Madeleine, Mike & Duncan
England, April 2024
What did you like most about Sri Lanka?
The people, culture, variety of experience, value for money (especially the accommodation). There is, literally, something for everyone.
What did you like least about Sri Lanka?
The humidity. If there is a time of year to avoid it, I would recommend this to travellers as it is pretty unbearable if you are not used to it. If restaurants didn’t have air con (like the glamping site at Flameback Eco Lodge at Weerawila), I found it hard to eat/enjoy the meal. We couldn’t bear the heat/humidity in the Polonnaruwa Museum at all so we rushed through that which was a shame as we missed out on learning about the history altogether.
The Sinharaja Forest Reserve resort was a big disappointment [The Rainforest Ecolodge]. You know about the invasion of flying ants in Duncan’s “chalet” - not sure that nomenclature appropriately manages guests’ expectations, maybe expanding it to “converted container chalet”. Furthermore, there is really nothing to do apart from go on the guided walks so it was a surprise that these cost extra. I think your costing should include at least one a day as part of the package. The food here was not great and many of the amenities – café and games room – were either closed or with no games. The night walk was desperately underwhelming. The best experience was seeing the fireflies which we saw before we got into the forest. [We are really sorry that you felt disappointed by your stay at The Rainforest Ecolodge, which is an isolated community-based project aimed at nature enthusiasts wishing to get away from it all. The accommodation - many thanks for your suggestion of changing our description of the guest units! - is immersed in the rainforest, which means it is prone to invasion by various creepy crawlies. However, a nest of flying ants in Duncan's room should have been removed before his stay, obviously. The nature trails are arranged locally, as indicated in your itinerary, and it is a shame that your night walk was not run well. Most visitors to this area are keen birders who spend their time out in the wilds as much as possible, which may explain the lack of facilities usually available at other resorts.]
What is your opinion of your accommodation in Sri Lanka?
On the whole, I loved it. You gave us what I wanted which was unique experiences, specific to that location and experience. This did mean, in the case of Weerawila, that we had an hour+ drive to Yala 2 days running so Mike would have preferred to have stayed at the Hilton just outside the park but I wanted the unique experiences which you gave us.
What is your opinion of your chauffeur guide in Sri Lanka?
Anura was lovely, very solicitous of our welfare, very patient and couldn’t do enough for us. Although his English is good, we had difficulty understanding his accent which was a shame for all of us as we could have learned a lot more from him had we been able to understand him better.
What is your opinion of your flights to and from Sri Lanka?
We used IndiGo from Bengaluru. They were very good. [Arranged their own flights.]
Any other comments?
Duncan arrived in Sri Lanka from India with a stomach bug. He’d had a course of antibiotics in India which had improved the situation but not cured it and it reoccurred. In Colombo we went to a pharmacy to get some OTC antibiotics based on Duncan’s research of his likely illness. Quite rightly, they wouldn’t sell these to us without a prescription from the doctor. Duncan was able to see a doctor within about 20 minutes (this was 6.00pm). He prescribed him a course of antibiotics and something for his constipation. Duncan left the following day to go to Vietnam but said that he felt much improved. The cost of the doctor’s appointment and the medication came to around £15. A very good experience of heathcare.
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