Refortification: Old Dutch Hospital
From the Ministry Of Defence’s Charming Colombo ads.
UPDATE: Actually went and reviewed Ministry Of Crab here.
I walked out of the World Trade Center today to see the Colombo City Hotel (which I honestly haven’t seen before). I also saw a bunch of workmen coming and going from the low building which is the Old Dutch Hospital. This week it’s opening up with a bunch of posh shops and the new Ministry of Crab.
First the deets, AFAIK, ODEL, Barefoot, and that’s all I know are setting up outlets here. I think there’s a press conference this morning.
Dharshan of Nihonbashi (the best sushi in Colombo by far) is also setting up a restaurant called Ministry of Crab, with cricketers Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena. Word on the street is that they’ll serve export crab, which is a rarity. The best crab I ever had was in Jaffna, and that was crabbed, so to speak, from an export batch. The best tea, tuna and crab usually goes abroad. And some of the best women, but nevermind.
The place itself is the first toehold to the revitalization of Colombo’s city center. For a 2010 amble around Colombo Fort, see here. Due to bubonic levels of terrorism the center did not hold and it is ridiculously underdeveloped. There is one place to eat (Harbour Stop) and nothing to really buy, unless you want Saddam era dinars, or dusty jewelry. There are some cool buildings, but severely under-utilized and the property values are both too high for small developers and too fractured for big ones.
City-dweller wise, there’s no place you can walk around and shop. Seriously, name one stretch where you can shop without a car. Maybe Stratford Avenue, but that’s out at the city limits and it’s basically a one-way highway. ODEL is one shop, but there’s nothing similar within non-traumatic walking distance. There’s malls, but there are no streets or coherent neighborhoods in what the middle class considers Colombo, mainly because these weren’t supposed to be commercial areas at all.
Colombo Fort was supposed to be the commercial center, but it was bombed and atrophied. Now, mashallah, it’s starting to come back.
Not to quote Ice Cube, but the Sri Lankan police are hardly beloved. A 
I just gave a talk at the University Of Sri Jayawardenapura along with Reeza Zarook of Anything.lk and Rohan Jayaweera of Google. These are my notes: Devin Jayasundara asked me for a subject for this talk and I told him Internet property. But I talked to my fiancé Shru and she had a better idea. Startups aren’t about creating property at all, not really. They’re about creating territory, about creating land.
I haven’t been blogging much, I know. It’s partly because we’ve been doing a lot of work on YAMU, especially shipping 1.0.1 of the Android app today. It’s on the 
I met an old-timer who said they used to drop acid and sleep atop Sigiriya, but the place has taken on a more commercial and quasi-spiritual role now. It was built by a king as a sort of retreat and used as a monastery. Now it’s a prime tourist and cultural destination. Hence it’s a bit odd to see a Japanese beer commercial shot up there. There’s a bunch of people eating, um, deep fried cream filled coconuts and then drinking some bracing beer. I hear the whole thing cost Rs. 25,000 (I’m presuming they used stock images).
Isn’t it awesome that the LTTE was smashed to bits and Sri Lanka can finally move ahead and develop? :)
The old Dutch hospital is a beautiful building, but it is overshadowed by crappy modern buildings around it. The restoration and cleaning up has been done very well. Never been inside so I don’t know how big it is but I’m assuming it has ample room enough for several shops. As usual, the problem is going to be parking.
On a side note, it’s just too bad the government didn’t win the CMC… I think much more would have happened development-wise with Moragoda (and Gota) at the helm. Instead we have the nice but rather lackadaisical and old school Muzammil, and has he done anything of note since he became the Mayor? I think we all know the answer to that.
You can park in the WTC or Hilton car parks.
Cool.
Old dutch hospital area has been nicely landscaped. but when we go further down the city Pettah marcket, 2 nd cross ,3rd cross and gas 5 junction still pathetic ,dirty, stingy ,muddy.Futher trishaws and other vehicles to that area mustbe restricted. nice walk way , open food outlet and nice landscape are to be setup and will enhance the attarctiveness of the city.
How can you change a city without changing the mentality of the people? Sri Lankans have no sense of civic responsibility. That is why they litter so badly.