Colombo

We call these our too much vacation faces:




The half-open eyes, the total lack of ambition...when we see these faces staring back at us in the mirror, we know it's time to go home. It's tempting to stay on the beach, but you have to be careful not to get to the point of no return. The owner of the guesthouse told us that he once had a guy stay three years.

So we packed our things and had what we call "fancy time."

You may not think of Colombo, Sri Lanka as a fancy place, but it sure felt that way to us. We spent three days there, shopping, eating out, and most luxuriously, sleeping in an air-conditioned room with nice, starchy white sheets. It doesn't take much to make us feel fancy.

The best part was a restaurant we found, The Gallery Cafe. Someone turned the old office of Geoffary Bawa, a famous Sri Lankan architect, into a bar and restaurant. It was a great space with an even better menu. We ate there four times in three days.




We also went for some sunset drinks at the Galle Face Hotel, a beautiful, old hotel set right on the water.


The only other thing we did was shop. Colombo is a huge garment district, you can get Calvin Klein castaways and other brands made in Sri Lanka for great prices. I went nuts in Odel, a Colombo department store. Brad was able to find some things too. I don't know if I've told you how infrequently we get to replenish our wardrobes here. Normally, I just stock up while I'm in Iowa for the summer, but this summer we're going to be backpacking the whole 51 days of vacation, so Sri Lanka will have to tide us over for a while. I think it will.