Abu Dhabi - dubai - India - srilanka

[henleybeach]

Thanks demon_fan .
I paid for the Sri Lankan airlines fare. It was 580$ for j class DEL-CMB -SIN
I Bought it when there was a 25 or 30% discount I can't remember.

 

[henleybeach]

We departed for our safari at 530am.
It was a bumpy track and first up we seen some alligators in a pond eating something , couldn't quite tell.
We seen water buffaloes , mongoose , plenty of birds , elephants, wild pigs , but we didn't seen the crown jewel , the leopard. It was good fun but by 830 it was getting hot and I was over it, sitting in back we were getting thrown around shockingly , the dirt roads were bad.
WHen we arrived back at our hotel we spoke to another guest and he said they got to see one. It walked right in front of them.
It's about 38 degrees here so it's a swim in the infinity pool overlooking the ocean, it's that secluded here I don't think anyone would find you!

 

[henleybeach]

After half a day of swimming and laying by the pool, it was time for a game of cricket. The two lads doing housekeeping came to our room in the morning and were talking to me about cricket because I was Australian, we talked for ages , a little difficult with the English but the asked if I wanted to play cricket with them at 5pm. They said everyday at 5 about 15 of hotel workers who have finished work for the day meet and play cricket out the back on the scrub . I went down and played, they were so fascinated with me , cause I was Aussie and these people like Indians are cricket mad. We played for 2 hours and had a great time, the take it seriously.
I worked up a lot of sweat and headed for a shower and then to the bar for a cold beer.
By 9pm I was in bed after a early safari start and a game of cricket . Next stop is ella , we are hiring a driver for the day , $60 for a 3.30min journey
y

 

[henleybeach]

After breakfast we depart am head for ella which took about 3 hours. Ella is situated in the hills of Sri Lanka just over 1000m above sea level. It's really a beautiful little town. We check on at our B&B called ella nature view. It's a basic accomodation but the view from the bed and balcony are amazing. Overlooking the hills and a waterfall. The best view we have had so far.
A quick change and we were off to climb up little Adams peak. It takes around 45min one way and it's not too hard. The views are awesome overlooking the mountains .
After working up a appetite we headed for dinner at 6 . We had 4 different curries , 1 rice and savory rice, some sautéed veggies and roti, 1 beer and and a sprite for the grand total of $16 aud
The food was really good, and filling. The place was called rawana restaurant .
On a silly side note, for us males, I cleaned out the pharmac_ of Gillette Mach 3 razors. They had 10 and I grabbed the lot , I would've grabbed a carton if I could, $100lkr each which is $1 aud . In Australia they are like $12-15 each!
After a good sleep the next day we boarded the train headed for kandy. We booked a seat on expo rail which was $18 each for a 7hr trip, that included a hot meal and tea and coffee. The put this private own carriage on the back of the government trAin, it's a lot cleaner and more comfy for tourists. You can still hang off the sides as they don't close the doors, I did that a few times and it was good fun. The scenery is amazing, the mountains , waterfalls, all the tea plantations you go through , it's defiantly been up there as one of the best train journeys I've done scenery wise. This is a must do in Sri Lanka. Simply beautiful. The attendant and I got talking and he took me up to the loco and the driver let me sit up there for 30min which was a great view. We arrive at a station just outside of kandy at 6pm. We departed at 11am, so we jumped into a tuk tuk and headed for our
Hotel Theva residencey

 

[henleybeach]

 

[henleybeach]

We spent the night At the hotel and had dinner at their restaurant which overlooks kandy from above. The hotel is about 10min tuk tuk ride up a big hill which overlooks the town.
I had a lovely angels hair marinara , I really wanted something other then a curry, the seafood was fresh and it was very nice and finished off with a Sri Lankan dessert of curd and treacle.
Next morning we woke up and went to a tea factory and seen how there make the tea , had a cuppa and bought some tea bags, then on to a spice garden, which was interesting, I didn't buy anything just went down the road to the market and I was half the price. We did some shopping , got myself another 10 Mach 3 razors this time for a $1.10. I now have 22!
I hope customs don't care .....
We then headed to catch the train to colombo, it is bucketing down with rain but the train journey is fun. Last
Night on holidays in colombo staying at the cinnamon red hotel . We depart tomorrow at 1205 to Singapore with Sri Lankan airlines in business class. We arrive at 1840 and then depart with Etihad SIN-Brisbane and to adelaide . I'm a velocity gold so I was going to buy the direct SIN-ADL Singapore air service but it was $1030 each one -way. I was playing around on kayak a couple months before our holiday trying to find a better fare and one from Etihad came up Singapore to adelaide via Brisbane , for $350 each in Y .obviously the last leg with VA . I didn't really want to go via Brisbane but $700 for two people or $2060.... Via Brisbane it was.

 

[smit0847]

Etihad Y is going to be a shock compared with J!

 

[henleybeach]

We arrived at out hotel at 6pm and had a quick shower and headed up to the rooftop bar and pool for some coughtails for our last night .
The next morning we headed for the airport at 9am.
Check in was easy and we were in seredib lounge very quickly. It's a small nice lounge with floor to ceiling windows with views of the Tarmac. We had some breakfast and some champagne .
CMB-SIN UL308 A320 J class
This was a different layout from the last A320, it had 20 leather business class seats , 16/20 pax on board.
These seats had back of seat entertainment , but there was defiantly less space with the seat in front of you.. Is that called seat pitch?
They were grey Leather seats and were comfy. After take off nuts and a beer was served , order taken. I choose the chicken skewers with rice , a side salad and a coffee mousse . Chicken and rice was nice so was the salad , the mouse seemed a little sugary and could of been cold. I only ate half of it .
A few more beers and a cuppa tea before we landed . During the flight the person behind me kept putting their bare feet between our seats, at first I let it go then enough was enough was dinner was served , I looked back and said " are you right? I don't want your toe jam in my food" he looked at me and grunted and put them on the other side between my seat and the fuselage . He was very arrogant and disrespectful. I'll attach a photo. Overall my impression of my 2 flights with UL is that there service is very good, extremely friendly and always wanting to help, there food was good, not excellent, they could improve in that area a bit , but for the price they are defiantly worth flying.
Now we have 5 hours in SIN before our Etihad Y class flight home .
It will be interesting to see if it's a hassle to get lounge access and priority boarding and luggage when I check in . Fingers crossed .

 

[henleybeach]

 

[henleybeach]

We checked in for our Etihad flight and I showed my gold velocity card. I asked if it was on the booking and she said no. That explains why the AUH-DEL flight has been credited, I entered my FF number in when I made the booking but obviously Etihad and virgins booking system don talk. Both of the flights were booked on Etihad website. This is really annoying , why enter the number in when booking??? Cause it doesn't show up. All of the hotels we have stayed in were booked through Agoda and not one has posted into my account , looks like a heap of retro claims coming up. Virgin need to fix there IT system.
Anyway we got a pass for the SATS lounge , it's not too bad , had a few hot dishes , there's no bar it's all self service with a HUGE range of alcoholic drinks, vodka, scotch , gin , tiger beer , 1 red, 1 white wine . Very dismal .i had some fried rice which was nice and some noddles . The good was tasty and washed it down with a tiger . Now waiting for out flight to depart back home. Like you said smit0847 I'm dreaded the Y class trip home .

 

[Demon_fan]

Sounds like you had a great trip!

That train journey looks a lot of fun!

 

[Magpie10]

Thanks Henleybeach for taking the time to post your TA , cannot believe those feet intruding your space, seen everything now!

 

[henleybeach]

Thanks guys , it was a great trip, and I defiantly recommend Sri Lanka , great beaches , beautiful scenery in the hills and such friendly people . And the train rides were great fun. Now just waiting on all my flight and hotel retro claims to come through to velocity .
Haha yes those feet....

 

[RB]

Yep thanks for the write up. We had a fantastic time there too. It was still relatively quiet on the main tourist spots & that certainly helps. I have the contact details of a fantastic Sri Lankan driver/guide if anyone wants to send me a pm