capital city of Sri Lanka
Colombo has a warm, tropical monsoon climate with year-round temperatures between 26C and 32C. Language spoken is Sinhalese and Tamil though English is spoken by tourist guides, commercial enterprises and some shopping venues and government
It is a cosmopolitan city with a long history.
We had booked a 3-4 hour private Tuk-Tuk tour of the city with an English speaking local guide. We had arranged to meet our guide at 8.30 am at a designated spot in the city, which was an easy 20 minute stroll from the harbour. However, though we were ready to disembark at 8am our departure did not happen until 8.25am so we decided to hire a tuk-tuk at the wharf to take us into the city. We showed a local tuk-tuk driver our spot on the map and gave him $5 to drive us there. A tuk- tuk is a 3 wheeled buggy with a petro or battery motor. The driver sits in the front and passengers in the back seat and they are all over Colombo. Well our " friendly" driver drove about 400 metres and stopped at a roundabout corner saying this is the spot -,we indicated on the map that we needed to go further but he insisted we get off at this spot as our spot was around the bend: we then had to walk around the corner and down a street to get to our destination but the tuk-tuk driver rounded the roundabout and headed back for another fare for another pair of unsuspecting tourists.
Still undeterred we found our local Tuk-Tuk Tour guide and had a memorable city tour with him over the next 4 hours. His name was Singth and he was as 31 year old Tamil who once worked in finance but now does tours 4 days a week and Is dabbling in a career as an artist for the rest of the week. We began the tour sitting in the courtyard of a former hospital built by the Dutch in the early 1800's. It has recently been restored and renovated into a series of small restaurants and coffee bars. Singth spoke perfect English and he had a great understanding of Sri Lanka's history and culture. He related facts about the series of invasions and take overs of Ceylon over the past 1500 years which have seen different powers bring changes to the economy, religion, culture, lifestyle and languages in this island nation.
Interestingly in 2013 space images taken by NASA revealed an archaic manmade bridge between India and Sri Lanka. This discovery affirms that land invasions as well as sea invasions and trade routes were so easily achieved. Today the reminants and influence of past invasions and interactions with traders from India, Arabia, Portugal and England can be seen in the varying architecture of buildings of Portuguese, Arabian, Dutch and British colonial buildings.
Here is a shortened version of Sri Lanka's history: The ancient Veddah inhabitants of Sri Lanka were conquered by the Sinhalese migrants from northern India in the 6th century BC. They brought Hinduism to the island . The islands spices and precious stones and its position on the trans-Indian Ocean trade routes made it well known in ancient times.
From the 3rd century AD Sri Lanka became a major centre of Buddhist culture.
In 1505 the Portuguese conquered the coastal regions and were fairly ruthless in their treatment of the indigenous Sinhalese. They also introduced Roman Catholicism to Ceylon.
In 1646 the Dutch displaced the Portuguese. Examples of Dutch influence can be seen in the archecture of some buildings, the presence of Dutch Reform churches and Dutch cuisine. They also reclaimed land from the swampy delta areas and built a system of canals, which are still used today.
The British expelled the Dutch in 1795 and became the first foreign power to extend its power over the entire island in 1833 when it defeated the central kingdom of Kandy and incorporated all of Sri Lanka into the British Crown Colony of of Ceylon. Under British rule tea and rubber plantations were established in the islands interior and coconut plantations were consolidated in coastal areas.
In 1948 Ceylon became an independent member of the British Commonwealth. However Civil war raged between the Tamils (mostly Hindu) and the Sihalese ( Buddists) who slowly eroded Tamil's rights. The Tamil Tigers - extremists became very active in the civil war in 1972. Indian troops became involved in 1987 and tried to negotiate a truce but it failed. At. The Sri Lankan governments request Indian troops left and the Tamil Tigers agreed to a cease-fire which failed. The December 2004 tsunami (which took 30,000 lives) seemed to ease political tensions between the factions but by 2006 fierce fighting began and continued until a final battle on May 2009 where hundreds of rebels and their leader were killed. After 26 years of bloodshed that took 60,000 lives and displaced a million Tamils, the war was ended.
Even today the Tamil people are treated as second class citizens and it is difficult for them to enter university as candidates need to have a 75% entry grade as agin a 45% entry grade for all other students.
Religion: 68% Buddist, 15% Hindu, 10% Christian, 7% Muslim
Following this interesting and exhaustive explanation of the history of this island nation we were shouted tea in a local restaurant by Singth our guide who was totally surprised that we drank tea without milk or sugar. We then began our hair-raising, zig-zag,. tuk-tuk tour through the highly congested streets of Colombo city. We had some "close-shaves" but our driver was very experienced and managed to weave his way through the tiniest space between trucks, buses, bikes, scooters, other tuk-tuk vehicles and hand-drawn carts carrying goods of vegetables, building supplies or animals. Colombo sure is a cosmopolitan city!
As part of our tour we visited a huge ornate Buddhist temple with gold covered Buddhas and even a massive white jade, 8 ton Buddha (we'd never seen white jade before) Our guide showed us the car park under this temple where he pointed out the hypocracy of the priests who have purchased expensive cars: some for their own use , others for display: Rolls Royce, Mercedes , 2018 four wheel drives etc He added that the tourist dollars raised for temple visits contributes to the priests wealth and he is not impressed.
Next we spent an interesting time strolling through part of a shopping street seeing, smelling, hearing and experiencing the sights and atmosphere of the city. It was noisy, crowded, chaotic but stimulating. As we walked we smelt different spices like curry, cardamom, cinnamon and perfumes like musk and sandalwood. We passed many Indian clothing shops, tailors, gold merchants, gem merchants and haberdashery bazaars with bolts of every type of material displayed like a library full of books. Dotted in between this jungle of narrow bazaar-type shopfronts were cafes and restaurants serving Middle Eastern, Indian, Dutch, and British cuisine .
Our guide stopped by a cart full of coconuts. He bought 2 yellow skinned coconuts, cut off their tops , placed a straw in each opening and handed us a fresh coconut juice to drink. The juice was not as sweet or milky as other coconuts: these ones had a soft , almost jelly-like white flesh inside. Our guide scooped it out and it's delicate flavour reminded us of a suttle version of honeydew. It was surprisingly refreshing and satisfying.
We continued our tuk-tuk tour through the bustling street, passing a very ornate Muslim building, an Anglican Church and our tour guide took us to see a Dutch Reform church which was built in the late 1600's. It had 2 metre thick walls, very high ceilings, tall glassed windows, a pipe organ and headstones and plaques dating back to the mid 16th century. According to our guide 10% of the population claim to be Christians and attend various Christian churches in Colombo.
We also visited a famous Hindu temple. It has many stone carvings of the hundreds of gods, adorning the entrance portico's pyramid roof. The stone building has been hand-carved by craftsmen using crude tools. It is quite dark inside except for some shafts of light which comes from several stone roof openings ( now covered in persplex domes to keep out rain) Small altar candles also add light at each of the many carved idols that Hindus worship. Eg horse, cow, turtle Hindus To be a Hindu must be exhausting as there are so many rituals to perform and procedures to follow each day at the temple and according to our Hindu guide there is no assurance that " you have done it all correctly and that the gods are satisfied".
As we drove into the city cente we passed the 160 acre Beira Lakeview, built by the Dutch during their rule of the city. Locals find it is a beautiful place for picnics, regattas, relaxation and theatrical events. 
Our last point of interest was to visit a colonnade-type open structure known as Independence Memorial Place where the general public can gather to relax, do yoga, or just find shelter from the heat.It has been constructed with cement blocks and moulded columns which look and feel like sandstone. The colonnade's height captures the sea breezes from the ocean so that it's a refreshingly cool place to be.
As we were about to leave a bus load of school children pulled up as we were leaving this area and they called out "Hello, hello " several times as they madly waved at us. Ken replied, "Good'aye" but they must not have heard this greeting before because they did not echo it back to us. We then headed for our private yacht waiting for us in the harbour.
As we were about to leave a bus load of school children pulled up as we were leaving this area and they called out "Hello, hello " several times as they madly waved at us. Ken replied, "Good'aye" but they must not have heard this greeting before because they did not echo it back to us. We then headed for our private yacht waiting for us in the harbour.
Before getting on board we visited a market on the wharf, which magically set up the minute before our very eyes when we docked this morning. We chose a long sleeved top to wear in Oman or Dubaui as they have strict " cover- up" dress codes.
We were quite tired but glad of all the experiences that we'd shared on our Colombo tuk-tuk tour.
One little tired Sri Lankan Cat
One little tired Sri Lankan Cat
