Good morning again and welcome to Colombo in Sri Lanka and to be accurate
the Galle Face Hotel. Many of you guys have been to Sri Lanka before I'm sure
many of you watching this have stopped through here before but there might also
be some of you watching who've never been to this hotel but have been
thinking about staying in it. So I'm going to show you around and give you a
bit of an overview of what the hotel has to offer but it's a beautiful building
and the nice thing about the location is this hotel is located right on the ocean.
Plus let's also just for one second give props to the Sri Lankan flag which has
got to be one of my favourite flags out there. Look at the design.
Awesome it's got a lion on it.
Hotel itself is divided into a couple of wings that's the north wing there's four
levels three of which are accessible by elevator the top one there's a extra set
of steps to go up that's where Andrew's staying up there on the top floor
somewhere in one of those there is it. My only problem with this place is that it
actually has I think four restaurants, two bars, a pool, pretty much everything
you need in order to not to leave the hotel and because we're only here for
two nights and the second day is actually a bit of a shorter day because
we've got to go back to the airport the temptation is not to actually go out
into Colombo and leave here. But I really want to show you guys around a bit of
Colombo as well so I'm gonna force myself to get out of the hotel luxury
and and have a proper look around as well. So thank you in advance to you for
keeping me honest and not letting me be just a lazy hotel slob.
What's the camera for? I want to show people the room. Ah this is nice, you've got a kitchen. Bathroom's the same.
You've got a view as well. Yeah this is the market bit isn't it?
This place is huge very easy for a tourist to get lost
This is the library in the hotel there's like a whole library and there's books and
well there's noone else here actually so it's just me I'm not sure why I'm
whispering. But this is the library. Where is... the library is nice but we're on the
hunt for Prince Philip's car. It's supposed to be inside the hotel but near the
libraries. Maybe through here?
So when Prince Phillip was stationed here in Sri Lanka or in Ceylon as it was
then known back in 1940 during the Second World War he lived here in
Colombo and he actually purchased his first ever car whilst he was here in Sri
Lanka. And the Galle Face Hotel have actually got ownership of that car now
and its displayed here right in the hotel next to the library. He bought this
car when he was stationed here back in 1940 at the princely sum of 12
sterling pounds.
That cannonball just there in the museum as well that was
actually I was reading in the 1840s from Galle Face Green where they used to do
military target practice though firing cannons from there and one of them
misfired and actually instead of going out into the ocean came into the hotel
through a window and ended up under someone's chair. No one was injured
everyone was fine but they've kept the Cannonball here ever since and it's now
displayed in the museum.
It's like a quaint old British house. It's like being back in the UK again, it's great in here.
Okay it's late afternoon we've just been spending some time by the pool which is
really nice it's a saltwater pool great to splash around in had some lunch from
the pool bar but now we want to go off and get a quick drink down at the other
bar downstairs and then head out to Galle Face Green that I was talking about before
where they're doing all the kite flying at night time which should be really cool
See what I mean just like an old mansion look at these
pictures too.
That place back there with all the checks and the seating outside where
everyone was sitting down it's called the checkerboard and it's quite a
well-known place here in the hotel to sit down and watch the sun going down.
Now it's not the best sunset tonight I've got to be honest it's no
Maldives sunset but it's still pretty and you could probably hear those
crashing waves behind me as well. It's a really nice place just to have a drink
and chill out and watch the sun go down on another day before heading there over
in this direction over here behind me which is the Galle Face Green where
hopefully we're going to go see some of the kite flying tonight as well.
Look at all the tuk tuks!
You can ride a horse too. So this is the famous Galle Face Green just to my left or your
right over there it's like a two minute walk from the hotel as well you've got
everyone down here do street food flying their kites
there's a few restaurants down here as well and you get a cool view of the
beach for the sunset as well it's great.
That was cool very cool okay my tip is if you want to come down and have a look
try and get here after 6 o'clock 6 p.m. you'll get the best sunsets and
everything seems to be picking up at that time also it's not quite as hot as
well after six o'clock once the sun starts going down. Good fun is definitely worth doing.