We visited Sri Lanka for three weeks this time. Of theese three weeks we worked two weeks and spent the last visiting two rented houses.

The work

The setup was that each morning Mihiri went off to work (fairly nearby the hotel) and since traffic in Colombo is horrible in the morning quite some time was saved simply by being nearer work for her. I was not so lucky, but since I had no booked meetings I could take it easy, get Isak up and then take an Uber to Battaramulla where Mihiris parents would take care of Isak while I worked in a room upstairs. Sounds expensive with the taxi trips right? Its not. A trip for me and Isak from Cinamon to Battaramulla would be <=400 LKR which is about 20 SEK.

One of the evenings, on my way back to the hotel, it was raining. Hard. And I was in a hybrid. The driver did some quite inventive maneuvers to avoid a small pond that had formed in the road, taking a short trip across a university ground (not sure if we were on a walking path for a while).

Cinamon Grand

Ok so you allprobably know about this hotel from an earlier article Sri Lanka - The honeymoon. This hotel was booked by Mihiris employer, and I tagged along paying some extra for my bed.

We tried some more restaurants on the Hotel grounds and, last night, one outside.

The last days of the work weeks we went to a park nearby Mihiris parent's place. There was a guy there, with big black leeches swimming in a tank, claiming they would purify the blood so I thought "what the heck, he's probably right" and tried it:

No sorry, just joking. That's fishes in the tank. It was a fish pedicure.

Waterfall trip

After two weeks of work (and Isak) it was decided that we should go to see some waterfalls in an area called Lakshapana, in the middle of Sri Lanka. This is higher up and therefore a bit cooler (22C instead of 30C which is really nice). Since we were a family now of 6 adults and three wild kids (this includes Mihiris parents, her sister and her husband plus two noisy energetic cousins to Isak) we had a rented van with a driver for five days (cost was about 2300 SEK).

Instead of staying at hotels two houses had been booked. Renting a house is not as strange as it sounds. If you're a family you can actually rent a whole house and bring your own food which the staff will cook for you.  this was a good option to us. The driver also stayed in the house we rented.

On the way to the first house we stopped at some place to take a bath. This was a bit complicated; first we stopped at a restaurant (kind of) and ordered food there. While they made the food we went down the very narrow and scary road to park near some buildings, and something that looked like a outdoor restaurant. The others went on while I asked if they could make some coffe for me (I had a bd abstinence headace). The others went on while I was enjoying the silence and my coffe. When I asked how much they wanted they said 50 LKR (approx 2.50 SEK). I only had a 100 LKR bill but they refused to take it, saying that I could pay when I got back with the others and had change.

The bath place was near a waterfall. It was a bit stoney so we had to watch Isak all the time. After getting up we passed the coffe place and I gave them the 100 LKR note for the coffe.

Lunch was traditional Sri Lankan food, but I had fried rice.

The first House

This house was fairly normal, but a bit worn. The staff was very friendly. Our shower had a hole in the floor and the knob to turn on the actual shower (as oppose to the tap which was kind of useless in a shower but stuck on) was missing. They gave a plier and explained that previous guests had flushed the knob down the drain system and the staff had not yet managed to fish it out.

Mosquito nets were missing but there was in fact not many mosquitos. Overall the place was nice but lacked a pool or something else to do so it might be a bit boring if you dont have other plans during daytime.

The second House

This house was on a hill slope in the middle of a tea field. Nearby there was a small waterfall which you could go down to and take a bath in the natural pool below. The house also had its own pool (much appreciated by Isak who has to be dragged out of pools kicking and screaming) and a huge veranda. Inside the huge common room / entrence hall there was a pool table. The building gave a grand impression and is perfect for a couple of families or friends. Just to sit with a cup of tea on the veranda enjoying the view or taking a swim in the pool. The only drawback were the house rules signs full of "dont do this and dont do that". Alcohol was not allowed in the pool area so being in the pool watching the view and having a beer was for some reason not allowed. My guess is that they have seen some wild parties and since one side of the pool outside faces the hill slope (with a nasty drop) there might be a risk of drunk people falling off.

Compare this with a house we passed on one of the trips:

The Paradise road

Back in the big city Colombo again.

Paradise road is a home accessories store (i.e they sell useless things that are nice to look at). Like small statues, signs, cutlery etc. Like Hemtex but they have piles of everything. For a man this is torture, plain and simple. Not as bad as a shoe shop but close. Mihiri dragged me along. After a while I noted that all the men walked around the same way: hands clasped behind their backs slowly walking around stopping and examinig random objects. Mucha like you would expect at a museum.

Eventually I actually found a cafeteria (empty) at the top floor. There was a Trip Advisory sign (unknown autenticy) and I had a look at the menu. 500LKR for a cappuccino. Ok that's 25 SEK, a bit steep especially since they will increase the price after you have ordered, but they had wifi so I ordered one and sat down to fiddle with my phone. After a while (a small eternity - I think the universe got recreated in the interpass) Mihiri showed up, I paid for the coffee and we left. I told Mihiri the cost of the coffee and said that each time she dragged me to a tourist trap I'd henceforth buy a coffe just to be annoying. End price: Button-press-machine Cappuccino 500 LKR + tax + service charge + oups we misread the price list = 800LKR in total (40 SEK). This is to be compared to the 40 minutes taxi trip I did each day the first weeks for 400 LKR.

TRAP: Paradise road. This is aimed for tourists and prices are extreme. You can go there to look at things but I would advise against buying anything.