Monday February 16th, 2026 Queen Anne, Columbo, Sri Lanka
- Neil Wylie
- Dec 31, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 19
The island of Sri Lanka lies to the southeast of India, in fact it’s so close that a bridge has been discussed for many years but continues to get rejected by Sri Lanka due to concerns related to national sovereignty, immigration, and cultural integrity. Columbo is the capital of Sri Lanka and is located in the southwest of the island, it is also a major trading port. Our scheduled arrival time was 8AM but due to another ship being in our berth we did not arrive until 10:30AM, it’s amazing that even with all of the planning that goes into a voyage like this that a local scheduling issue can disrupt the workings of the ship – several of the ship’s shore excursions had to be canceled.
We had arranged to have a local guide show around the city, but unfortunately Sandra was not feeling very well in the morning, so we had to cancel. Fortunately Sandra was feeling better by the afternoon, so we were able to make our own way into the city via the port shuttle bus. Ramshackle, rundown, ancient buildings were juxtaposed with gleaming high-rise structures as the bus rattled along the busy road. Motorcycles and tuk-tuks darted in and out of the traffic ignoring the traffic lights and driving like they believed there were no other vehicles on the road. British style roundabouts attempted to control the traffic flow but failed miserably.
The bus pulled into a gated compound; the gates closed behind us and as we stepped off the bus, we found ourselves in a cloud of taxi and tuk-tuk drivers offering their services. I hate this kind of “in your face” high pressure sales approach. There was a single building inside the compound, a large shop selling all kinds of tourist trinkets. We were beginning to get just a bit pissed off as we could not believe that Cunard would arrange to use a bus company that was obviously in cahoots with the tourist shop to basically bring passengers to this compound and practically force them into the shop. To cap it all the shop had no air conditioning and this, along with the continued high pressure sales people, really pushed me over the edge. There was nothing in the shop that remotely interest us. Using my phone I quickly pulled up a map and discovered that there were no points of interest within a reasonable walking distance of our location, especially given the 90F temperature and 80% humidity – again, amazed that the ships shuttle would bring passengers to such a place.
At this point our options were limited; either get the bus back to the ship or hire a tuk-tuk to see a bit of the city- we opted for the latter. After negotiating the price, we clambered into the ancient looking vehicle, actually calling it a vehicle is a bit of a stretch. I don’t know exactly how to characterize a tuk-tuk; it’s basically a converted 2-stroke motorcycle that’s had a 2 seat / 2 wheel “carriage” welded onto it’s back – making a 3 wheeled contraption. The tuk-tuk is probably the most popular mode of transport in Columbo, they are everywhere, people flag them down along the roads and they swarm like gigantic mechanical inspects around any place where tourist might congregate.
Tuk-tuk drivers are a special breed of maniac, pretty soon after setting off I was convinced that the driver could not see any other vehicles on the road; the large bottle of vodka sitting in his cup holder did not add to my sense of safety. Bobbing and weaving through the traffic, occasionally honking his horn and shouting at some perceived infraction, we hung on to the duct taped tubular steel that supported the roof of the vehicle – no seat belts, no doors! We passed the old parliament building and the lotus tower and then made our way to the Galle Face area along the sea front. The driver constantly tried to divert us to several businesses that he obviously had ties to and it a few strong words from me to avoid being corralled in another high pressure sales situation. We had no intention of going to the “special government sale”, he begged us, pleading poverty and saying that he’d get two liters of free fuel if we went – even though we didn’t agree, he took us anyway. It turned out to be a jewelry store, Sandra refused to go upstairs to the sales room, out of courtesy I went upstairs, told them I was not interested in buying anything and then we left. At this point we’d had enough of this driver, and we told him to take us to the large mall we’d spotted down the road, it looked very modern and we had high hope for air conditioning. To cap off the fine display of driving and tour guiding, the driver tried to rip me off when we eventually got to the mall – claiming a different price than that to which we had agreed, I afraid to say that this elicited a far bit of swearing on my part which brought about a remarkable restoration of his memory.
The Galle Face Mall was in fact well cooled and we really appreciated this; while it was designed like many western malls, the shops were mostly Asian or Sri Lankan. As far as I can tell “Galle Face” means the open sea front facing toward the town of Galle. It was difficult to pass up the opportunity to enjoy Ceylon tea in the elegantly appointed Basilur tea shop, featuring teak furnishings, an extensive selection of teas, and an impressive array of cakes. Sandra has always enjoyed her tea without milk but, as my tea was served, I kindly asked for a little cold milk – I swear it felt like all conversation in the shop stopped and everyone was staring at me. The young serving assistant looked at me in complete confusion, she could not possibly understand how anyone would want milk in their tea – in fact she had to consult her manager to see how to handle this apparently bizarre request, returning and apologizing to she would have to charge me for the milk. The tea was excellent and the accompanying cake really hit the spot.
I found an old fashioned barbers shop in the mall and, since it had been six weeks since my last trim and I was beginning to look a bit like Shaggy out of Scooby Do, decided to take the plunge and sample a Sri Lankan haircut. The process of hair cutting turns out to be remarkable consistent around the world and I emerged from the shop looking a lot smarter and my wallet was only $9 lighter; I saved about $40 compared to the price on the ship. I found Sandra sitting on a bench in the mall surrounded by a gaggle of friendly children chatting away, as I approached, they ran up to me and insisted on shaking my hand while offering me a nice “hello grandpa” greeting. The children were all siblings and befriended Sandra, wanting to take selfies and speak English – amazingly welcoming.
I’m confident we would have seen a lot more of Columbo if we’d been able to take our guided tour, but we were not disappointed with our day. I found Columbo to be hot, chaotic, ancient and modern.
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