Colombo, Sri Lanka

Since the ship didn’t dock in Colombo Sri Lanka until 1:00pm, we had a chance for a sleep in and have a less rushed breakfast, Eggs Benedict for Don. Lee of course had her normal boring fruit concoction.

This morning we exchanged our tour tickets for tomorrow to a less strenuous outing, which would otherwise have been eight hours. After that, we attended a lecture on the early history of the East Indies, which went back to years BC. We found out how the various empires and countries repeatedly battled each other for territorial rights. Portuguese, Dutch and British. We would have found it more meaningful if the history had gone back only several hundred years.
-Sri Lanka is an island country approximately 30 km off the south east coast of India.
-In May 1972, Ceylon was proclaimed a republic and changed its name from Ceylon to the "Republic of Sri Lanka", and in 1978 to the "Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
-The population of Sri Lanka is 22 million and metropolitan Colombo, its capital city, makes up 5.6 million of this population. Colombo is the main economic hub of Sri Lanka.
-Colombo is a very busy deep harbour port used by 38 countries, with lots of shipping container boats and cranes to load and unload them everywhere.
The weather forecast called for 100% chance of rain starting at noon and based on that, the scheduled outdoor barbeque party for tonight’s dinner was unfortunately canceled. After a late lunch by the pool, it was time to get off the ship for our tour. The process was much more user-friendly than the stops in India, where you had to go through customs booths both ways. For Sri Lanka, all we had to do is hand the front desk a paper copy of our E visa, plus a verification code, and they, in conjunction with the customs department, prepared all the necessary documents overnight.
As we got off the ship, there was musical entrainment, and the Minister of Shipping and Transportation was even on hand to welcome us.
It became immediately obvious as we started our tour that Colombo was significantly different than the cities we called on in India. There were many tall, modern, glass clad buildings and everything was squeaky clean which was a pleasant change. There were many new buildings being constructed and also signs of old buildings being re-furbished as opposed to being abandoned.
As we drove through the streets, it was also obvious that Christmas is very important, and the shops were overflowing with every imaginable type of decorations.
Along the way, we saw many large green areas, including several areas with multiple cricket pitches. Cricket is the main sport of Sri Lanka. They even have a cricket museum.

Our first stop was at the National Museum, a very modern, spacious, well laid out building, which displayed artifacts tracing four archaeological periods. The temple's Viharamahadevi Park (formerly Victoria Park) is an urban park located next to the National Museum of Colombo and the Town Hall. It is the oldest and largest park in Colombo and features a large Buddha statue.
We also saw the lotus-shaped tower used for communication, observation and other leisure facilities. Construction is estimated to have cost US$113 million. At 1153 feet it is the ninth tallest building in the world.
We also drove by The Galle Face Hotel, an historic landmark and luxury hotel dating back some 155 years. It is in the heart of the city on the Indian Ocean and is a well known destination for tourists, royalty and celebrities.
We saw the Colombo City Hall, which is a replica of the White House.
We had a very pleasant refreshment, snacks and pitstop at a modern hotel before proceeding to our next stop at the Gangaramaya Buddhist Temple and Learning Center. Its architecture demonstrates an eclectic mix of Sri Lankan, Thai, Indian and Chinese influences.

By this point, it started to rain, and it was more than a small inconvenience to take our shoes and socks off to tour the temple. As we entered, there was a monk, sitting, in his orange robe, making wrist bands of colored strings. When we asked him what he was doing he explained that he was making prayer bracelets and then tied one on our wrist and gave many of us a verbal blessing for about 10 seconds. Who knows what he said as we understand that monks have a language of their own.
Many of the numerous altars and displays seemed to be of gold. There were lots of metal and stone statues plus a museum of artefacts in the last room. One room was dedicated to displays of items that had been donated to the temple, donations to the temple being a requirement of the Buddhist religion. There were enormous numbers of pocket watches, wristwatches, and cameras, just to mention a few. When asked what they do with these donations, they said “nothing”, they just kept them as donations. It didn’t make much sense to us since at least the watches, and many of the other items could have been sold to benefit the temple or those in need.
By the time we boarded the bus to come back to the ship, it was raining hard with thunder and lightning, but with the use of umbrellas and overhangs, we didn’t get very wet.
Dinner tonight at Prime Seven was followed by a Sri Lankan cultural/dancing show, very colorful and very loud. Unfortunately, each segment was longer than necessary.Read more