Elephant orphanage

Setting off

Our hotel at Negombo beach, near Colombo’s airport, included a buffet breakfast. It was a small spread of food which included a potato curry and a chicken curry. We took a look at Negombo Beach, made use of the hotel pool before getting picked up at 1000.
 

Negombo beach from our hotel near the airport.

 
Shortly after starting our drive, a jackfruit nearly hit the car. Fortunately, it went under the car and we were unscathed.

The route for the day was to leave Colombo, stopping at the elephant orphanage a couple of hours away. And then continue to our base in the centre-north of the island for two nights.

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage

At the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage around 1300, the programme was simple unlike the Hollywood-style production in Chiang Mai. We watched them being guided into the river for a wash. No shows demonstrating their ability to work.

We had our lunch at an eatery by the river. We shared a chicken and a pork curry. Both were disappointing and the side order of rice came at a high price.

Text continues after this gallery.
 

Continuing to Giritale

We continued by car to the north amidst heavy rain, towards the north-east. We reached our nightstop at the Giritale Hotel around 1730. The hotel had a great view of a reservoir lake from the reception and restaurant area.  The reservoir or tank is one of many in the region built during the medieval Polonnaruwa era (around 600 BC) .

While the public areas of the hotel were modern and arty, this didn’t carry on into the rooms.  The décor of the public areas, the layout and the pool could put the place in Conde Nast magazine. But once scrutinized, the attention-to-detail wasn’t there. I’m just describing, not complaining. Especially since we are not paying very much for the entire tour.

We enjoyed a beer overlooking the view before dinner.  Tonight, we opted for the western dinner which offered a choice of lemon-marinated fish or pork chops. Dessert was cheesecake or papaya with ice-cream. While I’m not normally a bread fan, the bread rolls were good. While I enjoyed dinner, I’m a hot-and-spicy person and will definitely go for the Sri Lankan meal tomorrow night.

It was an early night for us at around 2030. We felt that we had had a long day since we boarded the flight in Singapore only this morning.

My first impressions of Sri Lanka is that it is one notch above India in terms of shock-value to new travellers. While people are still poor in the rural areas, eg. bathe in rivers and collect water from wells, it is relatively free from litter, filthy, crowds and sheer humanity. I have memories of Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai with garbage piled waist high on the road side.