sLOVEnians travel

We spent our first night in Negombo, a town nearer to the airport than the capital Colombo. Our Slovenian blogger colleague Lucina potovanja suggested a nice homestay in Negombo, so we booked it. The communication with the owner was already fun. He was supposed to pick us up at the airport, so he wrote: I will be the only white face smiling at you at the airport. He told us he was born in Holland a long time ago and after his divorce he came here for holiday, met his wife and at the age of 67 he became father for the first time. Binkie is a really sweet boy.

Ok, enough of the emotional reflection. You are here to know, what to do in Negombo, right? If you’re not keen to read, find our Vlog #1 from Sri Lanka HERE or at the bottom of this post.

The main tourist attraction is the fish market. The smell of fish will fill your lungs long before you’re there. Drying fish, fresh fish, even fish still in nets are there. You can stroll around the stands, go to the ocean shore to see fisherman at their work, marvel at hundreds drying fish, but I bet soon someone will approach you telling you he’s a cook in a nearby restaurant and he can tell you all about the fish. We politely said thank you and walked on, just to see him 10 min later with 2 other tourists. This is a known scam, so be careful, because at the end he will demand money.

Just aprox. 400 metres from the fish market is a port, some also call it a lagoon. Hundreds of fishing boats sway in the water. Just walk around the lagoon to the left and straight to the bridge, from where you’ll have a great view.

Negombo beach is not comparable to other Sri Lankan beaches, but if you have time go for a walk on the sandy shore. If you happen to be there for Poya (Full moon), then visiting the beach before sunset is a must – hundreds and hundreds of people will be there, bathing with clothes on, food stalls will serve local delicacies and up in the air dozens of kites will dance in the wind.

Our host told us about Negombo city tours, where you can visit many churches, temples and other attractions, but we were already determined to go south, as you can see in our vlog.