colorful ceylon
For a long time we chose where to go on vacation, we stopped in Ceylon and did not regret it. the rest was combined with excursions and lying on the beach, we took a tour through the firm "Passionfruit". We flew to Lanka via Sharzh for about 10 hours, it was a little tiring, in Kyiv -1, and upon arrival +27, everything was tired, because the greenery of the palm tree meets you already at the airport, in duty free (on arrival it is also available, not like in Kyiv) we took a martini to relax on the beach, booze is cheaper than in the Kiev dutek by 5-7 dollars, the choice of cosmetics and perfumes, on the contrary, is less, my girlfriend had to buy everything in Sharjah on the way back, they didn’t have time in Kyiv. We drove to the hotel for about 40 minutes, there was always left-hand traffic, the hotel, as it was due to 3, but quite normal, and we were there for a couple of hours, at 8 in the morning after breakfast we went on an excursion, cars in Lanka are all Japanese, mostly Toyota, old Nissan but not beaten as in Egypt, in the Conder car, which helped us a lot, outside the window in the morning the heat was +30 and high humidity, the first excursion to the elephant nursery. Buy in advance along the way bananas for feeding elephants, near the nursery they are also sold but more expensive. There are a lot of elephants and of different ages, they were small for about a year and a half, but for some reason they were on a chain, perhaps for training, but it’s a pity to look at them; at a watering hole to the river, the action is indescribable, as in Discovery, they bathe in the river against the backdrop of palm trees, the pictures are awesome. then we went to Sigiriya on the way and drank coconut, I didn’t really like the tasteless taste, but the locals say it helps in the morning with badun. Sigiriya turned out to be a huge boulder in the middle of the jungle, it was hard to climb to the top of the mountain +40, stop to drink water, you won’t get through without water, take it in advance.
In the middle of the mountain there were ancient beautiful frescoes depicting dancers, we had to climb a small staircase to the very top, the locals hovered canvas suits for us, as there was a nest of wild wasps under the mountain, and they supposedly can bite, we refused, decided to take a chance, barely holding our breath on top was a bit disappointed. There was a ruined temple at the top, only the foundation, a throne in the mountain and a pool with rainwater remained, but the panorama opened up beautiful, greenery to the very horizon, the pictures came out cool only the sharpness is low, large evaporation and haze in the distance.
After Sigiriya we went to the hotel to rest, the Triya TEA hotel pleased, good 4+, the room was given a deluxe instead of the standard, it turned out to be large, a bathroom with a shower and a bath with slippers and bathrobes. Dinner was varied, the girl liked the ice cream, which came in handy in the heat, after dinner they arranged the first of many photo shoots for the chipmunks.
On the second day of the excursion, we visited a local factory for the manufacture of masks and wood crafts, it’s interesting, but they started selling products at exorbitant prices, referring to natural paints, etc. , I won safely in the end, because I took the same mask 2 times on the coast cheaper than at the factory with a 20% discount, by the way, you can bargain everywhere, which I recommend. After the factory, we went to the spice garden, a local guy in good Russian gave a tour showing the products that are sold right there in the shop at inflated prices.
Having a snack on the way at a local cafe restaurant, we tried giant shrimp for the first time (I liked it, everything is cooked without spices, not spicy, stipulating this in advance) went to the Buddha temple, took socks in advance, since they go barefoot everywhere in temples, they were fooled by the fact that they put on their flip flops at the entrance, storage costs 50 rupees (it’s hard to call it storage) take flip flops with you in a bag, on the territory of the temple there are three caves with statues, frescoes and local drawings - beauty, taking pictures against the backdrop of the Buddha is prohibited everywhere. Monkeys roam near the temple, not paying attention to people, but they did not steal anything, as I read on the net. After that we stopped at a jewelry factory, offered stones and jewelry from 400 dollars... In the evening we got to a local amateur performance show, they danced not quite to the beat, but lit the music with costumes and local color, I really liked it, then there was a show with fakirs and walking over the coals. We stopped at the Chaya Village hotels, a good 4+ like the previous hotel.
On the third day we went to the Temple of the Tooth Relic, beautifully many lotuses and local paintings, took stink-aroma sticks (I'm not a fan, but the smell is not sharp and the price is acceptable and souvenirs), then we visited the local royal botanical garden, very beautiful, pavilion with numerous orchids, all kinds of palm trees, bamboo cacti, various green things pleased me after gray Kyiv. On the way to the ocean, we stopped at a tea factory where we bought different varieties of black tea for 8 dollars per kilo, I advise you to take it at the factory, since in the hotel and on the coast 5oo gr. for 6-7 dollars.
Arriving at the ocean in the evening at the Tangerine hotel, I was a little disappointed, the hotel turned out to be 3 and not 4 as it was positioned on the site and in the agency, the deluxe room was small with old furniture and a cander, which did not interfere with enjoying the ocean in the future. The rooms were cleaned twice a day, the staff was friendly, they gave tea and coffee as much as they wanted when asked.
They took breakfast dinner, breakfasts were always monotonous eggs, bacon, sausages, salads, cereals, juice, fruits, which upset me a little, but there was enough food, dinners were better, a variety of meat, fish, seafood, rice, etc. side dishes, salads and fruits, pineapples, bananas, mangoes, passion fruit. The food is all signed so that they knew where it was spicy with curry and where it wasn’t, who didn’t know the language, pepper was drawn on spicy dishes.
The beach is municipal, fenced off by a small fence, behind which local beach fights soar you with excursions, knick-knacks and invite you to local cafes, almost all of them speak piece-work Russian, all are friendly, but not particularly annoying understand when you say no. For lunch we went to a local restaurant outside the territory of the Sea shell cafe, a decent clean one, (in general, for all the time I have not seen desentars as such, as many write) they speak English but the menu is in Russian, we tried barakuda, shark, tuna, hammer fish, shrimp, that's all 9 dollars per serving with rice and salad with vegetables, fresh fresh juice with pineapple and mango for 2 dollars, large lobsters for 23 dollars per 500 gr. everything tasty and fresh is shown to you what they will cook. We tried the local red rum and liked it very much and took a couple of bottles to Kyiv, and local vodka "arak" with a strength of 35 degrees for an amateur. We gave the owner of the cafe a bottle of our vodka, for which he sent his hard workers to buy fruit for us, for locals they are cheaper, and for whites (tourists) they bend the price even if you trade more expensive anyway. We took home 2 medium pineapples and a branch of red bananas for 6 dollars, their pineapples are ripe yellow and sweet.
The ocean is super for this and we drove, it was a little stormy, but it’s more fun to dive in the waves, the waves are strong, especially the rollback of the wave drags you in, sometimes it can knock you down. Only ours swim in the ocean, you don’t need to take masks and glasses, the ocean is muddy and there are no fish near the shore. On the ocean, awesome sunsets took a bunch of landscapes. Chipmunks run around on the territory, fed them with peanuts from their hands, they are almost tame everywhere, they saw a monitor lizard on the territory. In the evenings, there is nothing much to do, who wants discos and nightlife, let him go to Egypt, live music in the bar in the evenings. So, I really liked the rest, everyone who wants the sun, the ocean and the exotic goes!