So we left Heathrow airport on the evening on Wed 19th of August at 9.30pm and flew through the night (Sri Lankan Airways) to Colombo - Sri Lanka's international airport. The flight was good, with a generous in flight bar service (that obviously was much appreciated!) and 2 meals - dinner @ 11.30pm and breakfast at 4.30am....our poor body clock's didn't know what was going on!
We arrived at 12.30pm local time (20th) and were greeted with a hot and humid climate that almost immediately brought us out in a sweat! The airport was fairly easy to navigate around and we found our baggage without too much trouble. Laden with our large backpacks we headed out to book a taxi. We decided to stick with the airport booking service as although expensive, took all of the stress out of having to find one ourselves.
When we showed the taxi man our booking ticket followed by the hotel details, he scratched his head and shook it vigorously muttering something in Sri Lankan. He showed his fellow taxi rivers the address of our hotel, all of whom again shook their heads.....worrying...anyhow...the taxi man helped us put our bags into the back of the cab and ushered us inside. Once outside the airport and driving down the busy roads we were excited for what Sri Lanka would have in store for us. After about 15 minutes of driving the taxi driver pulled over, showing our hotel address to a local. They pointed in the direction we were going (reassuring) and so the taxi man got back in and we continued to drive. However, a few minutes later he pulled over again to ask another person who again pointed in the direction we were going. After a few hundred yards I saw a sign pointing right with our hotel name 'Summerside Residence' (http://www.summersideresidence.com/) I told the taxi driver to turn right, he looked confused pulling over again to ask a passer-by, but this time seemed to have a longer more fruitful conversation, he smiled and turned to us saying 'I know' before pulling off. A few minutes later, rather sweaty from the journey we heaved our bags out of the car into the safety of the hotel. They were thankfully expecting us and took the booking confirmation from us before taking us upstairs to our room.
The room was light airy and modern with a lovely bathroom and balcony - Also the air-con worked beautifully. We got changed out of our travelling clothes and opted for some smaller beach clothes so that we could get out and enjoy the sunshine.
We walked past street vendors, stopping at one to buy some water (1.5ltr -85 LKR - about 40p) before finding the walkway through to the beach. BOY were we pleased...At this point we knew exactly why we were here! We walked up and down the beach watching the fisherman boats and children playing in the sea before deciding to sit in one of the beach bars and have a well deserved beer! It felt amazing to have the sand between our toes and sun on our backs - It was a far cry from the weather forecast we had seen stating it would be raining!
The local Sri Lankan beer is Lion and very refreshing. We ordered large bottles, costing around £1.50 each, so not too expensive. After spending some time unwinding we decided we really needed to head back and shower before eating. Probably not the best move as this made both of us realise how exhausted we were and when we were both dressed we realised that there was no way we wanted to go and sit in a restaurant. Thankfully there was a street vendor on our road serving portions of fried rice. We ordered 2 which came to 750 LKR (About £3) we then proceeded to take this back to our room to enjoy before falling into bed and sleeping like babies until the morning.
21st
We awoke and had breakfast - which was amazing - omelette, fresh fruits, yogurt & toast!
Then found ourselves a room for the night online before heading upstairs and collecting our bags. We got a tuk tuk to Negombo City where we had booked a room to stay - It was close to the bus station which was what we needed for our early morning bus on the 22nd. However, on arrival (Mazz's Homestay) there had been an issue with agoda's booking system and the room had actually already been booked! Rome the owner was very kind - making us coffee and offering to sort us an alternative hotel. We declined his offer of a beach hotel as we had just come from there and wanted to be close to the bus stn so he took us to look at a hotel that was mainly used by the locals. It looked fine and we didn't want to cause too much of a fuss so took it. It didn't come with breakfast so Rome offered for us to go back there before our bus journey. We decided to go into the city and take a walk around. By this point the sun was very hot. We soon realised that Negombo city had nothing really to offer tourists - there weren't really many cafes or restaurants and certainly no bars. After getting very hot and sweaty and having achieved not much more than having lunch and sorting a local SIM, we returned to our hotel room. On closer inspection we realised the place couldn't have seen a mop or duster in years, the window was broken and the bed filthy. Thankfully we had packed our own pillowcases and cotton sleeping bag liners!
We found a local restaurant for dinner and had Veg fried rice & Chicken Kothu (A very yummy local dish). We also had some Paratha with a 'curry gravy' which again was very nice. Having filled our boots on only 350LKR we headed home, stopping in a local "Wine shop" for 2 Lions in the hope it might help us sleep in our room of terrors.
Needless to say neither of us slept much...there were plenty of mozzies, due to the broken window, our neighbour decided to suddenly start playing sri lankan music at midnight and the fan barely touched the thick muggy air.
We were certainly pleased to get back to Mazz's for tea, fruit and toast early the next morning before heading on our bus to our next Stop!
We arrived at 12.30pm local time (20th) and were greeted with a hot and humid climate that almost immediately brought us out in a sweat! The airport was fairly easy to navigate around and we found our baggage without too much trouble. Laden with our large backpacks we headed out to book a taxi. We decided to stick with the airport booking service as although expensive, took all of the stress out of having to find one ourselves.
When we showed the taxi man our booking ticket followed by the hotel details, he scratched his head and shook it vigorously muttering something in Sri Lankan. He showed his fellow taxi rivers the address of our hotel, all of whom again shook their heads.....worrying...anyhow...the taxi man helped us put our bags into the back of the cab and ushered us inside. Once outside the airport and driving down the busy roads we were excited for what Sri Lanka would have in store for us. After about 15 minutes of driving the taxi driver pulled over, showing our hotel address to a local. They pointed in the direction we were going (reassuring) and so the taxi man got back in and we continued to drive. However, a few minutes later he pulled over again to ask another person who again pointed in the direction we were going. After a few hundred yards I saw a sign pointing right with our hotel name 'Summerside Residence' (http://www.summersideresidence.com/) I told the taxi driver to turn right, he looked confused pulling over again to ask a passer-by, but this time seemed to have a longer more fruitful conversation, he smiled and turned to us saying 'I know' before pulling off. A few minutes later, rather sweaty from the journey we heaved our bags out of the car into the safety of the hotel. They were thankfully expecting us and took the booking confirmation from us before taking us upstairs to our room.
The room was light airy and modern with a lovely bathroom and balcony - Also the air-con worked beautifully. We got changed out of our travelling clothes and opted for some smaller beach clothes so that we could get out and enjoy the sunshine.
We walked past street vendors, stopping at one to buy some water (1.5ltr -85 LKR - about 40p) before finding the walkway through to the beach. BOY were we pleased...At this point we knew exactly why we were here! We walked up and down the beach watching the fisherman boats and children playing in the sea before deciding to sit in one of the beach bars and have a well deserved beer! It felt amazing to have the sand between our toes and sun on our backs - It was a far cry from the weather forecast we had seen stating it would be raining!
The local Sri Lankan beer is Lion and very refreshing. We ordered large bottles, costing around £1.50 each, so not too expensive. After spending some time unwinding we decided we really needed to head back and shower before eating. Probably not the best move as this made both of us realise how exhausted we were and when we were both dressed we realised that there was no way we wanted to go and sit in a restaurant. Thankfully there was a street vendor on our road serving portions of fried rice. We ordered 2 which came to 750 LKR (About £3) we then proceeded to take this back to our room to enjoy before falling into bed and sleeping like babies until the morning.
21st
We awoke and had breakfast - which was amazing - omelette, fresh fruits, yogurt & toast!
Then found ourselves a room for the night online before heading upstairs and collecting our bags. We got a tuk tuk to Negombo City where we had booked a room to stay - It was close to the bus station which was what we needed for our early morning bus on the 22nd. However, on arrival (Mazz's Homestay) there had been an issue with agoda's booking system and the room had actually already been booked! Rome the owner was very kind - making us coffee and offering to sort us an alternative hotel. We declined his offer of a beach hotel as we had just come from there and wanted to be close to the bus stn so he took us to look at a hotel that was mainly used by the locals. It looked fine and we didn't want to cause too much of a fuss so took it. It didn't come with breakfast so Rome offered for us to go back there before our bus journey. We decided to go into the city and take a walk around. By this point the sun was very hot. We soon realised that Negombo city had nothing really to offer tourists - there weren't really many cafes or restaurants and certainly no bars. After getting very hot and sweaty and having achieved not much more than having lunch and sorting a local SIM, we returned to our hotel room. On closer inspection we realised the place couldn't have seen a mop or duster in years, the window was broken and the bed filthy. Thankfully we had packed our own pillowcases and cotton sleeping bag liners!
We found a local restaurant for dinner and had Veg fried rice & Chicken Kothu (A very yummy local dish). We also had some Paratha with a 'curry gravy' which again was very nice. Having filled our boots on only 350LKR we headed home, stopping in a local "Wine shop" for 2 Lions in the hope it might help us sleep in our room of terrors.
Needless to say neither of us slept much...there were plenty of mozzies, due to the broken window, our neighbour decided to suddenly start playing sri lankan music at midnight and the fan barely touched the thick muggy air.
We were certainly pleased to get back to Mazz's for tea, fruit and toast early the next morning before heading on our bus to our next Stop!
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