Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Day 1 in Sri Lanka, Day 1 in Mt Lavinia
We arrived at the airport at 2am. We had to catch a bus from the plane to the airport terminal. Once we cleared immigration we were hassled by a few touts (do these guys ever sleep?) and met by a rep from our hotel (relief!).
The drive to Mt Lavinia was more relaxed than it would have been if we arrived in the middle of the day. Even so we swerved to avoid a couple of dead dogs and overtook several people. The traffic here is crazy. Lots of beeping and honking and jostleing for road space. There are no lanes and everyone over-takes everyone else constantly. We had good road crossing training in Malaysia and we needed it! There are pedestrian crossings here but it is still pretty hair raising as most motorists ignore them. I think the ones that do stop feel sorry for us.
We slept the whole morning. In the late afternoon we went to the Mt Lavinia beach. The sea was very choppy and the beach was littered with rubbish but it was still quite a nice beach. Many of the young locals where playing touch rugby.
We walked up to the main street to have dinner and on the way noticed that a lot of businesses have guards. The supermarket had 1, the bank had 2 and the local hair salon had 3!
Day 2 in Sri Lanka, Day 2 in Mt Lavinia
It seems that the best way to see all the attractions in the country is to hire a driver/guide and car to take you around. Our guest house, the Tropic Inn, put us in contact with a guy (the nephew of the owner) who has arranged a 7 day tour for us. It will cost 32, 000 rupees with accommodation included. That's around $640 NZ. Not bad I think. But it's hard to know as we've nothing to compare it with. However the tour is necessary as the public transport in some of the places we want to go to is not as good or easy to use as in Malaysia and Singapore.
After the tour we are going to enjoy the beaches on the southern coast and then make our way back to Mt Lavinia to prepare to fly to London.
When talking with the locals it helps to know your cricket! Advice to those who are planning a visit: brush up on the latest cricket news and players (o: We've enjoyed chatting to our waiters and the hotel staff. I think NZ has a good reputation here (ie. the Colombo plan and the cricket).
Visting these areas has made us really interested in the local current affairs. We've enjoyed reading the local newspapers and learning about the history and current situations of each country we've visited.
We arrived at the airport at 2am. We had to catch a bus from the plane to the airport terminal. Once we cleared immigration we were hassled by a few touts (do these guys ever sleep?) and met by a rep from our hotel (relief!).
The drive to Mt Lavinia was more relaxed than it would have been if we arrived in the middle of the day. Even so we swerved to avoid a couple of dead dogs and overtook several people. The traffic here is crazy. Lots of beeping and honking and jostleing for road space. There are no lanes and everyone over-takes everyone else constantly. We had good road crossing training in Malaysia and we needed it! There are pedestrian crossings here but it is still pretty hair raising as most motorists ignore them. I think the ones that do stop feel sorry for us.
We slept the whole morning. In the late afternoon we went to the Mt Lavinia beach. The sea was very choppy and the beach was littered with rubbish but it was still quite a nice beach. Many of the young locals where playing touch rugby.
We walked up to the main street to have dinner and on the way noticed that a lot of businesses have guards. The supermarket had 1, the bank had 2 and the local hair salon had 3!
Day 2 in Sri Lanka, Day 2 in Mt Lavinia
It seems that the best way to see all the attractions in the country is to hire a driver/guide and car to take you around. Our guest house, the Tropic Inn, put us in contact with a guy (the nephew of the owner) who has arranged a 7 day tour for us. It will cost 32, 000 rupees with accommodation included. That's around $640 NZ. Not bad I think. But it's hard to know as we've nothing to compare it with. However the tour is necessary as the public transport in some of the places we want to go to is not as good or easy to use as in Malaysia and Singapore.
After the tour we are going to enjoy the beaches on the southern coast and then make our way back to Mt Lavinia to prepare to fly to London.
When talking with the locals it helps to know your cricket! Advice to those who are planning a visit: brush up on the latest cricket news and players (o: We've enjoyed chatting to our waiters and the hotel staff. I think NZ has a good reputation here (ie. the Colombo plan and the cricket).
Visting these areas has made us really interested in the local current affairs. We've enjoyed reading the local newspapers and learning about the history and current situations of each country we've visited.
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