Our adventure really started yesterday when we boarded Air Sri Lanka an hour late…..however after an uneventful flight with good food and on-board entertainment we landed just a few minutes after our scheduled time. It was hot and sticky waiting for 30 minutes to disembark the plane, but we eventually made it into the arrivals lounge. I should have filled the arrivals form in on line but no problem, John got 2 good old fashioned paper copies which we dutifully filled out and patiently waited in a relatively short queue to go through immigration. By the time we arrived in the baggage reclaim area one of our cases was already there and waiting for us and the second one came fairly shortly after it….time from entering arrivals to leaving it was less than 45 minutes – puts Heathrow to shame. Immediately outside the customs are foreign exchange booths. We had read up on the Sri Lankan Tourist Facebook site that these give you the best rate so we quickly exchanged some US$ although contrary to previous information they also exchange sterling £.
We then went in search of our driver who was stood immediately in front of the arrivals funnel with JACKSON on a board. We greeted each other and stopped on the way to the vehicle to buy 60gb of data for US$13…. Very reasonable and the vendor put it in our router and checked it was working…great service. During this transaction I asked the driver if he was with us for the full 23 days, he looked a bit bemused and whilst I was buying the gb he told John he was just taking us to a hotel in Columbo…….”hey!! We’re not going to Columbo, our hotel is in Negombo” was Johns reply …..as it soon became clear that there must have been 2 Jackson’s on the flight and he was meeting someone else…. John quickly went back to the meet and greet area and reappeared with Suminda, our driver and guide for our complete holiday..phew…. He greeted us with such a welcoming smile and a garland of orchids each, before taking over the trolly and our airport departure.

Suminda chatted happily whilst driving us the 30 minutes to the guest house we were booked into. We explained that we had been recommended Ayubowan guest house by a blogger, as we wanted to submerge ourselves in the Sri Lankan culture. We were thus a little surprised when Brenda and Ron welcomed us…if I’d investigated further I’d have known it was an English run Guest House….absolutely charming and a very warm welcome from our hosts. We made a plan for the next couple of days with Suminda and said goodbye until tomorrow.

We welcomed our cool room and had an afternoon’s siesta. Brenda recommended some local restaurants and at 7 pm she kindly called us a tuk tuk…Desmond our driver took us to The White House restaurant, known for its seafood curries. It lived up to its reputation. John had a King Prawn Sri Lankan curry whilst I had grilled swordfish. We had 3 Coke zeros and John had ice cream as desert and the whole lot came to £14.

Desmond returned to take us back to our Guest House. We probably should of haggled the price with him but at £1.20 each way it didn’t seem worth the effort.

A Great first day to start our adventure…more tomorrow.