Wednesday 28th of March
We woke early, before the alarm went off. I checked the Uber situation and we discovered there were no Uber cars in Columbo today, which seemed odd ... we headed out for breakfast and to book a cab via hotel reception.
Breakfast was a vast buffet again, I kept it light and had cereal anticipating a day of sitting and being fed at regular intervals :D.
On the way through reception a bridal party arrived.
We got out of breakfast and went back to our room to get our bags and go up to reception.
When we got to reception we had a bit of confusion while we changed our bill to include the price of our taxi so we could use up the last of our cash.
We'd been told that if we left later we'd have a shorter journey, but we weren't risking it, we were in the cab by 0830 and on the way to the airport, only 48 km away, with our flight scheduled for a 1305 departure.
Predictably the traffic was horrendous going through Columbo, we'll never know if the google maps route would be quicker because our driver set off down back streets in the other direction. Mostly to no appreciable benefit.
Eventually the cab hit the freeway that goes through the conservation area between the city and the Airport.
Arriving at the airport, there was a mess of people and cars trying to get into the airport. You needed tickets and then the first of many security scans of bags, of course our tickets were electronic so this was an initial problem. At this point these were bulk bag scanners, no trays for the stuff in your pockets so we didn't scan them, then we were walking through metal detectors and predictably setting them off, and so having to be patted down.
Once through the entrance to the airport we had to then join a queue for another security check, with our luggage, much more like what you get when you go to the gates (why?) this time our bags got a blue sticker.
In the arrivals hall proper we checked our bags, got the info for where the lounge was and headed for emigration. At emigration there was another enormous queue, we waited patiently, we'd been warned about how long it takes to get through this airport. Eventually more desks were opened up, and we cleared that queue too.
We headed off toward the lounge browsing the souvenir booths on the way there.
It was 1110 when we walked into the lounge, the 48 km journey and traversing the security theatre in the airport had taken two and a half hours.
The lounge for SriLanka Airlines is compact; there were chefs preparing hot food, ready for lunch at 1200. There is a massage which you can book, so Karen did. I settled for the opportunity to work at a table with nibbles and a beer, and got on with blog posts.
Karen came out of her massage and told me how it's not a great place for privacy (being asked to strip in front of another client for a shoulder massage and the male masseur), so she'd opted in the end for a foot massage.
We snacked, and as the chefs started serving lunch we noticed the board had changed for our flight to "final call" without going through the intermediate stages, good job we weren't planning on eating lunch there.
We set off for the gate.
On arriving at the gate there was a massive queue, the gates at Columbo share a lounge, which you reach through a regular airport security check, unfortunately two aircraft were trying to board here, an there were only 2 scanners. The staff were quick to prioritise the passengers going to London, but when we got into the lounge, it was packed with the people going to India, standing room only.
Fortunately our plane was boarding with 2 doors, and they got us on board quickly.
We taxied out to the run way, but then one of the passengers declared themselves too ill to continue. So we taxied back and waited for the bags to come off. Then back to the runway and finally off, just 1 hour late.
11 hours of flying, watching movies, trying to stay awake ...
Our bags were already starting round when we got to the carousel, luggage collected we cleared customs, and went in search of our driver. SriLankan book you a car to take you home when you fly business class with them! We found the driver and loaded our bags (one in the front, really saloon cars don't make it easy for luggage), and headed home.
We reached the door about 2200, Abigael and Mark greeted us, we hugged, had a beer and went to bed. Unpacking could wait until the morning :D
