Colombo take two

Tuesday 17^th March 2015

This morning I got up early and headed to the passport office with the thought in mind that if I dropped it off early hopefully I could pick it up early tomorrow but that wasn’t the case.

I got the bus to the visa centre and on the way met a Belgium couple who were taking their passports in as well. When we arrived we were told to head up to the first floor and to hand it to the guy at counter number three. We had to fill out and sign a registration book (how very Indian) and then we were done.

I came out and it wasn’t even 9.30am. I went in search of a restaurant that I had read about but when I found it it was closed and there was no sign to say when it opened so I gave up on that and walked back the way came and along the main road where the bus goes in search of some good cheap vegetarian food.

I walked for ages without having much luck every veg place I found was closed until lunchtime so in the end I jumped on a bus and got a take away near the hostel and ate it there.

I spent the rest of the day trying not to scratch the million mozzie bites I got last night and researching beaches and where to head next. The day was unbelievably hot and I felt like I was melting even sat in front of a fan.

In the evening we had a bit of a party  as a farewell to one of the guys who has been living here/St Patricks day there were orange white and green streamers about the place as well as a big green banner and random shamrocks and green balloons.

We sat up until late drinking and chatting and being generally silly I called it quits around 2am and had a shower and headed to bed.

Wednesday 18^th March 2015

I slept in this morning and when I woke up decided I was too hot to bother doing much more than sit around and read.

Around 2pm I went out and got some food and by the time I ate that it was time to head to the visa office. I arrived there about 4pm and bumped into the Belgium couple I met yesterday. We sat and waited for them to open and then I went in and waited for my number to be called. I was a bit nervous that it want going to be granted or that they would only give me three months so I was extremely happy when I got it back and it was six months with no restrictions!

I got the bus back with the Belgium couple and came back to the hostel where I chilled out for a few hours until the Wednesday pub quiz. We sat around in the hostel while one of the girls taught us how to say rude things in Dutch (which none of us could pronounce anyway)

We headed there in two Rickshaws, the place was far quieter than last week but our team was still the largest (a mix of expats and hostel guests) like last week we came 2^nd which wielded a prize of 2000LKR which was spent on beer.

We ended up staying at the pub till well after closing time and then continued the merriment back at the hostel around 2am I decided to call it a night and headed to bed.