Pictures taken of the local wild life in Colombo

The below set of pictures are of the various animals and birds (mainly birds) that you would typically get to see on an ordinary day in Colombo. I took these pictures over the course of a few days. To be honest though I didn't have as much time in Colombo as I would have liked. Being your typical City one would expect to see much wildlife, however, in Colombo, you are never too far away from it!

One big question most travellers will have is, how do I keep in touch with the outside world, and what level of service is available in Sri Lanka. So what mobile network to use in Sri Lanka, is my next topic!

Well as a keen blogger and avid user of the internet and proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy S3, this did concern me too. One point was the availability of Micro Sim cards for my phone, and the other a decent data package as I knew I would want to keep connected on the go, specially if I wanted to check in to places, post tweets , use maps and go internet searches.

As a tourist, I would recommend that you use a local provider to keep in touch. This is said because roaming rates can be rather high on most foreign providers, I say this because my UK providers rates in Sri Lanka are rather extreme, with a making and receiving calls, sending messages and internet usage.

Unlocking your phone

In order to make use of the local providers make sure your phone is not locked to a network. You can get your phone unlocked by your provider in most cases, this can be at a nominal sum (when done over the phone, through your network, it can cost £10 - £15, this is possibly the fastest and most reliable way to unlock your phone, this said the rate varies from provider to provider).

Which provider?

So which network do you choose in Sri Lanka? Good question, if you are going to mainly use your phone for, if you are going to mainly use your phone for local calls or for reciving calls and are mainly based in Colombo, then any provider should do the trick however Mobitel and Dialog have the best island wide coverage, and so these would be the better option if you are going to be travelling around the country.

Sri Lanka has many different providers (AirTel, Dialog, Etisalat, Hutch, Mobitel), however in my experience, Dialog and Mobitel stand out in terms of Island wide coverage.

Network Coverage

Over the years I have used four of the above networks with the exception of Air Tel, Dialog being my favourite, followed by Mobitel. This is due to the coverage that these networks offer. Mobitel and Dialog have the widest coverage in the country, and I have not had trouble with either.

You generally get a good 3G of H++ signal for the internet on your mobile phone in most locations island wide (I do not know too much about North and North East though).

Internet Speed and rates

Dialog, Etisalat and Mobitel all offer great island wide coverage of 3G + H++ networks, and as of Jan 2013 Dialog now offer 4G.

On Mobitels Tourist package you get 500MB data allowance included in your initial bundle, and Dialog give you 1GB. Both providers offer daily / weekly

General call rates / SMS rates

Rates can change from time to time, as such I wont publish any networks rates here, however typically, local calls can cost around 2-4Rs per min (1-2p per min (0.01-0.02GBP)). Some international calls such as calls to the UK Landlines can also cost around 2-8Rs per min depending on the provider, and calls to international mobiles can cost aroun 19Rs per min (0.10 GBP per min). All of which is very very cheap.

You can also get 200 Mb of internet usage for Rs 50 a day or 1GB for Rs 200 which is a weekly package on Dialog. Please visit Dialogs website for more information on these.

You can find out more about call rates on the providers websites.

Mobitel - http://www.mobitel.lk/tourist-pack
Dialog - http://www.dialog.lk/personal/international/inbound-roaming/tourist-prepaid-sim-card/
Air Tel - http://www.airtel.lk
Hutch - http://www.hutch.lk/
Etisalat - http://www.etisalat.lk/

Where to buy?

The first place to buy is at the airport, in the arivals section, as you walk out of customs you will see to your left a waiting area for those who have come to pick up friends and family, just behind this area you will see 3 stands, as seen in the image below. Dialog, Mobitel and Etisalat all have their stands here.

In my experience Mobitel didnt offer the Micro Sim, which I need for my mobile. Which in a way turned out to be a good thing, as the deals on mobitel were somewhat more expensive than those on Dialog.

The process of buying takes about 10-15 mins, you will need to fill out a form and they will take a copy of your passport for ID purposes to complete the registration. This is standard in Sri Lanka.






Mobile provider stalls at Colombo Airport Arrivals

How do I top up my phone?

Toping up your phone is very simple, you should be able to find a "Communications" shop in almost every town, they will do what is called a "Reload", please note you will need your mobile number and you will need to know which network you are on. Not everyone does reloads for every network.

You may also find that you can get scratch cards to add value to your phone, these too can be purchased widely.

You can easily identify shops that sell these as they will have mobile provider logos and adverts on their doors or as sign boards outside the shop (this is true for both Reloads and Scratch Cards).

I personally prefer the reload option as it is less hassle. You go to the shop, you tell them your network, ask for reload, specify the amount, write the phone number and amount you wish to reload on their log book, and give the person the cash (note you can only reload with cash). once they have reloaded your phone, you will recieve a message from the network provider stating your new account balance.

Here is a link to mobitels website, showing you how to Top Up your balance - http://www.mobitel.lk/how-to-recharge

And this link tells you about the ways in which you can Top Up your Dialog phone - http://www.dialog.lk/support/mobile/billing/other-payment-methods/

My Recomendation

I would personally recommend using Dialog due to the value for money and coverage. You may want to keep a mobitel sim card to had as well if you really want to keep in touch and cannot afford to be out of reach.

Here are the links for Dialog and Mobitels Tourist packages.

http://www.dialog.lk/personal/international/inbound-roaming/tourist-prepaid-sim-card/

http://www.mobitel.lk/tourist-pack

As with the great spirit of any traveller, make the most of what nature throws at me has been my theme over the past few weeks.

The ongoing adverse weather conditions that are affecting most parts of the country and forcing the closure of roads and other means of transportation to much sort after destinations meant I was stuck in Colombo for more than I would have liked.


With the 21-12-12 end of the world craze at its peak in some parts I did over hear a lot of people swearing to the fact that the world is indeed coming to an end and that Colombo was surely in for a good beating on the day.

4 days later now 25-12-12 on Christmas day, Colombo still stands and the bad weather looks like its going away, so too bad for those who indeed did write away all their fortunes etc etc...

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So back to my post, this condition meant I was confined to the spaces of Colombo and the immediate suburbs and some parts of the southern coast.

I can safely say that I did have some good time to re-discover the city that is Colombo, and was I in for a shock.

The city has changed significantly over the past few years, with many good hang outs and shopping areas popping up, including some great cafes, bars, restaurants and what seems to be a trend meet up and chat lounges. Colombo is also getting a face lift, with many of the old buildings being renovated and restored.

They do say that the wild is never too far from the city in Sri Lanka, in fact, I think the wild can sometimes be found in the city. I explored a lot of the wild life spots in and around the city, will be writing about these soon too!

For this post I leave you with some places that which I visited this Dec in Colombo, which I think should be worth visiting.


View Colombo Must See in a larger map

I will write about all my discoveries individually over time, however, let me end this post with some images I took during a thunderstorm in Colombo last week.


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Background

As a result of Colombo being made a municipal council in 1866, the old town hall building was setup in 1873 by the then colonial British government and opened by the then Governor of Ceylon Sir William Gregory.

The building is set out in a neo-gothic style, and at the time was built to impress, to show off the grand colonial architecture. The building was built at a cost of $70,000 at the time.

For more background information on this, I found the following link to be of good quality, taken from a local news paper. http://www.island.lk/2009/03/18/L1.pdf

Location

The old town hall building is situated at the round about junction between, Main street, Dam street, and Bodhiraja Mawatha, in the area of Pettha of Colombo. The below map shows the exact location.


View Larger Map

Getting there

View Larger Map

Highlights

Yaal Restaurant is located on the marine drive in the Wellawatta Area. I have been here for take away a few times on the recommendation of a good friend. I must say food was spicy but was different to the local southern Sri Lankan food. Yaal is a name for Jaffna, which is located in the northern tip of Sri Lanka. The culture, the traditions and the food of this region is very different to that of the rest of the country, and is mainly southern indian with a local sri lankan twist. It is the food of the Northern Tamil population of Sri Lanka.

At Yaal you will find most dishes that you will get in a southern Indian restaurant, as such it is very vegetarian friendly. Word of caution look out for the spice. I would recommend the Restaurant for an authentic taste of Jaffna food.

I found the below video to be very informative, and should give you a good idea of what to expect!

Location of Galle Face Green

Galle Face Green is located in Colombo, and is a prominent land mark, it is in the CBD area of the city and is the cities main sea front. There is little beach area here, and the sea is generally rather rough, that said you do see a lot of people attempting to paddle about.

There is a new pier built that reaches out into the sea, and it is a great place to watch the sun set. Galle Face comes to life at around sun set with thousands of locals descending upon the grounds with children, and it is locally also a popular destination for local couples. They all gather here to watch the sun set, eat the foods that skiz talks about in his video (see further below) and also play.

As I browsed through YouTube in search of great videos to Post on the Blog, I came across this one, which gives the viewer a good glimpse of the Sun Set and the atmosphere at the Galle Face Hotel at this time.


Here are some pictures that I took in Jan 2012 at Galle Face, These were taken on the 1st of Jan 2012.








The video below gives you a view of what Galle Face looks like during the day.



As kids we used to always go down to Galle Face to fly kites, eat ice cream and watch the sun go down. Nowadays I quite enjoy having high tea at the Galle Face Hotel on the veranda.




Another great video from Skiz Fernando, I will be posting more of his videos on the blog, and any other interesting things I find on Sri Lanka.

To be honest I have never been brave enough to try street food in Sri Lanka, so I have no comments of my own on this, so I hope Skiz gives you a good idea.


Below are some picture from Galle Face that I took this year








For those of you who are interested in the hotel, here is a great video by Trip Advisor on it.


For information on the high tea etc please see the hotels web site here - http://www.gallefacehotel.com/html_classic/dining_verendah.htm

Colombo At Night

Here is a collection of photos that I took in Dec 2011 and Jan 2012 of Colombo at Night. I will add more over time as I still have a few to process. The album covers some of the most well known landmarks of Colombo, such as the independence square, the Beria Lake, the CBD (twin towers and BOC building), Galle face hotel and the Green.

Colombo is a must visit destination in Sri Lanka. I will update this post soon with maps and perhaps videos of  the places featured here.