Casa Colombo, Sri Lanka

Flightdelays....flights cancelled....are we ever going to be out

of Male Airport.....savour...Emirates.....up-grade....smooth flight....what a night!

Arrived into Sri Lanka and forgot that the airport is an hour's hairy taxi ride from Colombo....what a fright!

Wide-eyed, white knuckle drive into town. We had

booked a trendy looking hotel along Galle Road, a bit of a change from the historic Galle Face Hotel, where we had stayed on previous visits. I'd come across it on a web-search and thought it looked very arty and I was so right, love that. We arrived to a driveway strewn with rose petals, I know, I know, that's a bit over the top, even for me, but there we were a little travel-worn standing on a runway in front of our hotel. Bazaar, is this a Bollywood set?

In fact it was close, Tripadvisor, Small Luxury Hotels, Asia Pacific Hotel Awards and the beautiful people of the who's who of Sri Lanka all enjoying themselves. We had arrived at Casa Colombo Hotel and they had just won "a 5 Star award at the hotly contested Bloomberg International Hotel Awards held in Shanghai this year, as having the Best Hotel Interior in Sri Lanka. The 5 Star award is the highest award given to leading properties in the world that are engaged in hospitality, retail, leisure and residential.
In addition to this prestigious award, Casa Colombo has also been nominated by the well-respected ‘World Travel Awards’ Committee for three categories, which are - Asia’s Leading Boutique Hotel 2011, Sri Lanka’s Leading Hotel and Sri Lanka’s Leading Business Hotel. The results of these nominations will be announced end of November 2011.
Furthermore, Casa Colombo was awarded Exceptional status by Tripadvisor.com, which is rated entirely by guests who have stayed at Casa Colombo. This recognition shows that Casa Colombo not only excels in its aesthetic appeal, but also surpasses and delights its guest in exceptional customer service and care." quote/unquote Daily Mirror http://www.ft.lk/2011/06/23/casa-scores-again/

We must have looked a little like deer caught in the headlights as we were quickly gathered up by a very personable GM, who introduced himself as Horst and 'of course you want a cocktail'....I instantly liked his guy.

A fascinating scene was being played out in front of us and suddenly we were caught up in it all, downing margaritas, which were served in dainty dished cocktail glasses circa 1950's with our ever smily and very sexy young Sri Lankan butler, Arrun bringing us delicious tapas. We swanned around the lobby being introduced to the owner and his wife and owner/interior designer, after a couple of hours of all this we decided that the party could continue without us and retired to our suite. The interiors and the exterior of the hotel are stunning and I think that everything that needs to be said is in the post above, needless to say that we were pleased with out choice.

The shopping in Colombo is excellent if you want clothing, especially their cool beautiful cottons and hand-printed batik silks, you can find them, after a little looking and they are inexpensive, nearly said cheap. Unfortunately they are starting to import clothing from Thailand and China, let's hope with the booming tourism market that Sri Lanka is not tempted to go the same way as a lot of other Asia countries where there is a growing trend of cheap knock-offs and where every shop or market sells similar goods.

Anyway, would have like to do more shopping but our suitcase was looking like a pregnant pup and our tuk-tuk driver had gotten so friendly with us that he had tried to adopt us and take us into the hills to see his family, so we called it a day and went back to our beautiful little hotel.

At Casa Colombo they do not have coffee or tea making in your suite, which we a bit odd in this day and age but turned out to be very a very sweet way of starting your day...just a phone call to our 'ever-ready' Arrun and a pot of coffee with cool-looking round bottomed coffee mugs arrived on a tray....similar to the 'bed-tea' experience that we had in some of the hotels in India....I'm liking this and I think it should be bought back into resorts. Great way to start the day. Of course I must say here and now that this experience will never really replace my artist in residence husband's early morning coffee-making ritual.

Met a lovely lady at the breakfast on the first morning, Mary, a ballet teacher from the USA, who was there is visit for the first time her sponsored child, who is now a young woman of 21 whom she had been supporting, educating and writing to for the past 16 years. She's a solo-female traveller in an exotic less-travelled land for American tourists and I was very pleased that we had the chance to chat to her, it's great that the world has people like Mary.

Here are a few pics from our Colombo escapade.