Sri Lanka Trip = Post #5 (29 Dec 2008)

I hereby list the top ten questions that Sri Lankans asked foreigners( in order of the most commonly asked)

1. Which country are you from ?
2. What is your job?
3. How much is your salary?
4. Are you married ?
5. How long have been in Sri Lanka?
   
6. Where are you going?
7. How old are you?
8. Where do you stay?
9. How much is the air ticket from xxx?
   
10. Sri Lanka, good ?

I have been asked one or more of the above ten questions, at least a dzoen times over the past 17 days. In my case,the locals also ask two more questions:-

1. Do you want to marry a Sri Lanka girl?
2. Are you from Japan ? (sometimes, replace Japan with Taiwan, Thailand)

I am now at Hikkaduwa near a beach and staying at El Dorado guest house, 150 m from the main road. The guest house is very good value at only Rupee 850 (USD 7.80 = RM 30) per night. Yesterday I did a quick 3 km run along the road in front of the guest house. The road runs besid4es many houses in the village butis a good running route with two to three undulating sections.

Sri Lanka Trip = Post #4 (24 to 25 Dec 2008

I am still at Nuwara Eliya (NE). I have been here for 3 days which is too long as I don't have much to do. The places to go are to tea plantation (been there). Single tree mountain (won't go climbing because of knee problem) Horton Plains national and World's End View (can't go as it is too costly, USD 60 for car and entrance fee, running out of money) and botanical gardens (been there).

The locals described Nuwara Eliya as "Little England". The cold climate (18 deg. C daytime temperature) certainly fits English weather in Spring or early Autumm. But sometimes, is a bit hard to view this place as being England when a passing bus or truck belches a copious amounts of black smoke. The black smoke is the result of a struggling engine to burn fuel in the 1850 m altitude.

I will be leaving NE tomorrow morning. At first I was planning to go direct to Galle on the ancient rust bucket bus non A/C (8 hour travel time). Fortunately I came to my senses yesterday and found out a better alternative. I will take a private minibus hopefully with a working A/C to Colombo (5 hours). From Colombo, I will take another bus to Galle which will take about two and half hours. I think I can survive a 2.5 hrs trip on a non A/C bus.

Sri Lanka Trip = Video Post #1

This video was taken during the performance of Kandyan dances at the Lake House, Kandy.

Sri Lanka Trip = Photos Post #1

Photo 1 : Dambulla caves Exterior

Photo 2: Sigiriya rock (the palace in on top of the 20om high rock)
Photo 3: Then murals inside Dambulla caves

Photo 4: View of Kandy city from elevation

Sri Lanka Trip = Post #3 (21 to 23 Dec 2008)

Continuing from post #2,

Tourism
Tourism is one of Sri Lanka's major income earners industry with 300,000 people directly or indirectly involved in the trade. December is usually the busiest season with package tourists from European countries especially Germany, France and the Scandinavian countries. However global economic turmoil turned recession has dealt a devastating blow to the industry. Hotels that are normall fully booked are empty with the hoteliers counting on local tourists to fill their rooms (Dec is the school holiday in Sri Lanka). Not all of supply can be met by local tourism:-

• The company that I booked my tour had laid off 10 out of 13 drivers. My driver returned to his village to farm his relative's rice fields since April 2008. In December he was called back to drive me around for one week
  .
• The tour guide who showed me around Sirigaya rock said now has 3 to 4 tourists (foreigners) per week. In previous years, in a typical day there were 30 to 40 buses (1500 foreign tourists) arriving at Sirigaya per week. The situation has become so dire that the 120 licensed guides now to take turns to provide their services. Since working as a tour guide at Sirigaya 10 years ago, this year was the worst in terms of the number of foreign tourists.
• Last week it was reported that hoteliers at Hikkaduwa, a seaside area popular with package tourists appealed to the government to give them loans due to poor business.

Getting a supply of petrol has become a serious problem in Sri Lanka since last week. Three people sued the goverrment to reduce the petrol price. The supreme court ordered the goverment to reduce the petrol price from RP 12o (USD 1.1 = RM 4.00/litre) to RP 100 per litre (USD 0.9 = RM 3.3o/litre). Of of two companies, one company run by a joint venture between Indian Oil Corporation and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation agreed to comply and dropped their petrol prices to RP 100/litre immediately. A second company owned by the government did not and was waiting for goverment orders. The outcome was predictable with everyone going to the first company to fill up their tanks. There is now an artificial shortage of petrol in Sri Lanka. In the mean time, the government postponed the decision on whether to comply to the court decision or not. They have indicated their reluctance to reduce the price due to the need to fund the ongoing war with the Tamil Tigers and a potential hedging loss at USD 130 per barrel. Comparison of current petrol prices :-

• USA (USD 0.35 per litre)
  
  
• Malaysia (USD 0.50 per litre)
  
  
• Vietnam (USD 0.70 per litre)
  
  
• Sri Lanka (USD 1.10 per litre)
  

It looks like government profiteering to me.

Sri Lanka Trip = Post #2 (16 to 20 Dec 2008)

I am sitting in the Giritale hotel's room (Giritale town) to access the Internet. 5 days after I left Colomobo on a train journey to Kandy, I have visited several places I has planned to visit and learnt a few things about Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka, I found out has many UNESCO world herigate sites ( Iwas told there are seven sites altogether). I hope to visit most of them by 30 Dec 2008. Outide of CoombSo far I have visited Dambulla cave paintings, Sirigaya - a fortress located atop a 220 m high rock, several ancient sites in Anandaphura city. Tomorrow I will be visiting Pollonaruwa, located 15km from Giritale. I won't write in detail about these places due to the limited Internet speed here here but I write about what have I discovered so far:

Safety
Yesterday, I was asked to hand over my passport at army check point for the first time. Tbis happened on the road approaching Anandhaphura city. A stern and suspicious sargeant asked the driver some questions irst and asked him where we were going. Then he turned his attention to me and asked several questions:-

Where I am from ? My answer : Malaysia
Where I came from ? My answer : Sirigaya
Where I was going to ? My answer : Anandhapura and a few other places.
How long have I been in Sri Lanka ? My answer : One week
What I am doing in Sri Lanka ? Tourism

At the end of the questions, he asked for my passport. I observed he took particular interest at the various visa stamps in my passport. Lastly he checked for my entry visa to Sri Lanka. Satisfied that I was a bona fide tourist/traveller, he nodded and we were permitted to continue our journey.

BTW, Anandaphura city is only 50 km from the Notherm Tamil dominated regio where the government is waging a war agansnt the Tamil Tigers

Tip : If you are stopped at military check point and being asked some questions, it is best that your give answers that arare short and precise. What you don't want to do is to give a rambling answer. Look at the questioner in the eye when you answer.

People
I have found the people here to be friendly and helpful. The touts. tuk-tuk drivers and vendors are less a hasslem than those in India. Here if you say no once (OK - in some cases, seversl times), they will leave you along. In India, they will follow you around even you say no in several different languages.

Cost
The costs have been higher than what I expected. To move around the places I mentioned, I booked a tour with a driver. The whole package (beb and breakfast) excluding entrance fees was USD 470 for 7 days or roughly USD 67/day. A local man I met in the Colombo to Kandy train said I had been charged too much. He said the cost should be about USD 240 which was unlikely considering it costs USD 35 to 50 per day to hire a driver inclusive of his accomodation and meal costs. I estimated the hotel and guest houses that have I stayed to date cost about USD 20 per night minimum.

He described the guys at the tour ageny "Rail Tours" run by JF Tours in the Fort Railway station as bunch of crooks having come across similar cases of overcharging.

I will check out his claim of prices later. (It is is too late for me to anything as I have fully paid for the tour).

To be continued........

Sri Lanka Trip = Post #1 (12 to 15 Dec 2008)

It has been three days since I arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday afternoon. The trip from the airport to the guest house where I was staying took almost 1 and 1/4 hours although the distance was only 30km. The van passed through heavy traffic in Colombo and several towns lying at the outskirts of Colombo. There was a heavy army presence at Colombo (capital city) in the form of numerous check points manned by armed soldiers armed with AK-47 semi automatic rifles. At each check point, there is post with a soldier surrounding by a pile of sand bags.

I will be staying at Mt. Lavinia located 10 km south of Colombo, Mt. Lavinia is the closest beach to Colombo and has lots of budget accommodation. I was staying at Mrs Mendiz guest house run by a family with same namesake. The cost per night is RP 2,000 (USD 18) including breakfast. There are only two rooms in the first floor with the family staying on the ground floor. Mr Mendiz, an elderly man of 80 years of greeted me when I arrived.

In the evening, I took a stroll along the beach which was only 50m walk from the guest house. To get there, I had to cross two railways tracks which serve trains running to several towns to and from Colombo. Being a Saturday there were a lots of people on the beach. If you are expecting a classic beach vacation, Mt Lavinia is n0t the place to be. There were no palm trees swaying gently in the wind but there were plenty of restaurants or fishing nets to trip over.

One thing I discovered near the beach was a monstrous hotel "The Berjaya Mount Royal Beach Hotel" owned by the same Berjaya group from Malaysia. Experience the exotic charm of Sri Lanka at the 95-room Berjaya Mount Royal Beach Hotel. The hotel website describes the hotel as such "The hotel faces the stunning beach front on one side and is bordered by lush tropical vegetation on the other, makes it a perfect setting ideal for both business and pleasure. The beach front hotel combines harmony and tradition in which you will feel right at home. "

The reality was two railway lines run along side the hotel with trains running every 10 minutes or so (the website doesn't mention this of course). If you can call a a huge functional rectangular building (it was easily the largest building here) as combining "harmomy and tradition", your are either be blind or dumb. I guess the "Royal" in the name is just a marketing gimmick. The hotel cost USD 60 if you are so inclined to stay there.

On Sunday I went to my first tour in Sri Lanka. I booked a three wheeler (Tuk-tuk) for a day to bring me around various sights in Colombo. The cost was Rupee 3,500 (USD 33).

The first place I visited was Galle Face Hotel built in 1864. In its heyday, the 19 and early 20th century,this hotel was a favourite of visiting royalty from Europe. It is still a fine place to stay if you willing to pay USD 90 per night.

The other places I visited were Peetah market, fish market (it stank of fish), a Hindu temple Gangaramaya temple, Queen Victoria park and National Museum. The Gangaramaya temple contained a mish mash of deity statues from Buddha, various Hindu gods and even a Chinese deity. The national museum contained a vast collection of varios historical ariticats from the 3rd B.C onwards.

Today I will be going to Kandy by train, a town 110km north of Colombo. I will travel in this region for about 10 days before hitting the beaches in the South. I plan to retun to Colombo ohn 31 Dec, stay for two nights before taking my return flight on 2 Jan. 2009.

Off to a Long Holiday

Yesterday (Wed.) I had a good run by my current standards. I managed to run 3 km on the treadmill. My speed was 8.2 km/hr (improved from 7.5 km/hr last week), jogging speed by the standard of a regular runner but it was the fastest speed I've run over the past year. The other good thing was I felt quite relaxed throughout the run (A positive sign of increased endurance). At the moment, I am limiting my runs to 3 km or less and not more than four times a week due to my knee condition (it is not getting better).

I will be going to Sri Lanka this Saturday for a three weeks holiday until 2 Jan. 2009. As a precaution due to the civil war in Sri Lanka, I have taken a travel insurance today. I hope to post a few reports from Sri Lanka over the next three weeks.

Since I won't be in Malaysia until 2009:

I wish all my friends : Selamat Maal Hijrah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

See you in 2009.