Day 3 ,4: back to Colombo to Chennai….. End of the trip....

Day 2 at kandy ended with all the spots to visit. The last day was rest time for me and some shopping to do and get back to Mysore from Chennai. The ticket reservation to Colombo was done in the intercity train and from Chennai to Mysore, there was no reservation done as I was unsure what time the flight might reach Chennai. I decided to travel in bus to Bangalore and catch 3PM train to Mysore from Bangalore.

Got up early morning at 9.30 AM and spent some time after breakfast. Then I went to nearby handicraft shop to purchase some items. Man the prices were too high. I bargained and got 30% discount on them. But still I felt they had quoted high price. Since my budget for shopping got exhausted, I couldn’t do more. So finished the shopping and came back to room. Paid the bills and then packed my stuffs. It w-as time for me to travel back to Mysore.

Left the room and came near kandy lake. There were couple of Indo-Lankan restaurant and I had a good meal there. Some SL people helped to describe the menu and I got what I wanted. For 70SLR I had full meals and headed to Kandy railway station after purchasing Ceylon Tea. Train was at 3PM and I reached there at 2PM.

Roamed around the station, got some snaps of the heritage railways station and took my seat in the train. I was happy to have the window seat, later I got to know that I had not been given window seat L. In SL trains, the window seat is not marked with letter W. so its bit confusing.

One SL lady came and told that she has the window seat and said that she will exchange the seat aftr some time. She was traveling to Colombo and spoke fluent English, was astonished to see that there are people who speak fluent English in SL also; by looks it was clear that she was brought up outside SL. I had to leave the seat and the train started at 3 PM as scheduled. On the way the, took some snaps of beautiful views of the nature. The shots which I missed when traveling to kandy. Aftr an hour, she offered the window seat so that I could continue my photo session.  Train reached Colombo at 5.45PM. I had plenty of time to spend. Was not having any idea what to do. Got out of the train station and started walking near the station towards the harbor. Met some SL executives and asked them are thre any nearby spots to see. They said WTC and seashore is nearby and I can spend some time there.

Started walking towards the SL WTC and took some snaps of the building. There was heavy security in that area as it is a military zone and then I walked around the seashore. Took some snaps there, spent some time there. Then I looked at my cell and time was still 6.45PM. I saw that the light house was nearby. Then I decided to walk towards the light house. I had to enquire the security forces and then enter into the area as it was clearly marked restricted zone. I went to the light house , by that time it was 7.30 and I came back to the SL telecom building. There I saw a good hotel, Harbour, asked for fried rice as it was only veg item available.  Food was good there. Enjoyed the meals there and it was worth 250SLR. I asked the hotel cashier for the directions to the Colombo bus stand and left from there. Reached the station and waited for the bus 187. one more person there who was there , an executive helped me to get the bus as there were some busses with 187/1. Said thanks to him and got into the bus.. The bus reached airport station at 9.45. From there I caught the airport shuttle. On the way, all people were made to get out of the bus, I was shocked, we have not even reached airport and thy were asking them to get out. 2 foreigners who were in front seats were not asked to get out. The security guy came to me and asked my passport and he looked at it and went away. Then the bus took all the passengers who had got out and it started. All SL citizen’s ID card and luggage is verified. They co-operate as its for their safety.

After entering to airport, the luggage were scanned before the entry to airport and its mandatory, some Indians who were there were cribbing. They should understand that its for their safety. After getting the luggage’s scanned, I went into the departure lobby. Time was 10.30 and I called home and friends from there and then it was a long time wait for me as I had to get in only at 1.30AM for checkin counter. Roamed around the lobby and got some snacks to eat. At 11.30 PM had some snacks and refreshed myself. At 1.30 entered in to the check in counter and got the boarding pass and waited in the departure lounge, there was one more security check before u could enter into the boarding area. After roaming around duty free shops, i sat in the lobby after taking some photographs. The camera was now exhausted as it had to work around 450 snaps which I took in the entire journey, the most till date.

The plane started at 4AM and landed in Chennai at 5AM. The crowd was too much as there were some tourists from SL to India.

This was my trip to SL J, the first ever trip for me, where I traveled alone. It was bit hectic, adventurous and I had some lonely time back from home. Wish I had more time….  U know, time never waits…

Ok folks one more post where I will put some points of SL, and the moments ….

Happy reading…