SRI LANKA...the Subhojit way!!!

Finally I found the time to sit and write about Sri Lanka. Well I had travelled to Sri Lanka in March 2013 for my Honeymoon! My wife and me wanted to do a budget trip not anywhere far with a lot of travelling and so after a lot of research we finally narrowed it down to the island country of Sri Lanka. We fell in love with the country from the moment we landed there, it was like love at first sight! We chose to visit only the beaches in Sri Lanka and hence didn't go inland to Kandy and other such places. Also we didn't go to their East coast as we traveled only around the West coast. The places we saw were Bentota, Galle, Colombo and the surreal beach of Alankuda. From my experience I will not be able to advice you much on the inland travel.

We landed in Colombo at the break of dawn. The journey from Mumbai was just 2 hours and Sri Lankan Air is a good way to fly directly into Colombo. On landing in Sri Lanka we firstly bought a sim card. Dialog is the best company with good unlimited internet plans. A recharge of Rs (Sri Lankan) 500 is more than enough for a week. Indian currency is almost double in Sri Lanka so finally it was a place where we felt richer. We were to stay the first two days in Induruwa Beach Resort. This place is close to Bentota beach and I must tell you the resort was beautiful. The journey from the Airport to Induruwa was around 2 and a half hours. We couldn't help but notice these beautiful orange coconuts being sold along the highway. We stopped and picked up three coconuts for just Rs 100. These are known as king coconuts and one coconut contains enough water to make you feel full.

The hotel was kind enough to allow us an early check in. Our room was ocean facing and we decided to immediately change and cool off in the pool. After a nice long swim in the pool we decided to start our journey in Sri Lanka, but this couldn't be done in an empty stomach so we decided to have a nice lunch first. The Tuk Tuk we hired suggested us this restaurant called Amal very strongly. We went with him and this place was a sea food paradise. Cozily nestled near the beach this restaurant offered live catches prepared in various fares. We had a hearty meal of fish curry, rice, vegetable stew and beer. After this wonderful meal we visited a near by spice garden. Now always remember something about spice gardens, the ones on the side of the beach are fake and man made! Spices can't grow near the beach because the soil is salty so always visit spice gardens which are a little inland.

Over here let me tell you something about Sri Lanka. There is one road known as the Galle Road which runs parallel to the beach throughout the country. Most beach destinations and even the Capital city of Colombo is situated on this road. This one road can take you across the length and breadth of the island.
Anyways, these spice garden are filled with lots of plants and herbs which we use on a daily basis but have never seen before. They offer you massages also and you pay whatever you feel like, there is no rate card here. One can also pick up a lot of Ayurvedic products from these places. Next we headed to a turtle hatchery. There are numerous turtle hatcheries stretched on Galle Road but one needs to choose wisely and visit the one with maximum variety of turtles. These hatcheries are beautiful and the turtles are a delight to play with. Although they do seem to get a little irritated if you pose for photographs with them for too long. One can see the entire process of hatching of turtle eggs and what are the precautionary measures being taken to conserve turtles.
One thing to remember here is that being an Indian tourist one is not liable to pay the foreigner admission fee rates in all places. There are always two separate entry tickets to most places and one should always ask for the local pass and not the foreigner pass.

From here we looked around in a couple of shops to find something interesting. We found this very colonial looking bungalow which was actually a tea store. This tea store is a must visit. They have a wide variety of green and organic teas. They allow you to taste each and every one of them. The teas here are a little expensive as compared to other wholesale places but this variety is hard to find. Do pick up tea in Sri Lanka because it is a must bring back souvenir. Around Bentota are a lot of these water sport places. They have options like jet skies, wind surfing, wave surfing and lots of other things at very very reasonable prices. We were a little late so we couldn't try anything but this is a must do. The Tuk Tuk charged us Rs (Sri Lankan) 500 for taking us around to all these places. He was a nice man and I am attaching his photo here, so if you find him in Induruwa you can be sure of him.

We went back to our hotel and dived into the pool again because the weather was very hot and humid and one gets very very sweaty. We decided to go to the pub in our hotel and have a couple of drinks before dinner. The Pina Colada was yummy with a generous amount of alcohol. Sri Lanka's best beer is Lion and this is also the cheapest option. Later we went for an authentic Sri Lankan dinner which consisted of vegetable curry, yellow lentils, green salad, sambol, mango chutney, papad and rice. Here comes my advice - when in Sri Lanka eat only local cuisine because it is super tasty, very different from South Indian food, fresh ingredients, lots of variety in both veg and non veg, good sea food and mostly because it is easier on the pocket!!!

The next day started early with us heading straight for the Mangrove River Safari. This is an absolute must do and see. It was like an hours drive from Induruwa and this place is in between Bentota and Hikkaduwa. It is an archipelago of 300 tiny islands with various kinds of vegetation, fauna, flora and wildlife. You hire boats and the safari lasts a good 3 hours. Each boat is for Rs 5000 and seats a maximum of 8 people. The entire area is a mangrove and the first thing we spotted was a humongous water monitor. Then we saw prawn farms, lots of baby water monitors, various kinds of birds, colorful kingfishers, blue jelly fish and I could just go on and on. The best thing we saw here was the flying fish. Do not have a picture as they disappear within a fraction of a second but apparently we were very lucky as very few people get to spot them.
We got off at Cinnamon Islands and saw the entire process of Cinnamon making. In another island we saw the oldest monastery in the country which also houses the oldest Buddhist scriptures. We spotted a lot of green snails stuck to different trees in complete camouflage. From here we went for a fish pedicure in the middle of the river in a Tilapia Farming Project. These fishes are way bigger than your average size fish pedicure fishes and they are of a beautiful orange color. Over here they also have a baby alligator whom one can hold and take pictures with. The alligator is very cute and friendly. Our boatman spotted a lotus in the water and he turned the boat around to pick it up. He folded the stem in a couple of different ways and ended up making a necklace for my wife. This was a priceless necklace. They end the tour by taking you to the mouth of the river where it meets the sea and one can see the patches of white silt opening up to the ocean.

Now once you finish your river safari my advice is please don't miss a meal at the Gangabada Walawwa Restaurant. It is a floating restaurant with the most amazing island food. Grab a couple of beers and order prawn curry and rice or fish curry and rice. Their portions are enormous and the meal consists of a vegetable dry, vegetable curry, salad, prawn or fish curry, sambol, chutney, papads and rice. The taste is unbelievable and the quality makes you want to cry with joy. The prawn curry had at least 25 pieces of prawns! The most unbelievable part is the price, this meal costs you Rs 250 (Sri Lankan)!
After this wonderful meal we drove to Galle which is the Southern most tip of this island and was once upon a time the Dutch settlement. The city has a huge wall which divided the Dutch colony from the island habitats once upon a time. Galle is a white color town with beautiful colonial architecture and years of history. It reminded me of Fort Kochi somehow!!! There are a lot of museums and other historical sites to see here. We went to the see the main fort, the cricket stadium and the light house. The heat quite got onto us after a while and thus we decided to head back to Induruwa. On our drive back we stopped to see a humongous statue of Buddha by the sea. On our drive back we crossed Hikkaduwa and realised that this place was the fun and party beach. There are a lot of diving options on this beach too. Our immediate reaction was 'the next time we have to stay on this beach!

On our return to Induruwa we decided to spend the evening in the hotel itself as we were quite tired from all the travelling during the day and also because it started raining heavily. We called it an early night as the next morning we had a rather long drive to Alankuda!

The next morning we woke up early and had a quick breakfast. Daya our guide and driver was on time and we left the hotel for our beach haven called Alankuda. Now, not many people know about this beach called Alankuda and their are just 3 secluded resorts here on this beach which are not promoted for a reason. The drive from Induruwa to Alankuda was 7 hours and we had to go via Colombo. Daya had informed us on our way that Alankuda was not a wise choice as it fell in the areas which was deeply infested by the LTTE rebels once upon a time. We ignored him and enjoyed our drive. It was like driving from one tip to the other of the island as Alankuda is not very far away from Jaffna (the northern most tip of the island).

On reaching Alankuda we were quite taken aback as most of the roads were being remade and their was heavy army deployment everywhere. The roads had all been blown away during the rebel war and the army still existed in these areas to wipe out even the breath of a rebel. We were literally scared and Daya kept scaring us all the more. The road to our resort, Bar Reef Beach Resort was very difficult to locate. After getting lost 4 times we finally found the resort. Our first reaction to the resort was WOW!!! It was like a dream resort, long sandy paths with cabanas on both sides and opening up to an infinity pool by the sea. The resort had no doors or windows!!! The manager was a Spanish man who loved football and Barcelona FC. He assured us that there was no need to get worried as the resort was completely safe. We decided to take a walk around the resort with him and we were spellbound.

The resort was super fine and exclusive. It had all the modern amenities yet it had the charm of ancient. We were shown to our cabana and it looked like heaven to us. There were no windows or doors to this. If one didn't want to be disturbed then one simply had to put a red flag outside the entrance to their cabana!!! The toilet and showers were in open air!! The resort had a main dining cabana with two infinity pools, one with salt water and the other with fresh water! We ordered lunch which consisted of tender chicken burgers and later jumped into the pool. We took a lovely walk down the beach and discovered that we were actually in the midst of wind farm.

Later that evening we dressed up and went for our dinner. We were told they were serving an open air buffet dinner for everyone. The buffet looked alien but smelt amazing. We tried everything that was there on the buffet and each dish topped the other. The food was exceptionally good. We have never tasted food like this and of such good taste. Fresh ingredients and fresh produce in every dish. It was a super awesome dinner and worth every penny. The dinner cost us 3000 rupees but it was worth way more than that. We ended the day by running after white crabs that fill these beaches in the night. There are like millions of them that come out at night.

The next morning we woke up early again as we had to go dolphin and whale watching. We left with the break of dawn as early morning is the best time to catch these mammals. We were just the 2 of us in one small speed boat. Now before every boat goes into the water they have to report to the coast guard and produce their permits. This takes a while and thus they leave early. We started our journey and 20 minutes into the sea we stopped the boat in a place which was swarming with dolphins. We saw like hundreds of dolphins playing in the sea. They are very friendly creatures and actually come towards your boat to interact. From this spot we went another half an hour into the sea as whales live in much deeper waters. From here we couldn't see land anymore and the tiny boat started wobbling a lot as the sea was much rougher. We waited for a while but as luck would have it we didn't spot any whales. We headed back to the resort feeling a little incomplete but overall the experience was something we will cherish and remember always. On returning the resort didn't charge us for whale watching because we didn't see whales, so we were only charged 5500 rupees which was the cost of Dolphin spotting!!!

We came back to the resort for breakfast which consisted of fresh pickled tuna and rice!!! In Sri Lanka rice is also eaten for breakfast and with tuna as fresh as this am sure one can eat rice throughout the day. Post breakfast both of us slept off on the beach, we didn't even realise it but we both had passed out. We were awakened for lunch directly. Lunch was again a beautiful spread and the pickled pork was to die for. I remember eating an entire plateful of it. Post lunch we walked around the area a little. Evening called for a dip in the pool followed by a dinner on the beach. I had ordered for a simple dinner with salad, rice and lentils to be set up on the beach with candles. We also had a couple of beers. This was the perfect honeymoon dinner.

Next morning we woke up early as we had to leave for Colombo. We didn't feel like leaving Bar Reef Resort at all and wanted to just settle there. The drive to Colombo was comfortable and we saw a lot of unique things being sold along the highway, for example ornamental fishes. We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Global Towers in Colombo which was by the sea and centrally located. We had a lovely lunch in the hotel restaurant itself and later headed out to explore the capital city. Colombo is neat and clean, beautiful streets, all modern amenities and brands, Tata Nano's as taxis and very welcoming people. The streets of Colombo have a lot of shopping to do and one can find things ranging from cutlery, clothes, home decor, souvenirs, jewellery and restaurants. A must buy in Sri Lanka is the blue sapphire stone. It is available in almost all jewellery shops and prices differ from 10 dollars to as much as one can afford. But you have to pick up one of these for your loved one. Another things to keep in mind in Sri Lanka is that the shops shut by 8pm, so whatever shopping one needs to do has to be done before that.

The main places to shop from are Odel (expensive), House of Fashion (very reasonable and good), Majestic City, Barefoot (very good sarongs), Salusala (souvenirs), Dantotor (ceramics), Kreation Lanka and Laxzela. Apart from these we found Cotton Collezion pretty decent. House of Fashion is very good and one can pick up a lot of stuff from there for very cheap prices. The fashion in Sri Lanka is different and thus people from other countries might find it a little difficult to shop there.

Our last day in the island was spent shopping in all of the above places. We also got ourselves lovely foot massages from one of the many parlours on Galle Road. In Colombo don't forget to try the Kuttu Paratha. The streets fill up with the noise of Kuttu being prepared in various shops during the evenings. This is a must try dish here and one can have it with egg, sea food, chicken or beef. To gulp down your kuttu paratha one must try Kick Cola which is much better than your Coca Cola!!! Another must bring back from Sri Lanka is their maggi!! They have amazing variants of maggi their and they taste much better than the maggi we get here in India. Another must buy from Sri Lanka is their masks. Each mask means something different and signifies something different.

I think this is as much as I can write about our 6 days 6 nights in Sri Lanka. A beautiful county with lots to see. Places like Kandy are a must see. Hikkaduwa has beautiful dive and snorkelling spots. Mirissa is the best place to go whale watching. Lots n lots of different flavours of food to taste, beaches to see, people to meet, things to try, activities to do...this island is full of life!!!