Längerer Beitrag – schneller Überblick:

We fly via Dubai to Colombo and spend the first two days in Negombo by the sea.

Sri Lanka Day 1

We have landed in Dubai. Actually, it's only 3 o'clock in the morning for us now. We didn't sleep much on the plane.

But now we are waiting at Dubai airport for about 3 hours to catch our connecting flight to Colombo. As it looks, we will then fly another 3 hours and then we will be there.

We now sit at the gate and wait... Gerd slumbers on a "deck chair", Moppi plays with the new selfistick, Kathi and I look at the people.

Sri Lanka Day 2

What a night.

But first back, yesterday we were picked up from the airport by taxi. Panic. Left-hand traffic... but the taxi driver handles it very well. Arrived at the hotel, we quickly went into the water. Just threw the backpacks into the room and off to the beach. And off into the waves. What a joy.

After an hour, nothing worked anymore, completely overtired and exhausted from a total of 36 hours on the road, we ate Sri Lanka curry in the hotel's own restaurant at a breathtaking sunset with a view of the sea - very tasty - and almost fell asleep at the table.

At half past eight we were in bed and fell asleep immediately. Everyone in their own bed under the mosquito net. It looked kind of cute, like little princesses all of us.

The night was very strange. From around 11 or so, the disco music in the neighbourhood was turned up and bummbummbumm we had the bass in our room and all over our bodies until maybe 3 o'clock.

Moppi woke up at midnight and couldn't sleep any more. He woke me up and then I stopped sleeping too. At some point he went out to the reception, where there was free internet, and talked to Dad on the phone. I followed him for a short while to see how he was doing... And in those 2-3 minutes the mosquitoes devoured me. It's such a different feeling, all over and very tingly. Well, I went straight back into the room under my mosquito net.

Finally, Moppi went back to bed and Kathi asked me for earplugs. At some point we all fell asleep again and it wasn't until 11 that Gerd and I woke up and got up. The children are still in bed.

At noon we have breakfast on the shady terrace with sea view. A dream. Fresh toast, tea, jam. The men scrambled eggs. We girls had a fruit plate. We just sit there, enjoy ourselves and the weather, the view of the sea and notice how we slowly arrive... very slowly. Our bodies are already there, the souls are slowly catching up.

We spend the afternoon on the beach, swim, read, nibble our last European sweets and plan the next few days. Tomorrow we will go to Kandy, high up in the mountains. By train. According to the guidebook, it's supposed to be a very impressive ride, with great views. 130 kilometres in 4-5 hours. We quickly booked a hostel and now the anticipation is rising in us.

We want to spend the evening in Negombo City, let ourselves drift and eat something. We take 2 tuktuks and drive into town. I panic at the traffic, the driving style takes some getting used to, more than that. Then there is the left-hand traffic. We have to overtake all the time, no matter why. We overtake the tuktuk with Gerd and Alex. Then the "men's" tuktuk overtakes us again. No idea why. But eventually we arrive. We are at the fish market. It stinks. But that's how it is. Dogs, cows, seagulls get all kinds of leftovers. Apparently the traders here just throw away the leftovers. Waste disposal here goes like this: just throw it away. I, with my ecological awareness, am already very challenged. There is rubbish everywhere. I walk for kilometres with an empty PET bottle because I can't find a public rubbish bin anywhere.

At some point, a Sinhalese man approaches us and shows us the way. He tells us about his town. He leads us through alleys to the Catholic church, of which he is apparently very proud. We continue past a small river and then into the glittering city centre, bursting with Christmas lights. Blingbling everywhere. A nativity scene with the baby Jesus in straw on every corner. All the Christmas trees here are plastic firs. A dream. The Sri Lankan then shows us something to eat, as he emphasises something vegetarian, not spicy. Where the locals buy. Not the tourists. We eat some rings with spicy sauce here. No, not spicy. Well, I see it a bit differently... But it was delicious and we paid about 4 francs for 4 people including drinks and getting our fill.

At the end of our tour, our unplanned guide is still with us, we go to a supermarket and buy some more fruit and water for tomorrow's train ride. He would like to buy a beer. Or rice. He thinks the 1600 rupees would be good to improve our karma and his family can live on it. We agree on 1200, which he doesn't think is okay, but we think more than enough and he organises a tuktuk (4 people in, three side by side, Kathi across our laps) and off we go for 250 Rs back to the hotel.

We play cards on the terrace, have a drink and then go to bed early. OK, sleep doesn't come that quickly. But no matter, the alarm clock rings at half past three, so we try to get some sleep. The fan hums. The mosquito net protects us from biting insects and at some point we fall asleep.

Shownotes for iTunes: https://www.leben-pur.ch/003-sri-lanka-wir-fliegen-ueber-dubai-nach-colombo-und-sind-die-ersten-zwei-tage-in-negombo-am-meer/