Eating Sri Lanka (2)

Sri Lankan cuisine became one of my favourite foods ever since first visiting in 2007; I ate very well this time round too.

On a Hot Day in Colombo

Negombo, Sri Lanka

One of my favourite places in the world: the port town of Negombo in west Sri Lanka.  It is also a tourist spot with travellers often starting or ending their trip to Sri Lanka here as the international airport is close by.  There is a nice sand beach opening out onto the Indian Ocean and to the south of the town, the Negombo lagoon with mangrove swamps lining its southern shore.

The people of Negombo are intimately connected with the sea: the town’s largest industry is commercial fishing, ahead of even tourism, and Dutch fluyts and Portuguese caravels left their mark long before the British arrived, both physically – there is a Dutch-built fort overlooking the harbour and a Dutch-cut canal long enough to take you to the next town – and spiritually, with the town being home to a very large Roman Catholic community. Many, many locals will answer to  names such as Joseph or Jude and Negombo is often referred to as ‘Little Rome.’  At almost every street corner there is a roadside Catholic shrine, this particular one devoted to a somewhat nautical Virgin Mary, keeping a watchful eye on those at sea.

In the Dambulla rain

The Lord Buddha is watching you; at the Golden Temple.

Back from Serendib

Eating Sri Lanka

I ate rather well when I was in Sri Lanka. Although I was unable to explore the full spectrum of Sri Lankan cuisine – I didn’t have a chance to eat hoppers for example, or try Tamil food – I thoroughly indulged myself in some local specialties.

Fishing Sri Lanka (Indian Ocean: Negombo coast)

Before flying back to Tokyo I stayed one night at the fishing village Negombo (map) which is on the west coast of Sri Lanka, about 15 miles north of Colombo.  It is a wonderful place and I would have loved to stay there longer.  Since I was leaving on an overnight flight I had a morning spare, so I walked into the nearest tourist agents office and booked a fishing boat to take me out for a few hours.  It cost Rs.7500, and included everything (boat and crew for five hours on the water, licenses/paperwork, all tackle and bait and pickup/drop-off at hotel).  All I needed to do was bring drinking water, and be waiting for them at 5.30am outside my hotel the following morning.

Back from Sri Lanka

more later…

Sri Lanka Trip

In three weeks. I finally got my tickets organised, at the efficient and very reasonably priced HIS. They sorted out my trip to India last year just as professionally. Whilst there are many discount travel agents catering for foreigners here, it can be difficult to get airline tickets for less popular destinations or trips with multiple carriers/stops. I went to their Ueno Okachimachi branch; in addition to having a specialist English-speaking member of staff (who served a returning American customer who came in after me) most of the other workers seemed to have a little knowledge of English and were all very friendly. The branch itself is a little difficult to find, being on the fifth floor of a rather non-descript building, but if you head east from the Kasuga and Showa-dori crossroads you should be able to see the neon HIS sign in the street.

Hopefully on my last day in Sri Lanka there will be time to get in a short fishing trip: there appears to be a healthy offshore sport fishing culture there. My last day will be at the seaside town of Negombo. The prices don’t seem that outrageous and so long as they will take a single angler, I am not too bothered about the choice of quarry (although I’d love to fish for yellowfin tuna). We shall see.