Negombo

Negombo is my last stop in Sri Lanka. It is a tourist strip of beach, lined with hotels and restaurants. People typically only come here for a few days, as honestly apart from the beach there is not a lot going on other than its close proximity to the airport.

Beach view

I have found an amazing restaurant though, called Lords. The food there is AMAZING and it is a really pretty restaurant with a lovely atmosphere. The food is reasonably priced, but it is exquisite. I cannot put into words how good the food was. Hats off to the chef for sure. I have eaten here 3 times in the week I have been here - it is that good.

My amazing curry at Lords

I paid a ridiculous amount of money to go on  a "boat" trip around the lagoon for 3 hours. When I say boat, I mean more of a poorly constructed raft, made of a canoe and some bits of tree. You will see 2 pictures at the top of this post which show these catermarans as they call them. The lagoon was beautiful and home to lots of birds and fish farms, where little fish grow into big fish. There wasn't really a huge amount to see out in the lagoon, but it made a nice change from the beach.


Birds of the Lagoon

I went on a tuk tuk tour with the pool attendant from the hotel I use the pool of who drives a tuk tuk in his spare time (I think I was supposed to tip him and I totally didn't register in time - I am a bad tourist. I better tip him double when I use the pool tomorrow). He took me first to St Mary's Catholic Church which was very pretty.

St Mary's

We then went to the 2 fish markets. One sells fresh fish, the other prepares and sells dry fish. Dry fish are prepared, salted and then sun dried for 2 days. It was quite an experience being in an open air fish market with fish laid out over the floor.


FISH

As a solo female I have found this to be the worst place in terms of men making passing comments. I wear trousers and t-shirt, so I am not exactly dressed provocatively, yet I cannot walk down to the supermarket without at least a dozen comments. Tuk tuks kerb crawl me, beach boys hang around in wait and they don't seem to be able to take no for an answer. I told one pool attendant that a whole group of boys where watching me and I didn't like it, but he didn't seem to understand why I found it a problem. It has actually made me really uncomfortable to be here and to have to go out. In the last 3 months of my travels, nowhere has made me feel like this. If you come here - bring a friend at least. I am actually quite grateful to be leaving Negombo soon. It's a shame because Sri Lanka is such a beautiful country.