Couple walking along Marine Drive. Small tsunami.

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Many Sri Lankans have two names, as do most Sri Lankan roads. My name is Indrajit, but everybody calls me Indi, or Jit. The Galle Road is either the Galle Road or the Colombo road, depending on which way you’re going. The Colombo Plan Road – along the coast – is still called Marine Drive. It’s a beautiful stretch.

There is actual beach.

Colombo is a beachfront town where you can go months (even years) without seeing the beach. Coming down Hill Street or across the Dehiwela flyover, I often find myself surprised that it’s there. Galle Face Green is really the only public beach front in the city limits, that and Marine Drive.

For some reason this building exists. It is on the beach, but might as well be in the USSR.

There are three main arteries down the coast, Galle Road, the aptly named Duplication Road and Marine Drive. The latter is less used and, until recently, ended near Majestic City. Now it runs all the way to Kollupitiya, and straight into a traffic jam. I hear they’re going to extend it further down to Mount making it a proper bypass road. Right now, however, it remains a bit of a charming oddity.

I always dreamed of refurbishing this house near Majestic City. It turns out that its a sewage pump. So no

People take their walks down there and there are a few places to eat or hang out. Then there’s the beach. I actually saw somebody swimming there the other day, which I wouldn’t recommend. It’s beautiful, especially at sunset.

Marine Drive sunset. Always classic.

I think Marine Drive and that stretch along the Galle Face Green are my two favorite roads in Colombo. It’ll change into a thoroughfare soon enough, but right now there’s a moment of stasis, of waiting. You can sit there, eat ice cream and watch the trains go by.

Posted on Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 in Colombo, Photography, Sri Lanka.