Sri Lanka interestingly has a large number of car enthusiasts, though they tend to be from a generation before, or three if you’re still in your teens. A lot of the vintage cars you see around the island were purchased in the 40′s & 60′s by cultured grandfathers and their admiring heirs. Today its more the Benzs & Montero’s, the ...
Suki’s Wok is a little Chinese restaurant down Havelock Road. They used to be somewhere on/near Kynsey Road, but apparently the government shut them down for being an ‘unauthorised building’. Happily, they managed to open up again not too soon after the incident. Suki’s Wok’s been cropping up on our Facebook feed lately, so we decided to give them a ...
Sri Lanka has many arts and handicrafts shops with lovely goods, but most are priced at tourist levels. Casa Serena is a new shop (hidden in plain sight on Havelock Road) that’s priced to own. They have a lovely array of cloth, paper and handmade goods plus a unique book collection, all at locally affordable prices. For example, here are ...
YAMU in the Daily FT. Click for largeness. YAMU is featured in today’s Daily FT newspaper. They’re running our Lion Index, a breakdown of what a beer really costs at 21 places around Colombo. Have a look if you get the newspaper, or click on the image above to see what it looks like in print.
The last jail cell, which people park trishaws park next to The last jail cell of the last King of Sri Lanka is absurdly nestled in the shadow of the Ceylinco Building. It’s a few minutes from Dutch Hospital (O Bar) and is a nice way to show a date that you’re somewhat knowledgable about the city. This whole area ...
A long time favourite of families and budget travellers travelling to Galle, Indian Hut offers decent and affordable North Indian and Chinese cuisine. The restaurant is upstairs on a beautiful old building and offers a good view of the ramparts and the Galle fort lighthouse. The food is very good. Try the butter and garlic naans (Rs. 50 and 90 ...
Well you really can’t do one without the other – the Mount Lavinia Hotel and the Galle Face Hotel are Colombo’s colonial duo. So we headed to the GFH’s famed salt water pool. That’s right, no chlorine here, but salt so you get a bit of added buoyancy and less of that horrid chorine smell. Design wise its nothing special, ...
Unearthed, the latest production by Floating Space will take stage on the 1st and 2nd of December. The play is about the many journeys in life -journeys through lies, secrets and silence and journeys through spaces and sites. The theater company hopes to challenge the concepts of performance, performance making and audience perception through this play. Unearthed will be performed ...
Chatham is a luxury watch boutique that offers some of the most prestigious watch brands in the world including Omega, IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre. With a great selection and highly knowledgeable employees, this place epitomizes class.
T’ Colombo Pub Quiz has hopped bars and finally settled at t’ Barefoot Garden Cafe. Every Wednesday at 8:30 (PM) people gather into teams t’ answer questions about news, sports, movies, music and whatever random questions t’ quizmaster Jehan Mendis comes up with. This be a funny, interactive and adult quiz, FYI. There’s a prize, usually a Barefoot voucher, sometimes ...
If you have a taste for local designer made clothing, this is a good spot. I really love the stuff in Melaché mainly because I need not fear awkward moments
Two ancient stupas in a clearing overlooking a man made reservoir. Hemi-spherical red kabook mounds that have weathered the elements for centuries – an out of the way clearing in Anuradhapura you might think, or perhaps somewhere in the plains beyond Kurunegala? Not quite. This is actually suburban Colombo. The Ancient Suburb Of Kotte Welcome to Kotte, and a piece ...
Everyone knows that Oktoberfest involves beer and bockwurst – in copious quantities. But what are the drunk Germans (and us) really celebrating? Apparently it all started in Munich in 1810, when Prince Ludwig wed Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen and, according to Wikipedia, “the citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festivities held on the fields in front of the ...
In the never ending quest to find the perfect fried rice, I was surprised to learn I’d been kept in the dark about one of Colombo’s best known bath joints: Copper Chimney, a little restaurant (?) on Marine Drive serving just one thing: fried rice. To any sensible Sri Lankan the mere discovery of good fried rice should be a ...
We include the EAP Restaurant in our dodgy bar circuit, but it’s not really that dodgy at all. In fact, EAP is a surprisingly pleasant place to have some arrack and devilled bites in the evening. You enter the EAP through a hobbit door (a round one). To the left there’s outdoor seating and inside there are A/C and non ...
