8,557 miles from The Dalles, Oregon.

March 10, 2025

Remembering that I enjoyed Colombo 50+ years ago, I was looking forward to our tuk tuk ride around the city. We made our way through the dancing welcomers and well organized “tourist stalls” which featured gems, clothing, carvings, paintings and, of course, refrigerator magnets to our bus. The bus was among three that transported us to a location with perhaps 50-60 tuk tuks.

We took the photo with the Buddha and then retook it after learning it is rude to turn your back on the Buddha.

We were driven around by a nice young fellow who had limited English. He was able to stop, but didn’t do it very often. We passed by an interesting looking market, finally stopping at a park for a half hour walk. Then, we stopped at a monument honoring independence for another half hour. The sterile monument was spruced up with a couple pythons,  2 cobras, and a monkey. For $5 one could drape the python around her shoulders or pet or kiss the monkey, I think. We chose neither option. Colombo was low on air quality and interesting sites.

However, one of our friends took a walking tour of the city and said it was one of the best things he has done all cruise. He said that they had a great guide.  It’s interesting to note how much difference a guide makes. Unfortunately, the guide couldn’t fix the air quality.

Our 2nd day featured a 2 hour ride to a tea and rubber plantation. A very scenic trip with a quality guide. We passed through a small town or two as well as lots of green, tropical scenery before arriving at a rural plantation. The grounds of the manor house were gorgeous. We were served some tea and butter cake and, to our surprise, given an opportunity to buy tea….which we did.

Then we moved on several miles to view the tea plants and rubber trees. There were demonstrations of ‘tapping” the rubber trees and of picking the tea leaves.

Then came a fun tour of the factory which had steps of drying, pressing, separating stems and packing. The process was very labor intensive. The machinery looked like it could have been there for a hundred years, with a few upgrades.

We learned a few things:

   -There are tea zones of less than 2000 feet, 2000-4000 feet, and over 4000 feet. Each produces a different quality tea.

   -The tea plants might grow to 30 feet high were they not pruned to their height of about 3 feet. Men do the pruning and fertilizing of the plants, using the rejected stems from the tea preparation process. Women do the plucking.

   -There are about 3 million people dependent on the tea industry….of 22 million in the country.

We had a couple interactions with the locals:

   -Our bus stopped for a potty break and I wandered off to a banana stand. I tried to buy some bananas with a dollar. The merchant cut about 15-20 of a large stock. He attempted to give them to me, but I wanted him to take the dollar. Our guide came up and translated. He said that the merchant had never seen foreign currency; he was going to frame it. Our guide said that he would have to pay $1.50 equivalent to buy that many bananas. A nice experience.

   -I helped a woman “pluck” leaves and slipped her a dollar. She was happy to have the help. Then, we saw an older fellow (younger than I) and I asked if Karla could take a picture of us. He stood at the ready, but shook his head “no.” I remembered that Indians did that and that the negative shake was affirmation. We got the pictures.

 

 – We learned that yellow coconuts are the best for drinking. But, the milk goes through the system rapidly. We were told that it is used to combat urinary tract infections. I was pleased to hear that for our friend Dave Yaden. But then we learned that it is not recommended to combat STD’s. Sorry, Dave, I thought I could be helpful.

As we returned to the ship, we shopped some of the gem shops as one of our lecturers said we could not go wrong on Sri Lankan gems, including sapphires. We purchased two simple rings: one blue and one pink.

Karla and I agree that Sri Lanka is worth another visit….the non-Colombo part.

2009 Visit to Sri Lanka with Maddy and Jackson