fairy island
Rested with her husband in Sri Lanka from 14 to 28 April 2007. This is not our first trip abroad, but this is the first country that left unforgettable memories in my soul.
Since there are few reviews about this country on the Internet (we ourselves encountered such a problem when choosing a hotel), we will try to describe our trip in more detail.
Moscow-Doha.
This is perhaps the most unpleasant part of the holiday, but it is very quickly forgotten.
We took off from Moscow from Domodedovo airport on 14.04 at 01.25. Naturally, knowing that the flight was not close, they “patted the track” beforehand. I want to warn you right away, if you are flying with Qatar Airways (Qatar airwas), then do not abuse alcohol before the flight and do not take it with you to the cabin, because do not forget that Qatar is an Arab country and they do not accepted.
The rules attached to the tickets state that alcoholic beverages (even beer) are not allowed to be brought on board, and you may not be allowed on board if they see that you are drunk. But you should not worry about this, because on board, after the aircraft climbs, the all-inclusive system begins to work. Alcoholic drinks (beer, wine, whiskey, etc. ) will be offered several times during the flight, but you can order drinks at any time using the flight attendant call button located on the remote control built into the armrest of the seat. In general, the flight goes unnoticed, because it is night and most people on the plane prefer to sleep. Planes from Moscow to Doha are not equipped with individual TVs. At around 7:00 am we landed in Doha. The transfer went unnoticed. We spent a total of an hour and a half at the airport (they don’t let out of the airport territory).
We walked around duty free, drank coffee in a cafe and already flew out. The airport is small, but there are enough empty seats, especially on the second floor.
Doha-Colombo.
Transferred to another plane. You will not see luggage from Moscow to Colombo, it is reloaded from plane to plane. The plane is equipped with individual TVs, because the flight is longer than from Moscow to Doha. The TV has a lot of functions: you can just watch TV (there are several channels, and mostly they start from the 20th), you can watch movies in the recording (all this can be found in the TV menu if you can’t do it, because everything is in English language, you can invite a flight attendant and she will tell you), you can play games, there are about 10 of them. The remote control is removed from the armrest for more convenient use. On the plane, they feed once after takeoff, however, as well as from Moscow to Doha. Drinks are also served.
If you use all-inclusive services and a TV, then the flight will pass almost unnoticed. As a rule, there is at least one Russian-speaking stewardess on board, so in case of any problems, you can contact her, because all the staff are English-speaking.
COLOMBO-ALUTGAMA.
The flight took about 5.5-6 hours. Contrary to popular belief, the airport is not located in Colombo itself, but 30 km from it. The Ceysands hotel we chose was located in the village of Alyutgama, although it is written everywhere that it is located in Bentota. The road took about 3 hours, but this is not an indicator, because we got to Sri Lanka on April 14 on one of the days of the New Year celebration (by the way, I will write more about this holiday later) and therefore all the roads were free. As a rule, the road to our hotel takes 4-5 hours. But in principle, the trip is easy, because.
you are driven on a small, rather comfortable air-conditioned bus, and besides, along the way you will observe unusually interesting nature, combined with local color. We arrived at the hotel when it was already dark. Sunset in Sri Lanka around 18.15 local time. Time on the island plus an hour and a half to Moscow. Since the island is located 800 km north of the equator, the day there is equal to the night, however, as well as the air temperature (night does not differ from daytime).
The Ceysands hotel is located in a very picturesque place - on a spit. On the one hand, the Bentota River, and on the other, the magnificent, unforgettable Indian Ocean. We were dropped off the bus near the pier, where there was a motor boat that took us to the other side to the hotel (the crossing takes no more than a minute). Leaving the boat, you find yourself in front of the Reception, where very quickly (unlike in Arab countries) you will be given the keys to the room.
We were very lucky with the room, it was on the first floor with direct access to the pool, which was very convenient. With access to the pool, rooms start at 200. Rooms starting at 300 are on the second floor, which is not very convenient. Yes, you will have a balcony instead of a terrace, but in order to go down to the pool or the ocean, you will need to go around the hotel building. Rooms starting with 100 also have their own small pool. And numbers starting with 400 are generally on the sidelines. But in principle, the territory of the hotel is small and all distances are relative. A very well-groomed beach area, however, since all ocean beaches are municipal, there are no sunbeds or sun loungers, but this does not bother at all. When you see the ocean, you forget about everything in the world! But be careful, the water is very strong, you should not go too far, besides, there is a current that (especially at depth) pulls you into the ocean. The rooms are the most ordinary, slightly damaged by the 2004 tsunami.
But how nice it is to fall asleep to the sound of the ocean! ………………………………………………..
In principle, there were no problems with them, but you should not be afraid when you see a lizard running in the room, always remember that they themselves are afraid of you. The problem arose with mosquitoes. We always imagined them as huge mosquitoes with an incredible sting, but in reality they turned out to be our ordinary Russian mosquitoes, however, with unusual bites. The first week everything was fine. Every day, hotel employees turn on a fumigator with a tablet in the evening, and we also brought liquid Raptor with us. But in the second week of our stay, some kind of mosquito invasion began (apparently this was due to the approaching rainy season from May to October). During this period, no repellents helped. There were a lot of bites, and they are very peculiar: a large dropsy appears, which itches insanely.
Still not very pleasant sensations are left by very small black and white midges, but they bite only during the day and, as a rule, on the beach and near the pools. There are no consequences after their bites (nothing hurts or itchs).
Restaurants and food.
There is one main restaurant and several bars on the territory of the hotel (only two bars really worked during our stay). Unfortunately, when choosing a hotel, we did not find any advice on the food system in any review, so we took HB (breakfasts and dinners). I will say right away that we were at dinner only twice, because it is simply impossible to eat this food !! ! No, they cook very tasty, but the amount of spices present in all dishes is simply unthinkable for the Russian stomach! The locals eat with water, we also tried it, but it didn't help. For this advice to everyone - take only breakfast. For breakfast, waffles are baked, scrambled eggs are fried, a lot of pastries and fruits.
The assortment of fruits probably depends on the season of stay, but in April there were incredibly tasty pineapples, bananas, watermelons and papaya. We had lunch and dinner at a restaurant located on the other side of the river, which can be seen from the pier near the hotel called the restaurant Anushka river inn. Getting to it is very simple: after you have crossed to the other side of the river, exit the gate that the guard will open for you (this pier is also considered the territory of the hotel) and turn right. After 20 meters you will see a restaurant sign. There is incredibly friendly staff, it is possible that the owner himself will meet you (it is not difficult to recognize him - he does not have a left hand). They cook wonderfully, especially Sea food. After we tried seafood in Egypt, we thought that we would never touch this filth again in our lives, but in Anushka our opinion changed radically. In general, in Sri Lanka they know how to cook, but most of the dishes are spoiled with spices.
In Anushka they cook for Europeans, so the food is not spicy. I would like to say a few words about the owner and chef of this small but cozy restaurant. They are wonderful, kind people. Almost every evening, the owner came out to us and, at the expense of the restaurant, treated us to arak (local coconut vodka is an awesome thing! But again, not for everybody).
I would like to pay attention to the prices on the menu. The cost of the dish consists of the cost of the dish itself + 15% government tax and + 10% service charge, so always check if the government tax is included in the price of the dish. Service is not included in the cost of the dish, and the tax in all restaurants is different, somewhere the price is already inclusive of the tax, but somewhere not, and this can be an unpleasant surprise when you receive an invoice. In Anushka, tax is not included, so feel free to add another 25% (tax + service) when viewing the menu.
We were in two more restaurants: Aida and Blue Sapphire. You can get to them for 100 rupees ($ 1) by stopping the "tuk-tuk" (just a wonderful vehicle, something similar to our scooter "Ant", only passenger and more ennobled) and naming the name of the restaurant (of course, in English) . Aida is a good restaurant, but very expensive. As for the Blue Sapphire, in principle, in terms of cuisine, it can be compared with Anushka, by the way, there, in the menu, the tax is already included in the price, but it takes about 10 minutes to get to it by tuk-tuk, and in the evening, from about 20.00, the fare increases up to 2-3 dollars one way.
Now, with regard to alcoholic beverages. Returning to the mention of the celebration of the New Year, I would like to note the following: in Sri Lanka, they DO NOT DRINK on New Year's holidays !! ! Moreover, alcohol is forbidden to drink not only for local residents, but also for tourists.
Given that they celebrate the New Year for a whole month, the hotel employees make concessions, offering to drink alcohol (including beer) exclusively in the hotel room. These days, alcohol is not sold in shops or bars. We were so tormented for the first 3 days of our stay, and then it seems that the main days of the celebration ended (although the population continued to walk until our departure) and the sale of alcohol was allowed. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the hotel offers local beer "Leon" (by the way, very good) for 2.75 dollars (1 dollar = from 100 to 114 rupees, depending on the exchange rate), and in the village you can buy it for 1.10 rupees .
Sri Lanka has very cheap (by Moscow standards) and beautiful textiles. Of course, Sri Lanka is not Turkey and Egypt, but they are already beginning to learn how to bargain there, so the main advice is to buy everything in stores with fixed prices, because.
the prices there are the same for both locals and tourists, while in private shops a T-shirt for locals will cost 100 rupees, and for tourists 1500. Unfortunately, there are few shops with fixed prices, so choose shops where price tags hang. As a rule, tourists never look at the price tags, but ask how much this or that thing costs, this is the main mistake. Naturally, the seller will give you a price 10 times higher than the original one. Of course, you can bargain, but it's still not as effective as just looking at the price tag, because the price tags are written for locals.
When buying any products and alcohol, look at the packaging, the price is written everywhere, and going to the checkout, immediately silently give the price indicated on the packaging. Of course, they will have a bewildered look, because everyone thinks that you will not understand to look at the price, but will silently accept the amount paid.
As for alcohol and soft drinks, the prices for them are indicated without the cost of a bottle, because local residents, when buying mineral water, drink it in the same store in order not to pay for a bottle. Naturally, when buying beer (80 rupees is written on the bottle), add another 20-25 rupees per bottle, and 40 rupees for arak. The price of a bottle depends on its size and shape, but after shopping, you will quickly determine the prices. I would like to note that Bentota is located across the bridge from Alyutgama. Although it is larger, there are practically no shops there. The only thing you can buy there is leather bags, and bargain until it stops. A large buff bag can be purchased for $40, although it will initially be offered for $70-60. Everything else is better to buy in Alyutgama. In all souvenir shops everything is very expensive, so bargain. Prices can be safely brought down by 30% from the original.
Regarding the purchase of jewelry - in hotels the prices are inflated twice. For example, a topaz ring at the hotel was offered for $300, and next to the hotel at the Harmony Gems store we bought a ring and earrings with large topaz for $230, and everything was made to order from the catalog.
To begin with, I would like to note that during our stay at the hotel (two weeks) we did not see the guide Lyudmila, so we decided all the issues with excursions ourselves. Having heard all sorts of stories about buying excursions on the side in Turkey and Egypt, we did not really trust the local beachboys offering excursions, but as they say, chance helped. On the second day of our stay at the hotel, we decided to walk along the beach to the nearest hotels, fighting off the unobtrusive offers of local beachboys to buy some kind of excursion along the way.
I would like to note right away that the offers were really unobtrusive, that is, “if you decide, you will come up yourself. ” So we got to the beach of the Revirina Hotel. As we found out later, the hotel is not bad, but the problem is with the sea. It is near the hotel that the river flows into the sea and therefore the water is dirty there, and in order to get into the clear sea, you need to cross the river on a boat. So it was at this crossing that we met a guy named Pial. We talked a bit about hotels and he suggested that we take a walk along the river (this is one of the 2 hour excursions offered in hotels for $30). After some haggling, we settled on $20 for a 3 hour walk. It was just amazing!
I would like to mention Pial himself, who already from a distance, could notice a small tree frog lying on a leaf one and a half meters above the water, monitor lizards hiding between the branches of mangrove trees, crocodiles and many other living creatures, while people from the boats we met were doing the same walkers looked at our beaming faces in bewilderment and asked if we had managed to see anyone. Moreover, we went on this excursion twice, and each time we met a lot of living creatures. After that, I can say unequivocally - it all depends on the guide accompanying you, because it is almost impossible to consider anything on your own.
At the end of the review, we will write all the contact numbers that can be useful to you. Most importantly, do not repeat our mistake, however, we corrected it on the second week of our vacation - buy a local SIM card from the Dialog GSM operator. A SIM card costs $6, but you'll save a lot more.
Considering that an average call from Sri Lanka to Moscow costs about 4 dollars per minute, then using a local SIM card you will spend 50 cents, you see, it’s not a small difference. Thanks to Pial, we met his cousin Amil, who organized excursions on the Riverina beach. He is a person you can trust 100%! With him, we made a two-day trip to Kandy and Sigiriya, while at the hotel this trip was extended for 3 days, and there were fewer places to visit than were included in our tour. With him, we went to Yalla National Park! We will not describe the excursions themselves, because there is a lot of material on these topics on the Internet. You can write a lot of good lines about Amil, which is only worth his gift (a bouquet of orchids) before leaving!
In conclusion, I would like to wish everyone a pleasant stay and more unforgettable impressions from this amazingly beautiful country and people who have not yet been spoiled by tourism, who will endlessly trust you.
And we, in turn, will definitely return to this fairy tale.
Marina and Dmitry.
- Piala's mobile phone is 0094776022191 (if you call from a Moscow SIM card) and 776022191 if you call from a local phone.
- Amil's mobile phone is 0094777047843 (if calling from a Moscow SIM card) and 777047843 if calling from a local phone.
If you have any questions, write to us, we will be happy to answer:
Marina – feba@pochta. en
Dmitry – dvydrich@mail. en