The trip was now slowly coming to an end. We left Unawatuna in the morning and made our way along the coast towards Colombo. En-route we had a stop at a Buddha Statue near Peraliya, which has been set up here to commemorate the victims of the 2004 tsunami, which heavily affected this area.
We continued heading North for a further stop and an optional boat ride on Maduganga Lake. The boat ride got us out onto the lake, passing through mangroves and with a stop at the Kothduwa Rajamaha Viharaya temple. Overall the boat ride was really nothing special – but certainly made a nice diversion from all that sitting on the bus 😉
Before making it to Colombo, we had a further stop at a sea turtle hatchery. Turtle eggs are gathered here and – after they have hatched, they released to the sea in a protected way, to give them the highest chance of survival at the start of their lives.
We got into Colombo after a quick lunch in a mall food court and a chance for last minute supermarket shopping. In Colombo we essentially stayed on the bus and did a huge circle around town and passing by the main sights; obviously with some stops for photos. Overall I found Colombo pretty underwhelming – not too much to see and do here, it is obviously the administrative and economic capital and caters for that – but there is little of touristic interest … so ultimately, I think, it was a good thing, that we were really just passing through today and not staying here.
From Colombo it was – with a bit of a true traffic deadlock – back to Negombo, from where I was heading to the airport later on for my 2am flight back to Europe.
Putting it all together this trip to Sri Lanka was a packed and compressed one, with very little free time and many early morning – it however was a very multifaceted one as well, covering the main aspects, of what Sri Lanka has to offer – from culture (temples, ruins, dagobas/ stupas, more temples), food (keep that brinjal coming, please) to nature (elephants, peacocks and a leopard) and outdoor fun (rafting, climbing up Adam’s Peak, hiking to World’s end). So to sum up – Sri Lanka for me was just the right mix of everything – – clear recommendation from my end.
