A Day in Colombo
Blame it on the FlySmiles promo
of Srilankan Airlines --- swap your airmiles and pay less for a ticket to
Colombo. I had some lieu leave credits that I can take so I went with J-blogged to Sri Lanka for a short R&R. She went
there ahead as she has a longer holiday than me.
Ate Tess promised the night before that she is going to wake me up as she is scared I will again miss my flight (aww! last Aug trip I did), and well....I almost did! Hahaha she called me up at exactly 5am but since my check-in starts only at 6:25am, it was still too early, so I just rolled around in bed and whoa! I woke up and it was.....6:30am!
I scrambled out of bed, showered, and went out of the house in less than 30 minutes! hahaha
For the first time, I did not bring my laptop for my holiday! I normally lug it around wherever I go.... I always feel guilty of going on a holiday, I think its a common woe for all working people. Feeling natin, guguho ang mundo if we cannot access and answer our emails every day!
With only my Ipad to keep me company (I am trying to increase my score in Bubble Mania!), what a liberating start to my holiday. Colombo, here I come!
Ate Tess promised the night before that she is going to wake me up as she is scared I will again miss my flight (aww! last Aug trip I did), and well....I almost did! Hahaha she called me up at exactly 5am but since my check-in starts only at 6:25am, it was still too early, so I just rolled around in bed and whoa! I woke up and it was.....6:30am!
I scrambled out of bed, showered, and went out of the house in less than 30 minutes! hahaha
For the first time, I did not bring my laptop for my holiday! I normally lug it around wherever I go.... I always feel guilty of going on a holiday, I think its a common woe for all working people. Feeling natin, guguho ang mundo if we cannot access and answer our emails every day!
With only my Ipad to keep me company (I am trying to increase my score in Bubble Mania!), what a liberating start to my holiday. Colombo, here I come!
I met up with Janeth in Colombo. It’s
really true what my friend Chatru had
told me that as of this year the Srilankan immigration is already collecting a
visa-on-arrival fee of U$25.00. Kainis lang coz it’s additional travel cost and
it is really not cheap to travel to Sri Lanka anymore, especially Colombo! Good
thing our favorite guesthouse De Vos Avenue @Tropic
Inn gave us a discount (thanks Ruveena!)
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| New paint job at the guesthouse.....last time I was here it did not look like this yet. |
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| The guesthouse is also very near Majestic City.....just a few blocks from KFC |
While shopping at Majestic City, we met up with another Pinoy
friend (works in Hilton Maldives) who is in Colombo also that time for his
R&R so we asked him to tag along with us....the more the merrier!
The whole afternoon was spent taking in the sights of Colombo. There is not much to see around Colombo so I took them to the Seema Malakaya temple in the middle of Beira Lake and then to the nearby Gangaramaya temple.
The whole afternoon was spent taking in the sights of Colombo. There is not much to see around Colombo so I took them to the Seema Malakaya temple in the middle of Beira Lake and then to the nearby Gangaramaya temple.
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| Seema Malakaya temple, Beira Lake |
The weather was really bad, by
the time we came out from the temple, the clouds seems to be getting darker and
darker. We still continued on to Odel and House of Fashion though, nothing can
come between us and our shopping expedition! Hahaha
Our friend Jake is staying at the
Hilton so we went there for dinner (he also has a 50% F&B discount!) and
had a sumptuous dinner at the Flavours of China......asked to choose between Italian and Chinese cuisine, we opted for the latter. Mas masarap naman talaga ang Chinese food lalo na if may mga pork dishes, ayyy wagas! lol
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| Pork...Pork...and more Pork....lol |
Word of caution: if looking for a
disco club, specify it’s for dancing club or discotheque or else you will end
up in a dingy smoke-filled club full of dancing girls in skimpy dresses. I asked
the Hilton concierge guy if he can recommend a place to go clubbing, he told us we can
go to either Rhythm & Blues or the Basement club in Galle Road, we opted for the latter coz we thought it might be a funky discotheque judging from the name. Yuck! We paid an extortionate 500 LKR entrance fee each and after 1 round
of Corona beers which costs 600LKR apiece (a girl came up and chatted with us then asked if she can get a
glass of Jack Daniels, we don’t want to offend so we said yes!) our bill was already
almost 4,000LKR!
We came out of that place and
went to O’Bar instead. It’s located in the newly renovated Dutch hospital just
in front of the Colombo World Trade Center. It’s lovely inside, there are new restos,
chairs and seating areas alfresco in the courtyard, then the music coming from
the funky O’Bar (a classy and affordable bar with such a fantastic bar team -- highly recommended place to visit while in Colombo), perfect ingredients to a great evening.
Cheers! To another great trip in
Sri Lanka!
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