ALL packed and ready to leave! Why Sri Lanka? Honestly
this little island country was not even on my “TO GO” list until recently. But
when I did consider this place for our family backpacking vacation, and started
reading about it - It felt like a place NOT to be missed.
Our cab from Pune to Mumbai airport was in the
middle of the night, and we reached airport still in the middle of the night. Next
3 hours after whiling away time at the airport, eating bread Nutella [packed], we
slept off the minute we boarded our first flight. Oh how I wished it was a
direct flight, but wait, this is budget travel, comforts at bay! J
Next morning, in Hyderabad airport, collected our
bags and checked it till Colombo. Breakfast of bread patties [again packed –
Yes am the kind of person who hates airport food]. Flight delayed [Should have
taken direct flight hmmm?] A little coffee does wonders, and we reach Madurai
airport [haha I didn't plan on 3 planes to Colombo, it was supposed to be 2
planes, surprise surprise]. Finally in Colombo by 4 in the evening. After
currency exchange, we ate something at the airport itself [some veg patties,
Milo and cupcakes – There weren't too many options – Just patties with
different kind of fillings veg /non veg]
We picked our backpacks and headed outside the
airport, waving a polite no to the taxi folks [Tata Nano also amongst those
taxis – a Big wave to this one]. The bus till Fort Colombo just took 220 LKR
for two seats – super cheap. The Fort bus stop is in the area called Pettah –
very chaotic, reminded me of Peth area in Pune. We immediately got a metered
tuk tuk [ The driver chuckled when I mentioned the word metered :-) ] which took us to Colombo 3, where our homestay was, via
the sea facing Galle face road [ 300 lkr ]
I had requested our host, via Airbnb to help me
with train tickets for next day to Ella, as I didn't want to risk not getting
the tickets on the day of travel. There is no concept of "advance online booking" for Srilankan railways. I was so happy when I came to know that
those have been arranged. But soon realized that they had booked tickets
for Kandy n not Ella. Money wasted, plus again the uncertainty of tickets. In
Srilanka, you get the ticket from source till destination of train, so you pay
the same amount for the ticket, no matter where you board or alight. So I can't buy a Kandy to Ella now, it has to be Colombo to Elle.
While we waited for Ishu to wake up from her
nap, had a nice chat with our host, who directly us to places to get a decent
bite and also to shop a bit for the next day train journey [Ever present Food
City – one can buy juices / milk / fruits etc, which we always carried for Ishu].
Dinner was at cafe on the fifth - even though it was decently crowded, the
approach road was nearly deserted / not well lit. We ordered some chicken kuttu
[I especially asked for non spicey version if that existed, which I soon discovered
doesn’t exist - here at least] and hoppers [Hoppers are just like Kerala’s Uppam].
[Food city & dinner 1416 lkr]
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| Where we had dinner at Colombo |
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| Kuttu |
It has been a long long day, but super excited
about the next day train journey, fingers crossed for the tickets.
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