Our tour group met last night for our orientation and “Hello, I am…” introductions. We have quite a diverse group of 15: 2 older couples of Indian heritage, 2 younger couples, 5 single ladies and 2 single men. Scots, Irish, English, Australia, and Canadian. Our guide is Udi, a middle-aged Sri Lankan gentleman of a happy demeanor.  Whereas some tours offer their guests lots of options or free time, Udi has most everything planned for us so he’ll select the restaurants for us, handle the tipping of waiters/porters/local guides, and I believe the majority will decide which optional things that the group will do.

This morning we met at 9:30am in the lobby to start our sightseeing. It turns out it was another person’s birthday in addition to mine so they decorated the inside of the bus for us and sang us Happy Birthday!

Our bus drove us around some of the important buildings in Colombo, then we walked thru Pettah Bazaar and the vegetable market. Crazy busy with tuk tuks honking and vendors selling, it was a bit overwhelming. After a time, I came to realize that as ramshackle and dirty-looking some areas were, in truth there was very little litter lying around. So I think there’s a huge discrepancy between the “haves” and “have-nots” but as yet I haven’t seen lot of “have-nothing-at-alls”.

Next we settled in for an hour’s drive north to Negombo.

We had just an hour plus to check in to our hotel and freshen up a bit before heading out again. First, however, we had a little bit of birthday cake, which I carefully managed to cut into 12 bite-sized slices.

Our afternoon excursion was to take a small boat cruise on the Dutch canal and out to the Negombo lagoon.  The canal was built in 1802 to connect 2 bodies of water and is 14.5kms long. We obviously only traveled a short portion and saw mainly the brick walls of residential backyards and fishing boats.  The lagoon, however, was wide open with mangrove islands and little fish farms.  Many fishermen lived on the edges of the lagoon and we could see a few tending their nets, or relaxing in their plastic patio chairs.  Our boat drivers beached our 2 boats at a small islet and in the freshening breeze and darkening skies served us freshly sliced pineapple cut open then and there, wading around each boat to serve each passenger.  Our next little islet had a small population of wild monkeys which popped out for a look at us as we passed, then we turned directly into the wind and rain(!) to beat back home. I was sitting in the very front so I did get wet but my clothes dried almost instantly once we reached land as it is rather hot here.

We’ve been lucky with the weather so far.  My weather app has been calling for rain all day every day and we’ve only had a quick shower last night and the “squall” this afternoon.  The sun has been intense but when one is in the shade with a slight breeze blowing it’s been rather pleasant.  It is the rainy season still, so we’re thankful for any dryness at all.