May 10th, 2025

We wanted to finish up the blog for this very eventful cruise. We did have a very nice day in Colombo, Sri Lanka for our last day. We stayed on the boat for most of the day and packed. We had dinner reservations that evening at the Ministry of Crab thanks to our friends Kris & James so we headed off the boat at 4pm. According to Google maps the restaurant was 1.2 miles away so we decided to walk. When we walked to the port gate the guard asked us what we were doing and when we said walking to the restaurant he looked a little skeptical, like maybe not the smartest idea for 2 women alone, when I said we would take a tuk-tuk back he seemed okay with that. What I did not know is that there is a large naval base between the port and the restaurant so the walk was a little longer than anticipated but we had plenty of time and lots of daylight.

The area where the restaurant is located is historic district known as the “Dutch Hospital” and is considered to be the oldest building in the Colombo fort area and dates back to 1681. It is now a heritage building and a shopping and dining precinct. We found a nice pub area to have a drink after our hot walk while waiting for our reservation time.

Kathy with her flight of beers including coffee, mango & lime/cucumber flavored ones. I had a couple of Blackberry ciders.

When we went into the restaurant we ran into several of the ships crew leaving the restaurant so we knew it must be good.

The entrance to the restaurant and Kathy in front of a tub-tuk that had the Veuve-Clicquot champagne logo on it.

The service was excellent and of course crab is the main dish you are supposed to order. The waiters were very helpful in helping us order so we did not order too much.

The napkins were folded and we had not seen that pattern before. I got a lime soda drink and they gave you a test tube side of simple syrup so you could sweeten to your liking.

We had 2 giant prawns, one on garlic chili sauce and 1 in black pepper sauce. We also had garlic bread which helped to soak up the sauce.

Kathy loves always having to be the model. We had the garlic chili crab and while it was very good, Singapore’s was better.

We decided to split a dessert and went for the coconut creme brûlée.

They flamed it at the table and then, after eating the brûlée, they cut the coconut into sections to eat. It was an excellent meal and there was 1 waiter who was very helpful so we asked if he could recommend a tub-tuk driver for a quick tour around the city. When we were here last year on Viking we did a tug-tuk tour during the day and it was great and 1 of the best ways to see the city so I wanted to see it at night. We are sure he called a cousin or some sort of relative but the guide spoke good English and we agreed upon a price and then a drop off back at the port.

The red mosque (we did not go inside) and the Lotus tower all lit up.

He also took us to a temple/museum that we had gone to last year on our own but this time around he escorted us and explained things to us which was very nice.

A couple of Buddhas at the temple. They have 100s of Buddhas made out of every item you can imagine and all different sizes including the world’s smallest buddha with a magnifying glass so you can see it.

Us in front of the “White House” and our tug-tuk and one of the many buddhas in town.

We made it back to the cruise ship around 10:30pm and I was half expecting/hoping for a message from the cruise ship asking if we needed any help with our luggage since they knew we were getting off at 3am but nothing. We showered and finished packing, set the alarm for 2am and tried to sleep. For future reference when you know you have to get up early and are under some stress a heavy greasy meal was not the best choice!

We “dozed”, up at 2 and last items in suitcases. We decided we did not want to ask for luggage help because they just would have woken our room steward up and sent them so we thought we could do 2 trips. We took down 1 big bag each and both of our carry ons. While Kathy went back to get the last 2 I was explaining to the security guard who we were and that we were getting off and the boat had arranged a ride for us. He knew about the disembarkation but he still made several phone calls. One was to the port agent who apparently spends the night on the ship when the ship is in port. Not sure if that is true for all ports but definitely in Colombo. I said I was going to take our bags down the gangway and the security guard said that I could not leave until he got approval…..Seriously, you kick us off a ship and now you won’t let us leave? I have no idea who he called or what he was checking on. Did he think our luggage was filled with ships towels and robes? Did he think we were running out on a bill which Oceania actually owes us 733 dollars for paid for excursions that we would not be able to take. We can only hope one of the calls was to our junior purser friend because nothing would make us happier than for her to be woken up at 2:30am on our account. Even once the port agent appeared he would not let us off. By the time Kathy returned with the 2nd set of bags he finally got the thumbs up. Of course once the port agent saw all the bags (which we had told the executive concierge and general manager 2 large bags each and 2 cary ons each) he was concerned because the car he had waiting for us was a compact car. He did some quick scrambling and managed to get us a van very quickly. We also had issues when we went to go out the port where the guards told the driver he had to use another gate and the driver had no idea where to go. He turned around and pulled over and called the port agent who probably had not even made it upstairs yet, and he hopped in the compact car and met us. He took our passports and went and talked to the guards and after a few minutes we were given back our passports and waved through.

It was a long ride to the airport but at least no traffic and our flight was not until 6:45am so we had plenty of time. He drove us through some of Colombo and it was amazing to see how much activity there was at that hour. We guess because of the heat that the markets stay open and do business all night long. We also saw the non tourist side of Colombo and it is filthy.

The airport was busy and very modern. We opted to get a porter who helped us with the bags and loaded them onto a cart and took us through the airport. We had to go through metal detectors and security when we entered the airport building. The counter for Turkish airlines was a long way and our porter stayed with us and directed us. When we got to the counter the line for business class was longer than the line for economy so our porter asked if we wanted to go to the economy check-in. We assumed he knew what he was doing so we said we were fine with that and I was also fine taking the cart but he said he was OK to stay. When we got up to the counter and they saw our reservations were for business class she said we had to go the business class line. She could not check us in. She talked to the porter and he apologized to us and we had to go get back in the business class line which had grown substantially and there was only 1 person checking people in. I again offered to take the cart and let him go back outside but he declined. It took us over an hour to get checked in and we got our boarding passes and also passes for the business lounge. After our porter unloaded the bags we gave him a 20 dollar tip and he asked for another 10. I was thinking that it was his fault it took so long since he got us in the wrong line but then I also thought $10 to us is nothing and to him it was probably a big deal so I gave it to him. The interesting thing is that there is no other check-in and we could walk straight to the lounge since we had over an hour to wait. The lounge was nice and lots of food and a help yourself bar but we were both still feeling queasy from the greasy dinner and it was 5am in the morning.

The flight from Sri Lanka to Istanbul was 8 hours and we did sleep some. We had a 2 hour layover in Istanbul so we basically just walked to our next gate. The airport is huge and tons of duty free shopping and fast food, mostly American restaurants and of course Starbucks. They also had a fast lane/short cut for passengers over 60 or passengers with children. While there was lots of foot traffic, no one was taking the “short-cut” so we did. We have no idea what it cut off but it was nice and not crowded. We did no shopping and no eating and not enough time to go to the lounge so we went straight to the gate. Interesting thing about flying on Turkish airlines from here, they do not pull their planes up to the terminal. You take a bus out to the plane and you have to climb steps with your carry on. Bottom line they do not accept wheel chair passengers on their planes. Looking at some of the passengers and knowing how steep the steps were and how the last step leading into the plane was a big one I do not know how some of them made it on.

We were very glad we sprung for the business class and the ability to lay down for the 12 hour flight to Atlanta.

The pasta was excellent and they had a pastry cart and a bread cart. We watched 2 movies and slept.

We made it home to Tallahassee at 11:30pm on Tuesday, the day we left Sri Lanka, and our friend Wendy, who was house sitting for us, was kind enough to pick us up.

On Wednesday I started the process for expedited passport renewal. One of our friends reminded us that Viking uses Gen Visa for visa and passport services and when I researched they were a cheaper option. I filled out the renewal forms and the Gen Visa checklist for expedited service. You had to write a letter to the state department on why you need expedited service and you had to send proof of international travel within 14 days, 2 passport photos (which we had from Bali), our old passports and a check to the state department and then another to Gen Visa. I had Kathy check everything twice to make sure there was nothing wrong or missing, yes I am paranoid at this point. I also did it as 2 separate orders so no confusion along with 2 separate envelopes. I went to overnight them on Thursday and it would have been 105 dollars to get them there Friday afternoon so I opted for Monday morning for 40 dollars knowing that nothing would be done on Friday afternoon.

We got confirmation that they were delivered Monday morning. On Wednesday I called to make sure no issues and they said it was in the hands of a specialist. Wednesday evening we got confirmation from the state department that they had our request and they were reviewing and on Thursday we got an e-mail saying they had been processed and were being sent back overnight.

Friday we got the old ones and the new ones back!!

Old on top with holes in them and the large 50 page new ones.

We now feel so much better. In the meantime we have unpacked and Kathy has done all the laundry. We have been able to do some yard work and I went back in to the hospital to help out some while we are here. The other positive is that we were going to have way too much luggage for a safari and they were going to have to ship a lot of our stuff to Johannesburg for us to pick up after the safari to fly home with. We have no idea what that was going to cost. Now we can pack 1 small bag each and not have to worry if we will ever see our luggage again.

On Monday May 19th we will fly back to Cape Town and arrive the evening of the 20th. We will have 3 nights and 2 days in CapeTown prior to picking up our safari on May 23rd. Ironically the Oceania Nautica will pull into port at 10am on May 21st for their planned overnight. Part of me wants to go down to the port and see if they put anybody in our room.

We are also working on a letter to Oceania. We do not expect any sort of response from them and we will definitely acknowledge that we recognize that we made the biggest mistake BUT there were so many things they could have done better. We are thankful that we are resourceful and can’t imagine that we can recommend Oceania to anyone at this time. We have no idea how they would react and help in other situations.

Thanks for all your comments and for reaching out to check on us. We intend to blog the safari if the internet cooperates and remember to look to see how many blank pages you need if you are adventuring in the future.

Also if you have any trivia questions about passports you know who to call. 😜