On the evening of Thursday, 4/13/14, I arrived in Colombo. In addition to being overly cautious and avoiding scamming taxi drivers, I had some network proxy issues on my laptop and could not connect to the internet. Finally got that fixed, and slept at 2am.
Colombo was a terrific change from India. Having spent two weeks in India, the change in scenery was nice, soothing.
For one, my hotel was right across the street from the ocean. My room had a great view of the waters, and the breeze offset the heat and humidity.
The hotel room was huge with a lot of empty space. I was 5 kilometers south of the downtown Dutch Hospital area.
The view from my balcony.
My hotel from the waterfront.
I found it strange that the busy railroad was built right by the water. Trains came by every 5-15 minutes, and they were strong enough to shake the hotel.
I used tuk tuks (auto rickshaws) and taxis as the main method of transportation, just like India. Most Sri Lankans were able to speak some English, so communication was also easy.
The weather was permitting, slightly cloudy with 60-70% humidity, no worse than India. But the winds really helped make it feel like 30% humidity, and I wasn’t sweating as much.
Prices in general was more expensive than India, but not by a significant amount.
The waters are a popular place for friends and family to hang out.
Another refreshing part of being in Sri Lanka was the traffic. I never thought I’d say that going 10 km/h felt like a blessing, but compared to India traffic, it actually was. Sri Lankans also don’t use their horns like a hungry baby, so my ears were very much at peace.
Colombo treated me well.
Andy Cheng 