[bhansali_hardik]

Originally Posted by NitinDev

Simply brilliant! Twice I planned for Sri Lanka but got dropped. Hopefully someday!

Btw, the title heading reminded me of Joey "Years ago, when I was backpacking across Western Europe, I was just outside of Barcelona, hiking in the foothills of mount Tibidabo..."

Thanks again for sharing such wonderful memories!

Thanks, I don't share my food either co-incidence? Well, you should certainly go when ever you can. The people are really sweet and humble. Before all the Chinese acquisition and over flooding of cash spoils this treasure, you should visit.

Originally Posted by ChiragM

Nicely written travelogue with nice pictures bhansali_hardik.



This is why I love hostels and always prefer those wherever I travel. Me...

Thanks, true that! The hostel culture is great even in India it's caught up really well in the past 2-3 years. It was a fairly good experience in India too. But Sri Lanka's experience was different all together. Maybe the reason is I was in a different country and had a different mindset or vice versa.

Originally Posted by ampere

Here are some from my side.

Orchid Garden at Kandy. It's an awesome place. One with a macro lens can spend hours here....

Wow! They are all wallpaper stuff, really good clicks. Yes, every nook and corner of the country was picturesque.

Originally Posted by hareshjethwani

Superb ! What a travelogue ! I am mighty impressed specially with the train journey. Those pics are awesome. Have heard a lot about them but never got to experience one. Do you mind if I asked how much did the entire trip cost. A ball park figure is fine. A lovely guide

Honestly, I have not calculated my expenditure for this trip. I did go through my hostel bookings and it was around 7-8$ including taxes per day on an average.Which included breakfast. The meals in general are comparatively expensive, around 8-10$ on an average in the known and touristy restaurants. Where I could be sure I am getting veg food. I splurged a lot in Galle fort where I remember the cost of my meals and drinks at cafes were more than what I had spent on travel, stay and food cumulatively in the past 4 days. If I remove these occasional splurges and other lavish meals. The average was around 30-35$ per day including travel + cost of air tickets. I spent close to a 1000$ which included loads of souvenirs, spending 50$ on the airport for food in return journey, fancy cafes and restaurants (4-5 times) and one kick ass party in Hikkaduwa.

Originally Posted by rst89

Awesome travelogue!

The whale watching charges of 54 USD are comparable to charges in a developed country based upon my experience. But in developed countries, there are heavy regulations of how many boats/ships are allowed to go in open sea to watch the magnificent creatures. This type of crowding of boats in Sri Lanka defeats the purpose of finding a sustainable operator.

There is holiday work visa in Australia where you can work in farms, bars etc. There are hostels that...

Well, it is regulated in Sri Lanka as well. But the regulations barely have any governance in Sri Lanka. The people in developing countries are still trying to learn and they fight for their living harder. They do such antics to earn a better tip perhaps?

Well, Indian passport or Indians do not have a good image that's a fact! A well known fact. Volunteering's other side which bothers me more is, in India if I take a years break to go volunteer (on my own terms and without pay for volunteering) and try getting a job when I get back. It's tough, we're looked down upon. Have been through this when I took my year break and I'm sure the organisations have their own reasons to scrutinize such cases. But still it bothers me.

[rst89]

Originally Posted by bhansali_hardik

Well, Indian passport or Indians do not have a good image that's a fact! A well known fact. Volunteering's other side which bothers me more is, in India if I take a years break to go volunteer (on my own terms and without pay for volunteering) and try getting a job when I get back. It's tough, we're looked down upon. Have been through this when I took my year break and I'm sure the organisations have their own reasons to scrutinize such cases. But still it bothers me.

Yup, Indian corporates also look down upon 15 days gap in your career. We have along way to go before it gets accepted in mainstream. My only advice is it's better to take a sabbatical if your company offers the same.

That's nice to know that you took a year break to focus on something else.

[alphadog]

That was a superb travelogue of your backpacking, replete with top class photos.

I have been to Sri Lanka more than 5 years ago. That was a 5 day trip and was with my parents, wife and kids. Having family in tow, I opted for and organised a guided trip, with a private van ferrying us to different destinations. We did Dambulla, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and a brief tour of Colombo.

Couple of observations that struck me was the overall gentleness of the people and relaxed pace of life there and the road manners of the drivers. There rural roads were narrow but well laid, and even if the roads were free, our driver and other drivers would not cross an unbroken divider line to overtake or cruise. Contrast that to our road manners in India. Often wondered, what makes the Lankans different, although we are geographically so close.

We missed out going down south to Galle and surrounds. That is where, I suppose, the best beaches are. It is great that you managed to do this backpacking and staying in hostels. I am sure the experience of interacting with other travelers from all over the world is enriching and priceless. Although this is a done thing in the west, amongst youngsters, a gap year or a sabatical from work, sadly, is still an alien concept in our country. But there is hope and it is changing.

Thank you once again for sharing. Keep traveling and sharing your experiences.
Cheerio!

[srinath34]

Thanks for sharing this amazing travelogue. Definitely worth bookmarking to plan a trip to SL.

All the pics are wallpaper-worthy and go well with the write-up.

Cheers

[bhansali_hardik]

Originally Posted by alphadog

That was a superb travelogue of your backpacking, replete with top class photos.

I have been to Sri Lanka more than 5 years ago. That was a 5 day trip and was with my parents, wife and kids. Having family in tow, I opted for and organised a guided trip, with a private van ferrying us to different destinations. We did Dambulla, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and a brief tour of Colombo......

That's true, that they are so near and yet so different in the way they drive and how humble they are. It took me while to wrap my head around the fact that people do stop when you are at the zebra crossing. It was confusing few days when I would cross roads, where the cars would stop and I would wonder why did they stop. My best guess for their behavior back then was influence of Buddhism + slow paced life. Even in down south, near the beaches the people were nice. In the whole trip, there was just one instance where I had a bad encounter in a bus (it was a private bus) where the conductor charged me double as I had a bag, which was a known norm in SL but it was shocking where he kept rest of the change and was arrogant about it. There were other folks who did tell him something and he did give back the change (40 lkr).

Originally Posted by srinath34

Thanks for sharing this amazing travelogue. Definitely worth bookmarking to plan a trip to SL.

All the pics are wallpaper-worthy and go well with the write-up.

Cheers

Thanks!