Breakfast had got inexplicably smaller today, and was attended by an annoyance of flies in the dining room which made it anything but tranquil. The air conditioning which is very new and has been very good, unfortunately failed last night which meant we hadn't spent a very comfortable night either. As we left the hotel, it was in the grips of a power cut. This also meant no water so I was obliged to fill a waste bin from the swimming pool to flush the loo. Not the best of starts to the day.
We dropped off our laundry at a professional looking establishment we had passed the day before. It should be ready tomorrow enabling us to start the Indian segment of our travels on Sunday with a full compliment of clean clothes.
Then we took a tuk-tuk to the city centre. At least that was the plan. Due to a slight miscommunication we ended up at the city food centre, a large grocery store, after declining to alight at the city tyre centre. It was still pretty close to the city centre of Negombo however, in as much as Negombo actually possesses such a thing.
Negombo is not pretty. It is a scruffy working town with a large fishing fleet. I think most of the ships were moored in the river today as yesterday had been a holiday, but long strips of ground by the fish market were covered in silvery blankets of fish drying in the sun.
The only archeological remains, a last surviving archway of the old Dutch fort inscribed 1678, now leads to the city prison.
Elevenses was at a local bakery, but unfortunately the buns I chose although looking like ones I had eaten before, were so highly charged with sugar that they caused a dumping episode. My own fault, I shouldn't have eaten them when I realised how sweet they were.
Still we caught a tuk-tuk back to the hotel and after a couple of hours rest I recovered OK. We have arranged with the tuk-tuk driver that he will pick us up and take us to the airport on Sunday morning.
As night fell, we walked half an hour to a recommended restaurant called Lords for supper. This is entirely patronised by foreigners, has a saxophonist playing on Friday nights and is number one on Trip Advisor. It was very busy but we got a table immediately although perilously close to a carp infested channel with constant streams of water descending from the ceiling into it. One false move and we would have got very wet. The food however, although pricey, was first rate, as was the ambience. We found a tuk-tuk home easily and went to bed feeling full and happy.
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