Мои отдых в шри ланке My holidays in Sri Lanka

Good afternoon. We rested from December 07.2010 to December 15.2010. We were met at the airport by the guide of the Osthrove Ceylon Travels travel company Shintana and Madiyar Erubaev, a native of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Brought to the hotel, settled in a room on the third floor overlooking the ocean. The room is so-so - a modest 4, but we are not picky, because. he is there only for taking a shower and spending the night.
The ocean is warm, but very strong waves. We sunbathed near the pool on sun loungers, sometimes we went swimming in the ocean, which is a 2-minute walk away.
In the evenings, the animators arranged performances of English-speaking artists in the hotel. Rest is calm, young people are bored in this hotel. There are no places of entertainment nearby. There are discos and casinos only in Colombo, and it is 50 km to go there.

The main contingent of the hotel - the British, Germans, Americans. There are almost no Russians. For all the time of rest, only on the penultimate day a family from Surgut arrived.
We have been on a lot of excursions. The next day after arrival, we went with our guide - Shintana on an excursion to Kandy. We visited the Elephant Orphanage, Spice Garden, Jewelry Factory, Royal Botanical Garden, Buddha Temple, Tea Factory. We agreed to go without spending the night from early 5 am to 9 pm. We were charged 260 bucks for the tour. We did not like the elephant nursery, because before that we were in Thailand, it was more interesting there. We took the smallest excursion in the nursery, it was quite enough for us, there was nothing to do there longer. In the "Garden of Spice" it is interesting: we learned how pineapple, coffee, vanilla, etc. grow. exotic plants. At a jewelry factory (we don’t remember the name), we got stuck for a long time, watched a video, the production and extraction of precious stones, then chose stones for a long time and bargained. Traded for about an hour. As a result, they did not buy anything, they promised to return later.
Then we were in the huge Royal Botanic Gardens. Awesome tour, amazingly beautiful! There are trees in the garden, one of which was planted by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in 1860, and the second tree was planted by the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in December 1961.
Then we went to "Buddha Temple", a very interesting and beautiful temple. Impressed. After the Temple we went to the tea factory. We learned how to produce green and black tea. Bought 3 kg of Ceylon tea.
The next day we decided to try to take a tour of the beach boy - Blackie, who hangs out at the exit to the beach, black, small with an unshaven beard. The guy is not bad, you can trust, he is very friendly, values ​ ​ his business, speaks a little Russian.

We approached, chatted, asked questions and agreed to ride on the Bentota River in a boat. Agreed for 30 bucks for two for three hours. Let's go and get such pleasure from the tour, communication, we decided to travel only with him. We saw a lot of monitor lizards, eagles, an iguana, a tame eagle, a monkey, a small crocodile, and mangroves on the river.
The following excursions, as well as shopping, accompanied us Blackie.
Also, together with the employees of the tourist company Shyntan and Madiyar, we went on an excursion to the turtle farm. We saw an albino turtle, small newborn turtles.
Souvenirs are quite difficult to find, on excursions the prices are crazy, bargain hard.
In conclusion, I can say that do not be afraid of beach-boys, look at their relationship. Our Blyaki honestly earned money and never cheated on the price. Always honestly told what and how much it costs.
On the day of departure, Shintana and Madiyar were picked up from the hotel at 22-30, and the flight was at 04-20, we arrived at the airport at 1.30 minutes while customs clearance, passport control - it was already time to board the plane.
Sri Lanka is a wonderful island! We do not regret that we went to this particular country and we think that we will definitely return to see the remaining sights. SIGIRIA did not wait for us this time.
Separately, I would like to note the work of the travel company "Osthrove Ceylon Travels", which employs no less wonderful guys like Shintana and Madiyar. Thank them for everything!! !