After a four-hour flight, we arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and quickly hopped into a PickMe car (Sri Lanka’s equivalent of Uber) to head to our hostel for the night in the nearby fishing village of Negombo. Our taxi driver was incredibly friendly and gave us plenty of recommendations for places to visit, foods to try, and things to do during our stay.
So far, everyone we’ve met in Sri Lanka has been just as warm and helpful, which has been lovely. After our two-week tour of India in November, we were slightly concerned that the culture here might be similar to Rajasthan, where we experienced a lot of photo requests, grabbing, and an overall sense of insecurity as women alone at night. However, Sri Lanka has felt much more welcoming, with a relaxed and peaceful vibe.
The light was fading as we arrived, so after dropping our bags at the hostel, we headed to the beach to watch the sunset. We found a nice beach bar and restaurant for dinner, where the owner struck up a conversation with us. He started by asking about our flight, joking that we were too pale to have been here for a week but not sunburnt enough to have been here for a few days—so we must have just arrived. We couldn’t fault his logic! As we ate, he shared some recommendations with us, making for a lovely first evening. After dinner, we headed back to the hostel.
We’ve definitely jumped in at the deep end with our hostel, opting for a mixed dorm right away—forgetting that hostels near airports are always noisy, with people coming and going at all hours for their flights. We didn’t get the best night’s sleep, but at least everyone is friendly and chatty.
It also takes some getting used to when strangers casually change into their pajamas while chatting with you, but we’re already back in the thick of hostel life!
There isn’t a lot to do in Negombo—it’s mostly a sleepy beach town. However, we saw a Dutch fort listed as a point of interest, so we decided to take a tuk-tuk and check it out.
The only remaining part of the fort is a small bell tower, so there wasn’t much to see. But as we wandered around, we couldn’t help but notice—mostly by smell—that something fishy was going on.
We came across a vast area where fishermen bring in their catch to dry in the sun. One of the workers, who was turning the fish, noticed us taking photos and came over to chat. He kindly gave us a tour, showing us the different types of fish being dried, the area where they gut and salt them in barrels, and the different sections where they’re laid out to dry. It was fascinating to see the process up close, and we gave him a tip at the end to thank him for his time.
By midday it was again humid and hot, around 33°c so after a dragged out lunch in an air conditioned cafe we headed to the beach and sat in the shade of a coconut tree. We had a nice chat with a looky looky woman who tried to sell us some dresses and then gave up and just sat chatting to us for half an hour instead, claiming it was ‘too hot for sell sell sell today’.
By three pm we were starting to feel like dried up salty fish ourselves, so we decided to leave the shade in search of a beach cafe. After 5 minutes walking we were drenched in sweat, arriving in a cafe where the waiter sat us in the shade and immediately brought a big bottle of water and a pint if ice cubes without being asked. Apparently I had a face like a ‘red hot curry’. The same dish we later ate there for dinner!
That’s about all we got up to a in Negombo, next we’re off to Sigiriya, if we haven’t melted first. I will tell you all about it soon,
love, Alice x