Celebrating NY in Colombo

Are we at the right place? It was kind of sponsored by an airline, hence the theme

Being away from Dec - Feb means I'll be missing out on all the major celebrations back home: Firstly it was my birthday, Christmas, NY, CNY, Valentine's Day and not including a few major celebrations/ parties at the work place. It's true- there's always parties, major events, and celebrations when you're not around!

And me being socially inactive (I usually choose to hibernate on 31st and sleep through till 1st) thought I'll just be hanging out at my apartment balcony, maybe have a solo toast to the year of rabbit (my year btw), watch some fireworks and snooze through the night. But then my colleague asked if I wanted to join her in the celebration at one of the hotels. It's never polite to say no to hospitality and who knows the Sri Lankans usher in the NY differently, right?


NY party at Inter Continental Hotel Colombo

Well, apparently hotels here tend to organize parties in conjunction with major commercialized celebrations like Christmas and NY, and these parties are done ala your high school prom / annual dinner & dance style. One would need to purchase tickets to get in and boy they are not cheap too! I've heard some of the better hotels were selling their party tix from Rs. 10,000 (RM280-300ish) and usually includes dinner. My colleague got a cheaper deal of Rs. 3,000 (RM80ish) which includes breakfast.

Now I had the same question in my mind as you have: Breakfast?? Doesn't the party starts at night?


Party like it's the last day of the year!

Well, then I found out... the parties usually starts at 8pm and ends about 6am! That's why you have breakfast- can't be partying till 6am without any food, huh? Anyway, I think you get what you paid for. The DJ (claimed to be from Down Under but seemed like a local dude to me) was horrible, the only consolation was the band (coincidentally the same band the company hired for the family day) but after the 12am countdown, they started belting all the Sinhalese songs... there were few other activities and some lucky draw giveaways but you bet I was already yawning. Also, I had in mind that it was going to be a poolside kind of party with fireworks- not staying inside a ballroom!

We left at 4.30am and I would have been happier snoozing my way through NY.

p/s: Another colleague told me this is NOT the way Sri Lankans party. Hmmm, I have no idea but it was definitely an 'enriching' experience!