held aloft in mock salute….I feel exposed here, despite, or maybe because of, the number of white faces.
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