“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Anonymous
We visited Colombo in December 2016.
Srilanka was never in my radar. But I have read a lot of blogs where people have been comparing Srilanka with my native state Kerala. That was one of the major spark for this Srilankan trip.
After visiting, I could easily conclude that there are lot of things that are quite common to Sri Lanka with my native Kerala and there is no surprise that many of the foreign tourists are asking this question again and again – Srilanka or Kerala, Where to go?
Like Kerala, Colombo also have a lot of back waters, the green mountains, long costal line with umpteen number of wonderful beaches and so on. I would personally say that we as Keralite’s should learn a lot from Srilankan’s especially the way they are promoting tourism in their country. Kerala is indeed the ‘God’s own Country’ where god has gifted so many natural attractions, but we fail to maintain them. Cleanliness is a major thing that is to be implemented. The government should also concentrate on building proper infrastructure by constructing wider roads or widening the existing roads.
In Srilanka, it is so easy for me to navigate from one attraction to another where in Kerala if I need to cover 2 districts, I will have to spend so much time on the road.
Sri Lanka might be full of fascinating places to visit, but Colombo isn’t often listed as one of them. Eventhough Sri lanka has 2-3 International airports, Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport is the busiest airport in the country and one of the busiest airports in South Asia. So many tourists land at this airport in Colombo and move ahead to see the other wonders of the country. We also had spend very few hours in Colombo since we planned more days in Kandy and Nuwara Eliya in our trip itinerary.
Its true that Colombo doesn’t offer a lot in terms of sights and I would say that Colombo lacks a must see place like we see in other capital cities of Asian countries.
Now a days, Colombo is experiencing quite a building boom of high skyscrapers, new roads, several posh hotels and so on.
English is widely spoken so you won’t find it difficult to get around. There are four main ways to get around Colombo – trains, buses, rickshaws (Tuk-Tuk) and taxis.
Major Attractions within 15 Kms from Colombo City Centre:
- Colombo Fort (2.5 Kms)
- Gangaramaya Buddhist Temple (2 Kms)
- Independence Memorial Hall/Independence Memorial square gardens (3.5 Kms)
- Mount Lavinia (12 Kms)
- Galle Face Green Promenade (4.5 Kms)
- Viharamadevi Park (3 kms)
- DiyathaUyana park (8 Kms)
- Pettah Market (4 Kms)
- Beira Lake (3 Kms)
- National Museum (3 kms)
- Wellawatte (7.8 Kms)
Following were some of the places that we saw on our way from Nuwara Eliya to Colombo:
Bentota Beach
I wouldn’t say that its in Colombo. Its around 80Kms from Colombo.
The beach is absolutely stunning! Very long and broad strip of sand with warm and beautiful ocean on the one side and beautiful green trees on the other. There are lots of water sports available in this beach.
Captain’s Deck Madu River Boat Cruise: (100 Kms)
If you are a nature lover, you will certainly enjoy this boat ride. Madu lagoon is a very wide and beautiful lagoon in SriLanka. The boat safari is for around 1.5-2 hours. You will also be provided with life jackets during this cruise. The boat ride is through the mangroves and is very pleasant and relaxing. Then you can go for the fish spa and visit cinnamon island, where you learn about how cinnamon sticks are made and the various benefits of cinnamon.
Many species of birds are found in many of the islands around the lagoon. We can also see many migrated birds. In most of these islands there are people who earn their living by peeling cinnamon.
There are around 64 islands in the Madu river.
Bally’s casino (2 Kms)
This is one of the largest Casino’s in Sri Lanka. Personally I have not visited this Casino and also have read a lot of negative comments about this casino in popular sites like Trip advisor.
We also witnessed the Xmas-New year celebration in Colombo:
The Xmas and New year is celebrated quite lavishly in the Colombo city. Almost all the buildings and streets are completely illuminated with lights. A lot of people visit the city to see these lightings and other related events.
Colombo Airport
Even if you are landing here during the early hours or late night, you don’t have to worry. Colombo Airport works in full speed at any hours of the clock.
