09.10.2024
Day 1
Start of fulltankers epic trip to Sri Lanka. After customary good byes to our families, we reached airport at about 7.30 am for our flight to airport, scheduled to leave at 10.20 am.
The one hour flight to Colombo by Sri Lankan airlines was uneventful and we landed at Bandaranaike International airport, named after former Prime Minister S. W. R. D Bandaranaike situated in the suburb of Negombo, 32.5 kilometres north of the nation's capital Colombo, on time at 11.20 am. Sri Lanka and India are in the same time zone.
We had our visas pre-approved and immigration was smooth and quick. Though we had international roaming, we took couple of local SIM cards. Post immigration and customary visit to DFS for “beverages” and chocolates, we collected our luggage. After customs we found a group of Sri Lankan dancers performing. We took some videos of their dances and they posed for photos with us.
Exchanged INR to LKR at one of the many bank counters for local spending. Our car rental agent was waiting for us, who guided us through to the exit and to the Mitsubishi Monterro arranged for our 15 day drive in Sri Lanka.
We took the Colombo-Katunayake expressway E01, the first and the longest expressway of Sri Lanka, for the 30 kms drive to Colombo, but then found the car not to our liking. We took the car to the main office of the rental company in the city and got a replacement car, which we found much better and cheaper too! We now have DFSK580, an almost brand new SUV.
We checked in at Hilton Colombo Residencies, a place ideal for short and extended stays, where we had booked for our two day stay in Colombo.
The weather in Colombo is hot and humid at this time of the year, but we had some showers in the evening while we took a customary autorickshaw drive in the city. We also did some shopping at the nearby Cargils supermarket before we decided to return to our hotel to spend the rest of the day.
End of day one.
Great start👍🏽
ReplyDeleteNice. God bless you
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