My FIRST (independent) trip to Negombo

Departure time:          1100 hours

Departure venue:        Fort bus station

Travel mode:              Bus (No. 240/1)

Adventurers:              Lanil Pieris, Nimasha Samarasekera, Avanti and Anushan Selvarajah
                                 (joined later by) Diroshana Silva, Darshan Dias Abeysinghe and Kalpika Abeyesekera

Having being there a week before taking the trip I’m about to document, my impression of Negombo was of a small fishing village, with the ability to entertain me only through its beach.

But meeting up around 0800 hours at the Kohuwela Commercial Bank bus stop, from where we were to take the 120 bus to the Fort Bus Stop, and there onwards… I was about to be pleasantly surprised.

Hopping off three stops after passing the Bandaranayake International Airport (BIA) we soon realised that we had got off a stop earlier – thanks to our “guide” – and walked close to 500m more to get to where we should have initially got off; and took a tuk tuk thereafter to get to our ‘shelter’ – a rest house on the beach. However, the highlight of this location is the ‘unpublicised’ authentic Italian coffee house that adorned the premises, and was a popular hangout only among the local expatriates and foreign guests.

Appropriately named ‘The Sweet Life’ in Italian, the Dolce Vita is a coffee house-cum-restaurant managed by a friendly Italian couple who have made Sri Lanka, and Negombo, their home. We immediately took a liking to them – with some of us developing a school-boy crush on the owner’s wife who, I’m told, “had a voice that anyone could listen to” – and inquired more about the place, and how they came to be.

Located in the premises of Sea Sands rest house (where one could rent rooms for a nominal fee) it is not visible from beach road, which is the reason behind its serenity.

The Dolce Vita offers enticing edibles, from Italian coffee – straight from Italian coffee beans, might I add! – to authentic pizza, but what captured our attention the most was the home-made ice cream!

Drawn and dusty from our bus-ride, the ice-cream was a welcomed substitution for breakfast, after which we were more than happy to check of the rest of Dolce Vita’s menu.

Pasta, pizzas, croissants, pies, pastries, lattes, cappuccinos and ice-cream were all enough to make us forget the beach, and spoil us for choice that we ended up spending a precious half-hour trying to decide what dish we should try first and making sure not to order the same thing, so we could cover the most dishes during our stay here.

And indeed, we came, we saw, we devoured!

Too relaxed to even to go for a swim – which was an initial aim of the trip – we spent the rest of the day lazing about, indulging in reading, playing cards and meaningless chit-chat.

Towards evening, locals gather to a nearby cove to swim and take their children to the amusement park just on the shore. It is packed with families and couples milling the beach, and the park, with screaming children – and parents screaming even louder – and the noise of waves crashing into the rocks.

We stood watching the children bathe, and adults drink, waiting for the sun to set; and at around half past six, we were able to watch while the orange sky and the bright orange sun slowly but surely sank into a glossy blue ocean.

Negombo at night was busy, yet serene, with locals and visitors walking the streets in search of drinks and some grub. We settles on a restaurant-cum-bar (as were all hangout spots in Negombo) called Rodeo. This place had its own unique attraction – the walls were covered with notes, poems, autographs of all the people who had been there, since its inception.

Looking around, you were able to see “Michael was here!”, “I watched the 2006 Cricket World Cup from this spot!” and “Jenny loves James” from the floor of the restaurant, up all its walls and even on the roof! And you didn’t feel like leaving without adding our mark!

If anyone happens to visit this place, check out the spot near the top of the main doorway, next to the fan fixed to the wall – that’s us! J

The next morning we were up as early as the local fishermen who were already at work, putting out their nets, and preparing their boats for take-off.

We watched them untangled the previous day’s nets, and mend them for today’s casting.

We watched crows fight for the leftover scraps of fish that the fishermen threw to a distance.

We watched their families help the fishermen to untangle, salt and dry the fish caught yesterday.

And while walking on the tiny footpath in front of the fishermen’s houses, we could see the surroundings in five colourful states – golden sand, green grass, black jagged rocks, dark blue crystal water, and the light blue sky.

Another unique thing about Sea Sands and Dolce Vita was that it was just as much a hangout for dogs, as it was for humans, as the people who visited Dolce Vita did not hesitate to bring their dogs along for the ride/meal.

While there, we met Jimmy, the portly bulldog of a faithful patron of Dolce Vita; and also two HUGE Bull Mastiffs who were brought in a truck(!) for a walk on the beach, and also a fluffy hybrid puff ball brought for a run on the beach.

Although we were all too reluctant to get into the icy cold water, the locals splashed around as if they were at home in their bathtubs!

And preferring to stay out of the water, the official ‘photographer for the trip’ took to snapping pictures of us bold ones in the water – to which we were all too happy to pose for…

On our last day, we could not leave without one more taste of that heavenly ice-cream, and spent our final few hours in the café’s lounge area; as the time to leave seemed to take less time than the trip itself, and soon it was time to bid goodbye to Sea Sands, Dolce Vita and Negombo, as we knew it.