Sri Lanka! Coloring Outside the Lines of Columbia!

Sri Lanka is just South East of the bottom of India. We docked in Colombo which is the capital. From a culture standpoint it has a large population of Buddhist and mix of Hindu, Muslim and Christian make up the smallest group. It is known for its Ceylon tea and it was originally known by the name of Ceylan, its spices, food and beaches as well as its temples.

As I’ve said before we’ve tried to stay away from any cruise tours because they’re a nightmare. You are with a massive group following a person holiday a “number sign” and dealing with people who get lost/are late/in buses where you are now help hostage with more awful passengers who complain.. and have to listen to the same message from the guide in 3 languages. Toilet stops are the worst- passengers taking forever and to be honest these tours do everything they can to just keep you in a bus taking photos from the window.

So any time I can plan a tour with locals away from the ship people it’s worked out 1000% better. I’ll be doing a post on touring/self touring/how to find the best local guide in its own post.

On this world cruise we were offered 10-12 FREE tours which were included in our price. Many of them we turned down but as we were getting to the end of the cruise and I was honestly exhausted from planning everything- Erik, Colette, Dre and I decided this was a port where there wasn’t much to do/see so we’d save $$ and hop on this ship tour which was called “Colors of Colombo”.. aka- shit we can show u from a bus and one massive group activity!

We got off the ship and there were vendors set up in the port with stuff to sell. Dre met a man offering taxi tours and my gut knew our ship tour would probably show us nothing so we arranged to meet him back at the Port after the bus tour around 3pm and for $20 his drivers would take us around to places we probably wouldn’t see.

Now that it’s taken me 4 paragraphs just to set the scene… on the tour bus We started out by visiting the Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya temple which was actually visited by Buddah in appx. 500 BC. There is a big beautiful Bodhi Tree inside the grounds which is a sapling of a sapling from the original tree which Buddah found enlightenment under. The temple inside was beautiful and a great reprieve from the heat (90 degrees but felt over 100) and the hot sand scorching our feet as no shoes are allowed anywhere on the grounds!!!!! So there I was hopping around like a jumping bean crying as skin was burning off my feet!

Of course our visit was on some major Buddhist holiday so it was a bit of a shitshow with SO MANY PEOPLE AND SO MANY SHOES!

It was beautiful inside the temple and we caught a small procession heading in as we left.

It took forever for the guide to find our bus driver as we were sweltering in the heat.

We then headed over to an event where local dancers put on a show. It was interesting to see what seemed like more modern music intertwined with traditional dance. We were served a sweet tea and some kind of cake and it was there that I said to our little 4-some that we needed to escape. There was still another 90 minutes of just driving around. So I found another guide and asked if he could take us back to the ship where Sam the taxi guide guy was and we could just take one of his cabs for the rest of the day. The guy I found was SO nice and before we knew it- one of his guys had us in an AC car going back to Port!

“Sam save us” I yelled as we approached his booth! “We couldn’t last until 3pm! Do you have a driver ready now?” He did indeed have a driver who was wonderful! He asked us what we wanted to do/see- we said we’d like to buy some Ceylon tea and fresh cinnamon that Sri Lanka is famous for! Needed our obligatory port magnets and honestly just a tour of the area.

First stop was this incredible tea shop that offers an Introduction to how tea is made and how it’s processed followed by a tea sampling- we would NOT have seen this on our ship “Colors of Colombo” tour!

At the tea tasting we had a very interesting talk on the history of Celylon and its tea, the varieties and then sat down for a proper tasting. We tried a few teas and I have to say it was some if not the best tea I have ever tasted. Sri Lanka is the world's fourth-largest producer of tea. It is the world's leading exporter of tea with 23% of the total world export, and Sri Lanka ranked second on tea export earnings in 2020 after China. There are teas for almost ever ache and pain- teas for digestion and weight loss and even for diabetics!

We bought a few bags of incredible tea and even learnt how to best brew it and how leaves can be reused. Never use tea in a tea bag!

Here we also learnt never to buy cinnamon powder but instead to buy cinnamon sticks and grind as you need it for best freshness. Store in a jar away from other spices. It was so fun!

Our next stop was a souvenir store that has intricate wooden masks where the ears come off for easy packing! Magnets! Teak coffee cups! Everything so well made and full of color. Downstairs was a jewelry shop and Colette got the most beautiful set of a necklace and earrings that looked gorgeous on her! I got a lovely green stone ring and another that was white but in different light changes color.

The driver next took us around town to see incredible homes and massive tree lined streets. Before we knew it it was time to head back. I’m so glad we ran from the bus tour and did our own thing!

As always the four of us laughed, had the best time and got to see more than the “Colors of Colombo”! We met lovely people and got to see another piece of Sri Lanka we would have missed!