Blue sky today and very sweaty. A rather late start for a couple of unwinding travellers. Then out our front door and into a Tuk Tuk to go directly to the Fort Train Station to get our tickets for our ongoing journeys. That was easy enough as the man in the Tourist Information place just did it all for us. He then tried to sell us a driver for 3 days to get from Anuradhapura to Kandy and around. We said we’d think about it but for $287 we thought not.
Then we walked off around the Fort area looking at the lovely colonial buildings and ended up at the Dutch Hospital. This is as it says, an old Dutch Hospital but very now full of boutique, trendy shops and restaurants. One of the best restaurants in Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Crab is there so we booked in for a lunch, mainly because I wanted to. I munched on delicious, messy garlic, chilli crab while Rose had a chicken curry. It was an expensive treat for me, one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was inspired by a woman at the table next to us who was travelling alone and sitting up there by herself with a whole bottle of wine, munching away on her crab. No idea where she was from but she was a role model.
Then we went off by tuk tuk to the floating market which wasn’t really a floating market and then to the Federation of self-employees Market, which was a real market but we had to walk around in circles to find it. We wanted to get a wine glass to replace said breakage and some beer to take home. Couldn’t find either so got in a Tuk Tuk and came home for our afternoon sit on the verandah with a glass of wine /beer and our books. Rose had to buy her beer at the House of Wine (aforementioned) which sells beer for $5 a stubby, that hurts.
The owner of the place we are staying in is an author and we bought his book at a Dutch Hospital trendy shop. We have an afternoon chat with them which is good because they give us some good ideas, and he signed the book.
One of the good ideas was to go to a nearby posh hotel called Red Cinnamon for a cocktail on their rooftop bar. We did and it was a lovely thing to do. Gorgeous views an infinity pool perched up above Colombo and a bar with divine cocktails. We restrained ourselves to one then walked off to a restaurant fairly nearby and had curries and hoppers but they didn’t have alcohol so we came back to our verandah fairly quickly walking the dark back lanes of Colombo (you do feel very safe here).
Another early night as we adjust to heat and walking +++. I’ve got the inevitable blisters again but keeping them well strapped up!!