කොළඹ
Sri Lankan capital and gateway to paradise
Sri Lanka‘s capital Colombo may for many be simply the port of entry to the country by the airport at neighbouring Negombo, but this pleasant and fairly laid back city has a lot to offer the casual visitor, such as myself. There are just under a million people living in Colombo proper, but it isn’t nearly as frenetic as nearby India or the southeast Asian nations. Colombo was named capital by the British in 1815, but has been around since at least the 14th century when Ibn Battuta pitched up.
I spent a day in Colombo at the end of my trip to Sri Lanka, with the evening in the Galle Face Hotel before heading to the airport for a late night flight back to Dubai. The city centre is compact and easy enough to walk around, but with its year-round tropical climate the heat got to me and I had to stop in at local department store ODEL to buy a new shirt.
Trains in Sri Lanka may not be quick, but they certainly are old, with this example having been built in West Germany. A small gift was deposited upon me by a local pigeon as soon as I stepped off the train, thus setting me up with good luck for the rest of the day.
Like much of south and southeast Asia, tuk-tuks ply the streets for a quick and cheap and cheerful way to get around town.
I was amused by this statue of a buried person struggling to answer the phone. It is a monument to the history of telecommunications.
Cargills Department Store is an old Sri Lankan institution, this is their iconic main building on York Street in the centre of old Colombo which was completed in 1906.
Inside Cargills very little has changed since the company was founded in the 19th century, while certainly authentic I felt it could have done with a bit more energy to avoid feeling quite so Soviet. I have been to similar-looking department stores in Cuba.
Lankem Plantation House, another of Colombo’s old colonial architectural icons.
The rickshaw days of Colombo have long since passed, but are immortalised in bronze outside the Grand Oriental Hotel, across from the Sri Lanka Ports Authority building.
Sri Lanka still has a way to go with clearing itself up after the civil war and associated economic slump. I didn’t know what this building was at the time of my visit, and was interested in how such a grand neo-classical edifice could be left abandoned and open to the elements in this way. I later found that it is the Central Point Building and was about to be converted, appropriately, into the Economic History Museum, shortly after my visit.
Down on the Indian Ocean coast, locals take a stroll past the historic defences. These cannons were set up by the Dutch, to repel a potential attack by the Portuguese.
Sri Lanka’s grand Old Parliament Building faces out over the sea. The sky behind has unfortunately since been blighted with high rise modern hotels. It was built in 1930 but the parliament moved out in the 1980s, and it now houses the Presidential Secretariat.
The sea front is bordered by Galle Face Green, the place to see and be seen in Colombo. It has historically been a site for horse racing, but is mostly beachgoers these days. In the background is the luxury Taj Samudra Hotel.
Colombo’s classic Grande Dame hotel is the Galle Face Hotel at the south end of the green, although these days it’s somewhat overshadowed by its taller neighbours. The national flag featuring a sword-wielding lion flies high over Galle Face Green.
A view back up Galle Face Green with the twin World Trade Centre towers and the Old Parliament Building on the left. At the very far left is the Kingsbury Hotel, one of the targets of the 2019 Easter bombings.
Beira Lake is Colombo’s central water feature, although it’s now divided into several basins. This is Seema Malaka temple on the southwest lake, which to my untrained eye looks mildly Japanese.
Although the city has a wealth of historic buildings, Colombo is pushing ahead with ambitious projects such as the new Nelum Pokuna Theatre shown here, just weeks before its opening.
Colombo’s town hall is now housed in this very US Capitol-esque building. It is of course also reminiscent of other civic buildings of suspiciously similar design, such as those in Buenos Aires, and indeed, Havana. It was looking a bit shabby at the time of my visit, but has since been spruced up. It’s relatively young, having been completed in 1928.
Opposite the town hall and quietly meditating is a large statue of Buddha, surrounded by the fountains of Viharamaha Devi Park.
Back to the Galle Face Hotel for an evening dinner and a few beers, the doorman didn’t seem to mind being part of the scene. The hotel has been welcoming guests since 1864.
I was surprised to find a statue of Yuri Gagarin grinning cheekily at me in the Galle Face Hotel lobby. Perhaps he’s as revered in Sri Lanka as he is in Russia? He was of course a guest, in the same year as his historic 1961 spaceflight. Many other celebs have graced the establishment over the years, including Mark Twain, Richard Nixon, and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
I really enjoyed the colonial elegance of the Galle Face Hotel, and spent a very pleasant evening here reading in the bar area with a refreshment or two, following a buffet dinner.
Shortly after taking this picture of the Galle Face Hotel by night, the rain really came on hard, but Sri Lanka being what it is, within half an hour or so it was dry again. I then headed back to the airport for my flight to Dubai. Good night!
Created 2013 | Updated 2024
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