Day 102 - Colombo to Marawila, Sri Lanka

Day 102 – Hers.

I awoke after a terrific night’s sleep at around 8 and Rob an hour later.  We had a leisurely breakfast with the oddest interpretation of bacon I have seen to date, (I would have rather had a Sri Lankan breakfast whatever that may be, but it wasn’t offered.....) then packed and asked the hotel to arrange a taxi to take us to what our Gecko invoice listed as our new hotel.  Our driver didn’t know where he was going, so we had an hour long tour of the backwaters, fishing villages, industrial estates and residential areas of the north Colombo suburbs along roads that will be great when they have finished building them......  It was all very interesting but we were glad to finally arrive at the Palm Village Hotel - which we thought was our destination for the night.  We were given a cool flannel, welcome drink and flower...and then informed very politely that the information we had been given was incorrect and we should be at a hotel an hour in the opposite direction from the airport than we had just come.

The receptionist rang the local Gecko office and transport was arranged – along with the promise of a refund for the second taxi fare – so off we went for another driving tour.  We really feel we have seen the Sri Lankan coast from Colombo past Negromb to Marawila now; our impressions are that it is clean, there are many beautiful houses surrounded by palm trees and a mix of types of shopping – from palm leaf covered roadside shacks, to modern strip malls including a Pizza Hut.  I must say that everyone has been extremely polite and friendly and we have decided to look on our latest adventure as an ‘optional tour’.

We arrived at the Sanmali Beach Hotel at around half past one – another cool flannel, another welcome drink, but this time a room key as well.  We have a lovely room with a balcony overlooking the sea.  There is a lovely swimming pool, a kettle and even a hair dryer!

We went for a long walk into what village there is.  There is a small market and the National Shrine of the Holy Cross, which was lovely and full of worshippers – attesting to the fact that a large percentage of the people who live along this coast are Christians – the legacy of the original Portuguese colonial settlers.  We then went down to the shoreline, which has huge granite boulders protecting it from further erosion.  There was some evidence that cyclones (and perhaps the Boxing Day tsunami?) have ravaged bits of this coast – and much evidence of human effort to prevent devastation in case of future storms.

We returned to our room to just chill for a while until heading downstairs to meet our new group.  I went down a bit early and ran into Caroline, the Texan girl who had also been in our India group.  She has been staying with friends in Colombo  - an American expat who works for USAID,  his Sri Lankan born wife and their 2 ½ year old son.   We chatted for a while on the terrace and were eventually joined by Rob, Deva (our Sri Lankan guide) and the other 9 in our group for the pre-trip briefing.

Day 102 – His.

The briefing dissolved into evening dinner at the hotel. One of the negatives of this tour is that we are so far out of the way that the only place to eat is at the hotel. That in itself isn’t so bad but the hotel owners have cottoned on to the fact that we are a captive audience and the buffet dinner on offer was $12 and not that brilliant – so, we opted for a la carte which turned out to be half the price. To drink we had a lime soda which the hotel tried to charge us $5 each – more than the price of our dinner. Half an hour’s wrangling brought the price down to $1.50 – still pretty high but what can you do? We are due to set off at 6 in the morning so after dinner meant off to bed. Yet another early start. Have these people got the idea that this is meant to be a holiday?