Colombo – the capital city of Sri Lanka

Our first stop in Sri Lanka was Negombo, a city close to the airport and not far from the capital Colombo (40 km far). We arrived very late at night and were happy that our host picked us up and brought us to his beautiful home. Unfortunately, we spent there only a short night, as we were planning already on the following day to go to the office of immigration to extend our visa.

Visa for Sri Lanka

Usually, the e-visa (Sri Lanka ETA) can be required online (www.eta.gov.lk) at a cost of 35$ for a double-entry and will allow you to stay up to 30 days in the country. We wanted to stay longer in order to arrive at a proper time in India after the monsoon would come to an end. Therefore we had to visit the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla, Colombo.

For the extension of the visa, we had to pay 26,80 $ (Miriam – Germany) and 31$ (Alex – Romania). The whole process lasted around 2 hours and was very well organized.

Moving around

The best way to move around in Colombo are tuk-tuks, that can be called over the mobile apps PickMe or Uber. Of course, you can also just jump in one tuk-tuk and ask them to use the meter to ensure that in the end, you will pay a fair price. We found it more convenient with the app because we lost less time explaining to the driver where we wanted to go. It also helped us to compare the prices, as sometimes rides in one app were cheaper than in the other. Given the time of the day when you want to move around, you might also realize that sometimes the meter price is more convenient, depending on where you go. In Colombo, there are also many local buses that can be used at very cheap rates.

Accommodation in Colombo

The second night in Sri Lanka we spent in a very nice backpacker hostel in the heart of Colombo, which allowed us to easily reach the train station, from where we would travel to our next destination, Kandy.  We liked the owner of the Hostel so much, that we decided to come back to the same hostel at our future visit to the city. He gave us a lot of good advises for the rest of the journey through his country and informed us about how to take trains, buses and where to find good food.

Our first contact with Sri Lanka was absolutely positive and throughout the whole stay, we felt in love with the country even more. In Colombo, you find very well equipped supermarkets, good transportation options, cheap and great local food and polite people.

The first stop in Colombo was only short as on the 3^rd day we took a very early train towards Kandy. During our second time, we really discovered more about this lovely city.