It was your organisation that allowed us to get such a lot out of our 20 days

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2 - 21 Feb 2014

Hi Jith
I told Abe that we would send feedback through to you by email – here it is.
The main thing is that Nicola and I had a wonderful time in Sri Lanka – our holiday was very successful and exceeded our expectations. You have a beautiful country with a rich wildlife and some interesting history but it was your organisation that allowed us to get such a lot out of our 20 days there. Thank you for all you did to help us enjoy so much – and in spite of us giving you only a few week’s notice.

Particular positives:
The accommodation worked very well overall in spite of the lateness of our booking, (which meant that we didn’t get what would have been your first choice). Locations were generally very good, and facilities were at the correct level for us – comfortable and clean but not too ‘precious’ or synthetic.

We really did appreciate the birding opportunities you provided – it was great to be able to join you (with your main birding group) on a couple of occasions and the guides you had organised for us in Yala, Bundala, Sinharaja and Minneriya were very informative and stimulating too.

We thought the itinerary worked well – there were a few times when we didn’t use our time quite as effectively as we might but that was quite minor and probably the fault of the driver.

There were a couple of slightly weaker areas which you need to be aware of:

We felt rather uncomfortable with the hotel in Ella (‘Ella Mount Heaven Hotel’ – not to be confused with ‘Mount Heaven Hotel’ also in Ella). It was half built and the kitchen facilities looked very poor (I think they were temporary) – it didn’t surprise us when I had an upset stomach – although the food provided tasted fine and we had a good room. It was the only one we would not want to stay in again.

We were unlucky I think to visit Sinharaja on a Poya Friday – it was heaving with hundreds and hundreds of schoolchildren after about 9.30.

Our driver, Abe, was a limited success. He was a good, safe driver and he was ever meticulous to look after us. He was also a good guide around Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa with knowledge and enthusiasm. However:

- his wildlife knowledge was very weak and he didn’t really seem interested in birds and didn’t understand birding.

- he appeared to have his own agenda or was unhelpful on too many occasions, not for our benefit. For instance he tried to persuade us that we only wanted to be spending 2.5 hours in Sigiriya before returning to the hotel, he failed to organise a guide for a walk in Ella and just sent us off along the road (we don’t understand what he was trying to do really and when we sorted out a guide were then walking in the full heat instead of 7.30 in the morning as intended), we believe we started later in the morning that we should have done on many occasions including our visits to Sinharaja and Yala, and then on the last day he tried to take us somewhere entirely different from where we had asked to go.

- we were particularly unhappy that we believe he tried to trick us out of 10,000 rupees. (A long story but essentially he cajoled us into borrowing 10,000 rupees and then claimed he had lent us 20,000 – I am an accountant and keep a close record of my spend and I know he was wrong). It wasn’t a big deal as we reduced his tip accordingly but it left us unable to trust him as we would have wished.

In summary I think he just didn’t like driving for our sort of trip – he seemed to want a leisurely time taking compliant visitors to touristy places to spend money (and perhaps earn him commission). We were looking for a more active time with early starts walking and birdwatching.

Please don’t read any of this as a complaint though. When you are travelling these things happen – and it really had only a modest impact on our holiday. I would repeat that we had a marvellous time and the holiday was even better than we expected. Thank you once again for everything you did to make it so successful. We will be only too happy to recommend you to others.

Best regards
Peter (and Nicola)

PS I know we said we don’t NEED to see particular birds but it was satisfying to note that (with your help and the reserve guides) we identified nearly 180 different birds – and that is without identifying any prinias or warblers – and 18 of the endemics.

Peter Haigh