всем понравиться, советую! everyone will like it, I advise!

We rested from 10.02. 2013 to 23.02. 2013. We flew from Kyiv via Dubai. Flydubai does not serve food, so take everything with you. The flight was normal, there were no delays anywhere. Money was changed at the airport, there they bought a card for the phone and replenishment. We had a combined tour of 3 days of excursions and 10 days on the coast in Long Beach. The transit hotels were very good, one in the center of Colombo, one right in the jungle. Our guide and escort from the airport was Sujeewa Dahanayaka (Sasha), I would like to express special gratitude to this person, he is a very kind and helpful person. For three days, we bugged Sasha with questions, everything was interesting to us, and he patiently answered and tried to please us in every possible way, we learned everything about Sri Lanka, and this is probably the only Sri Lankan who knew Russian so well. We visited all the temples, a botanical garden, tea plantations, an elephant nursery, Sigiriya, a spice garden, a batik factory, etc. Thanks to Sasha's hint, we did not buy tea, rum, spices and souvenirs in an expensive hotel store, but in cheap ones. supermarkets, where everything was of good quality and 10 times cheaper than on the coast. On the third day, he brought us to Long Beach and with that we parted ways. But we still didn’t have enough excursions, so we also took a Safari and a trip across the ocean, where we watched whales. The Russian-speaking Ira and Yura at the hotel have very expensive excursions, we took from Kumar (a local tuk-tuk driver and part-time tour guide) he always had 50-60 bucks cheaper than at the hotel. He sticks out opposite the entrance to the Kogala Beach Hotel, on a blue tuk-tuk, we recommend him to you, a very decent guy. Who will meet greetings from Lena from Ukraine The locals are very safe, Kumarchik became our friend, and with him every day we went for a walk around all the lagoons, bazaars, in Halle, etc. He showed us all the local beauties, so did he I went to the market with pleasure, to the fishermen, bought us the freshest shrimps, cooked them and brought them to the hotel. Upon arrival at the hotel (there were 5 of us), we were immediately greeted at the reception with freshly squeezed juice and wet towels, all the servants smiled and wanted to please us in every possible way. We immediately asked for a room on the first floor and were very pleased. . The room is super, overlooking the ocean, there is no balcony, a small terrace with chairs and a table where we liked to sit at night, drink rum and admire the ocean. Life was running right under our noses. We took all inclusive and did not lose. In general, those who drink and love to eat definitely need to take it there - all inclusive. Alcohol is poured in any quantity, double, triple, they don’t care at all, moreover, after 10 pm, when the bar was no longer working, the servants still brought us cocktails and fruits straight to the room. And we, in return, treated them to our seeds and cigarettes, from which they simply trudge. At dinner, local musicians almost always sang, in Russian they know only one song about Katyusha, which we sang with them 10 times : )) Then, even the Dutch and Chinese learned it : ) With knowledge of languages, everything is very bad there, everything is explained on the fingers, but it only amused us, if something was needed at the reception there is a free phone number for Ira and Yura, who are always ready to help. The attendants practically do not know English, so a set of words, just like us. But after drinking rum, we understood them perfectly and even taught the Ukrainian language : )) they honestly wrote everything down and in the morning we were already told "Good morning"%)) On St. Valentine's Day, the hotel administration prepared an excellent program, a fire show, a local singer , fireworks, next to the Kogalla Beach hotel was a disco. There are a lot of foreigners in the hotel, after dinner everyone gathers at the bar, drinking cocktails and admiring the ocean, the atmosphere is just sincere. The food at the hotel is very decent, there were always seafood and very tasty beer, from which we could not tear ourselves away. Do not be afraid if they bring bills to you, this is normal, this is how they keep their records, sign silently and that's it. But at the end of the trip, be sure to check the balance of your room so that there are no surprises when you leave. You can also order breakfast with you at the reception, in case you go on excursions. If we didn’t sleep at night, we went looking for turtles, and since we were lucky, a huge turtle crawled right under the hotel and debugged eggs. The rooms were cleaned normally, we always left 100 rupees each and then there were twice as many flowers on the bed : )) Take only hair balm and shower gel from bathroom accessories, everything else is there. There is Internet everywhere, but we basically didn’t take either tablets or phones, I didn’t understand at all when there was such beauty around, how you could waste time hanging on the Internet. Be sure to go to the turtle farm and go boating to the lake, all this is located near the hotel. I also advise you not to take things with you, there are shops near the bus station, we made friends with a Sri Lankan family there, you can recognize them by the Ukrainian flag above the door, here we sewed clothes and pareos from them, the price was the same as what to buy, for that very high quality materials and in size, you can sew anything and everything in one day. Be sure to bargain, the Sri Lankans love it, the price can be knocked down three times, we were often given all sorts of gifts, be sure to say that it's free. I’ll tell fruit lovers that if you turn right from the bus station deep into the village, every day at 10 o’clock a big car with fruit arrives there, we took mangoes there for 300 rupees 1 kg. soursop, papaya and many different fruits unknown to us ) But in principle, all this was always in the hotel for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Be sure to take a ride on their frenzied bus, very cool. I also want to say across the ocean, we really liked it, the waves are super, but you need to be very careful, it draws you in instantly. On the very first day, we learned to enter it, if you go beyond the waves, it’s quite possible to swim normally, but you need to go out very carefully, I personally saw the broken hands of lucky tourists in the hotel I saw animators only at night when they came to shoot cigarettes for us I don't know what they do all day long. Well, everyone said that they have a lot of work and they work for three hotels. On the day of departure, all the servants came to see us off at the reception, they sincerely grieve for us, asking us to come again. It was so touching. Everyone left us their emails and Facebook addresses, with the hope that we would write to them In general, the Sri Lankans are cool, very sincere and open people, albeit slow. I miss them. But with all their service, do not lose vigilance, on our arrival, vacationers from Donetsk did not leave on their day for the airport, and got a lot of money, that is, no one will wait for you there and warn you that your departure day. Stupidly, the bus arrived at 10 pm, no one keeps track of whether all the vacationers got on, if you don’t have time, it will be your problem, so look carefully at your tickets. The departure schedule is posted at the reception. In short, a sea of ​ ​ impressions, a week has already passed, and I still dream of Sri Lanka every night, I have never had such a rest and such emotions in my entire life. Whoever is going to Sri Lanka, I advise you to go for the new year from April 13 to April 14, there will be such festivities, you just sway. I want to say that even 13 days were not enough for me in Sri Lanka, I would still go for 10 days) there is something else to see. Have a good rest everyone.