Most well organised Birding tour we’ve ever undertaken

Dave Tanner with Guide Athula

Hi Jith​

Mary & I are now back home and fully recovered from our long flight from Colombo to Scotland via Dubai (26 hours travelling).

Firstly, we would like to thank you personally for organising a wonderful tour. We’re both of the opinion that this was the best and most well organised Birding tour we’ve ever undertaken, a credit to your planning .

We would also like to take this opportunity to once again thank Athula, who primarily was an excellent guide, driver and general all-round fixer . At a number of our hotels the staff didn’t seem to understand the concept of being vegetarian, on one occasion even thinking that Chicken soup was vegetarian . Not to worry, all sorted by Athula.

In general, your choice of hotels was excellent, see caveat at end of paragraph. The accommodation ranged from superb to generally very good. For the most part the food available was excellent and of a high standard. We would like to highlight the Sorowwa Resort & Spa and in particular the Manager Mr. Chaminda. When we arrived for our first meal, we were slightly disappointed at the vegetarian selection from the buffet. Mr. Chaminda came to introduce himself and took one look at a small selection from the buffet and enquired if there was something wrong with the food, we assured him there wasn’t, just that we were both strict vegetarians. Our meals suddenly became a gastronomic fantasy journey. Over the next 3 nights he took personal charge of our dining and presented us with some truly wonderful food. On the last night he introduced the Head Chef to us, who had prepared a special final night meal for us, delicious and very memorable.

Sadly, this wasn’t the case at The Plantation, the accommodation was excellent, but the food was, to be honest none existent. They had a set menu which other than Spaghetti & Tomato Sauce, was all meat, we ended up with the Spaghetti and a plate of Chips. The next night Athula spoke to the Head waiter and arranged a traditional Sri Lanka curry - Dhal & Potato. This was ordered at 19:00hrs and we were told it would be ready at 19:45hrs. We duely arrived to be told that our order was placed too late, despite the restaurant being open until 22:30 hrs. Very disappointed to say the least.

To the Hill Pride, this was an excellent hotel, very friendly staff and a very similar experience to the Sorowwa. However, I understand that you haven’t used this hotel previously so I thought it would be helpful to give some feedback. This hotel was perfectly located for our Birding and within walking distance of Victoria Park. The rooms though small are perfectly adequate. However, I think they would struggle with a large group of people who all wished to depart at the same time. In order for 2 people to shower, the second person has to wait about 15 minutes for the water to heat up to facilitate the second shower, this could lead to a severe delay if 6 or more people were staying and wanted to leave at the same time. It was perfect for the 2 of us and probably 4 would have been okay, any more would have been problematic.

In conclusion, a fantastic trip, we have some wonderful memories of Sri Lanka and the locations and sights shown to us by Athula.

I know you mentioned that you may not be at this year’s BirdFair, Mary & I will be there, if you change your mind we’ll come and say Hello.

Kind Regards - Dave & Mary Tanner