Colombo: final day of my Sri Lanka stopover trip
Checking out from the hostel in Kandy, I started my day with Melo and some kinds of treats I couldn’t name once again, and headed to the bus terminal.
The Kandy Central Market, located right by the bus terminal, was an eye-opening site by itself. One of the most splendid and colorful markets I’ve ever seen, it seemed to be a shopping place catering to local people instead of tourists, which made it especially worth to visit. I also managed to purchase stamps for my postcards here.
The bus to Colombo took 2–3 hours or so. Not a typical place tourists spend much time at, the bustling South Asian capital had a very distinct vibe from towns like Kandy.
I had the honor to meet Janidu at International Biology Olympiad (IBO) 2012, where we both participated as competitors in our national teams. When I visited (2017) he was a medical student and offered to drive me around his hometown. One of the hospital buildings where he worked was the famous Old Colombo Dutch Hospital, originally part of a fort built by the Dutch.
After talking about our lives at lunch near the hospital, we visited the Colombo National Museum. I’ve made it a habit to visit national museums as much as I can when visiting a new country since. A huge sculpture of Buddha could be seen at the entrance of the museum.
A number of Buddhist statues were displayed in the museum, many of which were found in Anuradhapura, the ancient capital of Sri Lanka a little bit north of Sigiriya. The whole city is a World Heritage Site, definitely somewhere I would love to come back for.
left: outside of the museum shot from a window; right: modern paintings with cultural and religious elements
After the brief visit to the National Museum, we headed to the Independence Square, which was reminiscent of similar sites back in Taiwan. Standing in front of the Independence Hall was the statue of Sri Lanka’s first prime minister (the Father of the Nation), Don Stephen Senanayake. It took me a while to get a shot with the flag blowing in the wind.
Finally, Janidu and I both got hungry, so we agreed to go to a very authentic Sri Lanka restaurant — McDonalds to have a meal and concluded the day.
To my surprise, as we walked around in a local supermarket, Janidu’s dad appeared and gifted a couple of high-quality tea leaves as a present! What a lovely ending for my stopover in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is truly a country with such a profound culture that I knew too little about (While I am aware of its basic historical, linguistic and political situations, I could barely name 5 important historical figures of this country). I probably didn’t do it justice by only spending 3 days there.
Waving farewell to Janidu and his father, I took a bus heading toward Negambo, a northern suburb of Colombo where the airport sit. As the bus slowly drove through, I witnessed the busy markets all along the way even in the evening. Open spaces people frequent, mingle and interact to produce culture, a scene I miss living tremendously in the US for a while.
The hostel I stayed was called “The Hangover Hostel”, also a cheap and enjoyable place to stay, with a very leisure vibe. Some of my roommates (also fellow backpackers) who arrived late just threw their passports and purses on their beds and went to shower! Writing postcards on my bunkbed, I felt concerned seeing this even though it’s not my passport to be in the open.
Just as I thought my journey in Sri Lanka had come to the end, I received an unexpected email from Kuwait Airline, informing that my flight departing Colombo next morning would be delayed for several hours. Seems that the almighty god of traveling also thought my adventure in Sri Lanka was too short, and was helping me to extend it for a bit.
Thus tomorrow: the real final day of my stopover in Sri Lanka.
