Pettah Streets
(Pettah, Colombo 11)
(Pettah, Colombo 11)
Pettah is Colombo's biggest, most functional market space. It's loud, crowded and infinitely full of interesting and useful things. It's located east of the City centre Fort. The Pettah neighborhood is famous for the Pettah Market, a series of open air bazaars and markets. It is one of Sri Lanka's busiest commercial areas, where a huge number of wholesale and retail shops, buildings, commercial institutions and other organisations are located.
Olcott Mawatha :-
Clothes and accessories
good jackets
bags
sunglasses
Hotel Bakery where
short-eats and drink
Front Street (now called Malwatta Road):-
Food and drink
Quality leather bags and shoes
Great watches
Luggage
Batik Centre
Camera equipment
Shiny bangles
Prince Street:-
Electronics
Light fittings of all kinds
Fake wigs (blue ones, yellow ones, multi-coloured ones),
Toy stores,
The Dutch museum - a quiet space with a old rickety staircase and an unexpected green garden,
Wallets,
carrom boards and checker boards
The Fancy Mahal shop dedicated to a range of Eastern cologne
roadside tea, thambili (King Coconut),
Small restaurants to have a meal.
1st cross street
Mobile phones, mobile covers, mobile batteries
Electronics
CCTV Camera
Light fittings of all kinds
Some Hardware Items
Bombay Sweets - Faluda
Peoples Bank and ATM
2nd cross street
Clothes, especially saris - both cotton and shiny,
Electronics
CCTV Camera Items
The distinct checkered Red Mosque
Short-eats, curd and samosas opposite Red Mosque during Ramadan.
3rd cross street
Mostly retail and wholesale shops here, big textiles shops, and a little shop for padlocks and doorknobs.
4th cross street
This place is just a trading street - mostly huge trucks and workers with loads on their shoulders, and onions and potatoes and spices everywhere. But you'll unexpectedly find a little shop selling very good and cheap maalu paan and muffins at the junction with Keyzer street. Also beautiful old, old buildings.
5th cross street
Fresh red rambutan (in June-August season), the Safni Snack Bar (biriyani, noodles, paratha, kottu), pineapples, the long vegetable/ fruit/ grain pola under a big yellow metal tent, the Golden Fresh Fruits shop, mangosteen (Rs. 100 for 8), the pansal.
Main street
Bigger showrooms, Sequins a tiny shop for craft equipment and materials (it's in a niche, ask anybody and they'll point you in the right direction), coats and suits, clothes and shoes, umbrellas and raincoats, luggage bags, leather, banks and ATM.
China street
China Street didn't seem as crowded as the rest on our visit. It's got a lot of the stuff that's generally there in Pettah but particularly stores for party equipment (hats, wrap, banners, balloons, candles), and a few for chinaware.
Maliban street
There's a whole bunch of shops here dedicated solely to wedding cards, so you can also get special paper here if you're into craft, also gift wrap and heaters.
Bankshall Street
Artificial flowers of all kinds, surgical equipment and chemicals (Spectrolab/ Geekay), a cool skeleton on display, official uniforms (if you want to masquerade as a doctor or pilot a la Catch Me If You Can), sparkle dust at Art and Craft, Oriental Saloon for an inexpensive haircut, Dawood's buttons shop, Hotel Bankshall, Colorcraft Center for all your art equipment, the pera man at the junction with St Johns Road (he moves because, he says, the police comes and tells the fruit vendors to move).
Khan Clocktower roundabout
The clocktower, Expographics bookshop from the 1980s where you get a large collection of textbooks, a long street of stalls that sell an assortment of inexpensive cotton maxies, saris, wallets and luggage.
Bodhiraja Mawatha
This is hilariously hard to find at first glance from the main Olcott Mawatha, because there are rows of stalls of colourful plastic that have filled up both sides of this street, leaving only a small gap between to walk down it. You'll find toy cars, kids' bracelets, colourful junk jewellery, giant posters of babies, phone memory cards - and then when you walk out at the other end into open space - cotton maxies, massive tshirt sales (Rs. 250), the bubble blower man, drummer-rabbit toys, the dancing lobster toy, translucent slippers, pol rotti at Viva, Hansagiri Restaurant and Bar and the beautiful and spooky Old Town Hall (walk in to check out the neglected museum inside).
Olcott Mawatha :-
Clothes and accessories
good jackets
bags
sunglasses
Hotel Bakery where
short-eats and drink
Front Street (now called Malwatta Road):-
Food and drink
Quality leather bags and shoes
Great watches
Luggage
Batik Centre
Camera equipment
Shiny bangles
Prince Street:-
Electronics
Light fittings of all kinds
Fake wigs (blue ones, yellow ones, multi-coloured ones),
Toy stores,
The Dutch museum - a quiet space with a old rickety staircase and an unexpected green garden,
Wallets,
carrom boards and checker boards
The Fancy Mahal shop dedicated to a range of Eastern cologne
roadside tea, thambili (King Coconut),
Small restaurants to have a meal.
1st cross street
Mobile phones, mobile covers, mobile batteries
Electronics
CCTV Camera
Light fittings of all kinds
Some Hardware Items
Bombay Sweets - Faluda
Peoples Bank and ATM
2nd cross street
Clothes, especially saris - both cotton and shiny,
Electronics
CCTV Camera Items
The distinct checkered Red Mosque
Short-eats, curd and samosas opposite Red Mosque during Ramadan.
3rd cross street
Mostly retail and wholesale shops here, big textiles shops, and a little shop for padlocks and doorknobs.
4th cross street
This place is just a trading street - mostly huge trucks and workers with loads on their shoulders, and onions and potatoes and spices everywhere. But you'll unexpectedly find a little shop selling very good and cheap maalu paan and muffins at the junction with Keyzer street. Also beautiful old, old buildings.
5th cross street
Fresh red rambutan (in June-August season), the Safni Snack Bar (biriyani, noodles, paratha, kottu), pineapples, the long vegetable/ fruit/ grain pola under a big yellow metal tent, the Golden Fresh Fruits shop, mangosteen (Rs. 100 for 8), the pansal.
Main street
Bigger showrooms, Sequins a tiny shop for craft equipment and materials (it's in a niche, ask anybody and they'll point you in the right direction), coats and suits, clothes and shoes, umbrellas and raincoats, luggage bags, leather, banks and ATM.
China street
China Street didn't seem as crowded as the rest on our visit. It's got a lot of the stuff that's generally there in Pettah but particularly stores for party equipment (hats, wrap, banners, balloons, candles), and a few for chinaware.
Maliban street
There's a whole bunch of shops here dedicated solely to wedding cards, so you can also get special paper here if you're into craft, also gift wrap and heaters.
Bankshall Street
Artificial flowers of all kinds, surgical equipment and chemicals (Spectrolab/ Geekay), a cool skeleton on display, official uniforms (if you want to masquerade as a doctor or pilot a la Catch Me If You Can), sparkle dust at Art and Craft, Oriental Saloon for an inexpensive haircut, Dawood's buttons shop, Hotel Bankshall, Colorcraft Center for all your art equipment, the pera man at the junction with St Johns Road (he moves because, he says, the police comes and tells the fruit vendors to move).
Khan Clocktower roundabout
The clocktower, Expographics bookshop from the 1980s where you get a large collection of textbooks, a long street of stalls that sell an assortment of inexpensive cotton maxies, saris, wallets and luggage.
Bodhiraja Mawatha
This is hilariously hard to find at first glance from the main Olcott Mawatha, because there are rows of stalls of colourful plastic that have filled up both sides of this street, leaving only a small gap between to walk down it. You'll find toy cars, kids' bracelets, colourful junk jewellery, giant posters of babies, phone memory cards - and then when you walk out at the other end into open space - cotton maxies, massive tshirt sales (Rs. 250), the bubble blower man, drummer-rabbit toys, the dancing lobster toy, translucent slippers, pol rotti at Viva, Hansagiri Restaurant and Bar and the beautiful and spooky Old Town Hall (walk in to check out the neglected museum inside).
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