--- type: Video title: "First Impressions COLOMBO, SRI LANKA 🇱🇰" description: A full day around the capital in a convertible tuk-tuk for 3,000 rupees — Pettah market, the Red Mosque, a $2 temple ticket good for two temples, and an elephant being washed in the middle of the city. tags: [sri-lanka, colombo, tuk-tuk, temples, markets, religion, wifi] timestamp: 2026-08-06T16:50:00Z resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY3bjlPSOic video_id: rY3bjlPSOic upload_date: 2022-03-06 duration: 1952 --- # First Impressions COLOMBO, SRI LANKA 🇱🇰 Harry's first proper day in [Colombo](/places/colombo.md), with [Ali](/people/ali.md), spent almost entirely in one tuk-tuk. He arrived in the country through the capital three weeks earlier and never stopped, so this is the city he has skipped seeing. *Obs: this page is based on auto-generated subtitles. The driver's booking details are published in the video description, so under the bundle's rule on advertising he is described but not named here.* ## Hiring a tuk-tuk for the day The most practical thing in the video, and the shape of it is worth copying. - **A point-to-point ride was quoted at 500 rupees.** - **A full day around the city's main sights: 3,000 rupees — 1,500 each.** Offered by the driver after they'd been talking, and taken because the sights are spread out and hard to link up on your own. - **The roof comes off.** It is a convertible, and the driver only does it on day tours; they paid 1,000 instead of 500 on the first leg specifically to have it open. - **Top speed, per the driver: 84 km/h**, and he sticks a kilometre under the limit. ## What a day covers - **A city beach**, straight off the main road and across two live railway lines, small because the city is right on it. He is told the better one — Galle Face — is about ten minutes further. - **Pettah market**: enormous, and busier than anywhere else in the series. Standing up through the roof of a tuk-tuk going through it draws a crowd. - **The Red Mosque**, red and white striped, the market's landmark. They can't go in: shorts, and the entrance they reach is for worshippers at prayer time. - **The old Parliament**, the **Town Hall** — opened **1928** and, in his phrase, a building that looks like the White House — and **Victoria Park**. - **The observation tower, closed for the month.** - **A memorial hall with a large Buddha**, which he assumes is stone and is corrected: it is cement. He is corrected again on the trees — coconut, not palm. - **A Buddhist temple complex at 400 rupees each — about $2 — and the ticket covers a second temple.** Green water, gold statues, prayer flags in the trees, a bell, a museum of ornaments including Chinese pieces, and a sacred tree. - **A Hindu temple**, tall and densely carved with peacocks and figures, which they reach after 5pm and find shut. ## Opening hours, by religion A small, genuinely useful thing he is told and would not have guessed: **Buddhist temples here are open 24 hours; Muslim and Hindu ones are not, and have set visiting times.** The Hindu temple closes at five. ## The elephant An elephant is being washed at the temple, lying down while a man scrubs it with a coconut husk. Harry films it at length — the size, the hair, the ears — and it is plainly a working animal in the middle of a city. **He applies what he was told at [Pinnawala](/places/pinnawala.md)**: that chains on an elephant are not in themselves a sign of mistreatment and are there to prevent aggression. That is the sanctuary's explanation being carried forward, not an independent finding, and he doesn't test it here either. ## Religion, and what he likes about the country He states it directly and calls it one of his favourite things about Sri Lanka: **Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Christianity in the same short stretch of one city, living alongside each other peacefully.** He and Ali put the Hindu share of the population at **about 11%** *(from video – unverified)*. ## Two smaller things - **He still hasn't played cricket with locals**, and says it is top of his list — he keeps passing games while carrying bags. - **He left his shoes at the first temple** and the driver went back for them. ## The hotel Named on camera as **Ellen's Place**, where the room is a clean twin and the router is in the room: **66 down, 46 up — the best connection of the entire trip**, beating the Ella restaurant. He says he could move in, and then catches himself: wi-fi shouldn't be the only reason to like somewhere. See [book for the wi-fi when you work on the road](/tips/book-for-the-wifi-when-you-work-on-the-road.md). ## Key moments - `[00:31]` Why he skipped Colombo the first time. - `[01:31]` Armed, friendly security. - `[02:33]` The city beach, and the two railway lines to cross. - `[03:34]` 500 rupees quoted; the convertible roof. - `[07:29]` Range Rovers, and the visible wealth of the modern districts. - `[08:32]` Through Pettah market standing up. - `[09:35]` 3,000 rupees for the day tour. - `[10:35]` The Red Mosque, and why they can't go in. - `[15:44]` The Town Hall, opened 1928. - `[20:04]` 400 rupees each, two temples. - `[23:38]` The elephant, and the Pinnawala explanation carried forward. - `[28:13]` Four religions in one afternoon. - `[29:52]` Buddhist temples 24 hours; Hindu and Muslim ones not. - `[31:26]` 66 down, 46 up. ## Extracted pages - [Sri Lanka](/countries/sri-lanka.md) - [Colombo](/places/colombo.md) - [Pinnawala](/places/pinnawala.md) - [Ali](/people/ali.md) - [Book for the wi-fi when you work on the road](/tips/book-for-the-wifi-when-you-work-on-the-road.md)