Sri Lanka photo thread

[Bettyboo]

Sponsored by Sony Xperia Z (3G...)

Many folks on this board show great skills with a camera. I don't. I used my camera phone, I sat in a chair, pointed and clicked. That's it. Additionally, my files were too big to download, maybe something to do with my 13mp camre phone and the settings I had it on; I tried to play around in Microsoft Paint to resize them. Sorry in advance for the crap pictures...

I popped into Sri Lanka for 2 days; flying Oman Air from Muscat; four pleasant hours chatting with the young Czech stewardess. She gave me her number and email, and asked to meet in Muscat for dinner, but being a married man...

There she is in the distance (I always take the very rear isle seat as you can more easily get beer...):



This young lady kept giving me 'the eye', and her husband didn't seem too happy about it! On second glance, it may have been his mother...



I took a few shots out of the window as we started to fly over Sri Lanka then onto landing:

[peterpan]

keep them coming betty you old tart.

[Bettyboo]

I stayed in a guesthouse in Negombo that I booked online for 1000 baht per night. The main reason was that it's only 20 minutes from the airport, and I didn't want to waste time travelling. It's low season, and I could probably have paid less locally... The guesthouse (Blue Horizon) was a nice place with pleasant folks running it; clean and helpful. A 2 minute walk through the back alleys to the beach (it's safe).

As you will see, even though this is considered one of the worst beaches in Sri Lanka it's still miles better than Chaam or Hua Hin and probably on a par with Kata or Chaweang. I didn't visit any other places, but I was told that Sri Lankan beaches are some distance ahead of their Thai conunterparts - I don't find that hard to believe.

[Bettyboo]

On the first evening, I had some food in a nice looking beachside restaurant - it cost 500 baht, but was poor. On the second evening, I did the same at an Italian, it was also 500 baht, but I didn't even eat it...

Early on, I found the best 5 star hotel on the beach and just sat in the shade on their beach, eating and drinking. It was very very nice indeed, and great value for food and drink. It's called Jetwing Blue. Her's the link:

Negombo Hotel | Official Site Jetwing Blue Negombo

Here are some initial pics I took from the beach terrace:





There seemed to be a bit of a standoff between the Devil Birds and the Tree Rats:





I sat on these chairs for some early beers:

[Bettyboo]

It was nearly 10, so I decided to order a beer, and a Sri Lankan whiskey (Arac?) and bottle of water:



To my left was the pool area, the restaurant was immediately behind me:



I sat and enjoyed the view and did nothing. I took a book to read, but I didn't bother...

[kingwilly]

Did anyone go in the water ? or was it too hot ?

[Bettyboo]

There were fishing boats out doing their business and a couple on the beach:



I thought it was time for another beer. It tasted similar to Chang, but a tad better, and the big 630ml bottles did their job well. By this stage, I was going a bit Thaistyle with the ice...



Just after 11 the sun started to get up, so I moved back a metre or so into the open fronted restaurant area, and had another beer. I also had a small lunch which was a Thai style mixed started (crab parcels, stay, etc), very nice too. But I didn't take a picture of the food because I was busy chatting up the beautiful young waitress (off season, so she must have been bored rigid...); she sent me a skype friend request yesterday, but being a married man...

Here's the beer:



Time for the bill, as I thought I'd walk along to another hotel and do much the same, just for a minor change of scenery.

How much do you think? 3 large bottles of beer, 2 waters, a large whiskey and some food, all in a nice 5 star beach fronted hotel? Do I hear 1,000 baht? 2,000 baht perhaps when service is included?



600 baht all in! It's about 4 SLR to the baht.

[Bettyboo]

Did anyone go in the water ? or was it too hot ?

It was perfect holiday temperature; between 29 - 32 degrees with a nice breeze. It really was lovely weather, I was very lucky in that regard.

[Mid]

the beautiful young waitress

and all we get are pic's of a bottle of beer ?

[Bettyboo]

I walked along the beach for about 1km then stopped at a nice looking beach front hotel; maybe a 3 star. I bought some Cylon tea on the way; don't know why I was attracted to this particular brand...



Similar view to before, all very nice and relaxing:







Then I had another beer - not bad that Lion...
(and a water to keep meself hydrated...)



More Devil Birds!



Then I thought I'd go for another beer; asked for a bucket of ice for my beer - and that's exactly what they gave me...

[Bettyboo]

I then went out and about to see what the place had to offer; no pictures though, sorry... I can tell you that there's not much going on and what is going on is not very nice.... Being a married man, I took great care to behave meself.

The pics of the next day, are much the same, but include lunch pics which was very very nice and great value...

[peterpan]

your a good boy betty, stay home and chockey the chicky, a good lad indeed.

[Bettyboo]

Peter, since I've found the delights of LiveJasmin and some beautiful Romanian friends, I virtually never have to go out again: delivery pizza, a few chang and a video chat with Michaela (she tells me that I'm a nice man and she respects me, and that's good enough for me_...

[Dillinger]

^Is that why you're handing out your skype addy to any fucker who would talk to you ?

[Bettyboo]

^ at my age you have to try every trick in the book - work on the percentages; and don't forget I've just spent 10 months in Oman - not exactly a paradise for the ladies (although I did pop to Dubai...).

Day 2, the final lot of photos.

I was flying back to Thailand later in the day so I just relaxed on the beach all day... Back to the best hotel in town because I liked their staff, location, food, drink and prices...

Here's the voew from my seat for the afternoon:



And now lunc. For starter, a chicken roll type dish. I also took a mixed fruit smooothy and a water (I will drink enough on the plance later...); I liked the bread roll selection, very fresh and tasty:



The main course was local Grouper on a bed of mash potatoes with local King Prawns. It was delicious. Absolutely so... Delightful.









The water was nicely presented and environmentally friendly in a glass bottle - 20 baht!



Dessert (notice the % of this stout...):



A rather pleasant lunch view, I hope you'll agree:



& the price???



800 baht all in! You can't say fairer than that.

[Bettyboo]

I took a couple of distant snaps of a bloke walking along the beach carrying a snake and a monkey - it was quite funny watching the little kids running over to him quickly followed by their panicking parents... He was telling everyone that neither the monkey nor the snake would bite, and that they could be stroked, but I didn't see any parent let their kids within 20 feet of him...

[Bettyboo]

I got an early morning flight back to Bkk, arriving at 7:00, actually we came in 30 minutes early. Thai Airways was 9000 baht for the one way flight (no doubt a shite old plane too), so I paid 4,400 baht for a brand new Cathy Pacific 777. I sat at the back (6 rows of empty seats...) waiting for beer and company from a stewardess, and I got a young camp Chinese bloke, so decided to listen to some music and have a sleep... Oh well, I'm a married man anyways.

Great value Sri Lanka. I really enjoyed the trip and would willingly go back. Actually, rather than fly to Samui or Phuket (from Bkk), I'd say Sri Lanka is a rally fine option...

[peterpan]

Thats an option, haven't investigated the live jasmin yet, but can keep for a rainy day
BTW the beaches look stunning.

[patsycat]

Did you go for a swim?

[Davis Knowlton]

It's been a long time since I lived there (77-79), but the beaches look just as good as they did.

[Bettyboo]

Nope, I didn't do anything really; after 10 months of boredom in the stoney desert, I just wanted to relax and have some nice food, a few light beers and be in a nice environment. The people were very nice everywhere I went.

[good2bhappy]

thanks for the memory

[Dillinger]

Nice pics Betty.

Any of the nightlife?

[Bettyboo]

I didn't do much nightlife, mate - sorry.

There's the beach road with restaurants and bars, then there are, apparently, a couple of massage places that tuktuk drivers will take you to, but I don't think they are 'Pattaya style' places. Sri Lanka isn't the place to meet local women for a 'sexy' time.

The mix of religions is quite interesting; I expected, and saw many, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims, but Negombo seemed to be mostly Catholic, I suppose from Portugese times.

I was also chatting about housing costs, even though they have exploded in recent times due to the troubles, people reckoned that a nice 3 bed bungalow, maybe 120 sqM inside with 80 or so sqM of covered outside space (pretty much what I've just started to build) which would cost 1 million baht in Thailand could be built for 600,000 to 700,000 there. It's not a particularly exciting place, and I only touched the surface, but not a bad place to live. In about 3 weeks I'm toying with the idea of going back for a few days, but this time visiting Candy - I have to leave Oman for a couple of days while changing overmy visa, so why not pop back there?

[Davis Knowlton]

^Kandy is well worth a visit. The botanical gardens there are spectacular (you may remember them as the site of the British Intelligence School in "The Bridge Over The River Kwai".) Also from the same movie, the huge swarms of giant fruit bats are on the curving mountain road leading up to Kandy. Kandy also contains the Temple of The Tooth, housing one of Buddha's teeth.