4 April 2013

Today was a whole day in Colombo. We took an early morning walk. It was hazy this morning. Some rain came later. We examined the hotel from outside and admired the ocean walk.

My cousin Lakshmi arrived from Kuala Lumpur in the early morning. She is staying at the same hotel. We met for breakfast at 8:30am. Then we met a friend of Lakshmi, Faisal, who is a gem dealer. He gave us some finer points of gem buying and what to look for. The we proceeded to go around Colombo on a shopping trip. We went to a huge shop, Laksala which sold local products. We are coming back here to buy souvenirs for the trip back after going north. Then we went to another large shop called Ranjanas to buy our traditional white attire for the temples that we will be visiting in the north. They are very strict in the north with attire. We went to a few other shops including Bear Foot which is quite unique. The shop is in a traditional house with a courtyard that has a bar and restaurant. Inside, it houses a bookshop, homewares, clothing, home decorations and the like. Coming back here again after Jaffna. We had to meet someone who was making a delivery by some railway line. The trains passing by were packed.

We then proceeded to do a tour of Colombo including Independence Square, where the British handed Ceylon it’s independence.