Michael & Sarah
England, January/February 2017
What did you like most about Sri Lanka?
Variety of landscape, flora and fauna, buildings/ruins.
Lime juice. Coconut water [King Coconut milk ].
[Geoffrey] Bawa at Lunuganga [Bentota] and [Heritance] Kandalama [Dambulla].
Peradeniya Botanic Gardens [Kandy].
What did you like least about Sri Lanka?
Food: whilst there was a very wide range of vegetables and fruit, the former were invariably curried in a similar sauce and virtually always with rice, making for a somewhat monotonous diet.
Western alternatives were sometimes good but comparatively expensive.
What is your opinion of your accommodation in Sri Lanka?
[The] Fort Printers [Galle] and Tissa Safari [The Safari, Tissamaharama] fine.
Clove Tree Cottage [Ella] – a farm stay rather than a guest house; service poor (arrived in rainstorm, no gate opened, no umbrellas, no doormat, holey sheet, none too clean, crudely repaired cheap soap dish - but excellent food.
Hotel Suisse [Kandy] (our choice) – lovely room, service inefficient, dinner buffet not well organized; breakfast chaotic one day owing to function later, next day better but limited.
Galkadawala [Habarana] – buggy but nice food with interesting people (Maulie [owner] and her relations and other guests). Appreciated originality and style of the buildings.
Uga Jungle Beach [Kuchchaveli] (our choice). Lovely location, rooms and public space. Excellent breakfast with large choice and good service. Other meals and drinks very expensive and very slow service. May be an idea to book half board as there is nowhere else to go for dinner. Trips to Pigeon Island only operate from end March.
The Sanctuary [at Tissawewa, Anuradhapura], beautiful building, fine room, appreciated the veranda. Best to order dinner in advance as service extremely slow (an hour). Varied quality.
Jaffna Heritage Villa [Jaffna] was unacceptable. Our room was shabby and claustrophobic, no hot water (broken pipe), cockroaches, very poor breakfast. [Hotel removed from our recommended accommodation list.] Having spoken to the manager and Pathi we moved the following morning. The hotel room [Jaffna Heritage Hotel] was much more spacious (on 1st floor with veranda overlooking garden and pool). Very good service, very limited breakfast but other meals good.
Havelock Place [Bungalow, Colombo], charming but another cockroach! Excellent food but prices to match although not as bad as the Uga Beach. Very relaxing. Service rather overwhelming (two waiters to observe us eating dinner).
What is your opinion of your chauffeur guide in Sri Lanka?
Sena was extremely knowledgeable, particularly on Buddhism and fauna. Very observant, able to spot monitor lizard disguised as a tree whilst avoiding two three-wheelers, but needs a good pair of binoculars which possibly Tikalanka could provide! Very kind, giving us local things to taste including jackfruit and bananas from his garden.
In Jaffna Yala [Yarl Tours, a partner company providing local guiding in the Jaffna area] provided a resourceful driver, Eravindran, the first day – he came to pick us up from the halted train some way from Jaffna (accident on line). The second and third days, Mahindran, a former ICRC driver (they pulled out leaving him unemployed), showed us round, interestingly and effectively (though with English not a patch on Sena’s, requiring some effort). He might be good to use again (Pathi could check?).
What is your opinion of your flights to and from Sri Lanka?
Fine for Business Class [SriLankan Airlines] where we were though food not wonderful. Serendip [Serendib] lounge good.
Any other comments?
We thoroughly enjoyed our holiday, learnt many new things about a country which we had never been to before.
We were happy with Sena’s ‘van’ [minibus] although Michael was only comfortable in the front seat. The extra height was an advantage and of course the luggage space.
The programme was certainly packed and we didn’t have the energy to do the climb at Mihintale, just one too many!
It was a shame that we were at the Amba Tea Estate on Sunday when they are closed so we were not able to do their organised visit.
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