Colombo, Srilanka

The long awaited trip to Srilanka is finally here, this time we are a group of 7 going to Srilanka to attend Sachini's wedding as well as travel in Srilanka. We have Salinah, Bawani, Shishi, Fanfan, Putput and Arthur on board. There are not many choices for ticket to Srilanka, we missed the cheaper deal by Emirates, hence we took Singapore Airlines flight to Colombo, my second Singapore Airlines flight in my life. For this whole trip, thanks to Sachini for arranging a very detailed itinerary for us.

21 June
We left from Changi Airport Terminal 2 at 22.45 to reach Colombo at midnight. Sachini has arranged a driver to fetch us in the airport. We could bring USD or SGD to Srilanka and exchange it in the airport. The rate is not bad in airport and we need to declare it to customs if we bring more than USD10000 or equivalent.

We stayed in Galle Face Hotel for two nights, the hotel where the wedding would be held the next day. It's a collonial style hotel, used to be a mansion to a British governor. The room is big and clean, the location is good, right beside the beach.

Galle Face Hotel

22 June
The wedding ceremony started at 8.30 in the morning, with procession by Kandyan dancers. Sachini looks gorgeous in her wedding sari. It was 6 months since I met her last time when we went together to China. We missed some of the wedding due to our preparation. All girls wore sari, and 3 out of 4 don't know anything about sari. But finally we made it to the ballroom in sari. Srilankan wedding is quite different from the weddings I see in Indonesia or in Singapore. The bride and the groom will go around the tables, greeting all the guests before lunch. They need to kneel down to the elderly as well. After the greetings, the host will bring a glass of water on a plate to all the guests as a symbol to invite them for lunch, and the guests need to touch the plate as a symbol of accept it.

Photo taking sessions follow after lunch and the bride and groom need to symbolically leave the ballroom at 14.30. When the bride and groom walk out of the ballroom, we shower them with flower petals.Yes, it was symbolically because not long after that, we saw Sachini again in the hotel.

Anyway, we wish Sachini a happy married life, it was a great pleasure to be able to attend your big day.

For the rest of the day, 4 of us (because the 3 guys prefer to sleep in hotel) rented a taxi for LKR3500 for 4 hours to go around Colombo. We visited some of sari shops as well as Odel, their factory outlet. We went back to hotel to meet up with the guys for dinner. Dinner was at Raja Bojun Restaurant, it was Srilankan food buffet.

Srilanka's beach

23 June
Sachini has arranged a driver with a van to pick us up in the hotel early in the morning. We went to visit the biggest Buddhist temple in Colombo, which is the Gangaramaya Temple. There is one unique rule to enter temple in Srilanka, we need to wear long and covered clothes as well as we need to take off our footwear. The temple is big and there is one elephant there. Elephants are holy in Srilanka. The journey continued to exchange money and we headed to Sigiriya and Dambulla.

Gangaramaya Temple

The elephant