Och aye!

Colombo

We booked three nights in Colombo to allow our jet lag to adjust to the new time zone, so in the afternoon we headed out to explore the city. After some negotiation we picked up a tuk-tuk outside our hotel, asking the driver to take us to a famous Hindu temple based on a photo we showed him on our phones. 

We thought something was awry when we seemed to be taking a very indirect route to the temple, and when we were dropped off we knew immediately it wasn't the temple we'd shown the driver. We had planned to walk from that temple to a couple of other tourist sites, but now we were nowhere near them. It was also very quiet, no other tourists or tuk-tuks around. When M went to pay the driver he tried to pull the old "the price is per person" trick, but we weren't going to fall for that one. What we think happened is that the driver deliberately took us to the wrong temple, and thought we'd have no option but to pay him more to take us to where we really wanted to go - however we had other ideas!

We had a look around the temple, then walked around the corner out of the view of the driver who was just sitting there waiting for us to hire him again. In Colombo you can order tuk-tuks via Uber and also the Pick Me app - so that's what we did. A few minutes later we were on our way to the Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque, and we like to think that the original driver sat there for quite some time waiting for us!

  

We used Uber for the rest of the day, we didn't need cash and there was no haggling over price, it was a very easy way to get around. Also, as the prices were so cheap (typically around $1 or so per trip) we were more than happy to give the drivers a very good tip equal to the entire fare. 

After walking from the mosque and through the Pettah Market we tuk'ed it to the Trader's Bar at the grand Galle Face Hotel on Marine Parade. It was like entering another world, we had gone from crowded, poor Colombo to a remnant of the colonial era, in beautiful grounds with a view of the Indian Ocean. As we sipped on our drinks we watched the flag lowering ceremony, with musical accompaniment from a Sri Lankan playing the bagpipes! High tea and cocktails were being served by immaculately dressed staff, we were scruffily dressed but perhaps due to the colour of our skin we were welcomed in with deference. Weird.