Our first morning in Colombo we are awakened by the birds chirping and the palm trees swaying. The sun slowly shines through the curtains and the smell of the fresh Sinhalese breakfast is already in the hallway. This could just be the caption of an instagram post posting a picture of my beautiful daughters just waking up.
However, the reality is different. The above is correct, but in addition to the sound of the birds and the palm trees, you also have to imagine the air conditioning, with sound, on Iceland. That's the real reality. Nevertheless, a great morning. Before we take you for a day in Colombo, let's go back to last night…
From Singapore we flew with SriLankan Airlines to the final destination. The choice for this company is actually very simple: Think Global, act local. It won't help much but at least the idea is good. In addition, the flight attendants of SriLankan Airlines, in contrast to the flight attendants of KLM (M/V/X before I shortchange anyone), are just a lot friendlier. The devices may not be brand new, but it's all fine. Unfortunately, we still had a delay of more than an hour in Singapore.
Arriving in Sri Lanka remains special for us as a family. While one gets a feeling of 'I'm back home', the other first has to deal with an unconscious culture shock. Is it such a culture shock? Meh, it's okay. But that intense heat after 20 hours of flying in combination with the organized chaos at Colombo airport makes it just as intense. Especially if you also have a delay of 1.5 hours on a flight of 4 hours.
The first challenge is customs which can best be described as: Long queues at an excruciatingly slow pace. We keep seeing people being sent back only to come back a little later. I see a lot of people busy filling out a form. "Don't worry, we've already arranged our visa in advance," Shamila says to me hopefully. I don't trust it and walk back to the table where these forms are. I grab such a form and read: 'Embarking form'. This form, which no one points to you, must therefore be completed. So while we stand in line, we quickly fill out the forms. Once we have arrived at the customs officer, we are through in 5 seconds. Hoppa, to the bags that have all arrived this time.
Last stop: the airport pickup. We arranged an airport pickup in advance that would take us to the hotel, only the best man was not waiting inside but outside. That meant the heat in and between all the other taxi-seeking people who find that one driver. Fortunately, they have the gift of finding you among all the other travelers. All's well that ends well.
It is now around 23:30 when we are in the van. The great city of Colombo seems to be asleep. It is dark everywhere with few people on the street. It doesn't matter how far you drive into the city, you still have the feeling that the 'center' is far away. Our hotel was difficult to find, a phone call with the owner was the solution. When we drive into the side street and stand in front of the hotel, we see that all shutters are closed. Until a light comes on. A helpful man meets us and quickly helps us to enter.
Once inside we want to check in, Shamila asks him if he needs 1 or all passports. 'No mom, tomorrow. First sleep. No problem'. Once upstairs, he opens the door with room numbers including the name 'Avocado & pear'. A very hot room, but very clean. Until we opened the bathroom door... There was mr. Kokkie, the cockroach. You know it can happen here, though in all my trips to SL I've only seen one unlike the hotels in Florida. Armed with a towel and barefoot, the hotel owner came to remove Mr. Kokkie. That gives a bad start to the journey late at night. The children thought it was 'dirty' and refused to go to the toilet. But hey, wetting the bed was not an option, so before it became a battle, we parents already won.
In the end we quickly fell asleep with the thought of the next day: discovering Colombo!