Not my hotel - not even close

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Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

Laura and I decided to head south for the weekend to Bentota and explore osme of the resorts. We had a wonderful weekend away, it started a little shaky but was great. We arrived at the train station at about 6:45 and bought our tickets. The ticket person said track 5 and then the person checking tickets said track 5 as well so off to track 5 we went. I knew that the train to Galle which I had taken the two previous weekends also stopped where we were going and noticed that it left from track 6. We saw it pull in on time and I thought hmmm, I should check so off I went and was told that no, I needed the train on track 5. Anyway no train showed up on track 5 so we had a look on the train to Galle and there were no seats by this time so we waitied. Finally a train showed up on track 5 so we got on. It was obvious that it was a different train and was set up for commuting. Sure enough it stopped halfway to where we were going (Bentoto) and we had to get off. We asked and the next train wasn't until 9:30 (the express to Galle)… So we hung out in the small dirty town for a few hours getting covered in flies… Anyway, we jumped off the train when it stopped and we literally got off the train in front of the stairs to our hotel. We sort of laughed before we saw the stairs with the sign saying it was our hotel as the rooms were ten feet from the tracks. Guess where our rooms were… It wasn't too bad though. The rooms were clean and really nice. We were woken up at 5 by this roar that made me think oh ^%& I hope that is a train and not a tsunami (the water was on the other side of the tracks). Then at
6 the train blew its whistle waking us up again, other than that it was fine. We spend the day Saturday visiting hotels telling them we were planning trips for a group and would like to check out their facilities, it was quite fun and we did some good research!! There are some really nice hotels but you pay up to 130 US a night in the off season. We also were able to walk through some of the hotels that were really hit by the tsunami and decimated, very sad. On Sunday we had breakfast at the hotel, went for a walk to some more resorts and then took a tuk-tuk up to some beautiful gardens about 10 K away from town.
It was funny, we got there and we were the only people there so it was really quiet. We had just entered the gate and I was looking at a nice flower when Laura started to choke and look quite shocked and was pointing down the path. I looked up to see a HUGE monitor lizard, about 5 feet long and larger than a dog. It was strolling down the path away from us. We both got our cameras out and when to chase it down. It was strange it had just disappeared. I still don't know how something that big could just disappear like that. The gardens were magnificent. The designer, who was an artist, worked on them from 1929 to 1992 when he died. There were ponds and fountains and showers and statues, it was truly spectacular. Eventually one couple showed up but it was deserted. So peaceful and serene. I can't wait to take my mother there if she visits and I think Wayne and Delcie will like it when they come. After we left the gardens we visited a few more resorts and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the trip back. Both train rides I rode on the outside step, something I've always wanted to do. It was rather exhilarating and I knew if I wanted to do it I needed to before Cher arrived and wouldn't let me :-) I took some photos of the tsunami hit areas but missed the worst of it and couldn't bring myself to photograph the scene it was so sad. We made it back in about 2 hours which isn't bad considering how different it is from Colombo! I can't wait to go back. I think I will take Cher there for the first weekend she is in town. It was so beautiful and peaceful at the smaller resorts like Club Villa (see photos on my flickr site). I can't wait to take Cher there for the first weekend she is here, I just don't know which palce to go to. The larger resorts are nice, I liked the Lanka Princess best, but the smaller ones are really nice too... We'll see....