8th September - Galle
We had a very relaxed day next to the amazing pool and didn't leave the hotel. All this travelling makes you tired, or is that lazy!!
9th September - Galle
The buffet breakfast at this hotel is epic, best we have ever seen with a mix of Sri Lankan and Western and everything you could ever wish to have!
This morning we got a tuk tuk from outside of the hotel to take us around Galle for 1500Rs.
He drove us around Galle Fort. We were expecting to be taken to a fort but the town is actually in the fort! The fort was built by the Dutch and it completely withstood the Tsunami in 2004. Galle and Hikkaduwa were hit the worst. Firstly we stopped at the Galle lighthouse and took a walk along the fortress walls around the beach.
Then we went to Unawatuna beach (how cool is that name) and chilled out for a couple of hours with a beer on a sunbed. There is still some surf here but I think you would get away with swimming although we didn't really fancy it! On the way back he took us to yet another Spice Garden. The poor guy started his tour and wanted to put some hair removal cream on Shaun's leg seeing that Shaun already had a patch missing from a previous tour. He then continued a quick tour trying to get us to have a massage and donate some money, needless to say we got out of there swiftly!
We might be staying at a 5 start hotel but we still did our own washing in the bath!! The hotel charges laundry per item so it would cost a fortune!
For dinner we went downstairs to the fine dining restaurant and had the whole place to ourselves. As it is a full moon we couldn't have any beer. It is illegal to sell alcohol on a full moon or bank holiday due to their religion.
10th September
This morning we had a fine dining breakfast in the very posh restaurant which was a 3 course set menu then onto another hard day down at the pool!
We checked our bank accounts online and realised a MASSIVE problem. I had booked Jetwing Lighthouse on Expedia in rupee. They had charged me in Indian rupee not Sri Lankan rupee ... s*#t! So instead of costing £50 a night (which is already super expensive for us) it cost about £100 a night, and we booked 4!! So not a bargain at all, we are staying at the most expensive hotel in Sri Lanka!
On realising our error we agreed Sri Lanka was too expensive and we would move our flight to leave earlier. In the meantime we might as well live it up living in luxury!!
We then tried to withdraw some money from Shaun's card and it was blocked, mine had been blocked since we got here. Therefore we had to phone HSBC to let them know it is not fraudulent and we are actually here as we stated online. We called the free-phone number from the hotel and sorted it out over a 20 minute call. Apparently, free-phone numbers do not exist in Sri Lanka and the stupid hotel charged us £20 for the pleasure!! Ridiculous!!!
We sorted out a plan for the rest of our trip with the concierge of the hotel. We agreed the journey and where we would stop starting tomorrow morning; drive to Uda Walawe and in the afternoon go to the elephant orphanage and then a jeep safari, the next day drive to Nuwara Eliya, the next day see the tea plantations and drive to Kandy, the next day tour around Kandy and a 5 hour drive back to Negombo where we started. We bartered and agreed to pay the extortionate fee of 240,000 rupee about £230!
We managed to move our flight to Bangkok earlier to 15th September, this will mean leaving a week early but we will have seen everything we planned to on this tour and Sri Lanka is very expensive, it will be better for us to hang out in Thailand. Unfortunately, this time we decided not to get Travel Butler when we booked our round the world ticket so the airline charged us £75 each.
That evening after a relaxing candle lit bath we headed to find the other restaurant which is on the top floor of the hotel. We were shown into the dining hall set for about 100 people and we were the only ones there. We felt a bit odd so we left and went to the main restaurant downstairs!
A la perchoine
Jodie and Shaun
xxx
