Negombo

Hello everyone,

Last night we had our tour meeting at 6pm. For the first time ever, we are the only Australians on tour. Our tour mates are from the UK, South Africa, Portugal, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and Hungary. Our tour guide’s name is Darsh and he seems good. It was interesting when introducing ourselves hearing why everyone had come to Sri Lanka. Most people, like us, had a trip booked somewhere else and rescheduled within the last month. Many others looked for where was easy to travel at the moment (no testing and quarantine). Seems to me if more countries lift such requirements they would see a bit of a surge in tourism too.

After dinner, Mum and I had to swap rooms as the room we had was infested with these weird tiny bugs. They switched us to another room and we shook out all my clothes as they had gotten into them too. We slept really well as the new room was very comfortable.

We had breakfast at the hotel. At 8am we checked out and hopped on our bus. It was absolutely pouring with rain. Sadly, the forecast overall looks pretty wet while we are here. The wet season in this area isn’t meant to start until May but we may have caught it a little early.

Regardless, we went on with our city tour. The city had a totally different vibe today due to the rain and the fact it was a Sunday. We saw the Gangaramaya Temple, the National Museum and then stopped at Independence Square. Here there is a memorial hall which was built in 1948 once Sri Lanka gained independence from England. It was raining so much whilst we were here that the pathways looked like waterways instead!! It was a shame as we couldn’t appreciate the building as we would have if the weather was better. Never mind. We drove past Viharamahadevi Park and then went into the Pettah Bazaar area again, just as we did yesterday. We had another quick look at the mosque from yesterday and mum and I couldn’t believe the contrast - all the shops closed and hardly anyone around.

We stopped next at a vegetable market on our way to Negombo. This was busy and thriving, and Darsh showed us lots of different vegetables explaining how Sri Lankans prepare them. 99% of them had the answer “we put these in curry” haha.

Then we drove the one hour to Negombo. Along the way, Darsh gave us some information. Sri Lanka has a population of roughly 22 million. Their foreign currency comes from overseas visitors, textiles, tea, spices such as cinnamon and tourism. Prior to 2020 and the 2019 bombings, Sri Lanka would see in excess of 2 million tourists visit each year.

We arrived in Negombo and checked in to our hotel. Mum and I were feeling a little disappointed at this point because we were expecting sunny lovely weather, and it was still pouring down. I guess we have to cross our fingers that despite the forecast for rain every day, we somehow get some sunny days too. Our hotel backs on to the beach but it was pretty miserable outside.

Alas, we tried to make the best of it. The rest of the group had a sit down lunch but we caught a taxi instead into the centre of Negombo. We walked with our umbrellas and raincoats and took ourselves sightseeing. We started off at the Dutch fort area, and saw the hotel I was supposed to stay at in 2019. Negombo got its name as it is a Portuguese corrupted version of its Tamil name ‘Neerkolombu’. We noticed straight away that there were a lot of catholic shrines and churches here - apparently there is a large Roman Catholic population in this town.

We wandered around the main streets and saw a few churches and temples - our favourites being St Mary’s and St Sebastian’s. They were closed tight though which we thought was weird for a Sunday. We later discovered the services occur late in the afternoon here. We also went into a cemetery. Outside the cemetery, a man come up to me, asked me some standard “where are you from” etc type questions. Then as he walked off he said “good bye – I love you” – righto!

After a couple of hours we headed back to the hotel for a walk on the beach, we dipped our feet in. The water was like a warm bath. The rubbish everywhere spoiled the beach though - so much plastic, glass, and blue bins everywhere. There were also no other tourists around. All the hotels - even the most fancy ones - sat empty with staff sitting around not up to much. It was pretty sad.

At 3pm we met the group in the lobby and went for a boat ride in Negombo lagoon and the Dutch canal. The canal was built by the Dutch to transport goods such as cinnamon in this area. The boat ride was nice, but again I was astounded by how much rubbish was in the water and on the banks. We saw lots of beautiful birds, colourful boats and even a water monitor.

Mum and I had dinner at a restaurant called Jude’s which was really lovely. The food was beautiful and we could see some fireworks being let off in the distance, I assume for the upcoming Hindu new year on Thursday. We had a quick rest in the room and then ended up going for a drink with eight others from our tour. We had a good time – everyone is really nice.

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox