March 1
We got up
for our early train, said goodbye to our hosts and took the short walk to the station. A creepy guy followed us
and chatted for a while but we easily ditched him once we got through the gate. The ride was uneventful, with a nice view of
the coast which the train followed closely.
This reminded us of the people who were on one when the tsunami hit and there
wasn’t enough coast between our window and the ocean to slow a wave down throughout our entire trip.
We were
told that there were many trains from Colombo to Negombo but we couldn’t book
them in advance because they were local ones. Finding accurate schedules online
was always tricky as different sites contradicted each other. The reality was it was a four hour wait until
the next train for Negombo. The station
was an unpleasant place to wait so we used the Pickme app and were in a car
within 10 minutes.
The drive
there was straightforward but for the first time we had an aggressive driver
who honked and yelled at everyone else on the road. We thought there was something off about him
when he matched the picture on the app but had a different car than Pickme stated. We got to Negombo quickly but
the drive left a bad aftertaste.
Our final
hotel was supposed to be our decadent splurge before a long flight. Our host met us in the lobby and seemed to
have no connection to the front desk.
The owner had bought rooms within a hotel, not a condo, and booked them
out online. Weird.
The room was nice, with a patio overlooking the beach. Unfortunately, they were setting up a sound stage in a fenced-off area of the beach and we could hear the bass from the sound check throughout our room. This didn’t bode well for getting a good sleep.
 |
| Read the sign! |
The room was nice but the tv didn’t work. Fortunately, we were able to call our host who brought in a new, working one so we were all set. We checked out our “infinity pool”, which only looked that way if you held your camera just above the water at the far end of the pool. The beach-facing side of the pool had a few metres of concrete, a set of steps and a lower patio between it and the building edge so it was a rooftop pool, no infinity stuff. The patrons were mainly seniors who took up all of the chaises on the shady end so we had to haul up chairs from another level to put our stuff on. We were the only ones in the water, which was fine except some of the tiles in the pool were missing or loose. Later we found out that the whole building was only 5 years old, so it couldn’t have been built to last.
 |
| Not an infinity pool. |
We checked out the restaurant by the pool and looked in at the closed bar with piles of furniture stacked everywhere before heading out to explore the area. The hotel was on a shoreline street lined with tourist shops. Souvenirs were the order of the day but we also found many restaurant choices and a few small supermarkets where we picked up some basics. Meg picked up some gifties to take home and we grabbed some savory buns for our breakfast the next day.
 |
| Still, the place had a nice view. |
The
neighbourhood was busy with people streaming in for the beach concert so we
chilled in our room and enjoyed the view until dinner. We walked down a dark road and completely
missed our restaurant as it was tucked away and Google maps was only able to give an
approximate location. The place was
fancy, with a big open kitchen where a large staff toiled away. Service was slow and friendly and the food
was good (but not amazing) with the portions being larger than one would expect
in a place like this. The presentation
was excellent, every dish being photo-worthy.
We headed
back to our room in the dark. The
neighbourhood felt safe as long as you got out of the way of the tuktuks. When we asked our host about the beach party,
he told us it would be over by 10 because of local rules. He was right, when we got to bed the night
was quiet and we had a good sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment