4 Apr 11am
Galle Face Hotel, Colombo

"Faded Glory" is a tough gig. The main problem with it is that without constant maintenance the glory just continues to fade and risks sinking through "Has Seen Better Days" to settle on the sandy bottom of "shithole". Anybody who has been to the Mitre Hotel in S'pore will know exactly what I mean by that final accolade. Maintenance would probably be more expensive than renewal and so the story goes. As it is with the Galle Face Hotel, which is currently in a state of HSBD.

Arriving at about 1am, all I really wanted to do was sleep. Andrea on the other hand, had the hump the minute she saw the room, which was admitedly less than expected. So, after demonstrating her newly developed prowess for negotiating with adults, we were moved upstairs to another room which, whilst being exactly as old as the first one, was truly enormous and slightly further from the construction site that is the South Wing.

Honestly, one must expect this sort of thing unless one has the sort of cash to stay in the "preserved glory" hotels exemplified by Raffles in Singapore. One, of course, must also have the attitude or pragmatism to mix with the sort of people who regularly stay in such places.

Power to the Galle Face, that's what I say.

Prata & curry for breakfast, mmm

Bomber out