Sri Lanka DIY
CHANGE (July 2014)
The Sri Lankan currency is the rupee (LKR)
1 LKR = 0.00563 Euro
1 Euro = 177.197 LKR
EXPENSE IN EURO
It’s really a cheap country. Therefore interesting to be considered in those periods when the traveling budget is more restricted, or, given the small size of the island, if one has less time than usual. These two conditions were just part of my personal case in summer 2014.
Food: 70.90 Eu (Eu 3.3 per day)
Bus: 14.80 Eu
Hotel 206.34 Eu (Eu 9.82 per day)
Entrance fees to various sites: 106.69 Eu
Tuk tuk: 13.29 Eu
Internet: 00.28 Eu
Ayurvedic Massage: 11.26 Eu
Train: 6.98
Rental bikes: 1.41 Eu
SIM card: 7.32 Eu
Total: 439.27 Eu (Eu 20.91 per day)
Total with flight 915 Eu
FLIGHTS
Saudi Arabian Airlines, purchased in late February, the cheapest ever bought (for intercontinental flights of course), 475 Eu. Some guys at the airport told me they paid it 430 Eu, at mid January.
7/27/14 Malpensa 11.00 – Jeddah 17.10 / SV212
7/28/14 Jeddah 01.15 – Colombo 10.00 / SV782
8/18/14 Colombo 11.45 – Jeddah 15.00 / SV781
8/19/14 Jeddah 02.30 – Milano 07.00 / SV213
The wait was interminable in Jeddah, on top of that it was Ramadan, tv screens in the airport continuously transmitted a stream of pilgrims going round the Mecca black stone. Showing your boarding card you can get a free meal voucher (breaded chicken breast, rice, pepsi, apple). Small amount of uncomfortable plastic chairs, tiny airport, only one toilet, nothing to do.
Seats on the aircraft do not have the personal screen, but there is enough legroom. I slept almost all the time, but it seemed to me they broadcasted mainly religious videos.
DOMESTIC TRANSPORT
BUS
Possible to go anywhere without problems, of course you have to be a bit flexible. Bus have no air conditioning, broken or crooked seats, crowded, slow in most of cases, in city centres stop and honk every second, to attract customers. Prices are very low, I spent less than 15 Eu in the whole holiday. In order not to stand up in the aisle is better to get on the bus at the terminal, which is something foreigners usually do. If it happens that you have to go up halfway, ticket collector jumps out, grabs your bulky bag and places it in the trunk. In three weeks, on long journeys, it happened to me only once that I could not sit down. A couple of other time, I was standing on some short distances, it was rather like being on the Tokyo subway. When there is not a lot of people you can leave the big backpack next to the gear shift close to the driver. I never understood the difference between red and white bus, in theory should be the first are the state ones, less expensive, and more stops, and the other the private one, more expensive, and more direct. In reality, the distinction is not so clear. The luggage racks above the seats are sometimes minute, so the usual small backpack the Westeners usually carry as hand luggage is too big. I usually placed there the camera bag and small soft bag, and kept close to me money and documents in a small shoulder bag. During the breaks I usually got out the bus only with the shoulder bag, no one has ever touched anything.
I have never seen anywhere VIP buses, only package tours groups use them
TRAINS
I used the second and third class. Advance reservation is possible only by some agencies, like this one
https://visitsrilankatours.co.uk/train-tickets-1.html
or going personally to some enabled stations offices (Ella, Kandy and Trincomalee) and paying a reasonable surcharge. The station office counters who are not enabled (Haputale), the sale of the tickets available starts one hour before the departure of the train, so you have to queue and wait. A ticket purchased in this way gives the right to one seat only if you are lucky and you find it, otherwise you stand
I recommend this site
http://www.seat61.com/SriLanka.htm
CLIMATE / RECOMMENDED CLOTHING
Hot / humid, but better than I thought, better than Vietnam, for example. I found great weather in the north and in the central zone (Dambulla, Polonnaruwa), a little less on the east coast where, despite being the most favorable period, from noon onwards, the sky was covered with clouds and regularly rained in the afternoon. Nothing shocking, though. With regard to clothing, just bring light fabrics, like linen. On the hills, Haputale and Ella, in the evening, is better to have a fleece.
HOTELS
Quite cheap. Descriptions and pictures are in the travelogue, in the various sections. A note about the prices: there is a lot of difference in rates if you come alone or accompanied by a tuk tuk or other intermediary, to which the owner will have to pay a commission which will be automatically charged to the final customer.
Absolutely more convenient to find the place and bargain, instead of booking in advance via internet. Example, at the Sri Lak Haputale, via Booking a single costs 30 USD, instead I paid 2500 LKR, ie 14 Euro …
Let’s say that you have to be adaptable. Briefly: Reny Hotel at Tissa and Cosy GH at Jaffna are awful. I recommend instead the Old Dutch House in Galle, the Sri Lak in Haputale, Gnanam in Jaffna, and especially the Jayaru GH in Polonnaruwa, which is not the Hilton, of course, but for 1000 LKR is clean and decent. I also point out that the cheaper pensions are frequented by local tourists or workers. It’s a good way to meet people not linked to tourism. If they are kind and friendly with you it’s not for some profit.
The average expenditure was about 9.5 Eu per day.
COMMUNICATIONS
At the airport arrivals hall I bought a Dialog sim card, 1300 LKR. 1 text msg costs 6.37 LKR, one minute talk to Italy on a fix phone costs 3 LKR per minute.
FOOD
I was a little disappointed. Much less various than in India. Perhaps it is wrong to make comparisons, but for some reason I was expecting more …. The restaurants where the locals eat are called “hotels”, and can be compared to Indian “dhabas”
A cream house is rather a kind of pastry shop, where you can also find ice creams, fruit juices and milkshakes.
SHOPPING
Same as for food. Disappointing. Perhaps the best place to shop around is Kandy. In Negombo there are many souvenir shops, but far less clothing stuff than Kandy. At the airport, at the departures gates, there are many stands selling souvenirs, prices similar to Negombo.
WORTH TO GO?
I would say yes. It ‘a very cheap destination, and at first it attracted me because of the very cheap cost of the flight. In my humble opinion, there is nothing so extraordinary to leave you breathless, or so particularly surprised. I would not recommend it to a novice traveler, but for experienced ones is rather a must. The best experiences I had are related to people, their beliefs, their character, their openness, curiosity. The North and East have recently opened to tourism, and this is another good reason to go there. Jaffna is the place that gave me the most, on the side of human interactions.
Exceptional religious ceremonies. Never seen anything like the Perahera of Kandy before. Fantastic experience to walk to Lipton’s Seat among the tea plantations. I was disappointed by the Sigiriya fortress, which is the most visited archaeological site in the country. I preferred Polonnaruwa.
The sea is good to rest a couple of days, but nothing more, in my opinion.
HASSLES / CRIME
Absolutely safe country, even for a single woman. Usual small nuisances found in SE Asia, but here are much less insistent. Stay away from tuk tuks, as much as possible.