Colombo, Sri Lanka (February 2020)

Early in the morning, we departed Jaffna to go to Colombo. It would take 8 hours with a couple of stops.

Colombo is the largest city and the commercial capital of Sri Lanka. Its population was reported to be approximately 800,000, but including the floating people, it would be higher. The administrative capital of Sri Lanka is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. I know it is the longest name ever. It is indeed a suburb of Colombo.

Sri Lanka is an island nation and, honestly, I thought it would be a small country to explore. But, its terrain reaches to 1500 meters high, and the winding roads and widely spread rice fields made me realize that the island is a lot bigger than I initially thought.

Throughout the journey, we saw many egrets in the fields and on the trees. I suppose I have seen more egrets than all egrets I have ever seen in my entire life. Cute little white birds with long necks are one of my favorite birds.

Also, we saw several wild peacocks. They were walking around the fields and once we saw a wild peacock flying across the street to a nearby hill. It was my first time seeing such a scene. They are beautiful and elegant birds.

When we reached Colombo, Condred dropped us off at the hotel and went home. I was thankful that the entire journey was free of any accident.

At the hotel, a boutique home style hotel, we had a little fiasco with the hotel people since they overbooked one room. So Joseph and I ended up staying in one room.

We took a Grab Tuktuk and went to Korean Ambassador's Residence not too far away from the hotel. The Ambassador Heon Lee and his young wife greeted us. He was the Acting Ambassador to Rwanda helping set up the Embassy in the country. He is a close friend of Professor Myung Jae Moon and Do Woon Lee.

He grilled pork belly (sam-gyup-sal) but I enjoyed Chicken Curry and Gim-bab. The residence was grandeur on a huge lot. Ambassador Lee said that they could host up to 800 people at the residence's backyard. It was fortunate that they purchased the land for the Ambassador Residence as well as the Embassy. He said that he invites Koreans to share the meal and drinks quite often. His pleasant personality would be easily popular with people.

He bragged about his motorbike that he rides in Sri Lanka. He was aware that I was riding one in New York. Cool!

We enjoyed our fellowship.

On Saturday, Joseph and I had a debriefing and took off to our own next destination. It was only the first week of this 4-month trip. - Jeffrey