Trip Report: Sri Lanka Feb-24

[Metty]

A trip report from our family holiday to Sri Lanka. We’re two 60something retirees and our 20something son and daughter. Last time we were in Sri Lanka for holidays was 31 years ago when we were rather taken with the buddhist temples, monks etc, so decided upon a buddhist wedding ceremony which – as SL wasn’t set up for such things – we did in Thailand a year later. I have been back on Tier Point runs since but only done aviation museum type things.

Day -1 Heathrow to Dublin

Because Qatar released four Avios Business Class seats ex-Dublin to Colombo, but ex-nowhere else I could find, we positioned over to Dublin and the Radisson Blu for the night which was more than paid for by the saving in tax ex-Dublin (£145pp one way) than ex-LHR (£386pp one way).

Day 0 Dublin – Doha – Colombo

An early start for the 0730 departure to Doha. Check in and security were swift, but Dublin Terminal 1 always seems so busy and although Qatar don’t use the average one that BA use, their lounge which is between T1 and T2 was busy too.

I haven’t flown Qatar since Covid-19 seemed to remove all the good Qatar Business Class deals, so it was a very pleasant surprise to be re-familiarised with their attentive service; BA always make me feel like I’m an inconvenience e.g. asking for another bottle of water on an 11 hr flight (‘you’ve had one’ was the best comeback) or in F when they say ‘we have a dine on demand service’ followed by ‘so can I take your order and I assume you’d like to maximise your rest so we’ll serve you straight away’. Both QR sectors were B787-8 so the seat is getting on for 10 years old now and
absolutely fine.

Colombo arrival: we had done Electronic Travel Approvals in advance ($50pp) and also the online Arrival Card. There is a fast track immigration for business passengers and aircrew at the furthest desk from where you enter; only minor amusement was that I’d put my wife down as a Mr but that didn’t delay anything.

Bags appeared quickly. I think someone else mentioned that it’s best to skip the sim stalls/vendors until through customs; although I’d got an Airalo e-sim to preserve my UK number, I had an old phone so bought a sim once through customs and in the arrival hall as 50Gb for £5 from the Dialog shop seemed a bargain. There are ATMs hidden away behind the Bank of Ceylon counter.

Stay: Terrace Green Hotel Negombo; they collected us in a small van and the rooms were clean and acceptable. £60/rm BB

Day 1 Negombo – Anuradhapura

We met Nandika, our guide as recommended by @strickers and @qc in reception at 1200. I’d booked all the hotels and sent a Google Maps route to Nandika 6 months prior with a request for an air-conditioned van as there were four of us and we like to spread out. The van came with a driver, Donald, so Nandika was on full-on guide and question-answering duty on this tour. Nandika’s cost for our 6 day tour was £660 of which I paid £200 in advance to secure the van.

Two points of note here.

Firstly, we were told that the government have banned import of new vans (maybe cars too) to avoid SL’s money exiting the country to Japan. Thus it is important to reserve transport well in advance, as even with tourism at a fairly low % of where it was, vans are a limited resource.

Secondly, although Nandika had, in pre-trip WhatsApp exchanges , offered to book hotels, I didn’t take him up on this. Partly as I wasn’t too sure he’d book the exact same rooms, partly as I didn’t know him and partly as I like doing all the trip planning so booked the refundable rooms already. The downside was that because Nandika had not booked the accommodation, he and the driver had to source their own whereas if he’d booked the rooms, most hotels provide free lodgings for driver/guide. We agreed that in future I’d send him the exact room type and prices and then see if he can get a better rate with his Travel Agent discount or match whatever rate I found.

We drove to Anuradhapura stopping along the way for roadside stall rambutans, bananas and bathroom stops as appropriate, the first of which was at a local version of Tesco, where they have nice toilets and enabled buying of snacks and water. Apple Pay worked here; ATMs everywhere, so easy to get cash if card machines not working.

Hotel: Heritage Hotel. £48/room. This was the only hotel on our trip I’d suggest avoiding. One room had a very smelly bathroom which is consistent with TripAdvisor reviews.

Day 2 Anurhadapura – Dambulla

The hotel provided a box breakfast and we met Nandika at 0645. The main cultural attractions don’t open until 0730 but we were in the Isurumuni Temple completely alone at 0700 after Nandika sweet-talked the security folks. Then on to the other main cultural sights of the ancient city before setting course for Dambulla.

On the way I requested a diversion to see an old An-24 aircraft that had been dumped in the outskirts of town and then after lunch, we did a 2.5 hour elephant safari ($50pp) which was worth it as daughter only wanted to see ‘happy elephants’ in the wild. There were lots of jeeps all congregating to start with, but ended up alone watching the elephants. We didn’t fancy climbing Sigiriya as had done it in 1993 when the kids’ age, so took photos from below and moved on.

Stay: Lake Lodge Kandalama £250/rm/BB; but offered a free evening meal. The 12 room boutique property was lovely and the food fabulous, the sort that I only ever encounter when trying to spend my Amex Platinum credit in a fancy restaurant in London. Originally I wanted to spend two nights here – as I always think that one is a bit of a waste when check in late and check out early – but they could only do one, so left a note when booking to let me know of any cancellations for the next day. When googling reviews of the Lake Lodge prior to arrival I was slightly surprised to see that a couple of sites said it was ‘clothes optional in public areas’, but as nobody had mentioned this in any review and thinking that the conservative nature of the locals would make this unlikely, I ignored this, although the kids were somewhat anxious to find out. Michel the owner is a fairly charismatic chap, so maybe he used to run it clothes optional and found it not so good for business?

Day 3 Dambulla – Nurawa Eliya

Having checked out of Lake Lodge and en route, I got a message from Lake Lodge to say they’d only just noticed my request sent 5 months ago for another night, which it turned out that they could do. Too late….and a shame.

On day 1 we explained to Nandika that whilst we respected his choice of bathroom stops, we feel bad about stopping at gem shops, batik stalls etc as we were unlikely to buy anything as we are trying to de-clutter and feel bad about leaving such places empty handed but understand that such places tend to have western tourist-friendly toilets. In general we just stopped at random places we stumbled across, but our visit to one of the several herbal gardens was excellent.

We had ‘done’ Kandy before, so weren’t stopping there, save a stop on the outskirts for lunch snacks and for Donald the driver to hand over some cash to his daughter who is studying law at Uni there. Given the perilous state of the economy, it’s good to see that education is still free.

Approaching Nuwara Eliya, we stopped at one of the tea factories; the scenery is lovely and it’s so much cooler.

Stay: Galway Heights hotel, 2nts, £90/rm/nt BB.

Day 4 Nurawa Eliya

We started the day with a walk around a tea plantation, nobody else around save a few tea pickers. Then back to town.

The Grand Hotel now charges 5000 rupees (£12)pp for a visitor entry which is redeemable against purchases on site and seems to keep most casual visitors away. We had a full tour and enjoyed drinks on the patio whilst musing how mad it seems that the Brits brought billiard/snooker tables by ship (and elephant from Colombo which took several months) in Victorian times.

We had a look around the town’s shops, doesn’t take long, but did spend nearly an hour at a fruit and veg stall buying and trying everything we could see. I’m unsure why people rave about durian, but hey ho.

day 5 Nuwara Eliya – Ella

We stopped at temples but also spent a while at the Botanical Gardens. Now I find a visit to Hillier’s (or similar garden centres) in the UK about as exciting – save the cakes – as my wife finds football. It wasn’t the season for the plants to be in bloom, that’s April, but I enjoyed it. The entrance fee was 3500 rupees (£8-9) but they put this to good use, beautifully maintained.

One of the gardeners pointed out a Russell’s viper lurking in a gully. If bitten, we were told, you are likely to be dead in 15 minutes.

Arriving at Ella, backpacker central, we walked to the Nine Arch Bridge where the 5 trains a day stop for people to Insta pose hanging out of the doors in relative safety. We didn’t actually travel on the train but you don’t actually need to, just clamber up, do the pose and dismount. There’s plenty of time.

There are signs banning drones and police telling those off for flying drones. The problem (not well explained on the signs) is that there are some huge wasp nests under the arches and if the drones come too close, the wasps feel threatened and swarm on nearby humans of which there are loads to choose from sat on the bridge dangling their legs within a foot of the nests.

Little Adam’s Peak is apparently a nice viewpoint assuming you are fairly fit and climb in the late afternoon. We tried, felt lazy, gave up and had drinks and an ice cream instead. The access path is through a tea plantation and goes past the 98 Acres resort and Spa which was like something from the Med with a full-on pool party, live DJ etc. Whilst the swish bathrooms appealed to the older generation, it may generally appeal more to the younger folks. And the deaf. A penny for the thoughts of lady tea pickers hauling their huge bags of tea up a hill to loud Balearic Beats with scantily clad babes bouncing around.

Stay: Green Hill, £60/rm BB

day 6: Ella to Mawella

We stopped at a big waterfall, it was impressive, but main entertainment apart from the monkeys involved attempts to retrieve a Russian child’s mobile that had fallen onto the rocks in front of a scoreboard showing a tally showing 37 people killed trying to climb the rocks.

We made a stop at a family making pottery by the road and then Nandika suggested that we routed via Mattala Intl Airport (HRI) as he knew I’d be interested. 150 rupees pp (40p) for entry. This is a vanity project of the previous President who was from the area; it’s a bit of a white elephant (1-2 flights from Eastern Europe/Russia a day) rather appropriate as a customs officer who we chatted to asked if I’d heard of the ‘peacock problem’ (engine ingestion, yes recall the incident reports), as now it’s worse with elephants getting through the security fence. The airport is served by fabulous access roads like Hanoi and many in China and, like the airport, deserted.

We arrived at our airbnb La Maison de Mawella on Mawella Beach (west of Tangalle, 90min drive east of Galle) and said goodbye to Nandika and Donald. Rather pleasant here in the garden looking at the mostly deserted beach, rolling waves, cooled by a strong breeze! There are some beach shacks for beer o’clock, the Sea Dragon even prefers that you WhatsApp a menu choice and time as they have limited resources, but no shops here, you have to tuktuk.

Other guides are available of course, but our family all loved Nandika. His preferred contact is by WhatsApp +94 71 386 1590.

[SBIre]

Enjoyed that – thanks a mill!

[qc]

Great trip report – sounds like you had a wonderful time.

I’m glad you found Nandika as great as we did. We had also booked our own accommodation and even though in some places Nandika could have stayed in the dorms with the other guides he preferred booking his own room in a cheap local lodging house as apparently it’s difficult to sleep with all the snoring!

[strickers]

qc wrote:

Great trip report – sounds like you had a wonderful time.

I’m glad you found Nandika as great as we did. We had also booked our own accommodation and even though in some places Nandika could have stayed in the dorms with the other guides he preferred booking his own room in a cheap local lodging house as apparently it’s difficult to sleep with all the snoring!

We gave him a Club World amenity pack, he found the eye mask and ear plugs particularly useful!

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

Thanks for a detailed and entertaining write up @Metty !

Particularly intrigued by the Lake Lodge ‘clothing optional’ policy 😉 Shame they didn’t spot your request for an extra night or you’d have had more time for investigations…

Hope the rest of your trip is enjoyable and relaxing.

[Metty]

Aha @qc now I understand; Nandika must have been confusing you with @strickers as he told us that @strickers worked for BA and had given him lots of BA freebies 🙂

As far as Lake Lodge goes, my wife was looking for upside down pineapples as a clue, but that’s a symbol for something else I think. And there’s a lot of pineapples here in Sri Lanka so could result in some entertaining consequences.

I’m assuming that maybe the flamboyant owner would be accepting if a naturist group booked the hotel? We’ve no issue either way, just a bit ‘eeeeeww’ for our kids. Either way, we’d go back in a heartbeat.

Already thinking of LHR-Chennai on a BA companion voucher then Chennai-Jaffna on Air India and do the north and east trying to work in Lake Lodge and/or here in Mawella which is more desert island vibe and devoid of tourists than the Maldives. Also cheaper. Just no fish to see…. except those the fisherman are netting….

[Cat]

Thanks for this trip report @Metty, it brings back memories of tea plantations and Ella, most of them fond (but not my last night in Colombo when the LTTE staged their final attack, and I found myself right in the middle of it).

For anyone who is planning a trip to Sri Lanka – if you’re a fan of hiking, I highly recommend climbing Adam’s Peak for dawn (the big one, not Little Adam’s Peak), and Sigiriya is also incredible.

Funny story, the LTTE attack was the start of how I found my way to HFP 5 years later, in a round about kind of way – I went to the airport the next morning, visibly shaken, and on very little sleep. I got chatting to the Qatar staff at check-in, about the previous night’s events, and where we all were when it happened. Almost everyone on the plane out of Colombo had a similar story to tell, but they did manage to get me upgraded to business on the DOH to LHR leg, and I was so impressed with it all (mainly the frequency with which they said “More Bordeaux, Ms Downie?”) I started looking into ways to get upgraded again…

[geekay]

Hi all what a great set of reports and info. Sadly Nandika has quoted us £150 per day just for car and driver so we are thinking of local taxis. Can anyone tell me how easy it would be to get these in Kandy (to transfer from there to Sigiriya) and then in and around Sigiriya/Dambulla/Minneriya? And, any recommendations of a taxi company? We do not want a guide, just transport.
Many thanks!

[geekay]

@metty @strickers any thoughts?

[The Original Nick]

Excellent. That’s the longest trip report I have ever seen on Headforpoints and I’ve been reading Rob’s website since day 1. Fairplay to you Metty.

[strickers]

We just used Nandika. I booked through an agency but that does seem expensive? We did get a quote from this site but I can’t vouch for quality. Maybe get a second quote and go back to Nandika with it?

https://www.srilankandrivers.com/

[Metty]

Our price was £660 for Nandika (guide) and a van, which comes with a driver. That was for just shy of a week.

So yes £150/day sounds expensive to me for just a driver and wheels.

[Metty]

@geekay just a thought… if you only need a car for say 2 of you maybe check that no wired crossed with Nandika and you’re being quoted for a van?

I recall Nandika saying that rental prices are staggering in high season (and will be getting worse as tourism returns), especially for vans as the government banned import of all vehicles from 2019 so there is a lack of supply to match demand. So £150/day for a van in peak season may not be unreasonable.

[qc]

Ours was US$560 for 7 days! We paid in SriLankan Rs. I think one day in the middle we didn’t use him but of course he couldn’t work elsewhere.

Definitely worth what we paid but of course prices everywhere have gone up.

[qc]

Metty wrote:

@geekay just a thought… if you only need a car for say 2 of you maybe check that no wired crossed with Nandika and you’re being quoted for a van?

I recall Nandika saying that rental prices are staggering in high season (and will be getting worse as tourism returns), especially for vans as the government banned import of all vehicles from 2019 so there is a lack of supply to match demand. So £150/day for a van in peak season may not be unreasonable.

That’s a good point – there were only two of us so Nandika used his own car which was very comfortable.

[strickers]

Two of us also and in Nandika’s car, plenty of room for our two large cases.

[geekay]

It is indeed for a van, sorry not to make that clear. £150 still sounds punchy but maybe that’s just what it costs!

[qc]

I think it’s a fair price then as he hires the van and driver so he is your guide.

[The Original Nick]

Metty wrote:

A trip report from our family holiday to Sri Lanka. We’re two 60something retirees and our 20something son and daughter. Last time we were in Sri Lanka for holidays was 31 years ago when we were rather taken with the buddhist temples, monks etc, so decided upon a buddhist wedding ceremony which – as SL wasn’t set up for such things – we did in Thailand a year later. I have been back on Tier Point runs since but only done aviation museum type things.

Day -1 Heathrow to Dublin

Because Qatar released four Avios Business Class seats ex-Dublin to Colombo, but ex-nowhere else I could find, we positioned over to Dublin and the Radisson Blu for the night which was more than paid for by the saving in tax ex-Dublin (£145pp one way) than ex-LHR (£386pp one way).

Day 0 Dublin – Doha – Colombo

An early start for the 0730 departure to Doha. Check in and security were swift, but Dublin Terminal 1 always seems so busy and although Qatar don’t use the average one that BA use, their lounge which is between T1 and T2 was busy too.

I haven’t flown Qatar since Covid-19 seemed to remove all the good Qatar Business Class deals, so it was a very pleasant surprise to be re-familiarised with their attentive service; BA always make me feel like I’m an inconvenience e.g. asking for another bottle of water on an 11 hr flight (‘you’ve had one’ was the best comeback) or in F when they say ‘we have a dine on demand service’ followed by ‘so can I take your order and I assume you’d like to maximise your rest so we’ll serve you straight away’. Both QR sectors were B787-8 so the seat is getting on for 10 years old now and
absolutely fine.

Colombo arrival: we had done Electronic Travel Approvals in advance ($50pp) and also the online Arrival Card. There is a fast track immigration for business passengers and aircrew at the furthest desk from where you enter; only minor amusement was that I’d put my wife down as a Mr but that didn’t delay anything.

Bags appeared quickly. I think someone else mentioned that it’s best to skip the sim stalls/vendors until through customs; although I’d got an Airalo e-sim to preserve my UK number, I had an old phone so bought a sim once through customs and in the arrival hall as 50Gb for £5 from the Dialog shop seemed a bargain. There are ATMs hidden away behind the Bank of Ceylon counter.

Stay: Terrace Green Hotel Negombo; they collected us in a small van and the rooms were clean and acceptable. £60/rm BB

Day 1 Negombo – Anuradhapura

We met Nandika, our guide as recommended by @strickers and @qc in reception at 1200. I’d booked all the hotels and sent a Google Maps route to Nandika 6 months prior with a request for an air-conditioned van as there were four of us and we like to spread out. The van came with a driver, Donald, so Nandika was on full-on guide and question-answering duty on this tour. Nandika’s cost for our 6 day tour was £660 of which I paid £200 in advance to secure the van.

Two points of note here.

Firstly, we were told that the government have banned import of new vans (maybe cars too) to avoid SL’s money exiting the country to Japan. Thus it is important to reserve transport well in advance, as even with tourism at a fairly low % of where it was, vans are a limited resource.

Secondly, although Nandika had, in pre-trip WhatsApp exchanges , offered to book hotels, I didn’t take him up on this. Partly as I wasn’t too sure he’d book the exact same rooms, partly as I didn’t know him and partly as I like doing all the trip planning so booked the refundable rooms already. The downside was that because Nandika had not booked the accommodation, he and the driver had to source their own whereas if he’d booked the rooms, most hotels provide free lodgings for driver/guide. We agreed that in future I’d send him the exact room type and prices and then see if he can get a better rate with his Travel Agent discount or match whatever rate I found.

We drove to Anuradhapura stopping along the way for roadside stall rambutans, bananas and bathroom stops as appropriate, the first of which was at a local version of Tesco, where they have nice toilets and enabled buying of snacks and water. Apple Pay worked here; ATMs everywhere, so easy to get cash if card machines not working.

Hotel: Heritage Hotel. £48/room. This was the only hotel on our trip I’d suggest avoiding. One room had a very smelly bathroom which is consistent with TripAdvisor reviews.

Day 2 Anurhadapura – Dambulla

The hotel provided a box breakfast and we met Nandika at 0645. The main cultural attractions don’t open until 0730 but we were in the Isurumuni Temple completely alone at 0700 after Nandika sweet-talked the security folks. Then on to the other main cultural sights of the ancient city before setting course for Dambulla.

On the way I requested a diversion to see an old An-24 aircraft that had been dumped in the outskirts of town and then after lunch, we did a 2.5 hour elephant safari ($50pp) which was worth it as daughter only wanted to see ‘happy elephants’ in the wild. There were lots of jeeps all congregating to start with, but ended up alone watching the elephants. We didn’t fancy climbing Sigiriya as had done it in 1993 when the kids’ age, so took photos from below and moved on.

Stay: Lake Lodge Kandalama £250/rm/BB; but offered a free evening meal. The 12 room boutique property was lovely and the food fabulous, the sort that I only ever encounter when trying to spend my Amex Platinum credit in a fancy restaurant in London. Originally I wanted to spend two nights here – as I always think that one is a bit of a waste when check in late and check out early – but they could only do one, so left a note when booking to let me know of any cancellations for the next day. When googling reviews of the Lake Lodge prior to arrival I was slightly surprised to see that a couple of sites said it was ‘clothes optional in public areas’, but as nobody had mentioned this in any review and thinking that the conservative nature of the locals would make this unlikely, I ignored this, although the kids were somewhat anxious to find out. Michel the owner is a fairly charismatic chap, so maybe he used to run it clothes optional and found it not so good for business?

Day 3 Dambulla – Nurawa Eliya

Having checked out of Lake Lodge and en route, I got a message from Lake Lodge to say they’d only just noticed my request sent 5 months ago for another night, which it turned out that they could do. Too late….and a shame.

On day 1 we explained to Nandika that whilst we respected his choice of bathroom stops, we feel bad about stopping at gem shops, batik stalls etc as we were unlikely to buy anything as we are trying to de-clutter and feel bad about leaving such places empty handed but understand that such places tend to have western tourist-friendly toilets. In general we just stopped at random places we stumbled across, but our visit to one of the several herbal gardens was excellent.

We had ‘done’ Kandy before, so weren’t stopping there, save a stop on the outskirts for lunch snacks and for Donald the driver to hand over some cash to his daughter who is studying law at Uni there. Given the perilous state of the economy, it’s good to see that education is still free.

Approaching Nuwara Eliya, we stopped at one of the tea factories; the scenery is lovely and it’s so much cooler.

Stay: Galway Heights hotel, 2nts, £90/rm/nt BB.

Day 4 Nurawa Eliya

We started the day with a walk around a tea plantation, nobody else around save a few tea pickers. Then back to town.

The Grand Hotel now charges 5000 rupees (£12)pp for a visitor entry which is redeemable against purchases on site and seems to keep most casual visitors away. We had a full tour and enjoyed drinks on the patio whilst musing how mad it seems that the Brits brought billiard/snooker tables by ship (and elephant from Colombo which took several months) in Victorian times.

We had a look around the town’s shops, doesn’t take long, but did spend nearly an hour at a fruit and veg stall buying and trying everything we could see. I’m unsure why people rave about durian, but hey ho.

day 5 Nuwara Eliya – Ella

We stopped at temples but also spent a while at the Botanical Gardens. Now I find a visit to Hillier’s (or similar garden centres) in the UK about as exciting – save the cakes – as my wife finds football. It wasn’t the season for the plants to be in bloom, that’s April, but I enjoyed it. The entrance fee was 3500 rupees (£8-9) but they put this to good use, beautifully maintained.

One of the gardeners pointed out a Russell’s viper lurking in a gully. If bitten, we were told, you are likely to be dead in 15 minutes.

Arriving at Ella, backpacker central, we walked to the Nine Arch Bridge where the 5 trains a day stop for people to Insta pose hanging out of the doors in relative safety. We didn’t actually travel on the train but you don’t actually need to, just clamber up, do the pose and dismount. There’s plenty of time.

There are signs banning drones and police telling those off for flying drones. The problem (not well explained on the signs) is that there are some huge wasp nests under the arches and if the drones come too close, the wasps feel threatened and swarm on nearby humans of which there are loads to choose from sat on the bridge dangling their legs within a foot of the nests.

Little Adam’s Peak is apparently a nice viewpoint assuming you are fairly fit and climb in the late afternoon. We tried, felt lazy, gave up and had drinks and an ice cream instead. The access path is through a tea plantation and goes past the 98 Acres resort and Spa which was like something from the Med with a full-on pool party, live DJ etc. Whilst the swish bathrooms appealed to the older generation, it may generally appeal more to the younger folks. And the deaf. A penny for the thoughts of lady tea pickers hauling their huge bags of tea up a hill to loud Balearic Beats with scantily clad babes bouncing around.

Stay: Green Hill, £60/rm BB

day 6: Ella to Mawella

We stopped at a big waterfall, it was impressive, but main entertainment apart from the monkeys involved attempts to retrieve a Russian child’s mobile that had fallen onto the rocks in front of a scoreboard showing a tally showing 37 people killed trying to climb the rocks.

We made a stop at a family making pottery by the road and then Nandika suggested that we routed via Mattala Intl Airport (HRI) as he knew I’d be interested. 150 rupees pp (40p) for entry. This is a vanity project of the previous President who was from the area; it’s a bit of a white elephant (1-2 flights from Eastern Europe/Russia a day) rather appropriate as a customs officer who we chatted to asked if I’d heard of the ‘peacock problem’ (engine ingestion, yes recall the incident reports), as now it’s worse with elephants getting through the security fence. The airport is served by fabulous access roads like Hanoi and many in China and, like the airport, deserted.

We arrived at our airbnb La Maison de Mawella on Mawella Beach (west of Tangalle, 90min drive east of Galle) and said goodbye to Nandika and Donald. Rather pleasant here in the garden looking at the mostly deserted beach, rolling waves, cooled by a strong breeze! There are some beach shacks for beer o’clock, the Sea Dragon even prefers that you WhatsApp a menu choice and time as they have limited resources, but no shops here, you have to tuktuk.

Other guides are available of course, but our family all loved Nandika. His preferred contact is by WhatsApp +94 71 386 1590.

Excellent. That’s the longest trip report I have ever seen on Headforpoints and I have been reading Rob’s website since day 1. Well done Metty.

[Metty]

@geekay Nandika did say in a post-hols exchange that the decent cash tip we gave him was much appreciated as since he quoted us in Apr?-23 for our Feb-24 trip the cost of variables such as fuel had increased by 30% so he didn’t actually make a profit on the tour itself. Thankfully, he didn’t mention this while we were away as that would have been awkward and thankfully you guys on here suggested cash was what would be appreciated most as a thank you/tip.

If you find some wheels cheaper than you’ve been quoted, that would be nice to know, and also nice to know post-trip that you weren’t gazumped! I think Nandika is aware of the word of mouth reputation amongst us so apart from my belief that he’s an honest guy that won’t let you down, I’m pretty sure that he would do anything to avoid a bad rep, which includes inflating transport costs.

[ABA]

Thank you @Metty for the excellent trip report, thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

[ABA]

Cat wrote:

Thanks for this trip report @Metty, it brings back memories of tea plantations and Ella, most of them fond (but not my last night in Colombo when the LTTE staged their final attack, and I found myself right in the middle of it).

For anyone who is planning a trip to Sri Lanka – if you’re a fan of hiking, I highly recommend climbing Adam’s Peak for dawn (the big one, not Little Adam’s Peak), and Sigiriya is also incredible.

Funny story, the LTTE attack was the start of how I found my way to HFP 5 years later, in a round about kind of way – I went to the airport the next morning, visibly shaken, and on very little sleep. I got chatting to the Qatar staff at check-in, about the previous night’s events, and where we all were when it happened. Almost everyone on the plane out of Colombo had a similar story to tell, but they did manage to get me upgraded to business on the DOH to LHR leg, and I was so impressed with it all (mainly the frequency with which they said “More Bordeaux, Ms Downie?”) I started looking into ways to get upgraded again…

@CAT I have a similar experience with Qatar where I was given an upgrade and it was then I discovered HFP to repeat the experience