Excel World, 338 T.B Jayah Mawatha, Colombo 10
Open 2 PM to 10 PM (weekdays), 11 AM to 10 PM (weekends)
This bowling alley in Excel World is nothing fancy, but fun enough.
Excel World is a dying hulk of an amusement park, but the bowling alley within is still fun. Strikes is a 12-lane bowling alley that also serves food and drink. It’s nothing fancy, but the machines work and it’s still one of the few leisure activities available in the city.
It costs Rs. 350 per person, per game, which is ten frames. You get to throw about 20 balls, more if you get strikes. A game is best played with four people, but you can get multiple lanes. Bonus fact, they serve beer after 5 PM, for Rs. 1,400 per pitcher.
If you’re in Colombo and wondering what there is to do, there actually aren’t too many options. You can sit and eat or drink, but it’s usually hot outside and the city doesn’t offer much in terms of activities, besides shooting pool.
Excel World used to be full of activities — laser tag, amusement park rides, video games, what-have-you — but they’ve all kind of aged (and the laser tag is gone). Bowling, however, remains a relatively simple pleasure, and that means that the alleys are still busy. It’s very light exercise in air-conditioning, making it an ideal tropical sport.
Where I grew up in Ohio, bowling was actually a part of the school curriculum. They took us out of class to learn. I still suck.
The basic requirements for the sport are polished lanes, different weights of balls, pin-collection machines that work, and a method of scoring. Strikes has all of the above. There’s nothing spectacular at work here, but the scores are correct and the pins reset and the lights generally stay on. You can play a game without interruption.
The lanes here are smooth, they have balls ranging from 6 to 12 pounds (or thereabouts), the pins are mostly collected properly, and the digital scorecards — though you have to squint to read them — keep automatic track of everybody’s scores.
Once you get into it, bowling here is quite fun. The sport itself is simple enough that anyone, young or old, can play it. But it still requires enough skill to be competitive. Scoring bowling can be a pain, but since it’s automatic here you don’t actually need to know the rules. They also automatically track how fast you’re bowling, which is a fun metric (try to beat 27 km/hour, not that this is the point).
One weird thing is that while they seem to have bowling shoes, you are also allowed to just bowl barefoot. This would be viewed as insane in a Western context, but here our construction workers wear flip-flops, so whatever. I find this preferable to wearing shoes other people have worn.
To be honest, I just had a bottle of water. The food is the of the fried and oily variety — french fries (Rs 280), hot butter cuttlefish (Rs 590), triple-decker sandwiches (Rs 430) etc. Interestingly, the food is all named after movies, so you’d ask for the Scooby Doo french fries, the Interstellar HBC, and the American Sniper triple decker. What any of these mean is beyond me, but at least it tells you how recently they’ve changed the menu.
Strikes is a fun afternoon or evening out. The facilities aren’t top-notch, but you can play the game and enjoy yourself. Good for dates or family outings.
Address
Excel World, 338 T.B Jayah Mawatha, Colombo 10
Directions
From Union Place, turn onto TB Jayah Mawatha (at Hide Park). Pass the Nestle office and turn left into Excel World.
Contacts
Report InaccuracyOpen 2 PM to 10 PM (weekdays), 11 AM to 10 PM (weekends)
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Ratings Breakdown
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Booruwa
There are times when the pins don't reset automatically but has a manual switch which can do the trick.
Danuk
We really need a better bowling centre in Sri Lanka.
This place is a joke. Only 6 of the 12 lanes were working and the one we used malfunctioning. The buttons used to reset the lane have been removed and I kid you not, there are two wires sticking out which the maintenance guy working there was trying to use as if he was hot wiring a car.
The attitude of the workers there are terrible, clearly the ownership are not doing their part to maintain the place but these guys are using it as an excuse to sit and do nothing. We were complaining and arguing with the receptionist when our lane stopped working for the 3rd time and all he said was I don't have authority. He genuinely said all lanes are broken and we informed you before payment - he did no such thing, who would knowingly pay for something that is broken?
After about 5 minutes of bickering I asked him if you don't have authority then who does? He pointed to the guy standing next to us who was listening to our conversation. This 'supervisor' was just sitting there listing to us without saying anything (im guessing he was just hoping he would not need to get involved) - great customer service.
They refused to give us an refund saying we had bowled more than 5 frames, but made us wait till another lane opened up so we could finish our game.
Sean
Please don't even think of playing Bowling here… Utter waste of money and time…