Celebrating Colombo

I decided to create a post collecting photos online from my hometown of Colombo, Sri Lanka. I give credit to the photographers below and provide some commentary on these photos.

Galle Face Green

Here’s a photo of Galle Face Green from 20 years ago in 2005. It’s good to see people enjoying themselves, kites and the Sri Lankan flag flying.

"Galle Face Green" by the very honest man is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

This is another look at Galle Face Green from a different angle.

"Galle Face Green" by Dennis S. Hurd is marked with CC0 1.0.

Viharamahadevi Park

We’re now moving onto Viharamahadevi Park. The photo below has the board of the park.

 

"Viharamahadevi Park" by Honeplus is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Here’s a walking path in this park with trees and plants. 

"SL210 Viharamahadevi Park" by S.K. LO is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

I really like the photo below which has grass, trees, walking paths and a bird pool in the centre.

"Viharamahadevi Park, Colombo - panoramio" by Alexey Komarov is licensed under CC BY 3.0.

Wellawatte

This is Wellwatte, the Colombo suburb I’m from. The photo below is from Rajasinghe Road. It has the Wellawatte look you get of houses, green trees and apartment buildings.

"Rajasinghe Road - Wellawatte, Sri Lanka" by Muunaa-Selva is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

The following two photos are at nighttime. I really like the way Sri Lanka looks at that time of day. Shehal Joseph took them from a friend's apartment 30 metres above the ground. The first photo’s blue light is positively striking. The second photo has a good contrast of minimal lighting at the front and strong lighting at the back. I notice it features a mix of apartment buildings and palm trees.

"Views from 30m above Ground in Wellawatte - 5" by shehal is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

"Views from 30m above Ground in Wellawatte - 6" by shehal is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

This is a nice view of Wellawatte beach by the railway.

"Wellawatte beach 2" by Yomal Indula Perera is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Beira Lake

Beira Lake is a beautiful lake in Colombo. Here’s a lovely photo of Beira Lake surrounded by large green trees and skyscrapers.

"South Beira Lake" by D-Stanley is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

I love how this photo has so many different elements. We see a train going by Beira Lake, a building, palm trees, vehicles and a boat.

"UG-LK Photowalk - Beira Lake - 2017-03-12 (2)" by Rehman Abubakr is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Here’s a footbridge on Beira Lake. I like the modern architecture of this bridge.

"South Beira Lake Colombo (Childrens Park)" by Kondephy is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This is a cool photo of Beira Lake at night. I love how the bridge lights up.

"File:Beira lake at Nite.jpg" by Arvindkumarn is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Buildings

Here’s a recent picture of the Colombo skyline with all these buildings. This looks very impressive! It reminds me of Dubai.

"Colombo skyline 2024" by T Chamika is marked with CC0 1.0.

This photo of Independence Memorial Hall in Independence Square is by ImageBang!.

"Independence Square" by Mydaas! is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

Here’s a colourful look at Arcade Independence Square which is nearby.

"Arcade Independence Square" by Nazly is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

These are the Royal Park apartment buildings in Rajagiriya. I like how it goes with the sky and the trees.

"_MG_2176" by Dhammika Heenpella / CWSSIP Images of Sri Lanka is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

A good look at Colombo city from 10 years ago.

"Colombo City Line 01" by Priyantha Bandara is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

I’ll conclude with this lovely photo of Colombo at night.

"Colombo (Sri Lanka) at Night" by Dyl86 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

I hope you enjoyed these photos of Colombo. As a Sri Lankan abroad, seeing good photos of my hometown has a special feeling. I like how Colombo has both many buildings and trees. This proves to be a good combination which makes Colombo a special city.

Ten Virtual Scenic Sri Lankan Views

 

I decided to compile a list of ten virtual natural scenic views of Sri Lanka from Google Street View. If any of the Google Street View content does not load, you can view them by clicking the “View on Google Maps” button. For the blog post image, I am using one I took near Kadugannawa featuring Bible Rock at the start of this year. I featured a similar image in my blog post “Diverse Views of Sri Lanka”. The first place I’m featuring was taken nearby in Kadugannawa itself. 

Here’s green scenery taken on Kandy Road.

A bridge overlooking the Negombo Lagoon.

A view of the Maskeliya Reservoir.

A view of palm trees by a railway in Bentota.

A view of the Mahamodara Lake in Galle taken from a bridge.

A view of palm trees in Kodikamam near Jaffna.

A field in Polonnaruwa.

This is also in Polonnaruwa. It’s on Bund Road featuring a lake. 

This is Arugam Bay with the rock formation Crocodile Rock seen ahead. I like the name Crocodile Rock as it’s also a song by my favourite singer Elton John who was the subject of my previous blog post.

We’ll conclude this list with the town of Inginiyagala in the Uva Province.

Virtual Views of Colombo, Sri Lanka

This post is about my hometown Colombo, Sri Lanka which I love. I’m giving virtual views of

Colombo embedded via Google Street View. This is the second blog post of mine featuring Sri Lankan Google Street Views. The previous post I wrote about the subject was “Showcasing Sri Lanka from Google Street View”. In the Google Street View embeds, you have the ability to explore it in this post. If any of the embedded content doesn’t load, you can click the “View on Google Maps” button which will open it in a new window in a larger size. Let’s start.

Here’s a view of the road W.A.D. Ramanayake Mawatha.

Here’s a green area in Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte.

On a bridge in Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte.

Here’s another picture of a bridge and a lake. This time it’s in reverse to what was shown previously.
The previous image was taken from the bridge where the bridge was the main focus and the lake
being secondary. This image has the lake Beira Lake being the main focus and the bridge being
secondary. This bridge is a pedestrian bridge unlike the previous bridge.  

The very green Viharamahadevi Park.

This is the Lipton Circus roundabout with the ODEL logo as that business is in this area.

The road Police Park Avenue which offers a good Sri Lankan design.

Here’s the well known road Horton Place.

An interesting building on Marine Drive.

Bellanwila Park in Boralesgamuwa.

A view of Vidya Mawatha.

The approximately 20 metre wide road Elvitigala Mawatha.

Here’s MillenniumIT’s (a Sri Lankan based international IT company) Colombo office.

Here’s Lotus Road.

An interesting building.

The Hyde Park Grounds.

The road Barnes Place.

The Department of National Archives by the Torrington Walking Path.

Here’s a look at the Bambalapitiya Flats Grounds.

This is the well known road R.A. De Mel Mawatha with modern buildings on both sides.

I hope you enjoyed my selection of places in Colombo, Sri Lanka. One of the good features of

Colombo is how it mixes the contrasting elements of buildings and trees together in an identifiably

Sri Lankan way. I tried to showcase both buildings and green scenery. This is a visual reflection of

Colombo, a key city in South Asia.