5th June

Breakfast in the cabin today in preparation for our early start. Our tour met at 8am in the Vista Lounge and we were on bus number 6. There were at least 10 buses on our tour. The tour was called City Highlights and was mainly a drive by with just 4 stops. Colombo is divided into various districts each with a number but at least 2 of them have names as well, there is the Fort area and the Cinnamon Gardens area. The Fort area is considered the heart of Colombo and houses government offices as well as restaurants and shops. The Cinnamon area contains a lot of houses first used by the British during their  occupation of Sri Lanka. The Portuguese were the first to rule here, followed by the Dutch, in 1796 the British arrived and they ruled until Sri Lanka was granted independence after World War 2. The first stop on our tour was the National Museum housed inside a colonial building. It has over 3000 artefacts some of which are very old. Next we drove past the Pettah Market which is a crowded open air bazaar which sells everything from produce, clothes, computers and jewellery. We did not stop which was probably just as well. We did however stop at the Asokaramaya Buddhist temple which is not quite as ornate as the ones in Phuket and nowhere near as large. Driving in Colombo is quite an experience, they pay no regard to traffic lines and continually cut in and out across each other. We were amazed that there are not lots of accidents. We were then taken to a hotel for snacks which were served in the Grand Ballroom of the hotel. While we were there we enquired if there was a chemist nearby because Betty wanted to replace the cough medicine which Bev had given her. We were told that there was not one nearby but they could arrange for one of their cars to take us to one. As we only had to visit a craft shop before returning to the ship we decided to take up their offer and we left the tour. The Chemist they took us to turned out to be very interesting. It was the State Pharmaceutical Department. When we went inside it appeared like Doctors waiting room with lots of locals sitting around holding numbers. As we went in the door a gentleman asked what we wanted and soon directed us to the right counter where they sorted out our requirements even though they did not have the exact brand they did have the equivalent. The driver from the hotel then said he could take us back to the ship if we would like. We gladly accepted his offer because we did not fancy riding in the back of a Tuk Tuk all the way to the ship. On the dock when we got back there had been quite a number of stalls set up selling the usual tee shirts and other souvenirs. We had some Sri Lankan rupees left so we now have a lovely decorated elephant ornament. Tonight Betty went to see the movie Philomena which she enjoyed very much. I hung around the cabin until 9pm when I went to the Vista Lounge to see the Game Show “Marriage Match” Betty came there after the movie. For the game they selected 3 couples from the audience, one married for only 27 days, one married for 5 years and one married for 47 years. They sent the ladies out the back of the stage while they asked the men questions like where was your first kiss, what annoys you most about your partner etc. They then bring back the girls and see if their answers coincided . Then they reversed it and sent the men out the back while they asked the ladies other questions to see if they could predict what their husband’s answers would be. Some of the questions were a little personal but their answers cause a lot of amusement. 

 Around Colombo