Celebrating New Year 2014, at Galle Face, Colombo
2014 new year’s eve was the first time when I celebrated new year’s eve and welcomed new year on a foreign land. 2013 year end I was on a trip to Sri Lanka (India’s island neighbour) and this was part of that plan. After special crab dinner at Ministry of Crab, we headed to Galle face. Located at a walking distance from Dutch hospital complex, Galle Face is an awesome sea facing promenade in Colombo. During evening this place will be teeming with activity. One of favorite thing to try here should be sea food and sea snacks made by the local vendors.
On new year’s eve there was hectic activity as large number of people thronged there. Looks it is the Brigade road of Bangalore back in 2000s (decade) when whole of Bangalore used to throng there for new year’s eve. The settings was very catchy for a photographer’s eye. So Saba and I went for a brief photowalk on Galle face promenade. An amazing experience it was capturing activity, joy and romance in the air. The nightscape view of Colombo harbour and the buildings of central business district from here is awesome. After our photowalk we sat with friends at the edge of the promenade. Sitting there, it was like romantic fixation with ships or boats oozing dots of lights at distance and breeze of high tide at night kept us cool in otherwise humid Colombo.
There was festive food around Galle face with Tata owned Taj hotel nicely decorated along with other public buildings and Galle Face hotel. One could feel the alive atmosphere with concert and events going around. They even sang Hindi songs and that made me feel that I am close to India. As the clock was reaching for zero hour (12 AM), the number of headcount increased tremendously. At the zero hour we screamed with joy Happy New Year and wished each other among friends. Meanwhile, fireworks went ballistic in the sky. Capturing them with camera was such a joy. The fireworks watching over the promenade of Galle face and prominent buildings of central business district of Colombo was a nice sight to watch.
Now in 2014, a new year and a travel in new country, awesome. With that in mind we departed from Galle face. Public transport at late night is almost unavailable in Colombo. But during festive times autos should be available. We were able to hire an auto to reach our hostel in Mount Lavinia (around 12 km from Galle Face). That night went to sleep with awesome memories of the day!
To view more pictures visit: Travelingbeats Photo Gallery.