About 3 years back when I got married, we decided (that’s me and my wife for the uninitiated....) to at least take one long holiday every year as a rule. So every year on our wedding anniversary we don’t exchange gifts as most couples do, instead we buy tickets for the holiday. Another rule is that we never go to a holiday destination in the peak season, we hate large crowds of tourists and don’t mind the off season discounts by going during the off Season.
Last year we were looking for a holiday in June, and discovered to our utter surprise -Sri Lanka was cheaper compared to traveling to any holiday destination in India. The flight fare to Sri Lanka was almost on Par with any destination in India, more surprisingly - better hotels in Sri Lanka could be booked at lesser cost. What also worked in influencing our decision was the fact that South East Asia was out of bounds, since SARS had made travel to the region risky - that practically ruled out popular tourist destinations like Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia So we decided- Sri Lanka would be our destination.
Planned the itinerary and booked the complete trip with the travel agent. Flied Air Lanka from Mumbai to Colombo, ummmm the flight was okay - all flights can be only okay for me, since I have a very serious fear of flying........so while I was praying and sweating it out, wifey dear enjoyed the flight by sleeping before take off, had to wake her up for the food, she managed to sleep till we landed. Imagine my plight fighting out my fears all by myself..........well wifey did get up once in a while and on finding my palm cold & sweaty smiled and went back to sleep.
Anyway we landed in Colombo early morning, immigration was a breeze - the officers were very friendly, perhaps a sign of things to come. By the way we were screened for Fever and were told to fill a form declaring we were not traveling from any SARS affected country, but this hardly felt like a hassle as the staff was extremely helpful. The first thing I did on officially entering Sri Lanka (that is after getting the immigration stamp) was rush for the Duty Free Shops ( how pathetic!!!!) and loaded myself up with chocolates and other essential dietary requirements from the next 2 weeks of holidays. I was so busy converting the dollar costs into rupees and being amazed the difference in prices from back home that I completely forgot that we were not staying at the airport and had to check in at the hotel.
Finally we managed to come out of the terminal to find a middle aged man with a ’close-up’ smile holding a placard with our names - this person was going to be our guide/driver for the next 15 days during out travel to various parts of Sri Lanka. His endearing smile is what I associate Sri-Lanka with, its amazing what a smile can accomplish. After about an hours drive we reached the Hilton in Colombo (flashy hotel...which I got cheap as traveled during the off season) Checked in without much incident and decided to rest and explore Colombo in the evening. By the way wifey dearest was surprised to find cake and champagne in the room waiting for her.......thanks to yours truly and hat’s off to Hilton’s Management to meet my request.
Colombo is one beautiful city. Period. The Galle Face road, runs parallel to the sea and its wonderful to travel on this road, the beaches are clean and beautiful. The malls for shopping were awesome, and the shopping was great. Anyone going to Sri Lanka should only take a single set of clothes, you can buy the rest in Colombo, prices are unbelievable - about 200 Indian rupees for the best designer shirts, and 400 bucks for the trousers/jeans. And we are talking about top brands like DKNY, GAP etc....
After Colombo we were on our way to a Hill Station called Nuwara Eliya, on our way I recommend that you should visit the Pinewala Elephant Orphange, I can bet you will love the experience. Nuwara Eliya was like a sleepy Hill Station but the weather was great, and one also gets to visit Tea Gardens - again a Sri Lankan Specialty.
Next on the list was Kandy - this is one city which I didn’t enjoy in Sri Lanka, maybe it was the hotel which managed to depress me -- honestly don’t know the reason. The only attraction in town is a Budhist Temple which has a Tooth of Gautam Budha as a relic, however there is a lot of discrimination in this temple. Since a lot of Japanese aid is received for this temple, Japanese tourists get preferred treatment - even when compared to the local Sri Lankans.
Now we were headed towards the beach in the east of Sri Lanka, this area was out of bounds for tourists earlier due to the ethnic violence. Now thanks to the peace this beautiful part of Sri Lanka is open to tourists and in my opinion should not be missed on a trip to Sri Lanka. The beach was fabulous, enjoyed every minute in the crystal clear waters.
Everywhere we went in Sri Lanka, we found the people extremely friendly and most helpful - in fact they go out of there way to help tourists. Food was a bit of a problem for us, the local cuisine is too spicy - and unfortunately they can’t exactly make Indian Food Taste Good. Although international fast food chains have presence in Sri Lanka, but unfortunately their presence is restricted to only Colombo. The other slight problem is with the Highway, the roads are a bit narrow, though don’t have the potholes like here in India (I was told thanks to the Japanese Aid) Again since the highways don’t have dividers, I think travel after dark should be avoided.
Sri Lanka, gave me perhaps the most beautiful holiday of my life. Though I feel like going back to every holiday destination I visit, Sri Lanka holds a special place in my heart and have promised myself a trip back.
On our way back we were handed over Health Forms by Government of India declaring that we were free from the SARS virus, I nudged my sleeping wife to impress her with efficiency of Indian officials. We were told the forms will be collected when we landed in Mumbai, well no one collected the forms in Mumbai, and an embarrassed me went to ask a official who advised me that I should put that paper in a bin and go home. That was kind off symbolic that I was back on home soil.