Independent Araliya Araliya Colombo Lounge
The Independent Araliya Colombo Lounge is pretty dull, but has some OK food and has a bar.Beer is cold, but the seating is rather uninspired.
Colombo Independent Araliya Araliya lounge review
At Colombo airport, there is the Araliya Lounge for First, Business and Skywards Gold passengers, which is shared with other airlines like Thai, Qatar and Singapore. It is also the HSBC Premier Lounge in Colombo. At times it can get very busy, however the Emirates Colombo Lounge keeps on changing. It was the Serendib lounge for a long time, but now finally it is the Araliya Lounge.
To find the lounge once through security walk upstairs from the gates, and then as you walk in you think - isn't this dull. It has the atmosphere of an office reception, with dull blue carpet, and chairs that are straight out of a two star hotel lobby. The single (plastic) pot plant, and the glass topped coffee tables with (plastic) flowers add to the rather grim atmosphere. There are windows overlooking the apron, but with the aircon on full, there is a constant mist of condensation running down the glass. At least there is a decent telly, showing BBC World.
Food
There's quite a lot of food, although the presentation is as barren as the seating area, arranged along a dark wooden sideboard, in the hole at the far end of the lounge. The only redeeming feature is the hot food cabinet, which offers some decent mainly Sri Lankan curries, plus a few sandwiches.
In the main chiller on the centre cabinet the sausage and pineapple salad has to be eaten to be believed. Try the desserts and you'll never live to regret it. To top this off, there are three main dining room tables, also glass toped, with the most uncomfortable metal chairs you'll ever find in a lounge.
Bar
At right angles to this is the bar, which is pretty basic. There are two bottles of wine: one red, one white (in the bucket) which are typically Indian wine: Indian SavyB anyone? It is truly dreadful.There are also eight spirits, arranged on a red table cloth, with cheap mainstream brands such as Red Label and Bacardi.
Business Facilities
There are computers in the Araliya Colombo lounge, with 6 internet terminals in high wooden desks, which have large signs asking you to avoid drinking or eating at the desks, despite which people do, and other passengers let their children play on the computers for hours: getting hold of one to do some work can be a problem. Opposite the computers are newspaper racks with Sri Lankan newspapers and Emirates inflight magazines.
Bathrooms
There are toilets and showers in the lounge, however the showers don't have any shampoo or soap: indeed, getting hold of a towel can be a problem, because many people take a shower here before eating & getting on the late night planes. Seeing how hot and sweaty Colombo is, that isn't really surprising. Colombo is also the main jumping off point for many people before starting a cheap RTW ticket.
This is easy to do, as you don't have to go landside on arrival in Colombo, but to allow for a misconnect, many passengers spend hours here after their arrival before the first flight of the RTW starts: as a result, there can be many people sleeping here before the 2am departure to Dubai: a favourite of the RTW crowd.
Video: Independent Araliya Lounge
