Friday, August 16, 2024
Thinh and I slept in a bit today because we had no activities planned for the day. We had originally booked a full-day tour outside of Colombo, but we had decided to cancel it instead. It was good that we did because the weather today continued to be stormy.
I wanted to do some reading and relax at a coffee shop I had found nearby, so I left to head over there while Thinh stayed back at the hotel to relax a little bit more. The coffee stop was located in a nearby mall, though the entrance was a bit strange to locate: I had to go up a random staircase that eventually led to a side entrance of the mall. The café itself was quite nice and I ordered an iced coffee along with a pastry. The place was nearly empty, so I had my choice of seating. I soon settled in to delve into my book for a little while. Thinh joined me a little while later and we hung out at the café for a little while before returning to the hotel.
For a late lunch / early dinner today, Thinh had found a few restaurants that looked appealing. Thankfully they were all located along the same street, so we set off to walk over and check them out. We ended up going to our first choice, an Indian restaurant. When we arrived, the place was packed and the staff were busy running around to help the customers. There was a large group of men from India there and one of them was creating quite a fuss over his bill, which took nearly 20 minutes to get sorted. Apparently, he wanted a discount on his meal, which the staff were refusing to give him, and he was getting rather aggressive about the situation. It got resolved somehow and the large group left.
Meanwhile, Thinh and I had been sitting at our table the entire time, waiting to place our order. Eventually a waiter came over and took our order. We then moved to a table on the outside patio now that the large group was gone. When the food arrived, it was good, but my dish was too spicy for my taste. Overall it was a good meal though.
On our way back to the hotel, we both decided to stop and get some ice cream for dessert. There was an ice cream parlor en route, so we quickly ducked inside. The place was small, but nice. I ordered a milkshake and Thinh ordered two scoops of ice cream: mint and bubble gum. My milkshake was delicious, and Thinh enjoyed his ice cream (this was his first time getting bubble gum flavor).
We spent the remainder of the night back at the hotel. Shortly after we got back, a huge storm him with incredibly strong winds and heavy rain. It was fun to watch the storm from our hotel room, where we could see the entire city light up with each flash of lightning. We didn’t stay up too late tonight because we had to be up early the next morning.
Saturday, August 17, 2024
Today Thinh and I had a city tour of Colombo booked for the morning. The tour operator had messaged us throughout the previous day to try and push the tour back to the afternoon, but we wanted the morning tour since this was going to be our last day in Sri Lanka (plus we had to leave for the airport later this evening). Thankfully we managed to get the morning tour finalized and we met our tour guide outside the hotel and set off for our tour. The guide spoke good English, but he spoke with such speed that it was difficult to understand him at times. The tour guide would be driving us around in a tuktuk today, which would be a fun way to see the city.
We first stopped along the train tracks that run the length of the waterfront just outside of the hotel. There was no beach to speak of as the tracks we located close to the water. We were just in time to see a train coming by, which was packed with passengers, many of whom were hanging out of the doors. I was reminded of the trains in India. As we set off into the city, it began to rain quite heavily
The first proper sight that we stopped at was the Gangaramaya Temple, which is one of the most important Buddhist temples in the city. Our guide took us through the ‘museum’ area of the temple first, which consisted of a large room packed with different items that had been gifted to the temple over the years. It resembled an old antique shop or curiosity shop more than anything, with items just piled up across the room.
The central altar of the temple was protected by a glass enclosure since it contained Buddha statues made of gold, along with a verity of previous jewels. Photography was not permitted of this section of the temple. Behind it was a huge, terraced wall with dozens of Buddha statues along each level. We then walked around the rest of the temple complex, which was somewhat interesting. The best room there had massive, colorful statues of Buddha on every wall. The colors were very vibrant and was, by far, the prettiest part of the temple.
The rain had let up by the time we left for our next stop. Up next was the Gangarama Sima Malaka, another temple nearby situated on a small island in Beira Lake. We had free time to walk around the temple on our own. Thinh and I were unhappy at having to remove our shoes and walk barefoot throughout the temple – the area didn’t appear very clean, so it was a bit gross to walk through it barefooted. We fully understand showing respect at temples, but I think we could have happily skipped going around this one. It was a small temple with Buddha statues lining the walls. Across the street was a “I Love Colombo” sign that we walked over to take photos with as well.
Thinh was thoroughly enjoying the ride through town in the tukuk. He was using his GoPro-style camera to take videos throughout the ride, not to mention at each of the place we stopped. He had bought the camera shortly before the trip and he was eager to use it as much as possible. I hate being on video, so I tried to avoid being on camera as much as possible.
Our next brief stop was at the Galbokka Lighthouse, which was a small tower built on a stone platform. Our stop there was brief, just long enough to take photos, before we drove further into the city. We drove by several interesting, colonial-era buildings during the ride. We made another short photo-stop at the Lotus Tower, which was painted green with reddish glass at the top.
The third temple of the day was the Sri Kaileswaram Temple, which was my favorite. The huge buildings were covered with statues, all painted in bright colors. They were so intricate and detailed, the craftsmanship was truly impressive. Nearby was the Colombo Town Hall, which strongly resembled the US Capitol Building in Washington DC. Both of these locations were brief stops so we could stop for photos. The final stop of the day was at Independence Square, where we spent a few minutes walking around. There was a large open-air building standing to one end of the square.
When the tour ended, we returned to the hotel to rest for a little bit. We were both tired after the long morning of sightseeing. Overall, the tour of Colombo had been nice, though the sights were not as spectacular as I had hoped.
We still had several hours before we needed to leave for the airport, so I suggested we head over to a nearby café for a late lunch. While we were walking there, a tuktuk driver stopped and tried to get us to hire him to drive us. He was relentless and kept harassing us for several minutes, no matter how much we declined. It was very annoying.
The café I had found was themed to the TV sitcom “Friends” and I knew Thinh would enjoy it because he loves the TV show. The entrance door to the café was decorated to look like the door to Rachael and Monica’s apartment. Inside there was a large couch like the one from the Central Perk Coffee. Unfortunately, there was already a group sitting at the couch, so we took seats at a different table. Along the walls were different catchphrases from the show and other Friends-related material.
For lunch, I ordered a chicken wrap and Thinh ordered a Sri Lankan dish. My wrap was decent, but Thinh’s food turned out to be far too spicy. I tried a bite and my mouth felt like it was on fire! He was able to eat about half of the meal before the spice level defeated him. It was disappointing that the experience at the café wasn’t better; I wanted it to be special for Thinh.
After returning to the hotel, we got our things packed up and then took an Uber to the airport later in the evening. Our departure was scheduled for 22:55 tonight and we arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. We got dinner at Pizza Hut so we could get something to eat before our flight. I ordered the meat lovers personal sized pizza and was shocked to discover that it too was spicy as hell! It seemed like all food in Sri Lanka, with little exception, had the spicy level cracked all the way up.
We boarded our flight to Kuala Lumpur and we both did our best to sleep during the flight. While our time in Sri Lanka had been brief, we had enjoyed it.
Sunday, August 18, 2024
We landed in Kuala Lumpur at 05:00 this morning and we had a seven-hour layover until we flew to Hanoi. Thinh and I were exhausted and I knew it would be a struggle to stay awake. We were in a different terminal that the one I had flown through back in early July, and sadly we couldn’t transfer over to the other terminal building. It was a shame because the other one had better restaurants and food options. We settled in at a coffee shop where we each got a drink and sat down in some large, comfortable chairs for the long wait. I told Thinh to nap while I stayed awake to watch out belongings. He was soon fast asleep and I spent the time watching Netflix.
A few hours later, we went up to the food court area to get some breakfast. Nothing was appealing to me, so I settled on getting a breakfast wrap from McDonald’s while Thinh ordered something from a Malaysian restaurant. To my surprise, my wrap was rather delicious! Thinh’s breakfast was just so-so, but it was good to get something to eat nevertheless. With a couple hours still to wait, we returned to the same coffee shop. This time it was my turn to nap while Thinh stayed awake. The chairs were so comfortable that it was easy to quickly drift off to sleep.
Finally, at 12:40, our flight to Hanoi departed. Thinh and I both slept during the short flight. It was with relief that we landed back in Hanoi mid-afternoon. Passport control was a breeze and soon we ordered our Grabs to take us home. We were both so tired that we wanted to get home and rest.
The last week with Thinh had been a wonderful way to end my month-long travels. Even though the Maldives hadn’t lived up to expectations, the time with Thinh had still been magical. I am so lucky to have him in my life and I am glad that he enjoys joining me on my travels – it makes everything all the more special.
This featured blog entry was written by Glichez from the blog Europe, Paris Olympics, & Asia 2024.
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