By Marjie Courtis
Negombo had its beautiful Indian Ocean Beach. I’d been there, when I’d first arrived in Sri Lanka via Sri Lankan Airlines and Bandaranaike International Airport.
Negombo is a common entry and exit point to Sri Lanka and I was back there again after a tour. It was time to break out beyond the tour boundaries.
A good way to do this was to snatch a short two hour time slot and hire a tuk tuk driver instead of lounging around in the pool.
I had spotted a few things from the big tour bus that were worth returning to. There was the passing Church or Hindu temple. A shop. An alleyway. A view of a lagoon. An unexpected building.
I met Rodrigo, my tuk tuk driver, in a narrow street and felt comfortable with his personal manner and presentation. He had plenty of suggestions for getting behind the main drag. The Hindu temple in the main street wasn’t the best example, he said. And St Mary’s Catholic Church in the back streets, was more impressive than St Sebastian’s in the main street. It offered ceiling paintings and a statue of Christ on an outdoor bench…a statue I could choose to chat to/pray to if I chose.
Rodrigo commented on his own life in Negombo. Yesterday had been “the day of the dead” and he had paid tribute to his dead father at the Catholic Church’s grave site. So I suggested we visit there. It was easy to get ideas from Rodrigo and with every detour, I began to get more of a local perspective.
And then, from Rodrigo “why don’t we go down this road here?” And “here is the dried fish fair.” He drove his tuk tuk down between the stalls of dried fish and parked. All the women serving seemed delighted and delightful.
This market added the retail component to the overall fishing-village picture of Negombo.
Earlier in the afternoon, on the way into Negombo, the bus had stopped ever so briefly at the Fishery Harbor, the Fish Market Complex and the Dry Fish Processing Area.
We had seen the fishermen, the fresh fish, and the fish being dried on enormous plastic sheets by diligent men and women, continually dodging rain showers.
We had seen outriggers and trawlers that were part of the local fleet, the outriggers making the prettiest backdrop.
Negombo smells like the fishing town that it is. Smell the sea and the salt and the fish. Expect lots of fish dishes at the local restaurants.
Rodrigo’s back lane tour also showed me goats grazing along the waterways, the ubiquitous stray dogs roaming around, kids playing, colorful Hindu temples unaccustomed to people like me turning up and Catholic churches. I thought the Catholic churches had adopted some of the style of Hindu and Buddhist temples. For example, “shoes off” was the norm. Religious statues were decorated in a local, colorful Sri Lankan style regardless of the religious strand.
The majority of places of worship In Negombo are Catholic, reflecting its Colonial Past. It was a big contrast to the mostly-Buddhist temples I’d been visiting in other parts of Southern Sri Lanka.
Even when I choose a tour around a country, I like to find things things that aren’t on the itinerary. And if I’ve been with people, to escape from them.
My little tuk tuk excursion was just the way to mark the end of my visit. Thanks Rodrigo!
