Two Days in Negombo
Double edition this arvo...
We arrived very late into Colombo's Bandaranaike Airport on Wednesday 2nd January. As is our normal procedure, we walked straight through the scrum of taxi touts into somewhat clear space before we were approached by a young guy looking for a fare. He quickly understood that he needed to back off a bit and give us some space. I love how the young ones get the message and then 'guard' their potential fare. Anyway, he seemed like a friendly young fellow and he spoke reasonable English so price negotiated 25000 SL Rupiahs (just under $20) and we were off.
The lovely guys who own/run Villa Kapura knew we were coming in late and were there to greet us well after midnight. A quick Facebook message to let the family at home we'd arrived safely and we hit the sack - it was, afterall almost 3am by our body clocks.
Up next morning for breakfast poolside and the warm greetings of the resident menagerie. Dusty & Cinnamon are the resident dogs and I believe several of the cats are also permanent residents but there was a collection of rescued kitties who will eventually find fur-ever homes.
Heading out after breakfast thinking we might wander into Negombo just to orientate ourselves. We took the little alley which joins St Josephs St with Beach Road, then across the road to check out Negombo Beach. Not the cleanest beach but it stretches for miles. A couple of local fishing boats had been pulled up onto the sand after offloading last night's catch.
Back onto Beach Rd we turned right and headed for 'town'. We headed and we headed and we headed - and after about 30min stopped to buy a bottle of water, only to find out we still had 4km to go.... oh well.
On the way we passed the Sri Signama Kali Hindu temple (but didn't go in) and then stopped for a look at St Sebastians Catholic Church. We found out later that about 6% of the Sri Lankan population are Catholic and there are 25 Catholic Churches just in Negombo! Much plainer than the majestic Catholic Cathedrals we'd seen last year in Europe but beautiful in their own way.... and a welcome respite from the heat and humidity outside. We also saw lots of Nativity scenes set up - outside churches, hotels, and in front of the little streets that lead to individual 'villages'
Back on what was now called Sea St we continued towards 'town' … we knew we were getting closer because the traffic became more manic!
Round the corner and we were face to face with Negombo's main Catholic Church, St Marys. Beautiful in her blue renovation paint-job from 2 years ago.
We stopped for a coffee before exploring a small market and trying to find somewhere to get a SIM card for my phone.
We found lots of shops selling phones but a SIM card was another matter. At this point we were hot and bothered so we grabbed a tuk tuk back to our guesthouse for a swim, stopping close to our little alley at a convenience store for milk, only to discover he sold SIM cards and would put it in and set it up for me.
A swim, a nap and a laze around and it was dinner time. Back out the alley and onto Beach Rd for quite a good selection. Negombo is a fishing town so it made sense to check out the seafood. Cuttlefish and Sri Lankan Prawn curry were both excellent. And the obligatory Lion beer!
Today is Friday - I have to keep looking at my phone or the calendar thingy on my laptop to remember.
And because this is my blog and I can put in any photo I want - here are some more of our new feline and canine friends
Anyway - we organised a tuk tuk tour of some of the other sights of Negombo through the guys here at Villa Kapura and right on the dot of 9.30am we heard a tuk tuk outside. Introduced to Robin and explaining we'd already seen St Sebastians & St Marys yesterday, we decided on the Fish Market and the Rocky Shoreline to start with.
We stopped on the way at the Sri Signama Kali Hindu temple and went in for a look before heading past a 'rustic' cricket ground to the Dutch Fort near the Fish Markets.
Nearby is a Tsunami Tower - one of dozens installed around the coast in the aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day tragedy. Negombo was hit by the tsunami but because of its location much further up the coast than places like Galle the damage was relatively limited.
The Negombo Fish Market is big, noisy, smelly - pretty much what you'd expect. The majority of vendors are women - who buy from the actual fishermen and then sell to locals, businesses etc. Its mostly open air save for strategically slung shade cloths.
Down towards the water, is the fish drying area. The catch comes in, the fish that are not being sold fresh are cleaned, scaled and then loaded into drums of salt for 2 days before being laid out on mats to dry in the sun. They are covered with plastic at night and turned after 2-3 days depending on their thickness.
Down on the waters edge, small boats are unloaded and the nets emptied. Its fascinating to watch them flip finger sized fish out of the nets and into baskets before being carted away either for immediate sale or for drying.
After the fish market itself, we headed round to the lagoon where thee bigger boats were at anchor. These guys have a hold (which is partially filled with ice) and can stay at sea for several days (till the hold is full).
Then it was off further down the coast towards Colombo and a stop at the 'Fishermans Church' The statue of Mary out the side facing the ocean has her holding Christ in one hand and a boat in the other. The blessing of the fleet festival happens here too. They had a very cool Christmas Tree out the front - made of dyed coconut husk
Then it was a quick stop to check out some rock pools on the beach end of a long strip of rock jutting into the ocean. At the far end is a shipwreck - you can see the engine room of the ship still sticking out of the water. Robin didn't know the name of the ship that went down.
Exploring the rockpools we saw sea urchin, sea anemone and stacks of assorted shellfish clinging to the rocks in the area that is underwater part of the day and high and dry at other times. A local fisherman picked a sea urchin out for me to have a loser look at.
Heading for lunch we made a quick stop at a local vege market. I've got pretty good at identifying various Asian vegies but I got stumped on the snake gourd. Apparently you slice it thinly as a salad veg.
Lunch was at a little 'local' style chicken curry & rice place. Its the national dish so of course we had to try it. Yep, tick that off the list.
We headed back to Villa Kapura just as school was coming out. The hours over here are 7.30 - 1.30pm and pick-up time is very similar to bell time at any primary school in Oz - with parents ignoring parking signs. I saw, but missed the opportunity to grab a photo of a tuk tuk with about a dozen small boys loaded into it.
Tomorrow we're off to Sigiriya.
We arrived very late into Colombo's Bandaranaike Airport on Wednesday 2nd January. As is our normal procedure, we walked straight through the scrum of taxi touts into somewhat clear space before we were approached by a young guy looking for a fare. He quickly understood that he needed to back off a bit and give us some space. I love how the young ones get the message and then 'guard' their potential fare. Anyway, he seemed like a friendly young fellow and he spoke reasonable English so price negotiated 25000 SL Rupiahs (just under $20) and we were off.
The lovely guys who own/run Villa Kapura knew we were coming in late and were there to greet us well after midnight. A quick Facebook message to let the family at home we'd arrived safely and we hit the sack - it was, afterall almost 3am by our body clocks.
Up next morning for breakfast poolside and the warm greetings of the resident menagerie. Dusty & Cinnamon are the resident dogs and I believe several of the cats are also permanent residents but there was a collection of rescued kitties who will eventually find fur-ever homes.
Heading out after breakfast thinking we might wander into Negombo just to orientate ourselves. We took the little alley which joins St Josephs St with Beach Road, then across the road to check out Negombo Beach. Not the cleanest beach but it stretches for miles. A couple of local fishing boats had been pulled up onto the sand after offloading last night's catch.
Back onto Beach Rd we turned right and headed for 'town'. We headed and we headed and we headed - and after about 30min stopped to buy a bottle of water, only to find out we still had 4km to go.... oh well.
On the way we passed the Sri Signama Kali Hindu temple (but didn't go in) and then stopped for a look at St Sebastians Catholic Church. We found out later that about 6% of the Sri Lankan population are Catholic and there are 25 Catholic Churches just in Negombo! Much plainer than the majestic Catholic Cathedrals we'd seen last year in Europe but beautiful in their own way.... and a welcome respite from the heat and humidity outside. We also saw lots of Nativity scenes set up - outside churches, hotels, and in front of the little streets that lead to individual 'villages'
Back on what was now called Sea St we continued towards 'town' … we knew we were getting closer because the traffic became more manic!
Round the corner and we were face to face with Negombo's main Catholic Church, St Marys. Beautiful in her blue renovation paint-job from 2 years ago.
We stopped for a coffee before exploring a small market and trying to find somewhere to get a SIM card for my phone.
We found lots of shops selling phones but a SIM card was another matter. At this point we were hot and bothered so we grabbed a tuk tuk back to our guesthouse for a swim, stopping close to our little alley at a convenience store for milk, only to discover he sold SIM cards and would put it in and set it up for me.
A swim, a nap and a laze around and it was dinner time. Back out the alley and onto Beach Rd for quite a good selection. Negombo is a fishing town so it made sense to check out the seafood. Cuttlefish and Sri Lankan Prawn curry were both excellent. And the obligatory Lion beer!
Today is Friday - I have to keep looking at my phone or the calendar thingy on my laptop to remember.
And because this is my blog and I can put in any photo I want - here are some more of our new feline and canine friends
Anyway - we organised a tuk tuk tour of some of the other sights of Negombo through the guys here at Villa Kapura and right on the dot of 9.30am we heard a tuk tuk outside. Introduced to Robin and explaining we'd already seen St Sebastians & St Marys yesterday, we decided on the Fish Market and the Rocky Shoreline to start with.
We stopped on the way at the Sri Signama Kali Hindu temple and went in for a look before heading past a 'rustic' cricket ground to the Dutch Fort near the Fish Markets.
Built in 1678 there's not a lot left apart from the entrance gate. Inside is now used as a prison so obviously it was look from the outside only.
Nearby is a Tsunami Tower - one of dozens installed around the coast in the aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day tragedy. Negombo was hit by the tsunami but because of its location much further up the coast than places like Galle the damage was relatively limited.
The Negombo Fish Market is big, noisy, smelly - pretty much what you'd expect. The majority of vendors are women - who buy from the actual fishermen and then sell to locals, businesses etc. Its mostly open air save for strategically slung shade cloths.
Down towards the water, is the fish drying area. The catch comes in, the fish that are not being sold fresh are cleaned, scaled and then loaded into drums of salt for 2 days before being laid out on mats to dry in the sun. They are covered with plastic at night and turned after 2-3 days depending on their thickness.
Down on the waters edge, small boats are unloaded and the nets emptied. Its fascinating to watch them flip finger sized fish out of the nets and into baskets before being carted away either for immediate sale or for drying.
After the fish market itself, we headed round to the lagoon where thee bigger boats were at anchor. These guys have a hold (which is partially filled with ice) and can stay at sea for several days (till the hold is full).
Then it was off further down the coast towards Colombo and a stop at the 'Fishermans Church' The statue of Mary out the side facing the ocean has her holding Christ in one hand and a boat in the other. The blessing of the fleet festival happens here too. They had a very cool Christmas Tree out the front - made of dyed coconut husk
Then it was a quick stop to check out some rock pools on the beach end of a long strip of rock jutting into the ocean. At the far end is a shipwreck - you can see the engine room of the ship still sticking out of the water. Robin didn't know the name of the ship that went down.
Exploring the rockpools we saw sea urchin, sea anemone and stacks of assorted shellfish clinging to the rocks in the area that is underwater part of the day and high and dry at other times. A local fisherman picked a sea urchin out for me to have a loser look at.
Heading for lunch we made a quick stop at a local vege market. I've got pretty good at identifying various Asian vegies but I got stumped on the snake gourd. Apparently you slice it thinly as a salad veg.
Lunch was at a little 'local' style chicken curry & rice place. Its the national dish so of course we had to try it. Yep, tick that off the list.
We headed back to Villa Kapura just as school was coming out. The hours over here are 7.30 - 1.30pm and pick-up time is very similar to bell time at any primary school in Oz - with parents ignoring parking signs. I saw, but missed the opportunity to grab a photo of a tuk tuk with about a dozen small boys loaded into it.
Tomorrow we're off to Sigiriya.
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