Saturday, 4 October 2008

A week in Colombo

Every few months I spend an incredible week in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is an amazing country, from the hill towns of Kandy and Nurawa Eliya to the beaches of Hikaduwwa and Benthota. The wild-life - the amazing birds, leopards, elephants, deer, wild boar. Its stunning.

But no. I didn't see any of that. Ok there was a small chipmunk thing on the hotel verandah at breakfast, but my amazing week was spent in the WSO2 offices on Flower Road. We have a truly outstanding technical team, and we spent the week reviewing the latest releases, planning the next, and discussing ongoing customer projects.

Every time I spend the week in Colombo, its hectic. I arrive after an 11 hour flight and jump straight into meetings, and then I'm usually working from first thing in the morning until either a working dinner or a late conference call with the US. 

I admit - I do usually find time to eat at Mango Tree or Gallery Cafe :)

Despite the jetlag and long hours I always come back revitalized and rejuvenated. 

So, while I'm keeping a mental list of the places I want to go in Sri Lanka, a week in Colombo is still a fantastic experience. 

Paul

PS when my family and I do get to explore SL its going to take a while! My current list includes:
* Staying at a tea plantation around Nurawa Eliya
* Hiking around the Horton Plains and to World's End
* The elephant orphanage
* Dambulla and Sigiriya, staying at the Kandalama hotel
* Luxury camping in Bundula national park
* A week of surfing at Hikaduwwa
* Lounging around in a colonial hotel in Galle
* The cool treetop experience that Jonathan found (whose name I can't remember)
* The list goes on! If you think I've missed something, let me know
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8 comments:

  1. Keith Chapman4 October 2008 at 03:23

    The place where Jonathan stayed at was the Ella Adventure Park. There are a couple of great waterfalls around there too. You might wanna visit Rawana, Dunhinda and Diyaluma falls which is in close proximity. You can take the train to Ella (Its about a 8 hour train ride from Colombo through the hill country, really awesome).

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  2. Malinda Kaushalye Kapuruge4 October 2008 at 03:39

    White water rafting in Kithulgala and a visit to Anuradhapura, the ancient city :-)

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  3. Danushka Menikkumbura4 October 2008 at 10:11

    I wonder how you missed Kandy, the hill capital.

    As I have heard, you are fond of surfing?. Arugam Bay is the best place for surfing.

    Just have a look at http://www.arugam.info/

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  4. Keith Chapman5 October 2008 at 07:34

    You can have a look at some beautiful Panoramas of Sigiriya to get a feel of how awesome Sigiriya is.

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  5. Jonathan Marsh5 October 2008 at 20:52

    +1 to your list. I've done almost all of them - photos here and here. Still to do - Horton Plains, and surfing ;-). One other thing I really enjoyed was visiting the Turtle Conservation Project in Rekawa and hanging out late on the beach with one of these magnificent creatures. Also had some fun snorkelling down around Dickwella - would be fun to explore more scuba options.

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  6. Jonathan Marsh5 October 2008 at 20:53

    Oh, and organizing an informal cooking class is high on my priority list too!

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  7. Unknown6 October 2008 at 00:07

    Thanks everyone for the great comments.

    Kandy is definitely on my list - I already went there very quickly, but I want to go back.

    White water rafting - I'd love to! Not sure whether Jane would go for it :-)

    Arugam Bay looks wonderful.

    Snorkelling would be fantastic. We did see a small turtle project when we were in Benthota, but only saw babies - no adults.

    So it looks like I need a two-month sabbatical now!

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  8. Unknown6 October 2008 at 06:56

    I miss home !!!

    Paul it certainly is worth taking time to see all those places:

    See this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sM9vcAIYyc

    p.s. Mango Tree is one of my favorite restaurants in Colombo!

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