I was again in Colombo recently being my second trip this year. In the short time, I can see the city getting busier as well as the the anticipation of an economic boom after the war.
I stayed again at the Cinnamon Grand. It is a lovely hotel and recently refurbished. However, the room rates have been increasing each time I visit. Business is really booming for hotels as there are no new hotels in the city for so long.
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| The skylight at the main lobby |
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| A view of the lounge area |
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| View of the coffee corner |
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| A dusk view of the swimming pool and city from my room. |
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| View of the ocean from the lift area. |
On the first night, I was not feeling well due to gastric. I always get this when coming or to India due to the 2 and the half hour time difference. Missing a meal will cause me to suffer.
I did not want a heavy meal and my business associate insisted to pack me some "kotthu roti" which is prata cut up and cooked in several choices and style. As I had gastric, he got me cheese chicken kotthu so as not to be too spicy from a very popular restaurant. To me, I had a prawn kotthu before and it was much better as the cheese was alien in Indian cooking. Overall, it was not bad.
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| It was huge portion. Only managed to finish half. |
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| Taste much better than it looks. |
What I like about Colombo is the large shady trees which have mostly dissappeared in Malaysia in the name of development. It really provides very nice shades and shelter from the heat. You can still see many large trees around. Hope they don't cut them down soon.
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| Nice to be under the tree. |
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| See the large shade it provides. |
I saw a man selling something at a construction site and he was cutting up something. So, being the curious one, I had to go and look.
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| What is he selling? |
He was selling fish in very small pieces. This is how the poorer half buys their fresh fish.
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| The fish ebing cut up into small pieces. |
I had a vegetarian lunch as one of my business associate was a vegetarian for 9 days. We went to a South Indian restaurant. The food was good and they had many choices. The place was also decorated in a traditional Tamil way.
The city area has been undergoing lots of changes. This is a new road just next to the ocean. However, the railway line is before the ocean. Houses had to make way for this road. This road has much lower traffic and it's nice to drive next to the ocean.
The main road along the esplanade is now also much cleaner and beautified. Lots of people hang out here especially in the evenings and weekends.
Old colonial buildings are also now being restored and is looking good. I always enjoyed looking at these buildings. A similar city with many such building is Yangon, Myanmar.
Sri Lanka currently attracts on 500,000 tourists and therefore have a huge potential for more growth. Most tourists only spends a night in Colombo before heading off to the other bigger attractions in the country. The authorities probably have to think of other attractions to get more people to stay longer in Colombo.
Until the next time, cheers.
