Closenberg Hotel

Departure Time:     1900 hours

Departure Venue:   Fort Bus Stop

Travel mode:         Colombo-Matara Bus

Adventurers:          Avanti & Anushan Selvarajah

Although this was (by far) not the best trip we’ve been on, it must be documented as well!

So, we were only able to leave Colombo at around 7pm, due to Benchmark QC (Anushan), and other delays… but I had informed them beforehand that we will arrive quite late… So, camera equipment and laptop in tow, we set off (once again) for the beach.

[The bus ride was not one of our favourites, as a drunk chose to sit next to Anushan… complete with a plastic bag, lest he throws up! I couldn’t help but stare at him, much to the annoyance of Anushan]

We arrived at Galle only at around 10pm… Although Galle town was still bustling, the by-roads were deserted. Stopping off at a grocery store to buy toothbrushes and toothpaste, we were soon at the hotel. Closenberg Hotel stood on the tip of Galle, next to the Naval Base… When we arrived, except for a few workers, noone was in sight. We were even rudely turned away, saying “it was not a 24-hour hotel, and that noone was available at this time”. –sigh–

But, after explaining who we were, we were finally taken in, and showed to our room… Anushan thought he even smelled alcohol in their breaths, but I didn’t notice anything. Maybe just coz I wanted to get into the room, and away from them as soon as possible! (they were just ‘shady’)

Compared to the rest of the hotel, the room was quite nice. It was cosy and snug, and the bed was pretty perfect! True, it did not have any of the modern amenities that we were now getting used it, but it met our needs. After unpacking out stuff, we spent a few minutes in the small patio just outside our room, watching the sea below us… so close yet so far (as we could not ‘go down to it’).

Anushan was up early morning (as usual!), taking pics at sunrise etc. I woke up to a room that was chilled, and has misted windows due to the coldness inside. It was almost as if we were in the hill country! 

I spent most of the morning in the room… and went for a walk later on. We walked down to the many level of gardens in the hotel, that led you almost down to the water (which you could not reach). There was even a pier, but you could not get down from it… -sigh-

The gardens were lovely, and the design concept was unique, but the hotel has not capitalised on many of the unique features, and ‘upkeep’ was a word unknown to its workforce. Therefore, sadly, although it was eye-catching, you soon got bored of it…

There was also little to do here, and I felt that it was just a hotel for stops… where you spend the day out in Galle etc, and come back only to sleep.

Breakfast was also nothing to write home about. Although the string hoppers, egg curry and fish curry went down nicely, its presentation was ‘normal’.

After breakfast, we walked around more, snapping pictures and stopping to talk to the hotel’s manager.

The jewellery store at the hotel, was a noteworthy find. It is run by the brother-in-law of the owner of Queen’s Café. The jewels were beautiful, and what he had done with them was even more beautiful… While I examined the jewels, Anushan showed little interest, and preferred photo-snapping the hotel instead. But he WAS interested when I picked up a jewel that was the size of a small rock, set on a ring!

 

After a few more photos and taking down the hotel’s details, we packed our bags and were soon off (it was ‘bed & breakfast only’).

Of course, we could not leave Galle without tasting Pedlar’s Inn delights again, so we made our way to the Galle Fort, by tuk-tuk… and boy, were we glad we came back! Settling down at Pedlar’s Inn, Anushan soon discovered a hidden delight of the place… and inner enclosure that was just beautiful!

It was a lounge area, with cushioned chairs and long wooden tables, perfect for relaxation… but the eye-catching thing about this area was that when you switched on the ultra-violet (UV lights :), the normally white ceiling turned into the night sky, complete with stars and the moon, the white walls turned into a shrubbery, with vines and flowers, and the floor littered with Araliya flowers… stunning!

Awe-struck at this transformation, we were then told that the painting were done in fluorescent paint, which could only be seen under the UV lights; which was done for the Inn free-of-charge by a foreign artist.

 After enjoying our meal in this (now) scenic lounge, we soon left its comforts for the bus, and made our way back to Colombo.

The bus ride back was another story to tell (mostly for Anushan), who was stuck next to a Sri Lankan ‘musical hippie’, who (I was told) sang… nah, HUMMED… the same song/tune all the way from Galle, to Colombo!