To us, it was the verdant island shaped like a pear, famous in legends as the island of Serendip and infamous in other circles as the island of blood. With such images in our minds, Rags (my better 3/4ths) and I did not know what to expect when we left on a five-day trip to Colombo, Sri Lanka. It was to be business for Rags for the first three days, but we had the weekend to spend sightseeing.

We landed at the small and quaint Colombo Airport after an hour's journey from Chennai. The airport had an air of efficiency and simplicity. There were free tourist guides and postcards placed around. "I'm smiling in Sri Lanka," said one postcard showing a little girl framed in a frangipani flower. There were others with elephants and temples, and with the famous frescoes at Sigiraya. The frescoes seemed remarkably similar to our own Ajanta & Ellora paintings. The resemblance to India seemed strong at that time, and we smiled to ourselves, thinking we had not travelled far from home.

While we collected our luggage, we saw a few men sitting on a bench in identical dress. Some of them wore signs which said "Rs. 30/-". It turned out they were "luggage carriers." Ah, we said, the ambience of the Indian Railway station recreated.

We soon stepped out of the terminal, only to see swank foreign cars drive out of a well-maintained drive. Where did all that come from now, we wondered. Surely not part of our Indian City Snapshot? Our own car shuttle to the Le Meridien Hotel had a chauffeur dressed better than our travel-weary selves. Bewildered by this sudden transition to "foreign-ness," we got in and buckled our seat belts.

We knew that the drive to the city would be long, and we passed our time gazing at the tile-roofed houses and the women in long, graceful skirts. Like Goa, we said to ourselves, a little reassured of the Indian connection. And then we turned around a bend into a wide road lined with orderly trees. A bit like Singapore, we gasped. When we finally reached the city, a Bombay-like span of old majestic buildings loomed in front of us. Past a beach then, we drove, and it was Nariman Point all over again. On smooth, wide roads we drove, past malls that absolutely dripped glamour. We finally reached the Le Meridien Hotel with eyes dazzled by beauty and minds wearied by confusion.

What was this place, we asked ourselves, so near India and yet so far from it? And the beaches of Colombo smiled back at us brilliantly. There would be more surprises in store…