Matt & Maria's Trip to Sri Lanka 2018
Day 1 - Wednesday 12th December
Policeman Ray picks us up on-time and takes us to LHR T4 after a few missed turns! T4 is not our preferred terminal but we sit in the Prince of Wales bar until boarding. Our flight to Colombo was with Etihad over two legs and was generally uneventful. Maria had salmon I had chicken.
Day 2 - Thursday 13th December
KY 264 from Abu Dhabi arrived on time into Colombo at 15:35 local time. CIQ (customs, immigration and quarantine) progressed smoothly. After customs we exited to the arrivals terminal to meet our Guide for the next few days. The problem was though, he / she was not there. There was no sign with our name on, there was no tour company sign either (neither Trailfinders nor Walkers Tours). No one was expecting us! Under normal circumstances we would be pretty annoyed, especially as we are tired and jet lagged, but this is the start of an adventure. We asked around and eventually found someone from Walkers Tours (so they said, we never really managed to confirm this). This representative scrambled around on his phone, while I scrambled around on mine. I was phoning Trailfinders, he was phoning somebody, not sure who though. I spoke to Grace, Grace spoke to our new friend, then I spoke to Will, Will spoke to Walkers Tours and eventually we managed to get a ride to our hotel. Our ride was not exactly what I thought I had paid for though. The driver was pleasant but the car could have been better.
We are pleased to say that the Movenpick Hotel was expecting us and upsold us a corner junior suite with use of the executive lounge. The Movenpick is only 18 months old and near the Prime Ministers residence and is a decent city hotel. It is 4 / 5 stars without being over the top. All the staff are great, the room has all you need, as does the hotel; superb roof top infinity pool, four restaurants etc,.
After a few cocktails in the aforementioned executive lounge and a cheese sandwich in bed. of to sleep we went.
Day 3 - Friday 14th December
Lazy day, included breakfast (inclusion was a pleasant surprise) at 10 am. Another call to Trailfinders to explain to Hanna that we would like an explanation for not being met, but more importantly we want confirmation that we will be met on Monday, and we need to know at what time.
This being a lazy day meant that we had a snooze after breakfast before heading to the rooftop pool for some sun and a snack. The pool was cold! but the Jacuzzi was warm :).
After a few rays we head back to our room and of to dinner. To ensure we made use of the up sale we first headed to the executive lounge where we met a Greek fella call Vizaz who told us what to see.
After offering to have dinner with our Greek fella, who kindly declined we headed to the European restaurant Santini's. A quick look at the menu and I (Matthew) decided that we should try elsewhere, and so of to AYU we went.
Good choice! Neapolitan pizza, the new big craze in Jersey has found Colombo. These boys here surely have watched the Grozny You Tube video's. My pizza was delicious and superbly spicey! Maria had a fabulous specially chef prepared buttered chicken and rice (gluten free of course).
So after a jet lag catch up day of to sleep we headed.
Policeman Ray picks us up on-time and takes us to LHR T4 after a few missed turns! T4 is not our preferred terminal but we sit in the Prince of Wales bar until boarding. Our flight to Colombo was with Etihad over two legs and was generally uneventful. Maria had salmon I had chicken.
Day 2 - Thursday 13th December
KY 264 from Abu Dhabi arrived on time into Colombo at 15:35 local time. CIQ (customs, immigration and quarantine) progressed smoothly. After customs we exited to the arrivals terminal to meet our Guide for the next few days. The problem was though, he / she was not there. There was no sign with our name on, there was no tour company sign either (neither Trailfinders nor Walkers Tours). No one was expecting us! Under normal circumstances we would be pretty annoyed, especially as we are tired and jet lagged, but this is the start of an adventure. We asked around and eventually found someone from Walkers Tours (so they said, we never really managed to confirm this). This representative scrambled around on his phone, while I scrambled around on mine. I was phoning Trailfinders, he was phoning somebody, not sure who though. I spoke to Grace, Grace spoke to our new friend, then I spoke to Will, Will spoke to Walkers Tours and eventually we managed to get a ride to our hotel. Our ride was not exactly what I thought I had paid for though. The driver was pleasant but the car could have been better.
We are pleased to say that the Movenpick Hotel was expecting us and upsold us a corner junior suite with use of the executive lounge. The Movenpick is only 18 months old and near the Prime Ministers residence and is a decent city hotel. It is 4 / 5 stars without being over the top. All the staff are great, the room has all you need, as does the hotel; superb roof top infinity pool, four restaurants etc,.
After a few cocktails in the aforementioned executive lounge and a cheese sandwich in bed. of to sleep we went.
Day 3 - Friday 14th December
Lazy day, included breakfast (inclusion was a pleasant surprise) at 10 am. Another call to Trailfinders to explain to Hanna that we would like an explanation for not being met, but more importantly we want confirmation that we will be met on Monday, and we need to know at what time.
This being a lazy day meant that we had a snooze after breakfast before heading to the rooftop pool for some sun and a snack. The pool was cold! but the Jacuzzi was warm :).
After a few rays we head back to our room and of to dinner. To ensure we made use of the up sale we first headed to the executive lounge where we met a Greek fella call Vizaz who told us what to see.
After offering to have dinner with our Greek fella, who kindly declined we headed to the European restaurant Santini's. A quick look at the menu and I (Matthew) decided that we should try elsewhere, and so of to AYU we went.
Good choice! Neapolitan pizza, the new big craze in Jersey has found Colombo. These boys here surely have watched the Grozny You Tube video's. My pizza was delicious and superbly spicey! Maria had a fabulous specially chef prepared buttered chicken and rice (gluten free of course).
So after a jet lag catch up day of to sleep we headed.
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