April 17

We started the day with Muesli and yogurt for breakfast. The Muesli we found here has been really good. One yogurt – we found- is made with 'Wood Apple.' It's an Indian/Sri Lankan fruit, and is tasty in the Muesli. Anyway, we got out and about. 

We caught a local bus to get to downtown Colombo. We went first to the Fort Colombo train station to get our paper tickets printed up. This is a step they still require, seems antiquated in this app driven mobile age. But hey, I still don't really do social media… so to each his own!!😂🤣 The agent helping us also tried to help us book or arrange other tours. I find this amusing… no, hilarious! Everyone is wanting to help you and trying to get a piece of the “pie.” We thanked the agent for the tickets, but bowed out other arrangements. We did ask his opinion of where we could get some fish for lunch. He passed on what we thought was Mr. Crab Restaurant (Later realized it to be Ministry of Crab Restaurant).

When we did locate the up-scale dine-in restaurant, we had another realization, the place specialized only in crab dishes. So we opted to move on. Goggle searching found us the good rated “Sea Fish Restaurant” close by. It was established in 1969! So it's been around a hot minute! We had Fish (Modha or Thalapath fish) and Chips; and Baked Fish (Seer fish fillet topped with mushroom sauce and cheese) with Chips and sauteed mix vegetables. The food was very good, we enjoyed it greatly! We both also an Elephant House Soda: one was Ginger Beer; the other a Lemonade. They helped quench our thirst – it is just hot and humid outside! Finished, Jeff paid. (This restaurant was more than local pricing, but not as expensive as in USA.)

We trekked over to see the lighthouse-clock tower. Instead we found just a lighthouse (still working, not open for tours), but we also found the Naval Port Offices, some old fortified walls, and a huge stupa built over the road. Realizing our Goggle mistake, we trekked and found the lighthouse- clock tower. It is on the other side of the naval grounds, in front of its main-gated opening; and it is in the middle of a roundabout. This site is also closed – not open to tours. But it was fun to see the lighthouses. We then walked along the road that is a like a coastal road, right here, but it is in the city – if that makes sense. We found another bus stop and went back to our area, stopping at a grocery store, and a 'bottle' shop (we like the locally made Arrack – a distilled fermented coconut tree sap). Supper was a Roti and a Greek salad of sorts. There was not a visible sunset, but we did not have our afternoon/evening rain thunderstorm, even though we had cloud buildup.