As is the very obvious title, yes I made it to the land of Elephants,Tea and Buddha Temples, no! It was a work trip , very short and not at all planned. Imagine, I needed a visa to Sri Lanka ( Company rules, sigh!).. Come friday night, I was aboard a flight to Chennai, where I had a hour 30 minute layover to run across to the International Terminbal & board the Colombo Flight. As luck would have it, the Chennai flight landed 15 mintues late and taxied to a non aerobridge parking,which meant I had to get into a bus, wait for the bus to move and a gazillion people get down before me. So finally I get off, sprint through the domestic towards the international terminal, only to see a 100 people in a queue to get inside. By this time the ticker was already down to an hour. Thankfully Chennai people are very even tempered, they put up with my huffing, puffing and shoving and let me go ahead and I just about managed to get to Sri Lankan Airways desk and got my ticket. With a complete sense of having conquered the world and all that it entails, I proceeded to board the flight and landed in Colombo.
I stayed in Taj Samudra in a room that faced the sea (gorgeous!).
All of saturday was work ( sob..) but the highpoint was that the office I went to was converted from an old bungalow. It was really beautiful with loads of trees and a lovely garden complete with flowers and a dog! In the evening, I went to Odel which was a must visit according to friends. It was resplendent in christmas finery with carols playing in the background. Odel and House of Fashion are supposed to give great deals on clothes.Odel was good window shopping for me. I called it a day after Odel and decided that time was better spent on the beach. Surprisingly, the beach was quite clean and well organised. This was a pleasant surprise after having gotten somewhat used to Mumbai. In fact, overall Colombo was really clean, well organised and disciplined. The walk on the beach was fairly uneventful other than a bunch of people dancing to Kolaveri di..
Sunday morning saw me showing some resolve and doing the sights in Colombo. The itenerary included House of Fashion, shopping for masks, visiting Gangaramaya Temple( one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Colombo) and checking out some Modern trade outlets ( sigh..work). Sri Lanka is definitely a country that deserves more than 48 hours..I plan to go back there sometime soon.
I stayed in Taj Samudra in a room that faced the sea (gorgeous!).
All of saturday was work ( sob..) but the highpoint was that the office I went to was converted from an old bungalow. It was really beautiful with loads of trees and a lovely garden complete with flowers and a dog! In the evening, I went to Odel which was a must visit according to friends. It was resplendent in christmas finery with carols playing in the background. Odel and House of Fashion are supposed to give great deals on clothes.Odel was good window shopping for me. I called it a day after Odel and decided that time was better spent on the beach. Surprisingly, the beach was quite clean and well organised. This was a pleasant surprise after having gotten somewhat used to Mumbai. In fact, overall Colombo was really clean, well organised and disciplined. The walk on the beach was fairly uneventful other than a bunch of people dancing to Kolaveri di..
Sunday morning saw me showing some resolve and doing the sights in Colombo. The itenerary included House of Fashion, shopping for masks, visiting Gangaramaya Temple( one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Colombo) and checking out some Modern trade outlets ( sigh..work). Sri Lanka is definitely a country that deserves more than 48 hours..I plan to go back there sometime soon.
