Negombo Beach

5th-9th December 2022

                                          by

                         Indio Sundaram

5th December 2022

We woke up at 03:15am but I set my alarm clock for 02:50 instead.We had booked A1 cars the day before the flight to pick us up, but the guy didn't come so we ordered an Uber and luckily he came and Uber was £10 cheaper! He said get AZ cars which he said was a good service. We got to the airport at approximately 05:15am . Our flight left Heathrow airport terminal 4 at 08:00am and we were flying to Doha and then changed planes on to Colombo.

6th December 2022

Hurray! We've arrived! 

We landed in Colombo at 2.30am, but got really delayed because Orien and my visas hadn't come through and we had to hang around for ages waiting for the immigration people to sort out a visa for us. We only got 30 days rather than 180 and so we would have to go to the head office in Colombo to extend it and it and it was going to take three or more hours. 

Then we popped to Duty Free to get some alcohol for gifts for our relatives.

Mummy was worried that by this time our suitcases might have been taken away from the conveyor belt because we were so late getting out. Luckily they were still there.

We were going to get an Uber but then as we were leaving the airport there were lots of taxi companies all trying to sell their taxi services. Daddy decided it was probably easier to book one of these in case the Uber wasn't big enough for all our luggage. 

I found it funny that there were people trying to help with your bags even if you didn't want help. Like about 5 men came to lift our bags into the taxi! Turned out they then wanted money for doing this. Daddy explained that this is because these people are very poor and it is a way to earn a little money.

We didn't get to bed until 5.30am - not long before breakfast would be served! The hotel was very nice, and we got interconnecting rooms so Orien and I had a twin room with a bathroom and there was a door into Mummy and Daddy's room. Orien slept until 11:00am and mummy and I slept until 1.30pm! Daddy sneakily put on his alarm clock so he didn't miss breakfast - even though he had said that none of us would be going for breakfast unless we woke up naturally. We were not happy! He had eaten stringhoppers and curry! 

I wanted to do zoomwriters at 2.30 pm Sri Lankan time and Orien had Learning Circle a bit after so we got tuna melts ordered to the room before our lessons. Mummy and daddy went for lunch and I got to join them after my lesson. I got to try some soft shell crab and some kotthu roti just like Mark Wiens(a youtuberwho did a Sri Lankan street food  video tour)! The crab was delectable; my favourite food we've eaten in Sri Lanka - yet!

In the evening I had a zoom with Montgomery (Monty), Evie and Caroline which was really exciting.

7th December 2022

I was very excited about the buffet breakfast (we were lucky to have it, as they have been doing a menu breakfast recently as there haven't been enough people staying at the hotel). I ate: 

I was very excited about the buffet breakfast (we were lucky to have it, as they have been doing a menu breakfast recently as there haven't been enough people staying at the hotel). I ate: 

1.string hoppers,

 2.chicken curry, 

3.fish curry, 

4.dahl, 

5. kiribath

6.potato curry, 

7.pol sambol,

8.two pancakes,

 9.a  waffle.

10.starfruit, 

11.watermelon, 

12.papaya, 

13.passionfruit, and

14. ambul banana.

The only thing I didn't like was kiribath (milk rice). It tasted too much of coconut.

I could hardly move, I had eaten so much!

We left our hotel (Negombo Heritance) for the first time. We headed to the local town of Negombo Beach. We were supposed to just go for ice cream but we ended up stopping at lots of souvenir shops along the way. 

The shops had traditional Sri Lankan crafts like fans, buddha statues, toy tuk tuks, devil masks and LOADS of elephants - made out of wood, marble, ceramic etc. I chose a black wooden elephant and Orien got a brown one. They cost Rs 2500 (£4.47) each.

We stopped outside a shop selling Sri Lankan gems. We saw blue sapphires, red rubies and lots of other coloured stones. There was jewellery and also elephants covered in gemstones.

It was interesting seeing people selling vegetables and freshly caught fish on the side of the road.

WE SAW SO MUCH TRANSPORT! 

More curry for dinner!

8th December 2022

It was pouring with rain, but I had Learning Circle so it wasn't too bad. We went to breakfast and the chefs were making hoppers, egg hoppers and  honey hoppers (hoppers are crispy thin bowl shaped bread with a fluffy bit in the middle, egg hoppers are the same  thing but they've got a fried egg in the middle and honey hoppers don't have any fluffy bit, they are like a thin, crispy honey sandwich.

We read the Christmas Pig before Learning Circle and then I did Learning Circle. I didn't do science because I needed time for dinner. I missed my pudding because I wanted to do music (a subject) at Learning Circle and then I went to bed.

9th December 2022 

Today we were going to meet Aarya and Radhik ( our second cousins.) So we got up, and we only had pancakes and coconut roti because we were having a big lunch at Radhik and Aarya 's house and because it was a set menu today. Daddy booked an Uber mini- van for us and our luggage. The price on Uber was too little money for the driver so we had to negotiate with the driver and we got it for Rs12000 (£26.78.)

continue this story in the Colombo section...