The trip lanka... preamble

Hello 2 all ...

It was a long time since i was planning for a trip. Every time I was thinking to go with a gang. But who on this busy world will come, all people need some time for their personal life. So waited and finally decided not to ask anyone and leave them. Moreover I wanted to have some time for myself as I would be joing a new company in a short while.

Trip planning:

Trip planning was being done since jan 2^nd week and I had short listed some places.. Mauritius, Maldives, lanka and goa. KF holidays and jet holidays were having some deals. Websites providing deals were not within my budget. 

So, decided to look into some airline websites as they would give a good deal on tickets. Also look for some good web links like lonelyplanet.com and tripadviso.com for hotel reviews. Began doing that and finally zeroed in on lanka for the trip J . It would be a good experience for me to travel alone and enjoy some quality time. Also it was a time for me to experiment on the trip and do adventures.

Trip itenary was still not finalized as my passport had gone for visa cancellation. So had to still decide on the date of travel. On 10^th feb, I got confirmation that my passport will reach me by Monday. So decided to travel on 16^th and arrive back on 19^th back in mysore so that I could get a days of rest.

I will write a separate post on my trip in lanka as it will be bit long.

Trip schedule was like this :

15 feb- Leave to Chennai from mysore in shatabdi. From Chennai central, catch a local train to trisulam( airport station).

16feb- Arrive at Colombo in spicejet airways. Clear immigration and catch a local bus to Colombo fort. Catch a train to kandy which was @ 7AM ( intercity express).

Arive at kandy, go to guest house( days-inn) and take a rest. Roam around kandy lake and get back to guest house for sleeping.

17feb- Visit to Dambulla( unfortunately it was missed), went to the top of kandy where Buddha temple was present. Go to temple of tooth kandy and do some shopping.

18feb- getup late and catch intercity express to Colombo and reach Colombo city. Roam around Colombo and visit nearby places at Colombo fort station. Catch a bus to airport. Settle in airport and catch 4AM spicejet aircraft back to Chennai.

19feb- catch a bus to Bangalore and from Bangalore reach mysore and take rest for the day.

19^th feb was horrible for me as bus from Chennai to blr took 11hrs to reach due to some stupid issues created by bus conductor and one idiot passenger. But not taking care of that , the rest of the trip was more satisfying. Finished trip in 12K INR in total which had all stuffs included.

Following might be useful for you people to plan the trip to lanka :

1. Check for a good deal at spicejet as they offer tickets for <6K from Chennai ( flights are of odd times)
2. Book a good hotel/guest house in central kandy, else you will end up running around.
3. Visit temple of tooth and a must travel in train from Colombo to kandy in intercity express.
4. Tickets can be reserved in advance by any of your friends in Colombo or u need to wait till 6AM @ Colombo fort station to get the tickets. Tickets are hard to get L for the train.
5. Veggies u will have a torrid time as vegetarian food is difficult to find. Bakery items are plenty.
6. Lankan people are nice, but English is not the common language. If you know tamil, its easy for you guys to converse with people.
7. In shops try to bargain when purchasing and start with 50% of the said value, u can even start with 40% of the actual price.
8. Never carry indian currency. No lankan banks will accept Indian currency( even SBI said no to indian currency). Carry USD or any international debit card so that you can withdraw money easily in ATM's.

More details on my trip in the next post.