Above: Negombo beach from our hotel near the airport.
Flying to Colombo
We boarded the Emirates B777-200 bound for Colombo at 0030. The flight had originated in Jakarta. It wasn’t as full as I had expected so we had some spare seats.
The delicious rendang meal was served on a full-sized tray with sides by a multi-national crew. They were quite relaxed and informal, especially the British. Emirates Airlines, while held by the Dubai government, has a considerably substantial British management. Perhaps this is reflected in the number of British crew they hire.
We landed in Colombo at 0200. We were picked up by Clifford David from the tour company “N-Car Tours” and our driver Kirthi. We were taken to the Camelot Beach Hotel in Negombo, near the airport. We slept till 0800.
Why Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka had been on my travel radar for a while. When I realised that Emirates allowed me to have a Colombo or Maldives stopover on the way to Dubai or Tehran for very little extra, I jumped on the opportunity.
Trouble was that it was hard to fit both Sri Lanka and Iran into one trip while fitting into the time we had been given away from work. To make the most of the stopover, we settled on a private car tour since we can cover more ground in limited time.
We found a tour company that offered a car and driver for a great price for the itinerary and accommodation standard.