A Quick Week in Sri Lanka - May 2013


My first experience of Sri Lankan Airlines - disappointing! But my fault for not checking out the airline before I booked with Kuoni. I’ve just become so accustomed to the quality of Asian airlines, Catchy Pacific, Asiana Airlines and my new favourite, Malaysian Airlines. Sri Lankan planes are in desperate need of a deep clean, modernisation and their entertainment systems needs ripping out and replacing altogether. That said, the flight attendants were friendly and helpful and the food was decent and as I always say, the most important aspect of any airline is that it transports you safely to your destination.



A 2 hour 20 min comfortable transfer and we were at our hotel. Well, not quite – it was on an island, we could see it but had to take a 3 min boat transfer to reception. (see Trip advisor Godsgloriousworld for hotel review; Club Bentota)


The first text I saw when I switched my phone on was one giving me the location and telephone number of the British embassy….err, I’ve travelled to over 36 countries and never received this kind of text before….should I be worried??







I’d been wanting to talk to some locals about the 2004 tsunami but wasn’t sure how to broach the topic for fear of dredging up personal, painful memories. So today was good in the sense that 2 guys brought it up. First Rango, our water aerobic instructor mentioned it. I was asking him about his family & life in general. He brought up the tsunami and said that he was on a speed boat on the river when it struck and proceeded to show me the scars on his leg and arm. But he was of course so grateful to even be alive. Then Luba, a tour guide, shared his experience.





We saw more of the devastation caused at the tsunami museum on a day trip back from Galle. For me the saddest stories were of those still missing. Imagine not being in contact with a loved one for more than 9 years but still not having the peace of knowing that they are certainly deceased. Were they still out there somewhere, unable to get in contact with you… heartbreaking.

The turtle hatchery was hubby’s favourite trip out. A turtle farm set up for the preservation of sea turtles. We were fortunate enough to see some newborn babies hatch and hubby was brave enough to pick one up and place it in a tank of water. Amazing to see how those little legs kicked into action and it immediately started to swim.







The other trip organized by Luba (a friendly local who set up his tour company of the beach outside our hotel) was a day on the river. My fearless husband went head to head with a crocodile! We sailed through mangroves, saw both land and sea monitors and visited a herbal garden where we learned more about Ayurveda (a traditional Hindu system of medicine).








The tuk tuk rides reminded me of those in Thailand. Some of the drivers put a lot of effort into 'blinging' their up. There was even one that paid homage to Bob Marley! 










Met a lovely couple from Cornwall, Leigh & Pete, who we hung out with.

Interesting experience riding on a local train. 





To date Sri Lanka is my least favourite country in Asia. Many parts were litter filled and unlike countries such as Thailand and Japan, we got the distinct feeling that there was a lack of sincerity in the actions of locals. It seemed whatever they did, they did for a tip and good service was dependant on your tipping upfront. But that’s not to say I wouldn’t return as I only visited Aluthgama and you can’t get a fair sense of a country by spending one week in one area.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not just a stopover for the sake of it

It would seem as though in my haste to experience all things Japanese that I completely overlooked South Korea as a destination within itself. If only I had allowed for a few more days it could have been a mini off the beaten track holiday with its mountains and rice paddies and unspoilt islands. Anyway, be that as it may, my flights are booked and paid for so I have 3 nights, 2 full days in Seoul. Initially it looked like loads of time but I’m sure it’s going to go all too quickly. 3 nights, 2 days I’ll probably start with one of those city ‘orientation’ type walks to get my bearings, although I’m not encouraged by the fact that most streets in Seoul don’t actually have a name. It gets better – the buildings have numbers but they don’t run consecutively, they were allocated in the order in which they were built. So unless you were around at the time they were erecting the buildings…. no, I’m sure I’ll be fine. I am definitely going to visit the DMZ and Panmunjom. At first I thought it...
Read more

Memories of Moscow

Image
Finally got around to uploading photos from my last holiday. Oh the memories; good and bad. Planning Russia was probably the most complicated holiday I ever booked. Not that many travel agents specialise in Russia and the few that do seemed intent on selling me a group tour. Not against group tours but prefer to do my own thing in my own time. Booked flights directly with BA, into Moscow out of St Petersburg – easy enough. Hotels there are all overpriced in my opinion but managed to get a slight discount booking them via an agency. Actually I managed to get the Kempinski in Moscow at a decent rate. The real headache was getting the visa and invitation letters so just used an agency which did it all – for a hefty fee of course. But I still had answer the reams of questions ranging from a list of all the countries I’d visited in the last 10 years to information on any specialised skills I possessed in nuclear matters or biological chemicals! And I still had to ‘register’ my visa when I g...
Read more

Reykjavik (Nov 2015)

Image
This was my first time travelling with Iceland Air and it wasn’t that different from BA short haul flights. My flight landed just before 4pm as the sun was starting to set. The sky was an amazing colour with a lovely green glow. From the airport to the Blue Lagoon took about twenty minutes. Washing naked in front of strangers before putting on a swimsuit to enter the lagoon didn’t faze me as I’ve bathed naked in an onsen in Japan. Leaving the warmth of the shower, to walk into the freezing cold was another matter altogether! I kept my towel around me until the last minute and left it at the side of the lagoon. The water was amazing. A lot hotter in some areas than others but amazing. It was dark and there was limited lighting so once I reached the middle part of the lagoon it was like bathing in the dark. I was obliged to try the white, facial mud. I know everyone raves about it but it seemed to make no difference to my skin whatsoever. The cave and waterfall experience were bo...
Read more