Landfall

So with departure from Hong Kong the flight to Colombo was pretty uneventful, stopped in Singapore for the plane to be cleaned and refueled. Though otherwise by this time too tired to really do anything or take notice of too much.
Although there was free Internet use in Singapore so was able to waste a few minutes while waiting for the plane.
So after about 22 hours of travel landed at the Colombo international airport without incident or any fanfare (strange I know).
Recalling my previous experience traveling to Sri Lanka I immediately noticed a few difference between my past trip 16 years ago and my current one. Firstly we got off the plane straight into the Air conditioned airport building, previously we had to get off the plane to the tarmac amid a sudden and almost bewildering change in temperature and humidity – I remember if felt like being thrust into an oven that someone was cooking water in (actually if you cook it right water can be a very satisfying meal).

From the terminal made my way to the long line for customs, most of the other passengers were locals and they had various parcels (mostly hard liquor) to carry with them. I was near the end of the whole section so about the last one through, the agent just asked a few questions as to the length of my stay and other mandatory questions – got my stamp for 30 day visit and was told I’d have to apply for an extension later – though getting dual citizenship so won’t need too

anyway.

The baggage claim was a little further on and had to pass by what I’m guessing was a duty free section for people to buy last minute gifts for friends and relatives – what surprised me was the amount of appliance stores and house wares being sold! I mean seriously how on earth is someone going to get a fridge from the airport?! For that matter who on earth would even buy a fridge from an airport? At least those were my initial thoughts, the rational part of my tired brain, droned on about customs, importation of goods, local economy blah blah blah.
Picked up my bags with ease as my delay meant that baggage was already processed, so with bags in cart breezed through customs saying I had nothing to declare, fortunately didn’t get checked – I think the customs agent took a bit of pity on me as I was thoroughly zonked out by that point (while fun my adventure in Hong Kong was a bit of a drain).

Walking out into the open I was hit by the heat and it didn’t seem as bad as I remember – though I could also have been in a state of tired shock… for sake of simplicity lets say the former. After looking around for a few seconds in a dazed and confused manner, my uncle saw me and warmly greeting me and took me to a waiting transport (a car is transport… so are elephants – no I did not take an elephant, though that would have been awesome).

After about half an hour arrived at my Aunt and uncles place in Kandana a town about 20 Km outside of Colombo – what surprised me is that it was considered a separate town, when traveling along the main road shops and buildings of all sorts appear without break so for the Canadian born traveler who is used to going for hours with only wheat fields and the occasional surveillance bush (Canadian sitcom reference) on any side of the road it is pretty hard to understand how one town is considered another.

Well getting to my relatives place we just chatted for a while then I went to bed after a much needed shower – also encountered my first super bug, a giant bright green grasshopper… thing that flew in whilst taking said shower. Given my previous knowledge of the creepy crawlies in Sri Lanka I considered this guest to be non-threatening even if it’s legs were quite sharp and pointy as well as the whole thing being about the size of my cell phone.

So ended the first day, since I arrived at about 10:30 pm at night local time, there really wasn’t that much I could see that could leave an impression, but was just glad to have arrived and a warm… make that a bed with a mosquito net under a fan to sleep, or more accurately pass out in. And with that my first few hours in Sri Lanka were over, and I had no real thoughts of anything as slipped into unconsciousness.