Неплохой отель со своими нюансами. Nice hotel with some quirks.

Greetings to all those who want to spend n-th amount of money on an exotic vacation. I warn you right away that my review will be honest and, perhaps, overflowing with epithets and comparisons. I will try to write a detailed review about holidays in Sri Lanka, about the country itself, about its people, hotels known to me, and most importantly, about the organization of recreation and the problems that our tourists usually have with our own tour operators.
Rested four of us, two families, from 1 to 15 February 2014. The children were left with their grandmothers and went, or rather flew.
About tour operators. The tour was taken through a travel agency from the tour operator TPG - Travel Professional Group (Kyiv). The host in Lanka is Exotic Global Holidais. About these two there will be an opus below in the text.
Flight. AIR ARABIA airline. Departure at 23.00 February 1 from Boryspil. Airbus 320 aircraft.

The planes are new, Russian-speaking staff is present, alcohol is prohibited for consumption and is not on the menu (it should be borne in mind that in the emirate of Sharjah, where this company is from, there is a strict dry law). But ours fly prepared and manage to aggravate on board. The food on the plane is not very varied, but if you don’t have any complaints, you won’t stay hungry. Beef stroganoff with mashed potatoes, chicken skewers with fried potatoes, rice with chicken, Arabic spicy cold cuts, sandwiches with cheese and sausage drinks in the range. Lunch for one person is about 10 dollars, drinks 1-3 dollars, they accept Emirati dirams, euros, pounds, on the way from Lanka - even Sri Lankan rupees. You can take food with you: as you like. The flight is over 4 hours. In Sharjah, the transfer is about 2 hours. And more than 4 hours to Lanka - it's hard to fly, especially at night. Arrival at 13.15 Sri Lankan time (3.5 hour difference with Kyiv).
You can fly with Fly Dubai (Boeing 737), but the flight is at lunchtime, transfer to Dubai takes about 4-5 hours to wait for the board to Colombo. Arrival in the morning. But there is alcohol for sale on board - beer and beakers at considerable prices. And in Sharjah and in Dubai, duty free is at your disposal. You can take whiskey or other drinks at good prices, so as not to drag from your homeland.
We flew in ...The heat and stuffiness immediately hit my head (and we haven’t left the air-conditioned airport building yet - we flew from Kyiv -15, flew to Corolombo + 35, a drop of 50 degrees Celsius is impressive). We bought visas, passed control (loyal), quickly received our luggage and went out to the common hall of the airport. Currency exchange immediately in the hall of the Bank of Ceylon the best rate. Take the check. If there are rupees left, change at the same rate upon departure. The exchange rate is 1 dollar - 128 Sri Lankan rupees (it turns out 1 hryvnia somewhere around 15 rupees). Get ready to see a lot of different banknotes of the same denomination.
When shopping, if you pay in dollars, they recalculate well (1 dollar - 130 rupees). Get a SIM card from a local operator Dialog in the same hall - communication with the Motherland within 50 cents per minute, locally - almost free of charge (costs 1300 rupees, of which 850 in the account, replenishment in any store where there is a Dialogue sign).

And then the most interesting began. Everyone was greeted with signs, put on buses and taken to hotels. A dark-haired lad approached us and showed an SMS with my last name. We realized that this is for us. We waited for another young couple and he led us to the bus. Please note that your luggage can be grabbed by a local and simply put on the bus. For this, he will ask for a tip, pretending to be a fool, lowing and holding a bill of 1000 rupees in his hand, such as such a fee for his “service” - a clean water divorce - send such a chela away. We got into the bus - six of us, with a conder - cool and drove off. We drove around 1.
5 hours, although they were supposed to drive about 4 hours ...And then doubts began to creep in. Why are we going north if our hotel Tne Ralms is located south of Colombo. But we were very tired and did not pay attention to the cardinal directions. We drove through some slums, past drug addicts (actually killed - by the way, many of the Sri Lankans chew some kind of mixture of leaves with a narcotic effect, we never managed to find out what it was, the locals just smiled or avoided answering). Local traffic is very specific. Everyone honks, cuts off each other, the movement seems to be chaotic, but, oddly enough, there are no accidents, because it is impossible to accelerate, and the drivers are calm, “nerves are like steel ropes. ” We arrived and, oh horror, we drive up to the hotel, past a swamp with a trash can, along a dirt road, the name of the hotel is Club Palm Bay ...We are dark - a second, this is not our hotel, here is our voucher - The Palms hotel.
(I’ll digress here - learn English - the Sri Lankans are not required to know Russian, we came to visit them. When a drunk person from the Russian outback comes in for breakfast and tells a smiling Sri Lankan who greets him in English that he should be met with the words “ Good morning”, and not “Good morning, sir” - this, to put it mildly, is not polite, but roughly speaking - you don’t have to be a cattle in a foreign country with your own customs and customs). The black one starts calling somewhere, conducting long negotiations, and then it turns out that there are no rooms available at The Palms hotel, and therefore we were brought to another hotel for 2 days and they offer “All inclusive” in this hotel instead of our “Breakfast - dinner" in ours. We got a little fuzzy. The most disgusting thing about everything that is happening is that our and the Sri Lankan tour operator did not warn us that there was such a problem, but put us before the fact, although they were 1000 percent aware of the situation.
Seeing a viper around the Club Palm Bay hotel, a shabby fence, a gate and a dirty entrance to the hotel, we flatly refused to settle in it and forced our escort to drive back to The Palms. And then began negotiations over the phone. Hotel guides began to approach us and say what a good Club Palm Bay hotel is, and what preferences they give us in the form of free beer and whiskey, and that we are wrong, etc. We refused such “hospitality” and insisted on a transfer to our hotel, arguing by the presence of a voucher in The Palms and the fact that if we arrived 9000 km from the Motherland, then we can buy beer for ourselves. We drive back, another 5 hours of travel, we arrive in Palma (by the way, this is a chain of hotels with the same owners, it’s a pity that we didn’t go to them, it would be something to talk about). We approach the reception, passports and vouchers on the table - we must live here from today.

The girl at the reception started looking for us on the lists, then called assistants, started looking for free rooms, called the bosses. Madame and a smiling guy came, they started calling someone again. We sit boiled at the reception, we didn’t sleep for almost a day, our wives were in a semi-panic, they didn’t even offer us water, they bought it for their own. And then they tell us that there is no payment and deal with your tour operator ...We are out, and - lo and behold, a girl contacts us - a representative of the meeting party (we never saw her - only by phone). And he tells us that there are no rooms in the Palms and we need to settle in the Palm Bay Club ...that this happens in the season. That is, such a situation is in the order of things for them, and we, like, should not show off. And the fact that we were not warned is not her problem. By the way, we never found out whose problem it was - probably ours! ! ! Operators simply withdrew.
The hotel says that this is a problem of tour operators, the tour operator blames the hotel management - a vicious circle in which tourists are hostages of the situation. We have a wild hysteria, the wives are crying, the receptionists ...frankly laughing. And then we finally realized that we are nobody here, people of the fourth world (not even the third, because they are treated better - more on that later). And the worst thing is, nothing can be done! ! ! We sit at the reception, ordered drinks, we had to take photos of how we are waiting for check-in, lying on the benches, or better on the floor near the reception. We are waiting for the bus that took our compatriots who were traveling with us to the south of the island. We fucking want to sleep. Hungry. The hotel management has retired. It's nice that the guys working at the hotel, after the bosses left, began to offer us free water, sandwiches and even brought us half a cake! ! !
About the Sri Lankans a separate conversation. Very smiling, pleasant and open people. But not selfless!
Although they do not insist on tips. And we gave them 500 rupees and a pack of cigarettes. By the way, cigarettes are a good currency. Locals cost 500 rupees a pack, expensive, however. We are non-smokers, but we took a block with us and when we treated the Sri Lankans, they were happy as children and said that our cigarettes were “delicious”. But often, tips do not solve anything and absolutely do not affect the quality of cleaning in the room, changing linen or fulfilling any of your requests. The Sri Lankans are just like that - smiling, slow and a little slow - take it as it is. Until the bed linen was thrown to the floor, it was not changed, although at the reception I left a request for its replacement (not counting the fact that I left a card for changing the linen and a tip on the bed), I also asked for an iron for 2 days at the reception, it was they didn’t bring it, and the manager from the reception even joked that it was fashionable to walk in mint. That is, verbal requests did not always reach the addressee.

When we were at the reception, the following picture emerged: we, unfortunately, got to the hotel for the Chinese New Year! ! ! ! And our rooms were stupidly sold to the Chinese (speaking of the fourth world! ) In general, we had no choice but to return to the notorious Palm Bay Club. I wanted to sleep badly and take a shower. Another 4 hours of travel.
About the Chinese, too, separately. This is a locust. Not the truth is written about ours. It's just that in Lanka our rest is less than foreigners. Especially in the Palms. There were 20 percent of us there, no more. The bulk - tea, were the British, Germans, French, Czechs.
China - such boors and rednecks and in such numbers we have not seen before, vacationing in other countries (we were in Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Thailand, Jordan ... ) They can spit on the floor, rubbed to a mirror image, throw a cigarette butt and trample it on the same floor, put your feet in shoes on the table near the reception, the noise from them is unimaginable, you can not go into the restaurant while the teahouse is eating. They almost push the resting people with their elbows, run and shout, and if they still drink a bottle of beer ...Not a word about dragons ...And they serve ours according to the residual principle, until you show the initiative yourself, you won’t drink tea.
We arrived at the Club Palm Bay hotel at 4 am, the manager was sleeping. We searched for him for another 20 minutes and tried to wake him up for 20 minutes, because he did not find us on the lists for settling! ! ! In general, they settled in and fell asleep. We woke up in the afternoon and started looking around. The territory is large, well-groomed, although a lot of withered grass. On the territory of ponds with fish.

Chipmunks and lizards run. The rooms were almost new (bungalows), water for half a liter per person in the room. Tea coffee. You can live. Our bungalows were far from the reception, but in a quiet place. Closer to the reception, the rooms are worse, with old furniture and shabby walls. Let's go for lunch. The food is good, varied and tasty, plus free alcoholic drinks - as promised! ! ! Thank you! ! ! But the day of rest is already lost. The pool is too small and crows crap in it! A boy with a slingshot walks around the pool and chases crows. There were free sun beds, towels were given, the boy wore drinks (after 200 rupees tip). We went to look at the ocean - through a shabby reception with the same chairs and tables and without any ventilation. Access to the ocean through a guarded gate and through a dirt road! ! ! The beach is terrible things: garbage, cigarette butts, dead crows and 20 sun loungers for the entire hotel under palm canopies.
The entry into the ocean is steep, deep at once - we didn’t even get our feet wet. 2 people swam. Waves and dirty water with brown foam impressed! ! ! And also a garbage dump with a swamp and the surrounding slums. We realized that it was better not to leave its territory in this hotel and began to look forward to the next transfer - but already to our palm trees. When communicating with vacationers in Club Palm Bay, it turned out that we are not the only ones, and that people are waiting for transfers to their hotels for 2-4 days! ! ! That is, the hotel is transit and the practice of such settlement is a normal phenomenon for our and local tour operators! ! ! As compensation, they offer "all inclusive" and our tourists agree, and some even really like it - to sit in a hotel to drink free beer or something stronger, not seeing anything else. But we went to Lanka from across the ocean and for new experiences. Therefore, such a holiday is not for us.
By the way, those guys who were traveling with us were also left without a room, and they were also settled in another hotel, and there was also a scandal, and no one warned anyone either. Here we understood why they made an individual transfer for all of us. And further. The hotel guide Igor does not solve anything, almost does not speak English, it makes no sense to make claims to him. He just wants to sell tours.
Well, finally, having lost 2 days of rest and a bundle of nerves, we arrived at The Palms. And they even settled in! ! ! 2 hours after arrival, because the rooms were not cleaned! Everyone smiles, brought drinks, just "wait a little more. " But we are no longer used to it, we waited for two days, 2 hours no longer count. We contacted at this time with a representative of the host - we were promised a free excursion to Kandy from the master's shoulder in the form of compensation. That's where the apology ends. Upon arrival home, we will try to get compensation for 2 lost days of rest.
About the hotel.

There are comfortable chairs and fans at the hotel reception, the hotel as a whole creates a pleasant impression - a lot of greenery, a well-groomed and clean area, fish, turtles, almost tame chipmunks (take seeds with you), lizards, lotuses in the pond, crows do not reach much, as in Club Palm Bay. The hotel is well located - away from the highway and the railway, inside like in the jungle. Sun loungers under coconuts, enough shade. The beach is separated from the hotel by a net. At the gate is a guard. The beach is clean, there is a volleyball court (the locals play well). The entry into the ocean is gentle and even, up to a depth of 70 meters. The bottom is clean, sandy. The waves and the power of the surf are impressive. I do not recommend swimming, the element is a little addictive, it is enough to ride the waves. 100 meters to the right - a lagoon with calm water, separated from the ocean by a reef. The water is clear, there was no foam. Obviously, it appears after the rains, because a kilometer to the left flows into the Bentota River, carrying garbage.
The view from the rooms is very beautiful, beautiful pictures at dawn and near the ocean at sunset. We do not recommend the rooms on the ground floor, they are damp and more dilapidated than on the floors, plus living creatures creep in - geckos. Although exotic. There were fumigators in the rooms, there were no mosquitoes. On the street sometimes bitten, but not critical.
Local. Guides dissuade to communicate with the beach-boys who rub to the left of the gate on the beach, like they are dishonorable. Not true. Guides need to sell excursions. Beach-boys have it much cheaper - competition! ! ! For the same excursions, you can easily negotiate with the guys on the beach. We talked with Martin - this is the oldest Sri Lankan on the beach, small in stature and with good Russian. He has everything under control there: he can organize any excursions and shopping. The price must be negotiated immediately.
He has the newest tuk-tuk and for 100 rupees round trip he will take you to the nearest settlement to top up your account, buy fruit, souvenirs or alcohol at normal prices. Can take to shops for stones. Of course, he gets his kickback, but he does not become impudent and does not impose his stores. You choose where to go. We went with him for alcohol, bought souvenirs, fruits, changed money at a good rate - everything is loyal. Local rum Calypso - 1450 rupees, beer - 150 rupees. T-shirts of good quality - 5-15 dollars. Tea for every price and taste. Fruit - pineapple 100 rupees. piece, mango - 400 rupees. kg, rambutan - 700 rupees. kg, papaya - 300 rupees. PCS. Souvenirs and things near the hotel are more expensive and are traded worse, but you need to bargain everywhere. Prices for ours immediately inflate by 2-5 times! There are also tuk-tukers at the entrance to the hotel, these are really crooks. There is one fat man there - his name is Jagat de Silva or simply Silva. We just moved in and needed to top up our account.

You can't take pictures with your back to the Buddha! After the temple we went through the villages to the waterfall. He stopped in interesting places, talked about plants, about animals. We saw a huge monitor lizard, black monkeys. We tried coconuts. I brought it to the mosque near the fish market and the port. Then we went shopping: stones, alcohol, tea, souvenirs, clothes, shoes. In general, he was with us from 10 am to 5 pm, for which he took $ 25 per pair. We took a tour from the guide to the Yala reserve on a jeep safari (left at 7-30, arrived at 23-30). Drive to the southeast of the island for 6 hours! Road kills safari experience. It was necessary to take this tour from Martin - it would be faster (individual tour) and cheaper ($ 90 per person from the guide and somewhere around 70 from Martin). And we drove along the coast and collected a group from hotels, and not far from The Palms there is an exit to the highway connecting Colombo with the south of the country. The fare costs 300 rupees, but it is 3 times faster to go! And to go to Colombo is not 3-4 hours, but 1 hour!
And we were rolled on arrival all day! In the reserve, they changed from the bus to a jeep. We drove around the savannah for about 3.5 hours. We saw and took pictures of elephants, buffaloes, crocodiles, peacocks, monkeys, wild boars, deer. The leopards didn't get caught. And then a 5 hour drive back. They refused the excursion to Galle, because they drove through it on the way to Yala and stopped at the fort. The excursion to Kandy was personalized and presented by the meeting party. She really liked it, because there was a personal Russian-speaking guide and a small bead with a conder. We went where we wanted. We didn’t go to the elephant nursery, but private traders rode elephants with bathing! Impressed! We went to the spice garden and bought sandalwood oil. We didn't go to the tea factory. Along the mountain serpentine (stop on the way to the observation deck to take a picture) we climbed to Kandy. The Royal Botanic Gardens are beautiful. Tip - rent an electric car (1000 rupees per car).
And you will see the garden, and you will not be tormented by walking in the heat. Exotic trees, monkeys, flying dogs, suspension bridge - good pictures. Well, the Temple of the Tooth Relic. Interesting, exotic and beautiful. On the way back we bought fruit, cheaper than on the coast. And at 7 pm we were already at the hotel. We drove part of the way along the highway. From the guides from this tour they return at 11-12 at night. Departure at 5 am. Were on a fishing trip. Also through Martin. The asking price is $120 for two. Departure to the sea at 6.00. Directly from the beach near the hotel. The program includes a boat with tackle, beautiful views, a little pitching, swimming on an island where a lighthouse is in the clearest water, an interesting way of fishing by the locals, plus spinning rods we know and cooking caught fish in a restaurant on the beach. I also caught a fish. Beautiful and delicious. Similar to our bull, but 10 times larger and leopard coloring. In total, the fish caught a keel 5. We returned by 11 am.
Nutrition. I wrote about the restaurant. We had breakfast and dinner.

A lot of spicy dishes - this is an amateur. The food is good overall. Good chicken and seafood. They don't know how to cook meat! Because they don’t eat… Sweets and desserts – get ready to get better! Fruits in assortment: pineapple (amazing), papaya, passion fruit, super bananas, agave, watermelon; tangerine and mangosteen in syrup. Bar near the reception: drinks - beer glass 0.3 200 rupees. A bottle of beer 0.625 330 rupees, alcoholic cocktails 600-700 rupees, alcohol from 300 rupees 50g, fresh juices 400 rupees. Tip - take it with you or buy it at a local liquor store. Just after 18-00 the sun sets (tropics) and there is nothing to do. Take cards, dominoes, etc. , crossword puzzles, I myself managed to read 2 books on the beach. In the evenings snake tamer and local amateur groups. It's all fun. Once there was a disco on the beach - more or less cool. We dined at the cafes on the beach, located to the left of the exit. There are 4 of them in a row. 1. Sun flower.
Tasty, varied, Russian menu and a curly-haired Russian-speaking waiter. Service is slow. Not very clean. Seafood in assortment. Prices for every taste. You can dine for 2-5 thousand rupees for two. I recommend the seafood platter. 2. Shasha. Delicious. I liked it the most. Clean, nice people, the menu is almost in Russian. Recently opened and fighting for each client. Cheaper than anywhere. The menu is varied. A bottle of beer 200 rupees. Rum on tap. The boy Shasha speaks a little Russian. Service faster. I recommend the shrimp in batter and seafood soup! ! ! Try the ginger lemonade. The best cafe on the beach! ! ! 3. Sasika. They do not speak Russian, the menu is present. Clean, not cheap, I recommend spicy shrimp in sauce with vegetables. 4. Fresh. The furthest. The menu is poor. We looked and left. Further along the beach, 400 meters away, there are 2 more cafes, but we did not go there.
From seafood for every taste: huge shrimp, lobsters (large river shrimp), lobsters (they write lobster on the menu, but this is a lobster), cuttlefish, squid, shark, coral fish. Try this abundance - it is very tasty and we have it much more expensive.
General advice. Be sure to take water with you everywhere. Very hot and stuffy. Necessarily skin creams so as not to burn, 50 at least, beware of the sun. It is advisable to treat your hands with antiseptics or at least have wet wipes - the Sri Lankans are not very clean. In addition to souvenirs and tea, you can bring home: Calypso rum, fruits, local clothes. In duty free Colombo, inexpensive and good promotional whiskey $ 4.3 liters (Famous Grouse). Cigarettes are expensive, if you smoke, bring your own. And think about whether it is worth contacting tour operators TPG - Travel Professional Group (Kyiv) and the host in Lanka - Exotic Global Holidais. If you have any questions, ready to answer