Colombo 1

While in line at immigration, the power went off. All processing came to a halt. Although I had about 4 hours margin before the train to Galle, this wasn't promising. After an eternity, the power came back on again and I got through. Next hurdle was the baggage carousel. There the power went off again for a while. No sign of my backpack. When it was evident that no more would be arriving, an official came around to help. He asked if I had checked elsewhere around the carousel. It turned out to be in a pile that I had assumed somebody was collecting for a group, but probably had been taken off the belt by workers. Phew! Never make unnecessary assumptions.

I found the ATM in the arrivals hall. The Commercial Bank ATM seemed to be the only one accepting foreign cards. There was an ATM charge of 300 LKR (under 3 AUD, 1 AUD = ~110 LKR). Sri Lanka is the first country where I have been charged this.

Next I bought a local SIM to have Internet on my mobile phone. I accepted the 1300 LKR tourist bundle by Mobitel. There was a cheaper bundle at 500 LKR but they didn't advertise that at the counter. Never mind, it was cheap and gave me heaps of data and call allowance.

I had hoped to have lunch at the airport but the food court, such as it was, was closed for renovations. Poor first impressions of Sri Lanka.

I had decided to take a taxi to Colombo instead of using the slow bus. Uber didn't have any cabs so I went to the taxi counter where they issued me a voucher for a taxi at a standard price of 2500 LKR. However it turned out that the 300 LKR toll charge for the highway is paid by the passenger. You think they would bundle that.

A tip on a travel forum suggested catching the Galle train from its origin station Maradana instead of Fort to get a seat more easily. I asked to be dropped off there. I bought a ticket to Galle which was a bargain at 140 LKR, but would take hours. Bus tickets were also dirt cheap. Sri Lankans don't have much spending power, and services are slow.

I looked around the neighbourhood for a restaurant. In Sri Lanka, these are confusingly also called hotels. I picked one, because its menu looked OK and it was air-conditioned. Colombo weather is like being in a sauna.

The roast chicken buryani (names are spelt all sorts of ways in Sri Lanka) was tasty and acceptable. I didn't want to think about the state of the kitchen.

I had some time to kill before the train so waited on the platform which gradually filled up. Many other tourists were among the crowd.