Friday: Departure. In Sweden I first booked a Taxi from Taxi Norrköping (allthough they had a station in Linköping as well).
650kr was a bit steep though so Mihiri suggested "TaxiJakt", with which I booked a car after lunch to pick us at 16:20, and then cancelled the first car.
With a car seat for Isak it would cost 404kr. Sounds like a better deal right? They even had a map where you could follow the taxi's location.
At 16:00 I could see that all cars were still in Linköping though, so I called them. They would check they said. Then our car was in Mjölby and suddenly teleported to Linköping.
The taxi company called and said they could not contact the driver so they changed the car and that there might be delays... Our wonderful neighbors offered to drive us, as there were no further response from the taxi company, but at 16:50 the taxi finally arrived and the neighbors helped us to quickly haul the luggage into the car. We were then a bit stressed about the train that was leaving 17:20 from the station. But we made it.
We are lucky indeed to have such wonderful people living in the houses next to ours; not only did they offer to drive us but they also keep an eye on the house, water flowers and fill pellets while we are gone.
The train trip and check in was event free though so the stress indicator dropped down to normal. The flight to Colombo was with Qatar and therefore trough Doha.
On the first flight we got seats in the middle of that section, and as it turned out those seats were served meals etc last, meaning we had to take what was left. Mihiri avoids beef but we were lucky that it was chicken that was available.
Also, behind us, were a very talkative Italian guy. He kept talking and talking to the woman on his row, and in my desperation I dug out my fancy headphones with noise cancelling. That made it worse. It removed the engine hum so I now heard them better, and the Italian guy was describing how good he was at massage and so on. You get the idea.
The second flight to Colombo was a bit better, here we were sitting in the front of a seat row and got more space for Isak. He found a packet of butter to squeeze as well so we were never bored.
He saved a little smelly present for us to just before we were landing and that's also when he squeezed butter everywhere.
Ok now the fun part.
Mihiri had some kind of fee to pay before we could pass customs. I think it was a penalty fee for staying too long last time on her tourist visa. We landed 16:30 and finally got out of the airport at 18:50, and found our pre-booked taxi waiting.
He had waited for 2h... As I'm writing this we are now, finally, navigating the amazing traffic outside Colombo. Time is 19:46 on a Friday and some people working in Colombo are going home for the weekend, so the roads are packed. As usual lane driving and road marks are mere suggestions in SriLanka so cars are everywhere.
- Beware when booking a taxi with a car seat for an infant. Delays up to 30m might occur.
- Avoid flight seats in the middle of an airplane section, or you might get served last.
Saturday: Wash up and getting lost
Nothing much of interrest happened this day. We were mostly at home trying to get used to the time difference. In the evening me and Mihiri took a walk and ended up in the nearby alleys where Mihiri after a while admitted she was not sure where we were. As it was almost too dark to see anything we had to guess a bit and fortunately we guessed right because we ended up at least in a known area from where we could navigate home. The dangers about navigating these suburbian alleys are not much more than to trip on a dog, step in something nasty or get hit by a car, but still it felt kid of good to get back.
Sunday: Haircut and bread
There are small three-wheelers going around playing music (much like the ice cream car) and they sell bread. But there was a fairly new bakery called BreadTalk that we went to, closer to the city. After navigating the traffic we arrived just to find that since it was Sunday in the middle of the day, most of the bread was gone anyway.
It was decided that both me and Isak needed a haircut so today we went to a nearby saloon and got a bit shorter hair (price for both me and the screaming Isak: 80 SEK). At home Isak took a bath in the tub and I had to drag him out. He was grabbing the sides, making me lift both him and the tub, but eventually after some shaking I got him loose.
- A haircut (male, shor hair) in Sri Lanka, at a good barber shop, cost about 80 SEK.
Tuesday: Work lunch
Today Mihiri was at work. Me and Mihiris father went to Vision Care to change my glass lenses for progressive ones (which is a bit expensive I think, might be worth checking the same in Sweden). The cost for the most basic type (three types available) was equivalent to 3000 SEK for the lenses only.
We then headed for Mihiri's work and we went for lunch (Mihiris father had some other errand to do so he didn't join us). The lunch place, The Gallery Cafe, had mostly foreign guests and the price was quite high, equivalent of 150SEK for fish and chips + a beer (a normal lunch in Linköping would be like 100SEK including salad, coffee and bread). If you read the reviews you realize I'm not the only one thinking it's too high. Although the fish and chips was ok it didn't warrant that price.
TRAP: The Gallery Cafe, Colombo: Too high prices, targeted for foreigners. Schoolbook example of a Tourist Trap!
- Ambience: Good
- Price: Ridiculously high
- Service: OK, but not excellent
- Seating: We had a small table with people walking past on both sides, and I don't like that. Gives the feeling of a lunch at an airplane (keep your elbows in...)
Overall: NOT recommended (unless price is irrelevant).
In comparison I can mention a place called Visualiseringscenter in Norrköping. We frequently take customers there and the price for a lunch is 100SEK. That includes salad, bread, water and coffee. The food there is very good, and so is the view and environment. Or Enoteket: same thing here, price for a lunch is 100SEK (and sometimes they put out a small desert with the coffee).