Sancho Proudfoot
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Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 8:11 am Post subject: Back from Sri Lanka ( long post)
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After all the months of eager anticipation, it was finally here, our long-planned trip to Sri Lanka.
We were due to fly from Heathrow so we had (via the delightful folk here in HT) found a great deal: one night's stay at The Heathrow Crowne Plaza Hotel and up to 15 days parking for one price of £80.00.
The Crowne Plaza is a truly luxurious hotel, with every possible amenity. We were booked on a room only basis, and took one look at the menu and decided not to eat in as the prices, even for bar snacks were absurd (£15.65 for fish chips and mushy peas!).
Next day we took the Hotel Hoppa bus service to the terminal, £3 per person and well worth it. Heathrow was of course its usual manic self, but we rapidly found our check-in for the first leg of our flight, which was to Doha in Qatar (as we were flying Qatar Air) . Qatar Air are superb - almost new aircraft ( Airbus 330) with individual video screens, and good inflight service and meals. We took off slightly ahead of schedule and, some 7 hours later, arrived at Doha, again slightly ahead of schedule. We had a 2.5 hour stop at Doha before our next flight on to Colombo. Doha airport is modern and well equipped, but, frankly, the gents' loos are revolting. If you have a stopover there, go on the plane! Despite what you may have read, I found duty-free goods there expensive; the same digital camera I had bought in the UK for £99.90 was priced at US$154.
Our next flight was, again slightly early, and we arrived in Colombo exactly on time. According to the itinerary we had we should then have transferred to The Beach Hotel Bayroo, in Beruwela for 2 nights. Instead, to our initial puzzlement, we were taken to the Tamarind Tree hotel a mere five minutes from the airport.
The Tamarind Tree is a delightful hotel. Accomodation is in bungalows in extensive gardens, and we had a bedroom, bathroom, separate loo, sitting room with TV, kitchenette and large furnished terrace. After a good dinner we met the Kuoni rep, Sunil, who updated our itinerary and explained why we were there and not at the Bayroo!
After an early start the next morning (and following a tremendous thunderstorm overnight) we left and headed for Habarana. We firstly stopped at Pinnuwala to visit the elephant orphanage. Originally set up for just that purpose - to house abandoned baby elephants, they also now have a few older elephants who need care - one old bull, who was blinded by farmers shooting at it, and one 20 year old male who lost half of his front leg by stepping on a landmine.
Due to the thunderstorms, the river nearby was flooded and so the regular bathing was called off the day. The orphanage is however a wonderful place and a "must-see" visit.
After lunch at a nearby restaurant - during which we had another tropical downpour - we travelled on to our next hotel the Habarana Village. This adjoins the Habarana Lodge hotel, which is currently closed for renovations. The Village is simply splendid; again, accomodation is in terraced cottages in extensive lush gardens, with a large main block housing restaurant, bar and lounge. We had one small snag here - we had arrived exactly at the start of the biggest festival in the Buddhist calendar - the two day festival of light which falls on the full moon days in May. Consequently, by government decree no alcohol should be served before 6pm - a slight bother as we were on an "all-inclusive" basis! However Sunil managed to sort something out with them.
The hotel has entertainment every evening; local dancers; acrobats; and an amazingly cheesy conjuror who bore a striking resemblance to Austin Powers!
The next day we were scheduled to visit the rock fortress at Sigirya. However this had been closed two days earlier. Some tourists had foolishly destroyed a wasps nest part way up, and been severely attacked by the angry wasps and one tourist was badly stung and could not be recovered from the rock for over 19 hours.
Until the wasp problem was resolved Sigirya was "off-limits". We went instead to the ancient capital of Polunnawara, with its 12th century ruins.
That afternoon we were able to take an elephant ride, through the forests which surround the hotel. For over two hours we swayed along on the howdah on the back of the elephant. Truly a magical experience.
The hotel grounds have an extensive wildlife population; monkeys, snakes, lizards and many birds. Just sitting by the pool you will see many of them, including a huge 7ft long monitor lizard.
Next day we visited some spectacular rock-carved Buddha figures, in a quiet serene park, En route we were fortunate enough to see a herd of wild elephant grazing in the grasslands alongside the road.
It was then time to move on to Kandy. We stopped to walk through a small town as at the far end of the town, hundreds of fruit bats can be seen nesting in trees by the river. In Kandy we stayed for one night at The Citadel hotel. I cannot praise this hotel enough - it is magnificent, with luxurious rooms and a spectacular dining room with stunning views.
After lunch there, and a quick dip in the pool, we visited the Royal Botanical Gardens. The gardens are a haven of quiet in a noisy busy city and have many rare and beautiful plants. The orchid house is well worth a visit.
From there we went to a cultural centre, for a display of traditional dancing, culminating in a spectacular display of firewalking (which was so hot the spectators in the front few rows ran for cover!) From there, we walked through the teeming streets of Kandy to visit The Temple of the Tooth, an important Buddhist temple which enshrines one of the Buddha's teeth. As I mentioned above, we were there on the biggest festival days in their calendar and so the temple was besieged by hundreds of pilgrims.
The temple is fascinating, although you are hustled past the casket containing the sacred tooth at breakneck speed. Don't bother paying the fee to take your cameras in, you won't get a decent picture of the casket.
The next morning we transferred to Beruwela, on the south west coast, and our hotel for the remainder of the holiday, the Beach Hotel Bayroo. This was a change to our original booking which was to have been to the Swanee Hotel. The Swanee was closed for renovation, and hence the change.
The Bayroo is well positioned, right on a golden beach, which is protected by a coral reef and so the sea there is calm. The bar and lounge areas are pleasant. The dining room is on the first floor overlooking the gardens and the beach. The rooms are frankly disappointing. They are badly in need of renovation and redecoration. They smelt damp and musty, some had mildew on the tiling in the bathroom and some had decidedly dodgy electrics.
In our case, the musty smell went in a day or so. However it was not until the last day that we actually managed to get hot water out of the shower. The air conditioning simply did not work, and this was true also of the dining room.
During our stay at the Bayroo we took an organised trip to a three hour river excursion and a visit to the turtle protection project. The boat trip was glorious - up and down the river, six of you in a small boat. The guide has eagle-eyes and can spot birds, monkeys and lizards in the surrounding trees and mangroves and zoom the boat in for you to get a closer look.
The turtle sanctuary is lovely. Scientists follow the turtles - four breeds - as they come ashore to lay their eggs. They then dig up the eggs and re-bury in a protected area, so that when they do hatch predatory birds won't eat them. They keep the hatchlings for three days before carefully releasing them back into the sea. They have huge tanks swarming with one-day and two-day old turtles, so small they easily fit in the palm of your hand. They also have several albino turtles, very rare and unable to be released as they would be killed as they are albinos.
We also took various explorations ourselves. We took a delightful stroll along the beach and returned by tuk-tuk (just like those in Thailand) We also used the same tuk-tuks to take us to the local village for some shopping. Clothing and carvings are cheap and excellent quality.
Finally an early hours of the morning transfer back to Colombo for the flights home, again via Doha. Again, on time with excellent service throughout, although it did take us almost exactly 24 hours from the hotel to our front door.
Thank you Kuoni for a memorable and enjoyable holiday!
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gamala
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Joined: 07 May 2004
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Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 8:38 am Post subject:
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Glad you had a good time.
We are off to Club Palm Garden in Beruwala on Saturday, did you happen to see this hotel on your travels? Also what was the weather like when you didn't have a tropical downpour?
Any other tips would be welcomed.
Thanks
Gary
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Fiona HT Mod
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Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 9:11 am Post subject:
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well done on a great report! Pity about your final hotel.
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Glynis HT Admin
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Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 11:04 am Post subject:
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Lovely report Sancho. Many Thanks.
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Sancho Proudfoot
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Age: 52
Joined: 16 May 2004
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Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 2:11 pm Post subject: Sri Lanka Weather
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Thanks for reminding me, Gary, I did mean to mention the overall weather!
Our first week - Habarana/Kandy - was in the Central/North region of the island which is known at this time of the year as the "dry" region. Beruwela is in the south west and at this time of year is "wet".
That said, the heaviest rain we had was in the north - the dry area! Although we had sereval torrential downpours, one was overnight, and one was during lunch. We never actually got really wet.
In Beruwela, supposedly the wet area, we saw very little rain at all! The locals have commented that over the last year the monsoon produced very little rain, and it was unusual that they now had rain in the dry areas and no rain in the wet areas!
For our whole stay it was hot with a capital H. Daytimes it was uniformly in the low 30s C; at night it didn't cool down much. However, the one weather factor which you don't hear much about is the humidity. From the moment you arrive at Colombo you feel the very high humidity. It is energy-sapping and you MUST drink lots of water. The sun is very strong, even when it is cloudy so plenty of spf8+ needed!
Yes we saw the Club Palm Garden, while strolling the beach. Didn't go inside but looks very pleasant from what we saw from the beach!
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luci HT Mod
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Posted: Tue May 18, 2004 10:19 pm Post subject:
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Excellent report Sancho! Glad it lived up to your expectations with looking forward to it for so long.
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Cherish
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Posted: Wed May 19, 2004 5:50 pm Post subject:
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Thanks for your great report Sancho, it made great reading as i'm of to Sri Lanka in July.
I'm staying at the Club Palm Garden in Beruwala glad to hear it looked ok, gamala I would be delighted if you could give your views of Sri Lanka and the hotel. Hope you have a great time!
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Sancho Proudfoot
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Posted: Wed May 19, 2004 8:17 pm Post subject: Views of Sri Lanka
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Welllllll, Cherish.........
this is one of those "culture shock" destinations. There is poverty there, sometimes shockingly so. That said, without exception, every Sri Lankan we met was cheerful and generally happy. Although you will see a lot of people bathing in the rivers, as they dont have running water, they all seem well fed and healthy with splendid teeth!
The roads are a nightmare. Driving is scary, so if you're the nervous sort don't sit up front where you can see the traffic! The roads themselves aren't wonderful, so if your guide says "it is 30 miles to go" forget what you know from over here - 30 miles will take you up to 90 minutes to cover!
Everyone expects a tip. Unlike many destinations they won't argue if they feel it isn't enough, so change larger notes into small ones for tips.
It is very hot and humid; take a box of wet wipes ,or can of Magicool or something to keep cool, and drink plenty of water. "Fern" bottled water is good, and cheap even when you're out, but do check the seal is unbroken.
"Lion" beer is the local brew, comes either draught or in 650ml bottles and very tasty! Do try Arrack, the local firewater, distilled from coconuts. It looks like whisky, but doesnt taste anything like it! Drink it with coke or sprite - oh and its 38 proof too!
HTH
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gamala
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Posted: Wed May 19, 2004 9:00 pm Post subject:
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thanks for all the info sancho, we were slightly worried about the weather/resort but now i'm already to fly on Saturday. Arrack sounds interesting bet the head will hurt after a few of those.
Cherish, I will post a report on Club Palm Garden when we return.
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puddleduck2
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Posted: Mon May 31, 2004 3:47 pm Post subject:
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Thanks for the enjoyable read Sancho. That trip is the one we want to do ....one day!!....
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luci HT Mod
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Posted: Mon May 31, 2004 5:03 pm Post subject:
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We've often thought of going too Dawn after seeing it advertised in the Saturday papers. Haven't got round to it as there are just so many places in the world to choose from!
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wynne
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2004 11:53 pm Post subject:
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luci5 wrote:
We've often thought of going too Dawn after seeing it advertised in the Saturday papers. Haven't got round to it as there are just so many places in the world to choose from!
Please for my sake don't stay at Bentota Beach Club.Very very bad place.
Barbara
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westiekate
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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 10:40 am Post subject:
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we stayed at the lighthouse hotel in galle a mem,ber of the leading hotels group ........perfect what can i say .......just a long drive from airport (and our driver got caught for speeding on the journey !!!)
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AnneJ
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Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 1:44 pm Post subject: Sri Lanka - Bayroo Hotel
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Just read your article Sancho - very interesting as we did almost the same trip in 1984 (20 yrs ago!!) stayed at the Bayroo and it was pretty basic then and the food was fish or beef - every night for 3 weeks. But we had a wonderful holiday and visited all the temples etc on your journey also Anuradhapura but dont thing the tours go up as far as there now.
The Closenberg hotel at Galle was fabulous too.
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Tom Pringle
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 1:03 pm Post subject:
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Excellent tips and posts from all.
We're going out to stay in the Induruwa Beach Resort, courtesy of Mercury Direct (Excellent prices!) in about 2 weeks time.
Can't wait to get out there and experience what sounds like a wonderful country.
A quick question about the currency. I'm struggling to get any back here in England, is it better to take travellers cheques and get the currency out there? Or take hard british cash instead?
Thanks in advance
Tom
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Sancho Proudfoot
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Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 8:06 pm Post subject:
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Tom:
Either cash or traveller's cheques work equally as well. You've probably already learned that you're restricted to 1,000 Rupees in or out which is about £6, so you have to get your rupees there.
I took cash, and changed it at the hotels - travellers cheques got the same exchange rate.
HTH
Sancho
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