After my goa plans went down the drain, i was firm on making a trip again in few months and i waited for the republic day long weekend. I know what made me select srilanka...it was Taj exotica, Bentota. I was googling and came across this exotic hotel and fell in love with the place. Once decided that i wanted to visit, there was no going back..(offlate have become quite subborn with my wishes and the way i want to lead my life)
We started from Bangalore to Chennai from where we had the flight. Srilankan airlines was good and i liked the airhostess saree which was little different than the indian ones. While an air hostess was serving i kept staring at the attire thinking do they drape the same way as we do or is it different? They had a frill extra near the belly & on the dress. i experienced a weird thing - After she provided the meals during the flight and when she came to collect the left overs at our seat, i said thankyou to her while handling over my plate. She responded back stating "I was the first one in the flight today to say thanks to her". I was very disappointed when i heard that. Why on this earth do we take people for granted as if they are our slaves and the role that they are performing doesnt require us to say a simple thankyou to them. What is wrong with us? I kept thinking about the same in remaining 15 minutes of my flight time. The sea line below was amazing and it was so clear and so defined.
We landed at Negambo and took a cab for Colombo. The route was pretty much same as india and so were the people. We did not realise that we were in some other country. We could see ad of some indian brands like airtel, sharukhkhan, Tata Communications etc. I expected Tata brand for their hotels but existence of other business line surprised me quite a bit. We reached colombo and stayed at Taj Colombo. Its a very commercial property right across the beach. All you need to do is cross the main road and you are on the beach side. It was a crowded beach and people had come for their normal evening outings. The vendors had small stalls of prawns, popcorns and some other new, unforseen food items. I could not resist and tried almost everything which was new to my eyes and tastebuds. For a change i did not feel like looking at my waist :D
Next day was planned for bentota but before we could reach we did little shopping in Colombo. Colombo is pretty decent when it comes to Apparals but unfortunately the best of their showrooms do not have trial rooms and being a girl it was pretty difficult for me to buy something without trying its fitting. I looked around to see hw locals managed to buy and i saw them trying the dresses on top of whatever they were wearing. Not bad was all i could think. I too picked up a dress which i could try on top of my clothes :P Size wasnt a big problem as i could spot fatter women (The biggest pleasure for any fat lady is to spot fatter females than her!). Someone told us that srilankan gems are also famous and they had an exhibition which was coming to end. It was a governmental one so risk of being cheated was also less. This gems store was amazing and looked pretty reasonable. We bought couple of them but not sure if we should wear them due to astrological reasons in india. I found them cute and bought them.
We took an auto for Bentota, distance was 60 kms and we wanted to explore the place in the local style. Autos are damn expensive and so is the food. We halted in between to try local cuisine at one of the restaurants and realised that there was no rate card or menu card. They only had meals so we went for them. It costed us a bomb, in the same price in india i would have had my food in 5 star hotel. But no regrets since it was what i always wanted to do..to explore and to eat every local cuisine. We reached Bentota in 2 hrs and the weather was good as compared to what we had expected. Ta exotica was really a exotic place and it was very very tempting. I would love to go there again & again & again....
Beach was just at the back side of the hotel and it was neat. More or less like a private beach with some foreigners around. No locals and vendors were there.We had good time over there the first day and came post sunset. Next day we planned to visit lot of places like Mask factory, turtle hatchery, lagoons & Galle fort. I dont know which one to rate better!
For those who plan to visit can take tips from me now..Security is of no concern now.
The best part of the journey was the return. I was left with some currency and i did not want to carry it back to india, so i thought of spending it in one of the departmental store at the airport. When i entered the store i realised it was a normal store and had nothing special to be carried back. In this dilema i suggested hubby that we should go for ice creams and try them. I guess those were the only things we ignored. He agreed (poor guy as if he had an option). We relished the ice cream and when we reported at our counter they told us that we were the last 2 passengers and everybody else had checked in. If we would have delayed further, then they culd have given the seats to waiting, leaving us there. As soon as Sandeep heard that he started taunting me " have more ice creams, we could have missed the filght because of u and ur idea of exploring food"...he said that all in front of the ground staff making me feel so sorry of what could have happened. The lady at counter popped her head from desktop and said " excuse me madam, If you dont mind can i upgrade you to business Class?" Who on this earth would say no to such a polite, generous request. I kept smiling at sandeep saying "Look because of my ice cream you have been upgraded!". He was absolutely clueless whether he should scold or remain silent...
Over all a great trip and a wonderful location. I miss the enjoyment and all the fun i had. It was a different experience all together and given a chance i would love to go again.
"sthu-thee" SriLanka, C U Soon
Note: As usual i got a comment stating that i look like a srilankan female by one of the locals. He infact told that i am a look alike of his wife. Could not see her but i am sure she is pretty :P...
