Leaving Bentota took this photo of an old sailing canoe which they had at the entrance of the hotel.
We are now driving through Colombo city, the International Conference Hall. A beautiful building.
They had some very big roundabouts with these wide roads.
Quick photo out of the window, can't even explain how big this Park is. Big part of it is children's playgrounds. It's always nice to see such a big green area in the centre of a city.
This is the town hall.
A man made Lake in the middle of the city. Look at this amazing building.
Looking down the other end of the lake. So much construction going on.
Their New Lotus sky tower.
More construction sites.
Now down on the waterfront. This is an old hotel called Gold Face Hotel. The oldest hotel in Colombo.It is next to a swimming bay right in the city.
Hard to get photos from the car on the go. The round circular building is the trade centre. And the buff coloured building ahead is their old Parliament House and is very similar to our Parliament building in Wellington.
The Dutch Clock Tower.
This is just to show how good their roads are. We are now on a paid highway.
We have been so impressed with their roads which have been excellent throughout the country. The surface is so smooth. They sure know how to build roads in this country. NZ could get some good tips from them. Much better than ours.
Now arrived at our hotel called Arie Lagoon back in Negombo. We were due to stay here when we arrived in Srilanka but we decided we would love more to be on the coast. This place is amazing. We are sorry we only have ten hours here before we are picked up again to go to the airport. We arrived at 11.30am and pick up is 9.30pm take off is 12.45pm.
A great room it's more like a cottage. Standing at the end of the bed looking back to the door and around to the right is a little sitting area which goes into a bathroom.
Now standing in the sitting area, bed off to the left, entrance on the right.
Another open air bathroom, as you can see the beams above the shower are all open to the outside. Not sure what you do if it is raining/thunder/lightening could be a worry. You would certainly get wet hair whether you liked it or not.
It's a very big complex we are in this building of I think eight rooms. We are downstairs on the left. And as you saw above a very big area. A waste for such a short stay.
Close up of our quarters.
Just across from us there is an open air area undercover for relaxing and looking out over the Lagoon which is very large.
Out on the front lawn looking along the waters edge
Standing on the front lawn looking back up over the pool to the restaurant. Lagoon in front of lawn out to the right.
Sitting at our table waiting for lunch.
Zooming in over the pool and Lagoon and you can see the other side approximately 8 kms away. Airport is over there somewhere.
We are close to the lagoon end, at the other end of this drive is the entrance to the hotel. Shows how big the complex is and a lot wider than shows.
From our room looking over to the swimming/restaurant area. Very big grounds. Beautifully kept.
These frangipani trees all round the gardens. They always look nice in the tropical countries.
To say goodbye to Sri Lanka
Everywhere you go everyone is playing cricket on the roads in the parks on the beach. They are passiate about their cricket.
I found this photo of the stick fishermen. When we came along the southern coast several days ago one of the things on our itinerary was to stop and watch the stick fisherman. With being so popular with the tourists they now charge you to stop and take a photo so we opted out and told the driver we weren't going to pay, they wanted $25 if you stopped so we said forget it and stayed on the highway. Disappointing as it would have been interesting to see.
Well we have nearly come to the end of our amazing holiday of India and Sri Lanka. We have thoroughly enjoyed it. So much variety of the two countries. Sri Lanka being very lush tropical green growth. Very good roads, lots of variety beaches coastlines, getting up into the high hills which I loved, so much architecture of beautiful monuments. India however was very dry dusty in places and unfortunately the small towns had so much rubbish in the streets. But in saying that they too had some amazing Forts, Temples with the very fine detail and art work. Quite different countries which made the trip so very interesting. In India we had a driver but he didn't really speak much English but we always had separate guides in all the towns who looked after us. Our driver was excellent very careful and considerate the way he drove. He always had our best interest at heart.
In Sri Lanka we had a driver who was also our guide which was good as we got to know him and spent all our time just with him. He was excellent also and considerate and we always felt safe and he took very good care of us. We missed him when he left us for our four days at Bentota. Another driver picked us up today. It's all been a great experience and we have both thoroughly enjoyed it. We certainly saw some amazing places and scenery. Any doubts I had before we left I needn't have worried as we would really recommend it to have a great adventure. So it's goodbye from India and Sri Lanka and our last blog.
😎
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