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 Traveller's Tales: Restaurants and eating places in Sri Lanka
Look for the best places to eat in Sri Lanka. You may read about recommended restaurants and food. Find out about local food and local dining customs. Also, you might want to read our
Sri Lanka city guide.
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| A Lee |
10 November 2003 |
Stayed at Galle Face Hotel - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
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Tours: My visit was 2.5 days, so I only took one tour. For convenience and reliability, I arranged for a hotel car and driver to take the 3 hour drive up the mountain to Kandy, for a full day tour (55USD). My driver spent most of the time braking and honking to pass on the one lane roads, but drivers seem used to this system. Kandy is most noted for the large, colonial-built Buddhist temple (“Tooth Relic temple”). Other touristy stops include the Baby Elephant Orphanage (which I skipped); the Botanical Gardens (spice garden, nice selection of local and rare species); handicrafts shops; and of course, the ubiquitous jewelry shops. Fortunately, it was a holiday (every full moon), so most of the shops were closed, and I was able to stroll along without too many hawking shopkeepers. Non-locals are charged a small entrance fee for the Temple (200 LKR) and Botanical Gardens (300 LKR).
In front of the hotel and during my walks, the tuk-tuk drivers were persistent but not overly aggressive. Advice: carry lots of 50 and 100 LKRs, and bargain, and agree on the fare before entering the tuk-tuk otherwise you will be charged an outrageous price. The fare from the hotel to the downtown area should be only about 100-200 LKRs. Of course, gem and jewelry prices are very inflated for tourists, so bargain hard.
Touts: can be avoided with a friendly "no,thanks" but two, in particular, to watch for: 1) a friendly, elderly gentleman will start a conversation while you are walking down the road, he will tell you he is a teacher for a Blind and Deaf school and then will ask you for a donation, showing you a list signed by donors (all western names). 2) A friendly man will tell you about some special local event he is on his way to attend and invite you along. For example, that today is a special day at the Buddhist temple, when they are showing the bone relics. He will also try to show you the sacred elephant that carried the bone relics and take you to a jewelry factory with the “best, non-tourist,” prices. His tuk-tuk driver will try to charge you USD40 for the “tour.” If you are curious and go along, make sure the tuk-tuk cost is agreed in advance, for each leg of the “tour.”
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| D Astley |
06 April 2003 |
Stayed at Royal Oceanic Hotel - The Beach - Negombo, Sri Lanka.
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Give the hotel food a miss – it’s a big disappointment. There are plenty of small restaurants all along this strip of the coast (on the other side of the road to the beach) serving both cheap local food and reasonably priced western food. I had grilled seer fish, French fries and vegetables at one open-air restaurant for 200 rupees (US$2.10) – which was very good – and a 625 ml bottle of Lion beer for 100 rupees (US1.05).
There’s not much to do at night in Ethukala (apart from cheap eating and drinking) unless you are interesting in shopping for jewelry. Every second shop is a jewelry shop, and they will invite you in to every one you pass, but fortunately the shop owners are not as aggressive as in some other parts of Asia.
However, be prepared to be hassled by hawkers trying to sell you sarongs and shirts on the beach, and guys wanting you to take pictures of them with their cobras or pythons (for which you will have to pay). The hotels don’t let the hawkers into the resort areas and there seems to be an imaginary line in the sand, a metre back from the lounge chairs closest to the beach, which the hawkers are not allowed to cross - and which they do seem to respect. But once you are on the beach proper, you are at their mercy and it’s almost impossible to take a quiet stroll along the beach without being hassled by hawkers, fishermen wanting to take you on a boat ride or women asking for money to support their children.
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| J Pashley |
17 March 2001 |
Stayed at Royal Oceanic Hotel - The Beach - Negombo, Sri Lanka.
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WE stayed in Negombo as we were only there for 4 days and it is only 20 mins. from airport. We were pleasantly surprised with the resort as the beach is fabulous and clean, there are several bars and restaurants within walking distance of the hotel and Negombo is a short Taxi ride away. We did not eat out but we had a drink in the Happy Banana Bar each night and found the staff very helpful and friendly. We did not take any tours.
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