Category Asia

The train was not running. Cyclone Ditwah in 2025 triggered 150 landslides and took the Kandy to Ella line with it. A shared van through the tea hills instead.

The bus from Colombo to Kandy costs $2.50 for three hours of climbing. Up in the highlands, the last capital of the Kandyan Kingdom still has weight.

Read on the flight from Mumbai to Colombo. Three colonial powers in sequence, one civil war, and a name that changed in 1972. Ceylon became Sri Lanka.

A tuktuk driver offered a two-hour city tour for $10. I said yes. Colombo delivered on the temples and the seafront, and confirmed the title of this post.

Leopold Cafe has been open since 1871. The bullet holes in the window frame are from 2008. Breakfast, Dhobi Ghat at ground level, and Marine Drive at sunset.

At 9 AM I took a taxi back to the hotel I had actually booked. The first proper day in Mumbai started with a second nap and the Gateway of India by afternoon.

The taxi was early. 4.10 AM instead of 4.15, which suited me fine. The hotel in Mumbai had already given away my room by the time I got there.

I bought the ticket on a whim in April 2025. Norse Atlantic had a sale, the price was hard to argue with, and I clicked before thinking too hard about it. The gamble was not entirely trivial — Norse Atlantic…