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Colombo Introduction
It's not the most historically interesting location on the island, nor is it the most beautiful, but Colombo, in everything but name the capital of Sri Lanka, is undeniably fascinating.
Compared to the ancient sites of the cultural triangle the city is just a stripling. Colombo was only really established as a place of note by the Dutch, who established their capital here, building a colonial style town which can still be seen today in such buildings as the Wolfendaal Church and the city centre mansion which now houses the Dutch Period Museum. It's port became the centre of a thriving spice trade, and when the English arrived and established the tea industry in the interior, the port became one of the busiest in the world, with tea clippers landing, loading and embarking all year round.
With such success came great wealth, and although the clippers have long since cast off on their last voyage, Colombo continues to be the financial centre of emerging Sri Lanka. Fort, named after the Dutch fortification that used to stand here, is the key to it all. Where once there stood a fort similar to the one still visible in Galle, today there is a dense and thriving city centre, filled with five-star hotels and the twin towered bulk of the super-modern World Trade Centre. Seeing the skyline of the city is incongruous with the surroundings. The permanently thriving district immediately adjacent to Fort is known as the Pettah, and nowhere is more typically Sri Lankan. Here commerce has gone mad, the streets are packed with enthusiastic shoppers and hawkers, and the latest technology sits side by side with sacks of rice and dried spices, commodities that have been sold here for centuries.
Elsewhere the city has more to offer. Buddhist Temples, Hindu Kovils, Catholic Churches and Mosques can all be seen in the city, and despite the recent domestic troubles the city seems to possess a marvellous cosmopolitan attitude, typical of an international port. That's not to say foreigners don't still attract attention however. Tuk tuk drivers and passers by are keen to engage any visitor, and you'll be inundated with offers of hospitality or services, sometimes welcome, sometimes not. Down the Galle Road and Duplication Street the neon lights turn the city into a South Asian Las Vegas, all casinos and fast food, while Cinnamon Gardens is a gentrified district of villas and clean living. It all goes to make up a varied experience.
If anything typifies the city it's this dichotomy, where you can see the latest Toyota 4WD overtaking a hand-drawn cart, piled high with coconuts. Colombo straddles the old Sri Lanka that exists elsewhere on the island and the new Sri Lanka the country is trying to be - with the best, and worst, of both worlds on unashamed display. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but persevere and you may find that Colombo although undeniably less than charming, isn't without a gritty attraction, deserving of rather more than the cursory glance most tourists give it en route to the south coast.
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