Смешанное чувство Mixed feeling

I'll start with the hotel. There are 3 of them in the line Club Koggala Village, Koggala Beach, The Long Beach Resort
located nearby, the beach is common solid, the rooms are approximately the same, the receptions are different, choose for yourself what to pay for (the last one is the most expensive - it has 2 pools) you can walk freely on the territory of any hotel. All rooms overlook the sea or palm trees in front of the sea, on the back of the hotels there is a road separated by a brick fence. But it doesn't really help with traffic noise.
Further directly about Koggala Beach.

The food I had was HB- breakfast dinner, for 3 stars it will go. The variety is not great, but the chicken and fish meat was strained with seafood, once they gave crabs boiled in spicy water but empty inside (so they stayed from dinner for breakfast) and in the evenings they fried one shrimp on skewers with pineapple and something else (not impressed ). For garnish, rice is different, stewed vegetables, vermicelli, potatoes, a lot of spicy, in addition there are spicy seasonings. It is scarce with vegetables: tomatoes (sometimes from the last meal), cucumbers are not young, cabbage, onions, pineapples in cubes. Dessert - does not shine with a special variety (maybe it is inherent in all 3-star hotels here), a couple of soufflé s or pudding, a couple of cakes. From fruits - pineapple (he is the king of dishes and a salad and a side dish and dessert), papaya (like sweet pumpkin), watermelon (far from our taste), sometimes mango, something like dried grapefruit and sour passion fruit (they said good for vodka- true, but... they don’t give dinner). From drinks - two types of fresh (not always successful, such as papaya and watermelon or with sugar), this is in the morning and black tea (good) and instant and ground custard coffee (as in all hotels ha... but, usually good in bars for separate fee). I almost forgot, at the beginning they brought water in glasses for dinner, then they came to their senses and the chief (we called him Super Mario, for the external resemblance) said that this luxury is only for everyone, but you can order in a bottle for a fee. Subsequently, he very strictly monitored that we didn’t take anything out of the dining room. Yes, for dinner, always performed by a trio (it’s tempting to say a trio of bandurists) live music that smoothly turns into walking from table to table to earn money. But usually local vacationers pay, I haven’t seen paying Germans, although there are many of them, but when our people simply thank you, it’s embarrassment and a dumb question in their eyes. Separately, to dine in beach (not hotel) restaurants will cost around 2.500 rupees with a beer for two, although girls can have a bite for 450 rupees.
The beach is sandy, the water is warm. I am on the ocean for the first time, who does not know be careful!! ! When I got a German. I spend a lot of time in the water diving, snorkeling (Red, Mediterranean, Black Seas) But here it’s different, the wave is constant even without wind, at first the surf doesn’t let you go, then at a certain distance (10-20 m), on the contrary, it pulls you into the ocean. It’s good if it’s shallow, waist-deep, you can stay on your feet against the current, but there are pits, it’s useless to row. The main thing is not to panic, wait for a passing wave and, together with it, paddle to the shore until you find the bottom. To just swim, you need to go to Unawatuna or Junglebeach, where the lagoons and the water are relatively calm, although muddy.
Transport - the first who will meet you are tuk-tuk drivers (rickshaws), a special caste of local mafiosi. They always take everyone everywhere, but you have to bargain, this is one time, and you can’t take two from the hotel. Near the hotel there is always a foreman who monitors what is happening and makes money from it, so tuk-tukers are almost never traded. But if you move a little 50 meters away, a passing rickshaw will take you back and forth for half the price or even cheaper than that offered to you near the hotel. Be sure to negotiate the price immediately before the trip, it is better to have a notebook and a pen for writing numbers. On average, from a hotel to Unawatuna there and back 600 rubles, jungle beach - 800 rubles, also in Gala, to neighboring Ahangama (for beer, rum, there are three stalls at once - 500 rubles) The second type of transport is a bus, red municipal white I don’t know, both . They stop at stops on demand, you need to know where you are going (name) to tell the conductor, he will tell you when to get off, the fare is 15-30 rupees (tuk-tuk 200-1000 rupees). There are numbers on the buses and the destination in English: start-end. Also on minibuses (white 10-seater minibuses), but with air conditioning, more rare on the roads, they stop if there are seats, the price is 50-60 rupees.
Shopping is the first thing if you are riding a tuk, get out in advance and approach separately from the tuk, drive him in three necks, as he will immediately agree with the seller on a rollback, sometimes instead of a tuker, local natives are attached who speak English tolerably and, as it were, unobtrusively come with you to the store, to the market, too, drive nah . . there will definitely be a rollback. There are fixed prices for water beer rum, they are indicated directly on the bottle, the can with a factory brand (numbers and the Rs symbol) - this is the selling price, if you show more that you are not a dolt. There is not a large selection of fruits at coastal markets, there are much more exotic things on excursions in the center of the island, but you yourself understand that a guide is nearby (rollback), everywhere they are traded very badly (this is not Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia). There is more freedom in choosing in Halle, there is also a kilsi supermarket, not far from the bus station, the prices are reasonable, but the fruits are more expensive than the poor choice on the market, and the freshness leaves much to be desired. Even nearby near Koggala Beach in Habaraduwa there are markets with clothes and writing at a good price. It is better to order shrimp from a beach boy before going on an excursion with him (1kg 900-1500 r depends on the size, but this is 1.5-2 times more shrimp than our ice in the store), although options are possible. I bought tea on an excursion when visiting a tea plantation in a store more expensive, they also give you a taste of tea, but only cheaper varieties, silver and gold, you can only smell the leaf, brew, they say they are expensive

Excursions - it is better to order from the beach-fights. There are several of them (the main ones) that others wrote about them. The price of a one-day tour in Kandy ranges from $80 - $50, depending on the show and the beach fight. The people with whom I spoke, who traveled with a guide, were not satisfied with the price and quality. In general, the guide appeared fragmentarily, purely by chance. As I understand it, this is not his income, the competitors are strong. Often, beach-fights, as bait, are taken to the spice garden, they, gardens, are everywhere small in size, somewhere 0.5 hectares, or even less, and rub in all sorts of oils, creams, extracts, they are not traded, a rollback is obvious, the same applies to boating on the lake and elephant riding. By the way, if you decide to ride an elephant, ride one at a time, the second person holds on to the first one and it’s very dumb to hold on to the ascent and descent. In my opinion, the most spectacular is the run of elephants along the trading stalls from the nursery to the river, like a bullfight in a city among the streets in Spain. Also very beautiful waterfalls, their mass in the center of the island. We also tried durian on the excursion - the smell of rotten onions, when I started eating, the smell changed to the smell of melon, I don’t know what it tastes sweet with a slight aftertaste, they don’t eat the bone inside the pulp, nothing special in terms of taste, but belching for 2 -x hours and far from a radish. In the central part of the island they sell a lot of it, but I have not seen it on the coast.
And about the weather - as warned, it's not the season !! ! We sat on the terrace for two and a half days, the benefit of "we had" a downpour, as promised, 15 minutes of pouring with a break of 5 minutes. But then, the rains switched to night time and it was sunny during the day.
Bonuses - order global excursions from beach-boys on the last days of rest, before that he will be interested in you, carry coconuts as a gift or 20 rubles each, bring ready-made shrimp, carry everywhere almost on a ball (in Gale there and back - 150 rubles) and etc. As soon as you went on a tour - alas, you are no longer interesting.
Nuances - if possible, DO NOT FLY FLY DUBAI - they don’t give water or food in flight, you have to pay extra for everything, watch a movie - 10.5 €, Probably the most expensive duty-free in Duwai. Fins, a mask are practically not needed, even in the lagoons the water is muddy.