Alan & Ann
England, April/May 2018
What did you like most about Sri Lanka?
Birds, the mix of religions and ethnic groups, the colonial history.
Watching the fishermen at Nilaveli.
What did you like least about Sri Lanka?
As with all countries, the frustration of having to get sufficient lower denomination notes for tips. It would be so much easier if all places accepted a larger tip at end of stay which could be distributed amongst all staff. (Nilaveli Beach Resort hotel was able to do this.)
Some hotels don’t offer Sri Lankan food and assume Europeans don’t want to try it but everywhere we went staff were happy to accommodate us and prepare curries. Trying the local food is one of the reasons we go abroad!
What is your opinion of your accommodation in Sri Lanka?
Havelock Place Bungalow, Colombo, Hotel [Fort] Bliss, Galle both B&B and good rooms with pleasant and helpful staff.
Peaceful Chalet, Sinharaja Rest, HB [Sinharaja - south]. Long and very bumpy tuk-tuk ride to Chalet from Reception & for breakfast but otherwise fine. It was useful to have fridge and tea making facilities.
Hibiscus Garden Hotel Tissa, HB – Garden lovely, staff friendly and food good but room a bit tired and shabby. Nowhere in shower area to put toiletries.
Kudakalliya, Arugam Bay BB – wonderful staff, food and room. We were the only guests and had our meals in the hotel. Superb packed breakfast.
Melheim Resort, Haputale, HB. Staff on reception not welcoming and not good at explaining meal process but otherwise food, room and service fine. Very poor packed breakfast.
Hanthana House, Kandy, HB. Food very spicy hot for guests (not just us). Room a bit cramped and noise every 6 seconds constantly during the night from what Pathi’s wife thought was condensation dripping and hitting metal? We were made very welcome but it would have been nice if someone had actually listened to the drip which kept us awake most of each night as it reverberated through the bathroom pipes.
The Other Corner, Habarana, HB. We had difficulty knowing who the manager was? Otherwise staff friendly, food excellent and chef was really good making Sri Lankan curry dishes for Alan rather than him eating the European set menu. Room was a bit dark and mosquito net a bit awkward, location excellent for bird walk by lake.
Nilaveli Beach Resort, Nilaveli, BB. Location brilliant, staff friendly, some food not of same standard as other places but beach and villages to walk inland made this a lovely retreat.
Noel Rodrigo’s Leopard Safaris, Wilpattu, FB. Accommodation was probably the most basic that we have ever experienced. Perhaps the description in Tikalanka’s write-up applies to the tents used in Yala but even the guide’s first description was that it was ‘basic’ accommodation so with whom the error occurred is uncertain. The itinerary stated en suite bathroom facilities but these were a toilet in an enclosure, a separate enclosure with a bucket style shower which the guide would fill with warm water if we wanted. Hand washing was done outside the tent in cold water in a pot bowl balanced on a wigwam of sticks which was really difficult to negotiate at night in the pitch black and pouring rain. Redeeming feature was the food which was excellent and the best we had all holiday. Location and drive to the NP have both been commented on below.
Jetwing Jaffna, BB. As expected from a modern hotel, clean and comfortable, spacious, excellent breakfasts and lovely helpful staff.
Colombo Airport Homestay, BB. Modest breakfast but staff friendly and room comfortable for a short stay.
Footnote; Hotels were empty/very quiet in Tissa, Arugam Bay, Habarana, Wilpattu and Jaffna so this probably helped our experience.
What is your opinion of your chauffeur guide in Sri Lanka?
We struck gold with Niroshan Wijesinghe who was perfect. What an asset he is to Tikalanka. The best driver/guide we have had compared with the ones we have had on several other holidays in other countries.
A very safe driver, excellent English speaker, considerate, entertaining and used his initiative to change plans for our comfort and benefit. We formed a bond with him very quickly. Without him the holiday would have been much less enjoyable.
Niroshan’s bird spotting skills need to be highlighted. I am not a ‘twitcher’ by any means but N was so good that between us we managed 180+ birds which for a non-birding holiday was a great achievement. We were both fired up enough to do a ‘nightjar’ twitch early one morning near Weerawilla Tank [Tissamaharama].
This hobby of ours made the car journeys much more interesting. His knowledge of religions, history and archaeology etc. is brilliant and he was able to educate us at exactly the right level of detail. We have learnt so much from him.
Niroshan needs to be congratulated on his prowess. If we come again we will be sure to ask for him.
What is your opinion of your flights to and from Sri Lanka?
Comfortable economy seats, flights not full, great to have no stop-overs in transit.
Food could have been better, surprisingly poor despite Sri Lanka’s own great food. [SriLankan Airlines]
Any other comments?
Colombo – the Dutch period Museum was closed for renovation and looked as though it had been for some time – could this have been anticipated?
Lunuganga (Bawa’s place) [Bentota] have changed their visiting times, worth noting for new visitors.
Ambalangoda Puppet (Mask Museum) was worth a stop as was the Tsunami Museum at Hikkaduwa.
Unexpected but worthwhile Mahamodara Boat Trip [Galle]. Didn’t bother with long drive out to Dikwella’s Wewurukannala Temple.
Kumana NP was scheduled with morning & evening safaris but we cancelled the evening – the access road was very bumpy so it took 1.5 hours to reach the gate. We would have had just an hour back at the hotel before setting off again. A whole day trip with lunch in the NP would be much easier.
Trincomalee’s Naval Base Museum well worthwhile. If the naval staff had allowed it we would have stayed longer.
Wilpattu NP was a similarly long drive to the ‘villus’ (like Kumana) and only justified itself with a couple of bird sightings.
With hindsight we would have not done either of these NP’s and perhaps spent more time in Kandy/Nurawa Eliya. On a return trip we would do Bundala again as this was excellent and perhaps Mannar area during migration season.
National Park guide skills were very variable, Kumana was much less skilled than ‘Ranga’ at Bundala.
Early morning walk up Sigiriya was manageable and really interesting. The point of going to the Pidurangala Cave Temples was to look at Sigiriya fortress but the last haul was suitable only for fit youngsters. We didn’t attempt it and the caves were not worth the climb. Perhaps we should have researched this more before putting it on the itinerary. To be fair, Niroshan did say he didn’t recommend it for us.
Jaffna’s branch of RIO’s provided memorable ice-cream sundaes, excellent.
Jaffna’s travel arrangements had to be re-arranged to take account of luggage which perhaps could have been planned in advance of our arrival. We were fortunate that Niroshan was happy to stay with us in Jaffna and collected us from the train in Colombo and took us to the airport the next day.
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