We arrived in Colombo quite tired from our journey, and luckily I had booked a car transfer to our hotel in advance – it wasn’t cheap though at 10,500rps / £45 one way but it was worth it. Before we left the airport we wanted to change some money into rupees – Sri Lanka has a closed currency so you can’t exchange any money before arrive. There are lots of counters in the arrivals hall so we just picked the closest one. We had brought cash in Sterling but I stupidly got half in Scottish pounds and half in English pounds and they only accepted the English ones. Not to worry though, at least we had something to get us started. *Note – keep your receipt as it means you can change any left over money (up to the amount you exchanged in the first place) when you are leaving, there are counters just before check-in*

We found our driver in the arrivals hall holding up a sign with my name, amongst a lot of other signs, and set off towards Colombo. The airport itself is around 40 minutes drive north of Colombo, near Negombo. We weaved our way through the traffic and arrived at our hotel just as the sun had disappeared.

We stayed at the Cinnamon Lakeside hotel which I chose for 2 reasons, both now I realise were not really that important. Firstly its close proximity to the train station as we were travelling to Kandy the next day by train, and secondly it looked like a large, fairly western hotel which I thought would mean we wouldn’t get too overwhelmed on our first night – especially as Richie had only known for 5 hours that we were coming to Sri Lanka. The hotel itself is quite large, very clean and airy, and just like everywhere else in Sri Lanka, very welcoming. We checked in and headed up to our room, which had a great view over the lake towards the Lotus tower.

As it was dark it was quite difficult to get our bearings and so the thought of venturing out into the Colombo night was a bit daunting. There was one restaurant we wanted to go to, The Ministry of Crab, but when we asked at reception for directions they pointed out that it gets booked up weeks in advance so not really an option. After a beer or two in the bar we settled instead to eat at one of the hotels four restaurants, Long Feng, which could finally fit us in around 9.30pm. Without realising we hideously over ordered, which our waiter kindly pointed out afterwards, and were left slightly embarrassed by all the half eaten plates. The food was very good, especially the buttered cuttlefish – the first of many wonderful cuttlefish dishes of the holiday. We also ordered some crab, but were put off when it arrived deep fried still in the shell, only because this is something we aren’t used to. We gave up about half way through all the food and headed to bed – pleased that we had managed to stay up to a reasonable hour and hoping jet lag wouldn’t haunt us the next day.

We slept like two logs and woke up feeling refreshed and excited to begin our adventure. We had a good hearty breakfast in the hotel, which was a buffet covering nearly every continents offerings, including Sri Lanka. After applying the first lot of sun cream of the holiday, we checked out (leaving our bags to collect later) and headed out to explore Colombo.

The first thing that struck me was the heat, around 25 degrees at 10.30am – that’s hot for Scottish people. The second thing that struck me was the traffic – honking and swerving around all over the road. The third thing that struck me was the amount of construction going on, there were building sites everywhere, although their health and safety is definitely different that we have with guys digging in flip flops, and some suspect electrics.

• 

• 

We looked at our map and decided to walk a fairly small loop out to the seafront, up to the Dutch Hospital and back. Colombo’s seafront is not your typical prom, but is still very pleasant. There are a few street vendors lining the long tarmac promenade, which seems to stretch for quite some distance. There is a small amount of sand below but it didn’t look like the type of place you would lay out your towel and dive in.

• 

• 

We walked north along the seafront until we reached the end of the prom, and headed inland towards some of the sights. We ventured into the Dutch Hospital, which provided welcome relief from the mid-day sun. The building is built around a central open courtyard, surrounded by shady colonnades housing restaurants (including the Ministry of Crab) and some shops. We stopped for a drink and hoped we would cool down.

After feeling a bit refreshed we walked on and explored the area closest to our hotel. There were some interesting shrines and temples, but I was also just as fascinated by the busses and tuk tuks.

• 

• 

• 

We wondered back to our hotel and relaxed for an hour with a beer, thinking we hadn’t really fully used our morning in Colombo but we were hot and tired and knew we still had a long journey ahead as we were getting the train to Kandy that afternoon. The adventure was only just beginning.