Logistics in Sri Lanka: Hiring a car and driver is the most efficient way to get around. While the distances are not great, the road conditions (often one and a half lane roads, twisting mountain roads, bus drivers who think they are driving sports cars, poor road conditions in many areas) are such that getting from place to place takes some time. We chose to hire a driver through Boutique Sri Lanka. Typically, when you hire a driver not tnrough an agency, they would like to book your hotels for you (as they get commissions), but few drivers have relationships with these high-end hotels. By booking through Boutique Sri Lanka, this was not an issue.

You have your choice of car types, and without thinking much about it, I booked a standard car. When we arrived, they upgraded us to a “semi-luxury car” a large Nissan model not available in the US, but comparable to a Maxima, with good leg room and trunk room and nice leather seats. Were I to do it again, I’d book the semi-luxury car. I should have remembered from my Morocco trip many years ago how important it was to have a comfortable car!

We were fortunate to have an excellent driver, Aslam, who was enormously helpful to us, as well as being an excellent driver (a necessary skill on these roads!). We greatly appreciated his knowledge and his connections. He got us excellent guides at the various historic sites, he knew the people at the hotels, and he knew of activities we might enjoy in various places. He was our resource in Sri Lanka. He was also willing to talk with us about the political issues in Sri Lanka and was able to give us insight into many cultural issues we were curious about. I also note that not only did we think he was an excellent driver, but the manager of our bungalow at Tea Trails commented to us that Aslam was such a good driver. He has worked for Boutique Sri Lanka for years and knows all of the high end properties and the staff at those properties. He has also developed a reputation of being someone they can call on in an emergency, and the manager recounted a story of a guest who needed to get to a hospital (quite a distance away) and how Aslam took her there in the middle of the night.

Boutique Sri Lanka furnished us with the number of their local agent should any problems arise. The agent also called us after several days to make sure things were going well. Also, the agency that furnishes the Boutique Sri Lanka drivers gave us a number should we have any problems or need any assistance.

Arrival in Sri Lanka:

The plane to Sri Lanka was packed. A friend of ours in Bangkok said the flights always run full. We were glad we opted for Business Class.

Sri Lanka is 1.5 hours earlier than Bangkok time.

Sri Lanka has waived visa requirements for many nationalities, and we simply filled out an arrival card and were given a visa-free stay of up to 30 days. Immigration was quick and efficient. There was an ATM in the area where we picked up our baggage, but it had a “hardware problem” and we were unable to get cash there. As we left customs, our driver was holding a sign with my name on it. We met him and the manager of the company was there as well. Both were very nice an were very clear that they wanted us to be happy and would do everything they could to make our visit smooth and enjoyable. They took us to the car, which was a Toyota Corolla, and I overheard them talking about getting us a bigger car. When the driver got in, he told us we’d be in a different car in the morning. I told them of the ATM problem, and they said there were other ATMs in the airport. They actually drove us to another batch of ATMs in the airport complex and we were both able to withdraw Sri Lankan rupees. The driver and his manager accompanied us to our guest house and made sure we got checked in and settled, and we set a time to meet in the morning.

Villa Araliya is a “boutique guesthouse” located relatively near the airport. It was quite inexpensive, about US $65++ per night. The Villa Araliya is lovely, beautifully designed, very pleasant. Our only complaint there is that the bath towels are hard and rough, there are no hand towels and no wash cloths. There is no shampoo, etc, though I always bring my own, so I did't care. The place is very clean, the beds comfortable, the atmosphere nice. Breakfast (cooked to your order) is included in the room price. Note that they do not take credit cards, you need to settle your bill in cash. For the price, it’s a real deal. And since we were just spending the night, we felt there was no reason to go to the “best” hotel in Negombo, The Beach for US$200 a night.

Welcome home Kathie. Looking forward to hearing more...

One other note about the Villa, the owners are animal lovers and there are 10 cats and 10 dogs on the property. They are clearly loved and well cared for. I also noted there was a poster in the office encouraging visitors not to eat meat, arguing that since Sri Lankans are Buddhist, they are all vegetarian and meat animals are raised under terrible conditions and are fed only to tourists. I was a vegetarian for a number of years, so I certainly don’t object to encouraging vegetarianism, I do object to providing false information to bolster one’s arguments. Of course, not all Sri Lankans are Buddhist (about 60% are) and most Buddhists are not vegetarian. About 15-20% of Sri Lankans are Hindu, and thus do not eat many meats. About 15% of Sri Lankans are Muslim, and 5% are Christian.

In the morning, Aslam picked us up at the Villa Araliya and we drove 3 hours to the Kandalama near Dambulla. He asked us whether we wanted to eat lunch at the hotel or in town. Since we figured we’d have ample opportunity to eat at the Kandalama, we opted to eat lunch in town at a resthouse, the Gimhala. There are a number of these resthouses run under government supervision, which are oriented to offering safe food for tourists. They offered a lunch buffet, but we ordered from the a la carte menu. We wanted Sri Lankan food, and they offered a number of interesting choices. I asked the waiter if the item I chose was spicy. He replied, “no madam, not hot.” I asked if he could make it spicy for me, and he was surprised “you want it hot?” and said they would make it spicy for me. As we were eating, we noted that the staff was watching us, apparently waiting to see if the food was too hot. The food was very good, with nice spice and not too hot. We paid about US$14 for our lunch. As we were leaving, we noted that we were the only westerners who ordered Sri Lankan food! There were a couple of tables of Sri Lankans or Indians who were eating the Sri Lankan food. Aslam told us the staff thought it was very odd that we wanted our food spicy!

The drive to the Kandalama was mostly on dirt roads through a very rural area. The long driveway to the hotel is really lovely – a tunnel of green trees above the red dirt road. The Kandalama was designed by Geoeffry Rawa, and was the first building designated as a “green building.” It’s a wonderfully designed place, with the lines between indoors and outdoors beautifully blurred: boulders comprising parts of walls, a mix of open-air and enclosed space, and windows making up the whole outer wall of the hotel. While it has about 150 rooms, it feels spacious and uncrowded, hot at all like a large hotel. For check-in we were escorted to a table in the lovely open air bar and offered a variety of juices. Aslam prompted us to order the avocado juice. It was exceptional – unlike anything I’ve had before. They upgraded us from a luxury room to a deluxe room. As far as I can tell, the difference is that you get a huge jetted tub in the deluxe room. The rooms are really lovely, with a full view from both the bedroom and the bath down to the “tank” (reservoir) where you can see herds of animals drinking. There is a balcony with a table and two chairs. The décor is Rawa’s signature “Asian minimalist.” The bed is very comfortable, the towels thick and soft. The hotel recycles, and has a basket in the room for paper and plastic water bottles. The room cost was $228++ per night, and includes both breakfast and dinner. Both are huge, lavish buffets. You can opt for the a la carte restaurant for dinner and receive 20% off the menu prices instead. I am not one who likes buffets, but these were very nice. There are always items freshly made for you (eggs, waffles or French toast at breakfast; dinner might have a grill where you chose what you want grilled for yourself, or a station making Ceasar salads, for instance). There was always a wide choice of foods, both Sri Lankan and Western. Lots of fresh, local fruit was available at every meal.

Aslam picked us up at 3:30 to visit the Dambulla cave temples. He wisely recommended that we go either early in the morning or in the late afternoon. There are lots of steps to climb and it is very hot. Admission to the caves is US$10 per person, payable in either US dollars or Sri Lankan rupees. We noted that admission to many of the sites was priced in US$, and I was glad I happened to have some along.

You can choose whether to have a guide for the caves (and other historic sites). Many of you may remember that I am one who opted not to have a guide at Angkor. I had been reading about Angkor for many years, and felt I had enough information to appreciate the temples. For me, having a guide makes the visit a more intellectual experience, not having a guide makes it a more spiritual experience. While we had read everything in the guidebooks about the caves, we felt we really wanted more background. We found that there is just not that much available about the Sri Lankan historic sites in print in the US. We let Aslam know that we were very interested in Buddhism, and he arranged guides for us who were very well informed and able to answer questions as well as give us more “standard” information.

Aslam recommended a guide he felt he was the best there. Indeed, the guide was very good, and gave us lots of information about Sri Lankan Buddhism as well as specifically about the caves. He spent about an hour with us in the caves. The caves were enlarged and decorated with paintings and sculpture over a period of over 2000 years. The caves are beautiful, and very well preserved. Aslam suggested $5 for the guide, and we gave him an extra $1.

By the time we were finished in the caves, the sun was setting. The walk down the stairs was much easier and much cooler. Next trip, I’d opt to go first thing in the morning. And I’d opt not to use a guide as we now have lots of background information, so the next visit could be a more spiritual experience.

Thanks, Craig! This will be a long and detailed report.

Great report-love all the details. Sri Lanka has always been on my "list."

We recently simply took the first guide at Dambulla who presented himself (our journey in Sri Lanka seemed to follow Kathies's pretty closely)

He was by far the best guide we've ever encountered anywhere, except for - just possibly - one of the volunteers at Winchester cathedral.

With limited expectations of Dambulla (how, you might think, can anything compare with the Dunhuang caves?) we were gobsmacked both by the caves and by the people there.

Thanks for the detailed info, Kathie - I'm looking forward to the rest.

Great to read the first dose of your report and will look forward to the rest of it. Seems it's going to be culturally uplifting for me too!

i'm loving this....you are paving the road to craig and hopefully for us in the near future....

s/b "road for craig..."

I'm glad you are all enjoying my report!

A note about photography: You may have read that they no longer allow photography in the Dambulla Cave Temples. There was an incident several years ago when a Japanese tourist had her photo taken sitting on the lap of one of the Buddha statues. As a result, they stopped photography for a time, and they re-consecrated and repainted the Buddha statue that was desecrated. They now allow photography (including flash and including using a tripod) but the signs say that you cannot take photos of people, only photos of the paintings and sculpture. I think that’s a good guideline in general at religious sites. By the way, the only place we visited that had a fee for photography was the Temple of the tooth. All of the other sites had no fee for photography, and all allowed flash and tripods.

We were very fortunate everywhere we went in that we never ran into the hordes of visitors that the guidebooks warn you about. We were often alone in one of the caves with our guide, in Polonnaruwa. we were often the only visitors at a particular building, etc. Only at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy were there crowds of people.

The next day, Aslam picked us up at 7:30 to go to Polonnaruwa, about a two hour drive from the Kandalama. Aslam had again pre-arranged the “best” guide, and he was excellent, indeed. He escorted us through the museum, highlighting a number of exceptional items, and giving us a historical overview. Sri Lanka has over 2000 years of recorded history. Thus, as he guided us through the site, he was able to give us incredibly detailed information about what was written in “The Chronicles” and the confirmation of the written history in the archaeological record as well additional information that the archaeology has provided.

The site reminded me in many ways of some of the best preserved Roman cities, such as Jerash in Jordan. Polonnaruwa was the capital city for some time, but was burned by invaders from Southern India, and was abandoned and left to the jungle for about 800 years. There has been a goodly amount of archaeological work in the area, and the ruins have had toppled columns raised and some restoration work done. The ruins are stunning in that rather than the sterile environment of Roman ruins, these ruins are “set in a garden” as our guide said. The ruined buildings are surrounded by trees and greenery, making it a very pleasant place to visit. The city covers a large area, and we were driven from one area to another. There are both Buddhist temples as well as Hindu shrines, reflecting an influx of Hindus from Southern India.

There is so much fascinating to tell you about Polonnaruwa, but I will refrain and tell you only a few of the things we really enjoyed. Many of the temples have what are called moonstones at the entrance, a semi-circular carved stone with various animal figures. These were very beautiful, and it was interesting to see how the iconography of the stones changed over time. Many of the temples have inscriptions, but I was most fascinated by how many inscriptions had figures carved into the stone next to them, to convey information to those who could not read. For instance one stone showed a monk, a dog and a bird. The message was “If you steal from the monks, you will come back in your next life as a dog or a crow.” There was a long speech by one of the kings in an inscription. He was concerned that he was seen as an usurper by the people, as he had come from Southern India. The previous ruling family had come from the farmers caste and they had been seen as the legitimate rulers of the kingdom. So his speech said that farmers should not aspire to be kings, as that is like a worm aspiring to be a snake, etc. And this was again illustrated with figures in the stone. (By the way, that king was eventually assassinated.)

In all, we spent three hours with our superb guide. Rather than the $5 suggested by Aslam, we paid the guide $10.

We purchased an excellent book entitled “The Cultural Triangle” published by Unesco at the bookstore at the museum.

We ate lunch at the famed Polonnaruwa Rest House, where the Queen ate when she visited back in the 1950s. They built a lovely dining room just for her visit, and that is where the restaurant is now located. They had an excellent buffet of Sri Lankan food.

Aslam had talked with us on our drive from Negombo to Dambulla about what things we wanted to do in addition to the ruins in the Ancient cities area. He suggested an elephant ride. I wasn’t especially interested, but Cheryl wanted to do it, so he said he would arrange it. We also discussed a “jeep safari” into the national park at Kandulla, and we definitely wanted to so that. He called ahead and pre-arranged these activities for us, just as he called ahead and pre-arranged the guides for us.

So after lunch we drove to Habanera where we did the elephant ride. The ride was an hour long and went into a natural area and even into the water. We saw some lovely birds and some lizards. We enjoyed it, but I thought it was over-priced at $30 per person plus $1 for bananas to feed the elephant, plus tips for the mahout and guide.

As you know, tourism in Sri Lanka has really suffered because of the conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers. As a result, people who work in the tourist industry are really hurting. We tipped generously.

Next on the agenda was our drive into Kandulla National Park. This park has a herd of about 250 wild elephants as well as a number of other large mammals and lots of fabulous birds. This is best done just before sunset. We were in the back of a truck with Aslam and our game-spotter. The game spotter was deaf but he could really spot the animals and birds. He had a bird book, and would turn to the page showing the bird we were seeing. Mostly, we saw elephants – lots and lots of elephants. We counted about 150 elephants in all that we saw. It was interesting to observe them up fairly close. There were other jeeps in the area, and at one point, one of the old male elephants thought the jeeps were getting too close and he charged one of the jeeps, trumpeting loudly. We also saw lots of birds, including a spectacular flock of painted storks, a number of the beautiful small green bee eaters, a sea eagle, and wild peacocks. In all, we spent two hours in the park, plus about a half an hour drive each way from Habanera. The cost was US$50 plus tips to our driver and game spotter. I felt this was well worth it.

By the time we got back to the Kandalama, we had been gone for 12 hours – a long day but a very interesting and rewarding one.

We had wanted to visit Anuradhapura, the first capital city, but it is farther north and had had a recent attack on the Air Force base there. Aslam thought it was not a good idea to go there (and even posters on Lonely Planet said it was not a good idea). So we had to save that stop for next time we go to Sri Lanka.

This is probably a good place to comment on the conflict in Sri Lanka and the impact it had on us. The biggest impact was that we did not visit Anuradhapura. No tourists have ever been targeted in the conflict. Indeed, most of the targets on both sides have been military targets. While the far north has been off-limits to travelers for quite a while, some places are considered riskier at times, and ok to go to at other times. There are many military checkpoints on the roads, but we were never stopped. Aslam told us that only trucks passing through and buses coming from the north are typically stopped. I noted that we saw lots of military training camps on our drive to Polonnaruwa. A friend told us of lots of checkpoints in Colombo, and Aslam told us that whole streets in Colombo are closed when government officials are present. Indeed, there was a photo in the local paper of the US Ambassador on his way to a meeting with government officials walking though a street jammed with stopped cars when it was closed for seculity. So if you are going to Colombo, it might well have more impact on you. The airport has increased security. When you enter the airport, there is a checkpoint. Aslam said that as foreigners we would not be checked. He simply turned on the dome light in the car and answered where we were from and we were passed through. Friends had told us that our suitcases would be totally unpacked at the security check in the airport, but Aslam said that only happens occasionally. Indeed, our suitcases were x-rayed but we did not have to open them.

Since we were not going to Anuradhapura, we had a free day at the Kandalama. We thought having a free day after our 12 hour day was a good idea – and it was. We enjoyed the hotel and the wild grounds, and enjoyed watching wildlife from our windows. There are lots of monkeys (several different species), which are always fun to watch. We also saw a variety of birds from our room, and saw a herd of water buffalo. We didn’t see any of the wild elephants that the sign outside the hotel warns about, but I understand they are mostly present at night. The hotel has three pools, one with a really stunning view. It felt good to relax, as we had been really busy so far. The Kandalama has free wireless internet access, so we both took time to check our email and I wrote some brief comments on the board.

There were mosquitos at all of the places we visited, though they weren’t awful anywhere. I noticed I got bitten at the Kandalama and on the drive in Kandulla National Park the most, but I did get a few bites at Kandy and at Tea Trails. The Ancient Cities area is considered malarial risk, and we opted to take malarone.

Great report Kathie! Eagerly awaiting more. Welcome home!

Aloha!

I'm loving your report so far Kathy. Sri Lanka may just have moved to the top of my short list for next winter.

The next day we left for Sigiriya at 7 am. It’s only a 30 minute drive from the jandalama to Sigiriya. As it is quite a climb, you really want to get there early in the morning to avoid the intense heat. Again, Aslam had contacted an excellent guide for us. When people think of Sigiriya, they think of the “rock,” but Sigiriya also includes the best preserved city site from the fifth century. You walk through gardens with pools, both ornamental and for swimming, as well foundations of buildings from that time. The rock (actually an ancient magna plug from a volcano along worn away) is over 600 feet high. There are a number of modifications in the structure of the rock made by the people, some mimicking natural features of other parts of the rock such as creating what appear to be natural arches, shaping rock to look like elephants, enhancing natural depressions in the rock into caves, etc. There is a long series of stairs climbing the rock. Mercifully, there are lots of breaks, “landings” in the more than 1000 steps. Perhaps half way up are the famous frescos of Asparas. They are remarkable, really stunning! And they were faced by a mirror wall to give one the experience of being among the asparas. Unfortunately, the mirror wall is marred by graffiti, some of which is contemporary with the frescos. The comments on the wall from that time have given archaeologists new insights into people’s reaction to the frescos.

There is a plateau perhaps two thirds of the way up the rock. We stopped and rested, and I admit I chose to stay there while Cheryl climbed to the top. The view from the plateau was stunning and from the top, even more so. We went down a slightly different route, allowing us to see the paintings in the boulder garden area as well. There are many areas of the rock that were formerly painted. Indeed, it appears that the rock was originally painted in a band about 140 meters long which includes the still-present asparas. As before, we had an excellent guide who enhanced our experience of the site.

We decided to go to a nearby hotel for lunch but when we got there they had either a buffet that wasn’t nearly as extensive as the Kandalama’s or a la carte boring western food. So we decided not to stay.

On the way back to the Kandalama, we asked to stop at a batik place. Cheryl had not previously seen the batik process, so she was very interested to see it. While I had seen the process both in Bali and in Java, I noted that much more of the work here was “tulis” (by hand) and I did not see any stamped batik at this shop. We purchased two batiks of moonstones, one for us, one for a gift. We decided to eat lunch at the Gimhala resthouse where we had eaten lunch when we first arrived in Dambulla. The food again was quite good, and they made it spicy for us.

We returned to the Kandalama mid-afternoon. Cheryl and I both took a long bath in the fabulous jetted tub. It felt good to soak after the long climb up Sigiriya. We relaxed and enjoyed our last evening at the Kandalama. We really enjoyed our stay there – it’s a wonderful hotel. We’d both be glad to return to the Kandalama.

fabulous, simply fabulous!!

Excellent report Kathie! Please share some of your pictures too.

Great report! Thanks for sharing.

Kathie- you indicated that you wanted to visit a rain forest. I am an expert on rain forests- having lived in one for 4 years so if you have any questions just ask. Oh yes - where was it you might ask- why it was Portland, Oregon!!!!!

Thanks, everyone. There will be more installments later today.

Cheryl has been going over her photos and I will let you know when they are available on her website.

Bill, as I live in Seattle, I know what you mean about living in a rainforest.

I am really enjoying your report and Sri Lanka moves higher up my "must visit list" with each posting. Can't wait for more.

Kathie:
I, too, am enjoying very much. I visited Sri Lanka in 1972 and your report is kindling a desire to return.

I will stay tuned! Thanks for a good read!

bill---i thought you meant that you were staying on an extended stay at the oriental and they had one of their regular pipe leaks---brown water

Now Bob... the Oriental now markets this as an theraputic mineral bath!

Fantastic report Kathie!! I'm turning a deeper shade of green, the more I read it. Looking forward to more.

The next morning, Aslam picked us up at 8 am for our drive to Kandy. There are a number of spice gardens along the way, and we asked him to stop at one so we could buy some spices. I was especially interested in buying some vanilla beans. Apparently, Aslam had called one of the gardens and they told him they had vanilla. We toured the garden, and enjoyed seeing some spice plants we hadn’t seen before. They did indeed have a huge vanilla vine. The guide identified many spice plants, but what he wanted to talk about most were ayurvedic preparations made from spices. I must admit I had no interest in that. After his tour and talk, we went into the store and purchased a few spices (at good prices); their ayurvedic preparations were quite expensive. But it turned out that they had no vanilla beans, just the plants. (I noticed that Aslam was not happy about this, but I told him not to worry about it, I was sure we could find vanilla beans at a market in Kandy.)

We drove onward toward Kandy, about a two hour drive from the Kandalama. The Kandy House is located in the hills outside of Kandy. It is by no means easy to find and there are no signs for it (this was another time when we were glad we had Aslam as a driver). It was the home of an important minister to the last king of Kandy. You drive to an unmarked gate that is opened by a guard, and then into the beautiful grounds of Kandy House. The garden is lovely and there is a separate area with a swimming pool. The house is over 200 years old and became a boutique hotel in 2005. A historically sensitive restoration/remodel was directed by an associate of Geoffrey Rawa and was beautifully done. It has 8 suites and lovely public spaces. There is no air conditioning but the thick walls and large overhangs, central interior courtyard as well as the shady gardens help keep it cool. There are ceiling fans in the rooms. We had a “super deluxe gallery room,” which placed us on the second floor and gave us a small study opening to a shady verandah. The room price of $155++ included breakfast. The rooms are really lovely with nice bathrooms that include a shower and a huge free-standing tub. The toiletries are locally made with delightful items like a cinnamon shampoo and black pepper shower gel. The four-poster bed has working (as opposed to ornamental) mosquito netting.

If you look on sites like Trip Advisor, the Kandy House has had mixed reviews. It is now under new management, and is being run by a Sri Lankan woman. She is very gracious and has perfect English. We have nothing but wonderful things to say about the Kandy House. The staff was very accommodating. There are houseboys assigned to each room, and the one assigned to your room will take care of anything you need – from doing some laundry for you to serving you breakfast on your verandah. There are no safes in the room, but the office has a safe and they are very willing to lock up your valuables for you. There are no phones in the room, and as Aslam pointed out, no televisions. I have to admit I hadn’t noticed, as we don’t have a tv at home.

Kandy is supposed to be the place to shop in Sri Lanka. This is the place for crafts, for antiques, for gems. However, we were not impressed. Gem prices are VERY high. Even after bargaining, we found we could get stones for better prices in Bangkok even though the stones we looked at were mined in Sri Lanka. The special stones from Sri Lanka were the natural pink sapphires. We can buy them in Bangkok for about US$100 a carat (although retail in Bangkok is about US$200 a carat). We were quoted prices as high as US$1000 a carat in Kandy, and even after bargaining, the prices were often $500 a carat. There were nice tourmalines, and we bought some, though they weren’t a great bargain. The local crafts we found were not very high quality and the prices seemed quite high as well. The “antiques” were outrageously priced and we didn’t see anything I was really convinced was old. We did stop at another batik place in Kandy and I purchased a nice piece for a gift. There is a famous Buddhist bookshop in Kandy and we did purchase several books there.

We went back to the Kandy house for dinner, which is served any time after 7:30. The dinner is served on a verandah that adjoins a garden, a very pleasant setting. The dinner, which was a three course dinner of Asian-French fusion cuisine plus an after entrée salad, cost about US$23 per person. There were two choices for the appetizer and two for the entrée. All of the food was excellent. There is good wine by the glass as well as a small wine list.

After our dinner we were ready for sleep. While we were at dinner, our houseboy turned down our bed, closed the windows to prevent the mosquitoes from coming in as he turned on a light for us, and prepared the mosquito net. Once we were ready to go to bed, we re-opened the windows for air circulation and turned off the lights. While we had an occasional mosquito in the room, they were really not a problem for us. Mosquito nets work well. We slept well on the very comfortable (but very high) bed.

kathie, mahalo for taking the time to write and post this report. sri lanka is another place on my list to visit.

I forgot to mention that Aslam took us to a local place for a massage. Before returning us to the Kandy House for dinner. As you might imagine, it had no atmosphere at all. Near the beginning of the massage, the masseuse pours oil onto your forehead and into your hair. I know this is a traditional ayurvedic technique, but I could have done without it. The massage I would describe as vigorous. It’s not Thai massage, but it does involve a lot of pounding. After the massage, you are steamed… you enter a wooden chest with your head sticking out , the top is closed and you steam for about 15 minutes. This is not for the claustrophobic! Then you take a shower and wash the oil out of your hair. It was an unusual experience, but it did not make me yearn to go back.

We had arranged with our houseboy to have breakfast on our verandah in the morning. When we opened the door to our verandah, there was a table all set for us. The breakfast there is really excellent. You chose what you want from many course options. You get juice, a large plate of local fruit, cereal if you want it or curd (yogurt), and eggs and breakfast meats, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms plus tea or coffee. We tried the egg hoppers (an egg cooked in a rice flour crepe) and they were very good. With a breakfast like this, you can understand why we didn’t need lunch!

One of the criticisms of the Kandy House is that it is perhaps 15-20 minutes outside of Kandy. While it can take longer if you go at rush hour, I found this was not a problem. It was such a wonderful place to stay it didn’t bother me that it took us 15-20 minutes to get to Kandy.

Aslam picked us up and we headed into Kandy for the Temple of the Tooth. This is considered the holiest Buddhist site in Sri Lanka. The main street in front of the temple is closed and there is very tight security as the temple was bombed by the Tamil Tigers in 1998. Again, Aslam got us a very knowledgeable guide. He gave us lots of good background information as we walked through the grounds to the Temple. Before entering the temple there is a pat-down search. As we entered the temple, there was drumming beginning, and it lasted through much of our time in the temple. You go upstairs where the sanctuary for the tooth is located. There were a group of white-clothed VIPs there, and they were admitted into the room the tooth is kept in (apparently an unusual occurance). There were lots of people waiting to parade past the tooth when the gold doors are opened for a few minutes (you don’t see the tooth, but the gold casket in which it is kept). There were a number of women with infants, as it is considered important to take a child to the Temple of the Tooth before they are 18 months old. The women with the infants were allowed into a gated area to await the opening of the golden doors. We decided to stay to be able to walk past the opened doors to the tooth.

From there, we went back downstairs and were led through a number of rooms including a library of ancient documents incised on palm leaves. The guide had lots of good information, but I must admit that by this time I was thinking about next trip to Sri Lanka and how I’m looking forward to visiting some of these wonderful Buddhist sites without a guide!

We visited two bookstores and purchased a few books that are not available in the US. We purchased some Buddhist books and we purchased a book on identifying Sri Lankan birds.

Before we left, Aslam said he’d go to the market for us to buy vanilla beans. He said if we went, they would charge us much more. He brought back samples to the car of two types, we chose the one we wanted and he went back and bargained and we got the vanilla beans for about $.37 each (40 rupees). We gave him a 1000 rupee note, so we got a nice batch.

We returned to the Kandy House for a few leisurely hours. I would love to have had more time there just to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. We had scheduled reflexology session with the masseuse, but it turned out he was very ill and was admitted to the hospital that morning.

We then drove into town for a performance of Kandyan Dance. There are two different shows, and book Aslam and the manager of Kandy House named this as the best one. The dance show was very good, and was the only place we’d seen lots of westerners! The traditional dance was followed by fire-walking.

We returned to the Kandy House for dinner. Tonight was Sri Lankan curry night (about $18 per person). The curries were fine, but we were spoiled by the quality of the curries at the Kandalama.

We checked out the next morning after another wonderful breakfast on the verandah, and left feeling that we would have enjoyed spending another day in Kandy just to have time to walk around and get more of the atmosphere of the place. And I would certainly choose to stay at the Kandy House again!

There were several things we did not have time to do in the Kandy area, both the Botanical Garden and the Elephant orphanage sounded like places we wanted to visit. We’ll have to do those next trip.

The next morning, we left for Tea Trails, located in the hill country. It was probably a 3 hour drive from the Kandy House to Tea Trails. This was a very interesting drive through small towns in the hills. We began to see tea fields and continued to climb higher and higher. The road was mostly ok, though it was narrow and we had to share the road with buses, trucks, tractor-like vehicles (called land masters), bicycles and motor bikes, ox carts, dogs who like to sleep on the road, people often crossing without looking, and the occasional wandering cow. All vehicles feel compelled to pass the vehicle in front of them. You’ll pass a bus that is picking up passengers, and a few minutes later it will roar past you just before a curve. Drivers use their horns to communicate whether it is safe to pass, etc. Everyone cooperates to make this insane system work. The closer we got to Tea Trails, the more narrow the road became. We were driving though tea fields, watching the tea pickers, seeing the children coming home from school. Eventually, the road became a one lane dirt road.

Tea Trails is a collection of 4 old planters homes that have been refurbished and turned into a small boutique hotel. Located at 4000 ft elevation, it is significantly cooler here than anywhere else we’ve been. The houses are some distance apart, the other bungalows are 4 – 14 km away. Each bungalow has 4 – 6 rooms, there are 20 rooms in all. Each house has its own staff including a chef, a manager, various house staff and grounds keepers. When you make your reservations, you choose the bungalow you want and the type of room. We opted for the Castlereigh, as I wanted to be right on the reservoir. One other bungalow over looks the reservoir, Summerville, but it is higher up the hillside on the other side of the water. The other two bungalows, Tientsin and Norwood, overlook the tea fields.

We arrived at Castlereigh, the guard opened the gate, we drove to the bottom of the steps and we were met by several staff members. Our luggage was whisked away and we were invited up the walk and into the library for a welcome drink of fresh juice. The bungalow is beautiful, like an English country house. The public areas consist of the library, the drawing room, the dining room and the verandah. The grounds are lovely, and Castlereigh has a swimming pool. There are 5 rooms in Castlereigh. Each room is quite large with a four poster bed with working mosquito nets, a big armoire, a desk and sitting area and a huge bathroom with double sinks and a big claw foot tub. The rooms feel even bigger as they have 14 foot ceilings. There is no air conditioning (not needed) but there are ceiling fans. As at the Kandy House, there are no telephones and no televisions, no internet access (actually, at both places, the office has dial-up access which is very slow, but in a pinch, you could use it if you had to send an email). There are safes in the rooms. They do not hand out keys to the rooms routinely, but you can ask if you want a room key. We simply left our room unlocked, as almost everyone else did.

The price for the rooms is all-inclusive of four meals a day, wine and before dinner drinks. The chef came out and met us, told us his suggested menu for lunch (he will make something different if you ask). We were asked what time we wanted lunch served and we went to our wonderful suite to unpack. Our room overlooked the lake. There are also rooms that face the garden, and have a small terrace. It was time for lunch, and we sat on the verandah and were served a beautiful three-course lunch with wine. Our choice of wonderful single origin Dilmah teas were served after dessert. I appreciated that the food portions are small. As you finish lunch, you are asked what time you want high tea, and as you finish tea, the chef tells you his recommendations for dinner and you tell him what time you want to eat. It seemed like an endless cycle of eating and preparing to eat!

All of the food is cooked on site, often using fresh vegetables from the gardens. The food was excellent and beautifully presented. We soon learned what made sense in terms of the meals. While they will cook you a full English breakfast, I opted instead for a lovely fruit plate and a warm croissant. The lunch consisted of a soup, a small entrée and a small dessert. I had a glass of wine with lunch each day. The house wines are a Chilean Chardonnay and a Chilean Cabernet. Both were good. High tea consisted of a half a tea sandwich, crusts carefully trimmed, a half a slice each of two different loaf cakes (pound cake, banana cake, chocolate cake, etc.) and a small scone and a small lemon tart for each person. Lovely Devonshire cream and an excellent jam were accompaniments. Of course, you choose from the lovely Dilmah teas. Before dinner, people congregate around the fire in the drawing room for drinks. One of the staff will mix you drinks from their bar or pour you a glass of sherry. Dinner was again three courses with red or white wine available. While it sounds like a lot, the portions were such that the food was not too much. (And we both came home a few pounds lighter.) All meals are typically served on the verandah with the exception of curry night. It cools down quickly once the sun goes down. We were grateful for the propane heaters they light at dinner time!

One night there was a curry night, and the meal was served family style in the dining room. We had a lot of fun getting to know the other people staying there. What an interesting variety of people!

There are trails, and we were given a map and headed out to walk through the tea fields. While it is cooler than other parts of Sri Lanka, we quickly decided that right after lunch is not the best time to walk. The sun is very direct and we quickly felt hot out in the tea fields. We moved to walking after breakfast and/or after high tea. We loved walking at Castlereigh. Everyone around is so friendly. We waved to various workers, the children came and talked to us, all wanted to practice their English. Sometimes a child would ask for money. As we never carried any money there, we simply said we didn’t have any and they continued to chat with us. Cheryl would take their pictures, and let them see the photos on her camera, which they enjoyed.

We brought books to read, but all of the rooms are furnished with an interesting assortment of books about Sri Lanka. We read some of our own books and some of their books. We walked every day. Cheryl took lots of photos, and got into photographing birds and identifying them. You’ll see some her handiwork when the photos are posted on her website.

There are a number of activities available, such as white-water rafting perhaps an hour’s drive away, bicycling, etc. These cost extra. There are also spa treatments available in your room. We didn’t try these, either. I guess we were so relaxed we didn’t need them! They offer a (free) tour to the tea factory that was really excellent. We learned so much about the process of making tea from the growing of the plants to the plucking of the leaves through the fermentation process and the tea tasting and auction process. You can buy the Dilmah teas at the bungalow, and we brought back quite a bit. These are unusual single origin teas that I have never seen for sale in the US.

We spent four wonderful days and nights at Tea Trails. We loved it, and will return. It was the best “resort” experience I’ve ever had. The setting is idyllic, the bungalows are lovely with every comfort, the staff is gracious and helpful without being intrusive or fawning, the food is excellent. What more could you want?

Kathie,

I just gained 5 pounds reading about your time at Tea Trails. Sounds like you had a moving experience there. Thanks for sharing and all the wonderful details....sounds like a place we should put on our list.

Ask lavendarstreak not to edit out all the pictures, lol

Aloha!

i think craig must be jumping out of his skin awaiting his arrival in sri lanka....i know i am and i have no current plans to visit in the next year...darn!!

cost of tea trails??

Tea Trails sounds like it lived up to its billing and more. Good to hear about the small food portion sizes. We are also staying at Castlereigh but only for 3 nights (darn!). Did you visit any of the other bungalows and was it warm enough to use the pool in the afternoon?

Fabulous report, Kathie. Now I REALLY want to go!

Thanks everyone. I'll try to finish up the report tonight if I can.

Cost of Tea Trails was $385++ per night for two persons.

Craig, it was certainly hot enough to use the pool during the day. It was at night that it really cooled down. We visited Summerville on the other side of the lake from Castlereigh. It looks down on the lake from much higher above the lake than Castlereigh. It was also lovely. It's smaller, only 4 rooms. The public areas are oriented to the lake, and none of the rooms overlook the lake, but at least some of the rooms open to the garden where you can sit and enjoy a view of the lake. I could certainly stay there. At Castlereigh, we had the Tate room, which was my favorite after looking at all the rooms.

While four nights at Tea Trails was bliss, we were the people who stayed the longest of the people we met while we were there. There were several people who stayed only one night.

Kathie, I'm so happy to read all the lovely things you write, wish more people will visit our beautiful island.

More questions, Kathie -

At Kandalama were you able to eat an early breakfast before visiting Sigiriya? If Anaradhapura is safe, we anticipate doing Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa on the same day and Anaradhapura the next. We would want to avoid backtracking. Some how we've got to fit the caves in also. It may all be moot if we can't go to Anaradhapura. Any thoughts on this?

We are planning on stopping at the elephant orphanage on the way to Kandalama from the airport. Our flight arrives at 8:15 AM which should give us more than enough time to get there for the 1 PM feeding and 2 PM bathing of the elephants. If the trip from Negombo took you only 3 hours without the detour to the orphanage, we should arrive at Kandalama late afternoon don't you think?

I was sorry to hear that you missed the botanical gardens near Kandy. We will not be overnighting in Kandy but want to stop in that area on the way to Tea Trails from Kandalama. Does the Temple of the Tooth take much time? Also, Mohammed had recommended the Kandy Arts and Crafts Center for high quality crafts. Were you able to get there? We also plan on stopping at one of the spice gardens. Hopefully if we get an early start we can arrive at Tea Trails in time to enjoy high tea. Do you think this is realistic?

Did Cheryl feel there were good photo ops on the drive from Kandy to Tea Trails? Was stopping along the way difficult?

Did you use your driver while at Tea Trails to take you to the other bungalow or to the tea factory? We were thinking of taking the train from Hatton to Nanu Oya, returning by car - did you run into anyone that did that? Any idea how long that takes? On the Tea Trails web site it says that the unguided walks using their trail map are 1/2 hour to an hour - are there several different walks at each bungalow? It sounds like you were able to meet local people and had some good photo ops on these walks - if so we will be sure to make the time to do this.

Thanks for your help. February can't come soon enough!

i told you he is jumping with joy...and questions

Kathie...I am really enjoying your report. Hopefully it will get Bob to move SL up higher on our list. I notice you mention salads several times...did you eat them? I think you are the only other cautious eater other than me (must be the nurse background.) Are the batik fabrics in a animal, flower or, geometric designs? Keep it comming. Karen

Mohammed, I'm glad you are enjoying my report.

Craig, we were able to eat breakfast before heading to Sigiriya, as breakfast starts at 6:30. I think you could do Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa on the same day. The Dambulla caves don't take a long time, a couple of hours at most from "door to door" (pickup at the Kandalama to back at the Kandalama). For me, the caves were more important than the elephant orphanage. We did the caves the first day after checking in and getting settled at the Kandalama.

I don't have a great sense of exactly where the elephant orpanage is, so I can't give you an estimate of whether your time table would work.

We spent a couple of hours at the Temple of the Tooth, 30 minutes of that awaiting being able to walk by the door to the tooth. Not everyone would spend that much time there.

You have a lot you are trying to fit in on the way from the Kadalama to Tea Trails... I don't think it's realistic. In addition to about 5 hours of driving, you want to stop at the botanical gardens, Temple of the Tooth, shopping and spice gardens and get to Tea Trails for high tea. I would cut some of that.

The drive between Kandy and Tea Trails was very interesting - you'll see some of Cheryl's photos from that drive. It's generally not hard to stop for photos... when you see the road you'll understand that there are times when pulling over isn't feasible... Cheryl did a lot of photography from the moving car and has gotten quite good at it.

We did not use our driver while at Tea Trails. Our driver seemed a bit disappointed. We had his cell phone number and he made it clear that he was available for any place we wanted to go. (He asked our permission to be unavailable for two hours one day we were at Tea Trails so he could go to Mosque. I mention this into illustrate how available he was to us.) He stopped by Tea Trails one day to chat with us and check in about whether there were any places we wanted to go. Tea Trails provides transport to the tea factory. We could have used our driver to visit all of the bungalows, but didn't... we really wanted to relax. We visited Summervile as we were leaving Tea Trails.

We didn't run into anyone who had done the Hatton to Nanu Oya train ride. It's offered as an excursion by Tea Trails, but I don't remembr how long they said it would take.

There are several different walks at each bungalow. The walks can certainly be much longer. One day we did the long loop (there is a longer loop and a shorter loop). Cheryl stopped for lots of photos and we stopped and talked with people and it took us 2 hours. There are great photo ops - you'll see when the pictures are posted. We really enjoyed the walks! You can have your driver take you to another bungalow for lunch and explore the area around another bungalow.

Do make sure you spend some of your time at Tea Trails relaxing and enjoying being there - it's such a fabulous experience.

Karen, there are lots of batik options. I wanted something uniquely Sri Lankan, so bought batik pieces of the carved moonstones at Polonnaruwa. We were buying art pieces rather than yard goods.

Karen, we did eat salads, fresh fruit, everything at our hotels with no problem.

Thanks for mentioning Kandalama on the other post. I checked it out in your report. So the eles are creatures of the night at this place!

Alas, all good things must come to an end. The day came when it was time to go back to Negombo to fly to Bangkok. It’s about a 4 – 4.5 hour drive from Tea Trails to Negombo. We took a different route than when we came. The roads were narrower and the country more rural. We drove past rubber trees being tapped. We were going to drive past the place where the movie Bridge over the River Kwai was filmed, so we stopped. It was not exciting. A man who played the native boy in the film will show you the site. There isn’t much to see, but this guy has parlayed his role in a move 50 years ago into a living. He believes he is the last person alive from that film. Would I recommend this as a stop? Only for the most die-hard movie fan.

From there we stopped at another resthouse for a light lunch before going on to Negombo. This resthouse has a lovely view overlooking the river. The setting is really pleasant. We ordered some sparkling water, and once it arrived and was poured, we noticed it was tonic water. I called this to the attention of our server, but she acted like she didn’t know what to do about it and wandered away. I turned around and asked the guy at the bar if they had soda water. He said yes, of course. I pointed out we had gotten tonic water in error. I thought he was going to do something about it, but we sat and waited. Eventually another server arrived. I pointed out that we had been brought the wrong drinks, and he promptly took them away and brought us soda water. He told us the buffet was open. We looked at their a la carte menu, but it was not helpful. We had good Sri Lanka food at another resthouse, so Cheryl went to the buffet. When she got back I went. The chicken curry looked to me like it had spent way too much time on buffet tables, so I suspected it had been out last night as well. I opted for vegetarian dishes. When I sat down at the table and ate a bite of dahl and rice, I noted that all of the food was cold. I told Cheryl and she said, yeah, my food is cold too. “Don’t eat it! – that’s perhaps the most common way to get food poisoning.” I waved the server over and asked for our bill. He saw we’d eaten almost nothing and asked if the food was too spicy and I told him the buffet food (which had been brought out from the kitchen not 10 minutes earlier) was cold. He sort of shrugged and brought us our bill. He charged us for the buffet, and I simply paid it and walked out. I recount this whole episode because it was the only bad experience we had in Sri Lanka both in terms of poor service and poor food.

We drove on toward Negombo through very interesting countryside. Once in Negombo, Aslam took us to The Beach, the best hotel in Negombo. While it was fine, I was glad we didn’t spend $200 to stay there rather than the Villa Araliya for $65. Indeed, the Villa Araliya was a more interesting place in terms of design. We arrived in time to see the beach in the sunshine, walk a bit, drink tea and take some photos. Then we went to their best restaurant, Black Coral, for a nice dinner. The food and service were both quite good. After our leisurely dinner, Aslam drove us to the airport. We had only a very brief stop at security as we drove into the airport, as Aslam had predicted.

We settled up with Aslam for the extra mileage (BSL had underestimated how far we would drive, clearly an error on their part as we really didn’t do any extra driving and in fact didn’t visit some of the more far flung places they had on the agenda). We also tipped Aslam very generously – he earned it – and bid him a warm goodbye.

Within a couple of hours we were winging our way back to Bangkok.

Some general comments about Sri Lanka and Boutique Sri Lanka: We found the people to be warm and welcoming. Often people commented to us upon hearing that we were from the US that they rarely have visitors from the US. Indeed, while we chatted with many fellow travelers, we met only two people from the US. The tourism industry has really been hard hit by the fall-off in tourism. The people we dealt with were all exceptionally accommodating. At times, I had a sense of their desperation about having so few tourists and so little income.

Boutique Sri Lanka is a class act. They are thorough and efficient (the error on mileage was apparently an aberration). They followed up with us in-country and they emailed me a questionnaire which I have not yet completed – Fodors report first! BSL gives you a brochure about traveling in Sri Lanka once you get there. They do talk about tipping and how half of a waiter’s wages are from the tips. They encourage you to pay the service charge added to restaurant bills or if none is added, to tip perhaps 10%. I have to say it never occurred to me not to pay a billed service charge! They also say that your driver will know the best guides in each place, and that you should bargain with the guides, starting by taking 30% off what the driver says you should pay. We never did that. Aslam suggested $5 for the guides and that was the least we paid any of them. They were all excellent, and I felt we got very good value for our money.

Afterward: Cheryl developed food poisoning after we got to Bangkok. The cold buffet food is the prime suspect. She had the “opportunity” to use Bumrungrad’s excellent care after the medications we brought with us were ineffective.

Conclusions: It was a fabulous trip; we had a great time. We learned so much, had so many new experiences. We are aware that we have only scratched the surface of this fascinating country. There is much we want to do on our next trip: Anuradhapura, visit the Dambulla caves and Temple of the Tooth without a guide, stay in the rainforest at Boulder Gardens, perhaps go to Yala (awaiting Crai’g report to know for sure), return to Tea Trails, and perhaps even visit a beach… oops that’s probably too much for just one trip! Yes, in spite of the unfortunate food poisoning, we will return.

SIMPLY THE BEST REPORT I HAVE READ RECENTLY!!!

but then we expect that from you...

hope cheryl is back on the road of good health...

welcome home....

Sorry to hear about your travel companion Cheryl's spot of bother with food poisoning. Hopefully it was nothing too serious and did not spoil your stopover in Bangkok. (mmm I do love those Thai green curries and a raw papaya salad with steamed rice)

From your description it does sound like the stale chicken curry was the culprit. Would you know the name of this place?

Hi again Kathie,

Did you stop at a place called the "Plantation Hotel", smallish entrance with a steep walk down steps to the rustic looking restaurant surrounded by greenery and foliage by the river?

I tried to find the name of the place before I posted the last part of my report, but couldn't. We finally found the name of the place in Cheryl's photos: Kithulgala Resthouse, run by Ceylon Hotels Corporation. We ate at two other resthouses run by Ceylon Hotels Corp, both were excellent. Cheryl only had a couiple of bites of the food - but that was all it took (as GPanda's two sips of tap water).

Fabulous report...I can't wait to go! Sorry to hear Cheryl got sick.Just goes to prove you do need to be careful of buffets. Can't wait for the pictures...give Cherly a nuge...Glad you are home safely. Did you do anything in BKK?

Kathie and Cheryl,

Do you take doxycycline when you visit 3rd World Countries?

Doc

Dr Ralph, no we don't take doxy with us, we are currently carrying levaquin, our travel doc's recommendation for that part of the world. Since Cheryl developed a rash after the second dose of levaquin, we went to Bumrungrad and she was prescribed something from a different class of antibiotics.

Ok, the photos are online now. I have to warn you there are a LOT of photos. They are divided into categories, so you can choose the ones that interest you. Each category is a slideshow.

Go to www.marlandc.com and click in Sri Lanka 2007 in the bottom row.

Thank you Kathie anc Cheryl! Very nice pictures.

Kathie and Cheryl,

Thanks for sharing your awesome pictures of not only Sri Lanka but your travels since 1999.

We spent over three weeks in Sri Lanka this past June and enjoyed it very much. My wife met a very knowelegable guy from Wales on Fodors who is madly in love with Sri Lanka and visits a couple of times a year. Thru Fodors and emails he laid out a turn key trip for us. We tried to hook up with him and his wife in Negombo but missed by a day. As luck would have it, we were eating in a restaurant on the roof of the hotel that we were staying in Kandy. I looked over and saw this couple and asked the gal if her name was Val. I guess it was meant to be that we would hook up. We talked for hours. I think I put my foot in my mouth when I made a comment to him that if he is madly in love with Sri Lanka, he would be enthralled with Ubud or Sulawesi in Indonesia. I can't put my finger on it, but Sri Lanka came up a bit short to us. Maybe the people are still in shock from the Tsunami. Maybe the never ending disagreement with the Tigers has taken a toll on the locals, or maybe it's the thievery of the government over the Tsunami money. We never felt threatened or in danger during our three plus weeks there. We met wonderful people, saw spectacular sights, ate delicious food, and thanks to the doxycycline did not get sick. Yes, it is a wonderful, beautiful country. We may come back again, but there are other countries to put our feet on first.

We're off to Kenya and Tanzania on the 22nd of this month. I usually get excited about a trip about 3 weeks from departure. Yesterday was the 3 week mark. I'm excited.

Another fabulous destination for you and Cheryl to visit is India and Nepal. We went last December and January and are returning next June and July.

Thanks again for sharing your travels with us.

Happy Holidays,
Doc

Thanks for sharing the photos, Kathie. Cheryl did a great job. Its nice to get a sneak preview of our trip and now I know we need to allow more time to take pictures as the flora and fauna are more amazing than I had imagined. I see a little bit of India in Sri Lanka in the photos of everyday life (people, buildings, markets etc.) but obviously a much stronger Buddhist influence in the religious architecture.

india would be an excellent next trip for you but only if you narrow it to a small area if you only have 2 weeks. But it would continue and build on what you've learned in Sri lanka.

Hi Kathie,

I had a look at your friends photos and they are really nice, it was like a grand tour of my own country and I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed them. I guess seeing things from a visitors eyes is refreshing.

Regards
Mohammed

Thanks for all of your nice comments, and Cheryl says thanks as well.

India is one of the places on our list of possible destinations for next year. I posted a question here about the new "Buddhist Train." If any of you know anything about it, please do comment on that thread. I'd be interested in the input of those of you who have spent time in India.

"I made a comment to him that if he is madly in love with Sri Lanka, he would be enthralled with Ubud "

I can't imagine why for a moment.

There are loads of things about Sri Lanka - the widespread use of real English, cricket, a grown-up attitude to the country's colonial history (as opposed to the endless victimisation whines you get in Indonesia), a wide choice of national newspapers written by people to whom English is virtually a first language, a near-decent national health service all can access, a semi-honest attitude to terrorism, a fair smattering of good bookshops, properly preserved ancient ruins, serious museums, properly educated and articulate guides almost everywhere and an almost healthy tourist industry that doesn't depend on Westerners - that make it completely different from Bali. And for many of us, infinitely more appealing.

I can easily understand why many might prefer Bali - though can't begin to agree with them. But I can't understand why anyone could possibly presume to predict other people's tastes. Many of us who rather love Sri Lanka find Bali close to completely vacuous.

If you found Bali vacuous, you probably never got out of Kuta Beach!

We did enjoy and had a great vacation in Sri Lanka. We were not sorry in the least that we went.

In Indonesia, you will not find the guy outside the Temple of The Tooth popping his arm out of his shoulder, nor the guy who gets on the train all day long from Colombo to Negombo with the elephant leg.

great pics...we loved them

Thanks, Bob. It was really a wonderful trip!

Kathie,

Been away from the computer for the weekend and just got to see the fantastic photos! Loved the elephant photos, you really looked relaxed up there while Cheryl looked really excited.

Another stellar job Cheryl on the pictures!

Aloha!

Loved the pix. I am getting Bob to start planning fro 2009 (2008 is all booked up.) Enjoyed the flower and birds, and the market places. Lots of step climbing!! karen

Thanks to everyone for your compliments about my pictures! I worked on the site every minute not at work last week to get them up as soon as I possibly could. As always, I really enjoyed taking the pictures - there was so much to take picures of - and then enjoyed creating the site almost as much. Thanks for taking a look.

~Cheryl

cheryl....wait until you start taking pics in india....

Kathie, while rereading your report I noticed that you quote the prices of attractions and your guides in dollars. Could you expound upon how much you needed in Rupees and/or Dollars for day-to-day expenses and which is better to use? With the exception of Villa Araliya, our lodging will either be taken care of in advance or will accept credit cards so no need to talk about that. We are also working out payment directly with our driver. Thanks in advance for your help.

Craig, it was interesting that the Unesco sites list admission prices in US$. They will take either currency, though later in the trip, I found one place that only wanted rupees. Likewise, our driver quoted prices of guides in US$ and we paid them in either currency.

I was really suprised that prices were quoted in US$ and was frankly not prepared for that. However, it just so happened that I forgot to take the US$ out of my wallet (other than the $100s I carry bas emergency money) and so I had US$ in appropriate change to get me through most of the time in Sri Lanka. I prefer to use the local currency unless I get specific requests for US$.

Wow Kathie! You and Cheryl set a very high standard for trip reports! I love the mood evoked by your pictures Cheryl.

While 2008 includes no plans for Asia, 2009 is wide open and Sri Lanka has been edging ever higher up my list...

Thanks for all the details. I feel I might be boring people when I write, but I hung on to every scrap you included. Delicious.

Thanks, Femi. It really was a fabulous trip!

Topping for impacked

Kathie, we are leaving in 9 days. The situation in SL right now is such that overnight camping is no longer allowed so we have had to make some adjustments to our itinerary. The 2 night safari is completely out and being replaced by a night at Kandy House and an extra night at Tea Trails (where we have upgraded to a Master Suite). Boutique Sri Lanka has been extremely helpful in making the necessary changes. They have also recommended avoiding Anuradhapura.

My question is regarding our 3 nights at Kandalama. Our flight arrives early am and we expect to do what you did and visit the caves in the late afternoon of our first day. We'll have 2 full days after that and expect to do Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya. I am wondering if we should try to work in an early afternoon or early morning safari. I see that you went to Kandulla Park. There is also Minneriya which is closer to Kandalama. Any reason you chose Kandulla over Minneriya? I am not sure we would be excited about a 12 hour day since we don't have an extra "free" day like you did.

craig: I assume you're aware of this:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gZGcTRtJMZLW0vCle1z0quu3y2TgD8UI3PKO1

Dogster - I was aware of this most disturbing development. You won't see me traveling anywhere by bus thats for sure. We continue to closely monitor the situation.

Craig, here are my thoughts:

First, I think adding a night at Kandy House and an additional night at Tea Trails is exactly the right thing to do. BTW, we toured the Master Suite at Summerville (?) and it was really fabulous.

I'd suggest considering a safari drive on the late afternoon after Sigiriya.

You want to go to Sigiriya early, so you are not climbing in the heat. You could then have a leisurely afternoon at the Kandalama, and a jeep safari in the late afternnon. Early mornings and late afternoons are the best times for wildlife viewing.

I must admit that we really didn't make a conscious decision about where to do the jeep safari. We hadn't even realized it was an option until our driver mentioned it. He recommended Kandulla, so we went with it. You might ask BSL what the considerations are for Kandulla vs. Minneriya. Kandulla does have a resident herd of about 250 wild elephants.

I've been thinking of you and Jeanne as you are preparing for your trip. It is unfortunate that things have continued to heat up in SL.

The terrorist have indeed made things very ugly and very sad here. The incidents at the railway station and the bus are just so horrendous. There is a lot of security presence on the streets especially in Colombo.

I was in the hills at Nuwara Eliya (tea country) over the Feb 4th Independence day long week end with my family and we had a lovely time. Very peaceful and beautiful holiday. All the way up and down not a single issue. We visited two tea factories, Pedro and Dessford, while it was partly business for me, it was a touristic tour for my children. Quite a few British tourists were at the Grand Hotel and the golf club was packed too. We sat on the lawns, had scones and cheese toast for tea, my daughter had a few golf lessons, we went on a small hike, shopped in the bale bazaar where I stocked up on some brand name jackets for my forthcoming South African trip, and basically we had a super time. We drove up via the Kithulgala/Hatton route and returned via the Kandy route both ways very nice. The weather was just gorgeous!

The previous weekend we were at Galle for the Galle Literary Festival where we attended talks at some very historic venues inside the Galle Fort. We listened to and interacted with many internationally famed authors which included the likes of Gore Vidal, Alexandar Mcall Smith and Vikram Seth. We lazed on Unnawatuna beach which was divine, I've never seen the beach look so good in the past 10 years! One afternoon I went on an evening drive further down the coast to take some sunset photos and visit a Cinnamon Plantation near Matara.

The streets in Colombo are peaceful and you can go about freely. Just avoid the obvious places like bus stands, public busses, railway stations and trains and crowded places. Whilst the incidents are very ugly and dastardly acts of terrorism, and people and children too have died, they are still isolated and they are blown out of proportion by the media. Sadly the media attention does not focus equally on day to day issues like how many died in road accidents and snow storms etc.

I believe the basic good nature of the average person on the streets still makes Sri Lanka one of the safer places for a tourist to roam.

I can also endorse Kathie's advice.

...."I am wondering if we should try to work in an early afternoon or early morning safari. I see that you went to Kandulla Park. There is also Minneriya which is closer to Kandalama. Any reason you chose Kandulla over Minneriya?".....

To answer above, evening for sure is way better as the elephants come out of the forest to drink at the tank (large lake) in the evenings. Between Kaudulla and Minneriya, one has to decide on the day as the herds move from one to the other. Both are a similar distance.

Mohammed, I am also thinking about a safari from Tangalle as an alternative - do you think Bundala would be a good option? If so, any idea how long it would take to drive there from Tangalle?

Craig,

Bundala is a nice park mainly for birds, especially migratory shore birds and usually a few elephants. Its about 2 hours from Tangalle. Where is Tangalle are you staying? Any particular reason for choosing Tangalle? Are you staying in Galle vicinity too?

Sorry, I meant "where in" Tangalle are you staying....

Mohammad,

2 hours may be a little farther than we want to travel. If you had to choose, would you do a safari from Kandalama or Tangalle?

We were originally going to stay 2 nights in Yala before they closed it to overnight camping - Tangalle is not far from there and that that is one of the reasons we chose it. Also, we wanted a quiet beach destination, not a resort area. We are staying at a villa called Lansiya - we will have the place to ourselves (except for the our private chef) and are very much looking forward to it.

We have a long drive from Tangalle to Negombo where we will stay the night before our flight home. We hope to get an early start and spend a couple of hours exploring the Galle Fort area.

Hi

Depending on how much time you have in Kandalama and Tangalle suggest you visit both Kaudulla/Minneriya and Bundala,they are quite different landscapes. You can decide these things on the spot.

Lansiya sounds nice, it is actually a small house owned by a friend of mine though I have never seen it. Tangalle is a sleepy little fishing village, you can get good lobsters and prawns etc so get the chef to buy some and do a BBQ for you. The beach is mostly rocky coves, but you should have some privacy. If you want vast stretches of sandy beach you need to drive up near Mirrissa. Nearby Dondra light house is worth a visit. There is also a Kuda Blow Hole nearby but it is imho highly over rated and requires a walk through a crowded fishing hamlet. Galle has a lot of life and Hikkaduwa is full of beach bars, restaurants etc, but this is too far away if your based in Tangalle.
Tangalle to Negombo is a long drive at least 6 hours, try not to rush through as it is a lot of fun to stop by little places. Do stop at the king coconut sellers along the way and drink one (the orange ones) they are very sweet and good for your health too. The green ones are tasty but full of cholesterol. The beaches are best in the mornings. Feel free to stop and slip on your trunks and take a dip anywhere. the Mirrissa, Weligama, Unnawatuna stretches have some lovely spots. Galle fort is best at sunset. There is a sweet little pizza parlour just inside the fort entrance called Anura's Pizza, which is also featured in lonely planet. Nice for snack lunch on the run.

If I were you I leave my booking flexible and move along the coastline at will as most places have rooms a begging at bargains these days.

I am wondering how different it would be after 3 years you wrote this report. I am planning for Sri Lanka after Vietnam too. Very interesting. Thanks.

We are planning a trip to Sri Lanka in Feb 2011, so are glad to see this thread re-appear.
We have twelve days on the ground and 4 of these must be at the beach at the end.
So.......what are the 'must do's'?
Any and all advice will be much appreciated.

Leigh, why don't you start a new thread? You'll get more responses. I'll think about what I might recommend for you.

Have been rereading this since I'm currently traveling in Sri Lanka and had to mention how amused I was by your description of the drive up to Tea Trails. I just got here from India, and nearly went into culture shock because the traffic was so quiet and orderly in comparison! Do you still feel the same now you've been to India?

A trip to Sri Lanka is good preparation for India! We met people at Glenburn, British ex-pats living in Delhi, who said when they went to Sri Lanka, the first thing the woman said was "you could eat off the floors here - everyhting is so clean!" If we return to Sri Lanka this year (one of two places we are considering) I expect it will feel totally different to us. Dogster calls it "India lite" and that seems accurate.

Well, maybe a little unkind, it is its own country... But yes, after India it's so quiet and so clean and so free of trash, and has fewer beggars and less pushy sales people, and the motor cycle riders - and their one and only passenger - wear helmets... You have to wonder whether it's the difference between Hinduism and Buddhism.

I felt like that when I entered Nepal from India. It seemed like a different world in which I could finally catch my breath.

I didn't in any way mean to be insulting to Sri Lanka when I quoted dogster's "India lite" comment, he says the same thing about Nepal. I didn't know what he meant until I experienced India. All three countries are unique.

Kathie, I am glad to hear that you will be returning tomSri Lanka, this time around you should be able to really explore more into the North and east too now that the horrible war is over.

Kathie, thank you for your most wonderful trip report. You made Sri Lanka come alive a bit for me as I begin to think about and plan my visit.

Kathies - just read this for the third time [as part of our trip planning] and I get more out of it every time - thanks!