Hubby and I have set a once-a-month out-of-town trip as one of our objectives in enjoying Sri Lanka and its neighboring countries. For this month, the goal was the nearby seaside town of Negombo. It is situated near the airport (around 30 minutes away) and north of Colombo (around 2 hours away). We were planning to take our friends who were coming over there but their trip didn’t push through. We said, what the heck, it’s also a simple celebration of our 2nd anniversary as a couple.
Negombo is often called “Little Rome” for 2 things according to my trusty Lonely Planet:
1) This is a very catholic town – 75% of those who live here are Catholics in an otherwise Buddhist Sri Lanka. And where there are Catholics, there are churches!
2) Many of those who live here have relatives working in Italy.
So off to Little Rome we went.
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| This is it, pancit! |
First to check out the Dutch Fort – I am a Lonely Planet sucker and I take their advice to heart. As with the Pettah Experience (http://lavidalanka.blogspot.com/2010/10/pettah-surprise.html) and maybe with anything Dutch it pertains to in Sri Lanka, I was mildly disappointed. I was thinking of a grand fort like Fort Santiago in Intramuros but it was just a tunnel leading to the town prison (why not! Haha!).
We also checked out Angurukaramulla Temple – another Lonely Planet suggestion. Where we were toured by a very peaceful Buddhist man (as in I couldn’t help but tell hubby how I thought how peaceful he looks – and hubby agreed). It was an interesting education about Buddhist philosophy.
We took the pick of Lonely Planet and had lunch at Lord’s. It’s a cool, artsy, fartsy place frequented by tourists. The food was quite good and the service was awesome.
We then wanted to get a nice afternoon massage. Passing through Ayurveda Pavilions and checking them out in Lonely Planet (looks good) we decided to try some Ayurveda Massage. Hubby and I chose a whole body massage, got checked by an Ayurvedic doctor and he then prescribed the kinds of oils that will be used. The oils smelled like Chinese Herbal Tea – the ones prescribed by traditional Chinese doctors. It was applied on you steaming hot! But the massage was heavenly.
Before heading home, we stopped by Ice Bear Guest House for the best German coffee in town (truly!) and some dessert.
As we were leaving town, we would stop by the churches we saw along the way!
And that capped off our laid-back Negombo trip.
Hmm… now where to in January?
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