Наблюдения о Шри-Ланке Observations about Sri Lanka

Good day to all! Rested with his wife from 15 to 29 March 2010. I will not bore you with the details of the flight and hotel accommodation. Flight UIA + Etihad 5 points, the Hotel is clearly on its 3.5 stars. They try. A special plus for dinners is good, especially the confectionery. Other observations point by point.
1. Currency exchange
Thanks to those who warned about the exchangers at the airport! The rate was 111.37 rupees for 1 dollar. When exchanging $ 500, they wanted to deceive us for 5500 rupees. Silently gave the missing, no apologies, nothing. . . Citizens be vigilant! In the future, they changed money in cafes or grocery stores. The rate is higher: 114-115 rupees.
2. Beach boys + excursions

Everyone who comes to Tangerine beach and Royal palms (reading reviews on the Internet) is well aware of the wonderful reviews about Nuvan, as well as about Asanka, Nisha and others like them... Do not be naive that they dream of seeing you and serving you at the highest level. First, upon arrival, you are surrounded by beachboys from all the cafe owners of the coast - hello! How are you! Etc. They invite you to a cafe, for a massage, excursions, but for some reason they immediately lose interest in you if you agree! ? It seems that most spend their time just hanging out with tourists. In order not to be unfounded, I will give a few examples:
- on one of the first days we went to Nuvan for lunch and in the absence of customers we waited 1.5 hours;
- another time we decided to order lunch in advance and when we arrived on time we saw that they had not even started cooking;
- agreed with Nuvan about an excursion to the fish market ($ 25) at six in the morning. Arriving at the meeting place on time, he did not find anyone; called Nuvan back and found out that he was sleeping and completely forgot about the contract. (Later we met a local - Manjula - a nice person and went with him for 1000 rupees = $ 8.5);
- went with Nuvan on a tour of Kandy-Sigiriya 2 days for $ 220 for two. Do not count on a fascinating story about the country, you will only hear the story inside the Temple of the Tooth Relic. The next day, Nuvan slept until lunch in the bus and the cave monastery in Dambulla passed us in 5 minutes. But…
Tour prices are normal. All tour operators presented in the hotel prices are much more expensive. All beach guides offer you to look for tourists on excursions yourself - the more you find, the cheaper;
- so Nuvan - comrades gathered people for a tour in Halle - 8 people for $ 20 from the nose, but the tour did not work out, because they could not find the beads and if we ourselves had not asked in the evening whether we were going or not, then in the morning we would have stood stupidly at the reception and waited by the sea, sorry, by the ocean, the weather;
Tip: if you at least somehow speak English (and even if you don’t, because there is practically nothing to tell, just look) there are travel agencies on the road leading from the highway to the hotel. They offer tours at a fixed price regardless of the number of people, and the people who offer them are more trustworthy than Nuvan and his countless brothers.
But in fairness - if you love Bob Marley, weed and gatherings with the crowd in the bar under the "Nuvan" rum - you certainly need it.
3. Shopping

It's in Colombo. The trip cost 5000 rupees = $43 for two. Were in all the recommended stores: House of fashion, Odel and Majestik. According to unanimous opinion, the first two are of interest: House of fashion - branded items at ridiculous prices: Armani shirt - 1500 rupees = $ 13, Prada bag 120 hryvnia... Odel - Europeanized things sewn in Lanka and India, a lot of children, prices are much lower than Ukrainian ones. The third one sucks: a lot of shops under a good facade, but there is a Food city supermarket - this is the only state-owned supermarket chain on the island in the format of Ukrainian ATB. There you need to buy red rum 930-950 rupees = $ 8-9 (we took Calypso and Rockland), tea for yourself and for a gift - beer is more expensive in factories and shops, but beer is expensive even at the state price: a bottle of local Leon 650 ml = 140 rupees with a bottle = $1.21. I took myself, as a lover of dark beer, the local Stout is just excellent.
4 Souvenirs
We bought a Buddhist deity Ganesh made of ebony weighing 3 kg, a Buddha made of mahogany (very light wood) and many different elephants. I highly recommend the shop of the above Manjula: if you go from the hotel to the highway after the railway crossing, immediately on the left is Omatawooden Why? It’s nice to just bargain well with him (the rest don’t bargain much) and as a result the prices are very good, he is a pleasant intelligent person and most importantly, if you buy black (ebony) wood, he gives documents for export from the country (this is just in case because large products are exported forbidden).
5 Food
Wonderful!! ! We tried to eat in all coastal and coastal cafes. I liked it - at Asanka - the young guy cooks very well. Tried everything - naturally seafood. I liked the most - seafish (as they call it, then I found out, it seems, it was a tora) from 700 to 1200 rupees, my wife - tiger prawns (lobster size) - 1700-2500 rupees, then lobster 2500-2600 rupees, barracuda, shark (also very tasty), shrimp 1000 rupees. Most of all we liked the Sea Shells cafe on the way from the hotel to the highway on the left to the second floor - the owner cooks himself and is awesome. Prices are also the lowest and, importantly for Lanka, 10% of the tip is not included in the price. By the way, he also conducts tours around the island. I really liked Bouabes soup in Dima's cafe - not reaching Sea Shells on the right = 400 rupees. In general, a dinner for two cost an average of 2700-3000 rupees = $22-26. But it's worth it. No matter how wonderful dinner at the hotel was (and it is) - individual cuisine is certainly better.
6 Ayurveda
We didn't go to the hotel. They did a massage with Asanka - I liked it, Sveta was so-so. But more of course not a massage, but a strong rubbing of oils into the skin. 1 hour - 1000 rupees = $ 8.7.
Results: at first it seemed to us worse than Thailand, but having felt the country, we realized that we want to come back here again.

1st place - Ocean, although many wrote that huge waves - do not go in, but my wife, who does not like waves in our Black Sea, frolic like a small child - maybe you just need not be afraid of water and be able to swim ???
2nd place - kitchen (said above)
Tips & Tricks:
-if you have not been to Southeast Asia, then it is better to start visiting from Lanka, and then Thai and so on - there will be more impressions;
-I will not be original, noting that you must immediately set yourself up for a positive perception of the world and recreation in particular, and there will be happiness, because the ocean is powerful and boundless, pineapples and coconuts are tasty and cheap, and nature is awesome after (or instead of) northern winters .
All the best and happy travels.