I must admit, planning a trip down to accommodation can be pretty nerve-wracking. Not only have you to size up the plan to suit every member of your group, but also make sure that there is something on the other side to suit our requirements. Sri Lanka is a tourist destination. So, luckily for us, we can go and book rooms on the spot without anyone being the wiser. Yet, my cousin and I laboured to find balance between economy and comfort. Whether or not Sri Lanka can cater to our needs, only time and experience will tell.
Food: Blogs say that the food in Sri Lanka is different and pretty interesting. Well, for 6 adult vegetarians, we can't rely on the Western implications of 'different' and 'pretty interesting'. I'm starting to hate adverbs, they never give a practical idea.
We were told by reliable sources that we won't be able to stomach their food because they make nearly everything with Coconut oil. Well, not that we're against coconut oil, but raised in ways where our staple food has only ever seen Sunflower, Rice bran or groundnut oil, we found our palates causing us to grimace at the taste of food made in coconut oil. Like how it was during our trip to Kerala.
I'm all for trying out local dishes and varieties, regardless of the oil issue (I'm veggie too, and no, we don't even eat egg). Not surprisingly, I found fish mentioned as vegetarian in some blogs I read. Well, nothing one can do about that; the world has a twisted notion of what is vegetarian and what is not. This meant that I had more homework, trying to figure out what exactly Sri Lankan people ate that didn't involve meat of any sort.
They have dosa, string hoppers (rice sevai or rice noodles) and some variation of roti as breakfast items. My folks are fans of dosa. Me? I love string hoppers. I just hope the whatever goes with it is yum.
For lunch/dinner, I found that they have rice and curry as the main food. Fine by me. They serve up different fried or cooked vegetables and a gravy curry, much like our Indian sambar. Very well. If that's what's hot there, I won't complain. I just cannot fathom the idea of eating Indian food there all over. What is the whole point of travel if you don't give yourself to your surroundings, food, living, and all? We've been warned and as a precaution, we intend to carry pickles and thokku with us to spice up (or cover up any unsavouriness caused by the use of coconut oil to) our food. That's acceptable. I'm all for trying out local food. Wouldn't want home food anywhere near me when I'm away from home despite the fact that I have a very sensitive stomach. I'm not kidding. The only way I'll be able to manage to hold to my claim is because I've a willpower stronger than the sensitivity of my gut.
Transport: Well, initially we planned to make best use of public transport. Unless you're travelling solo or in very small groups, why not hire a vehicle for the entirety of your trip? For 6-7 people, a private vehicle would be economical in both time and energy(I heard we may have to travel standing in trains for journeys well over 3-4 hours. 1 hour, we can manage. But draining all our energy before we even reach our place is like murdering the holiday). It might work out to be a bit more expensive than taking bus or train. But think about all the time you save. Going out on our own has a bonus: we get to stop at any and every place we feel like (especially the beaches on the coast and waterfalls on the way). It allows our plan to be flexible. Don't feel like getting up at 6, as planned? Get up later and make your way. Of course, this risks jeopardizing any schedule you may have. The important thing here is to schedule in such a way as to take in the capabilities of the individual members of the group and allow enough cushion for fatigue delays. A group is always as vulnerable as its weakest member. No offense to the weakest member (and (s)he need not necessarily be pointed out), but your schedule should also accommodate, "especially accommodate", the weakest member. Otherwise, it'll all fall to dust when the fellow refuses to get up at the crack of dawn.
Jokes apart. We booked transport using Sri Lanka Traveller website (they have tour packages also, but we chose Transport only at the bottom right of the Tours page) after which, their representative and I corresponded by email about the details. We thought the rate they quoted was decent. It came up to around INR 5,000 per person for the entire trip. I thought all was good and dandy until the guy called the result of all our intensive effort at scheduling, "not very good at all". Hm. If you can, imagine my emotion. I doubt there is any one word that can truly encompass anger and irritation wrapped around in a think bind of disappointment, topped with a dollop of anxiety. If not anything, I learnt how to tackle my nerves in this endeavour.
Point to be noted: Coordinate with the travel guy. Since he's mostly bothered about reducing the number of miles on the road, he barely cares about the places you choose or the capacity of the group member. Accommodate his objective and you're good to go again. Which is what I understood. What was wrong with our schedule was that we hadn't tried to reduce the number of miles covered. We just focused on the places we'd be visiting each day. Another lesson learnt.
The schedule is yet to be finalized(around 24 hours left before we journey and 2 days before we start our tour), but he agreed to have us pay on meeting the driver. Best thing about this, they agreed to take any currency.
Accommodation: I'll be writing all of this again after the trip is over. But just to document our efforts, I'd like to put all that pent up anticipation in words. We found some really nice websites to book rooms, the authenticity of which we knew nothing about. When it came to hotels, most of the blogs we read told us NOT to book online since the price was probably rigged and was negotiable. There's nothing like a good haggle to draw the attention of Indians. Haha, not to be stereotypical, I personally enjoy haggling provided it doesn't deprive of a poor guy's effort and it isn't unfair to the lower class. (I'd rather pay a coconut water guy the mere Rs.20 he asks for it since he's earning through sweat and blood and not bargain for a cheaper price. Most of them are humble enough to give in to our bargaining and I end up feeling I've deprived him of what he thinks his effort is worth). Back to the point, there are numerous hotels and guest houses peppered all over the island. I just couldn't narrow my search down. So I decided to just make a short note of the most reasonable ones but decide the place when we get there. In that, I just hope our driver has a clue of what's about. Locals can be very helpful or not. If they're good-natured, they'll lead us to all the right places. If they're up to no good, they'll end up extorting money out of us for no better reason than to fool tourists. Hm. The accommodation part was overwhelming to plan. I still have a day and I think I can round up some decent places before we leave. Otherwise, it'll quite literally be 'Living in the moment' ,which I don't mind, either.
All this makes me think of all the things that could go wrong if we take a tour package, it would be like squeezing the lemon partially and throwing it with much precious juice still in it. Of course, my lemon here is the holiday. And regardless of the hitches, or should I say, including the hitches, I'm damn right going to make the most of it.
Food: Blogs say that the food in Sri Lanka is different and pretty interesting. Well, for 6 adult vegetarians, we can't rely on the Western implications of 'different' and 'pretty interesting'. I'm starting to hate adverbs, they never give a practical idea.
We were told by reliable sources that we won't be able to stomach their food because they make nearly everything with Coconut oil. Well, not that we're against coconut oil, but raised in ways where our staple food has only ever seen Sunflower, Rice bran or groundnut oil, we found our palates causing us to grimace at the taste of food made in coconut oil. Like how it was during our trip to Kerala.
I'm all for trying out local dishes and varieties, regardless of the oil issue (I'm veggie too, and no, we don't even eat egg). Not surprisingly, I found fish mentioned as vegetarian in some blogs I read. Well, nothing one can do about that; the world has a twisted notion of what is vegetarian and what is not. This meant that I had more homework, trying to figure out what exactly Sri Lankan people ate that didn't involve meat of any sort.
They have dosa, string hoppers (rice sevai or rice noodles) and some variation of roti as breakfast items. My folks are fans of dosa. Me? I love string hoppers. I just hope the whatever goes with it is yum.
For lunch/dinner, I found that they have rice and curry as the main food. Fine by me. They serve up different fried or cooked vegetables and a gravy curry, much like our Indian sambar. Very well. If that's what's hot there, I won't complain. I just cannot fathom the idea of eating Indian food there all over. What is the whole point of travel if you don't give yourself to your surroundings, food, living, and all? We've been warned and as a precaution, we intend to carry pickles and thokku with us to spice up (or cover up any unsavouriness caused by the use of coconut oil to) our food. That's acceptable. I'm all for trying out local food. Wouldn't want home food anywhere near me when I'm away from home despite the fact that I have a very sensitive stomach. I'm not kidding. The only way I'll be able to manage to hold to my claim is because I've a willpower stronger than the sensitivity of my gut.
Transport: Well, initially we planned to make best use of public transport. Unless you're travelling solo or in very small groups, why not hire a vehicle for the entirety of your trip? For 6-7 people, a private vehicle would be economical in both time and energy(I heard we may have to travel standing in trains for journeys well over 3-4 hours. 1 hour, we can manage. But draining all our energy before we even reach our place is like murdering the holiday). It might work out to be a bit more expensive than taking bus or train. But think about all the time you save. Going out on our own has a bonus: we get to stop at any and every place we feel like (especially the beaches on the coast and waterfalls on the way). It allows our plan to be flexible. Don't feel like getting up at 6, as planned? Get up later and make your way. Of course, this risks jeopardizing any schedule you may have. The important thing here is to schedule in such a way as to take in the capabilities of the individual members of the group and allow enough cushion for fatigue delays. A group is always as vulnerable as its weakest member. No offense to the weakest member (and (s)he need not necessarily be pointed out), but your schedule should also accommodate, "especially accommodate", the weakest member. Otherwise, it'll all fall to dust when the fellow refuses to get up at the crack of dawn.
Jokes apart. We booked transport using Sri Lanka Traveller website (they have tour packages also, but we chose Transport only at the bottom right of the Tours page) after which, their representative and I corresponded by email about the details. We thought the rate they quoted was decent. It came up to around INR 5,000 per person for the entire trip. I thought all was good and dandy until the guy called the result of all our intensive effort at scheduling, "not very good at all". Hm. If you can, imagine my emotion. I doubt there is any one word that can truly encompass anger and irritation wrapped around in a think bind of disappointment, topped with a dollop of anxiety. If not anything, I learnt how to tackle my nerves in this endeavour.
Point to be noted: Coordinate with the travel guy. Since he's mostly bothered about reducing the number of miles on the road, he barely cares about the places you choose or the capacity of the group member. Accommodate his objective and you're good to go again. Which is what I understood. What was wrong with our schedule was that we hadn't tried to reduce the number of miles covered. We just focused on the places we'd be visiting each day. Another lesson learnt.
The schedule is yet to be finalized(around 24 hours left before we journey and 2 days before we start our tour), but he agreed to have us pay on meeting the driver. Best thing about this, they agreed to take any currency.
Accommodation: I'll be writing all of this again after the trip is over. But just to document our efforts, I'd like to put all that pent up anticipation in words. We found some really nice websites to book rooms, the authenticity of which we knew nothing about. When it came to hotels, most of the blogs we read told us NOT to book online since the price was probably rigged and was negotiable. There's nothing like a good haggle to draw the attention of Indians. Haha, not to be stereotypical, I personally enjoy haggling provided it doesn't deprive of a poor guy's effort and it isn't unfair to the lower class. (I'd rather pay a coconut water guy the mere Rs.20 he asks for it since he's earning through sweat and blood and not bargain for a cheaper price. Most of them are humble enough to give in to our bargaining and I end up feeling I've deprived him of what he thinks his effort is worth). Back to the point, there are numerous hotels and guest houses peppered all over the island. I just couldn't narrow my search down. So I decided to just make a short note of the most reasonable ones but decide the place when we get there. In that, I just hope our driver has a clue of what's about. Locals can be very helpful or not. If they're good-natured, they'll lead us to all the right places. If they're up to no good, they'll end up extorting money out of us for no better reason than to fool tourists. Hm. The accommodation part was overwhelming to plan. I still have a day and I think I can round up some decent places before we leave. Otherwise, it'll quite literally be 'Living in the moment' ,which I don't mind, either.
All this makes me think of all the things that could go wrong if we take a tour package, it would be like squeezing the lemon partially and throwing it with much precious juice still in it. Of course, my lemon here is the holiday. And regardless of the hitches, or should I say, including the hitches, I'm damn right going to make the most of it.
