Our tour took us to some of the city highlights such as the National Museum, Asokaramaya Buddhist Temple and the Independence Memorial. During the tour we travelled through parts of Colombo that were essentially slums where you could see that people were living in extreme poverty and then 10 minutes down the road there would be a multi million rupee apartment development.

We aren't sure why, but along Galle Road (which is where future 5 start hotels are being built) there was an armed soldier every 50 meters . There was also a police officer on what seemed like every street corner. It was noted by a couple of people on the bus that there are a lot of police but not much traffic control… it seemed like every driver had their own interpretation of the road rules.

Prior to heading to back to the ship, we stopped off at one of the posh hotels that are near the Indian Ocean for our refreshments. Due to the number of people doing the tour, we were all put into the hotels ballroom where we were provided with Ceylon Tea, Orange juice, a spicy sandwich and some kind of samosa.

Mum decided she wanted to take some photos of the streetscape, unfortunately a random fellow started talking to her as she took her photos. He decided that he had done her a service by talking to her and as such as asked for payment. Mum was less than impressed and told him to go away, she has no money and she wasn’t giving him a cent. By this point in time she had come back to hotel and I was waiting for her . I think the man saw where he was, that people were waiting for her, decided to cut his losses and eventually left.

Last stop was another tourist trap shopping area. Unlike other shops we have been taken to, this one was relatively reasonable in price and quite good quality. A couple of small purchases were made.

After being dropped off at the ship, we perused a couple of market stalls that had been set up on the dock. A couple more purchases were made. As it was hot and humid, we then retired to the ship to cool down.

Once the heat of the sun had dissipated, we headed back off the ship to get a couple of photos. Prior to getting on the ship for the last time, Mum got a photo with some of the port officials. She had tried to get a photo with a soldier back in town but he politely declined.

As we had been informed that the sunset over the Indian ocean was spectacular, we headed to the bar of the highest deck to watch the sunset . It was very pretty and quite a few passengers were on deck watching the sunset too.

As the ship was leaving port late, it was open dining. This meant we could eat when we wanted instead of our set time of 7:45.

At 7:30 when we were suppose to depart, there was an announcement asking two passengers to contact customer services. After a further couple of announcements, the voice of Captain came over the speakers letting us know that we were still missing a couple of passengers. We’re not sure what happened or whether they even made it to the ship, but we ended up leaving Colombo about an hour late.

Fun fact:
Colombo has been inhabited by the Portuguese (who started the Cinnamon and spice trade), the Dutch then took over the spice trade and built some canals in the 17^th Century. The British then took control in 1796.