I live in the ‘dodgy and dirty’ city influencers hate — I’ve never had more fun

I’ve called the city home for the past year (Picture: Lydia Swinscoe)

Whether a consequence of clickbait, ignorance or the inability to get out of their comfort zones, influencers and keyboard warriors simply love to hate on Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo.

Time after time, I stumble across reels and posts from entitled Instagrammers commenting on how ‘dodgy’ and dirty the city is, how it’s unsafe for women and that there’s ‘zero reason to visit’.

One even claimed that you don’t need ‘waste any time’ in a city he described as ‘congested with far too many tuk-tuks.’

Having called Colombo home for over a year, I firmly disagree on every single po...