In an effort to see more of Sri Lanka than just the Colombo area, we took this tour today from getyourguide.com which includes sites along the path from Colombo to Galle here in Sri Lanka. We really want to give Sri Lanka a fair evaluation and try to set aside some of the known problems (beach pollution, unethical treatment of turtles, etc) that lead us to not stay in Hikkaduwa, which was a stop on this tour.

It was going to be a long day, which we knew after reading reviews and seeing that this runs 10+ hours. We were out the door and on our way at 8am, and we didn’t get back until 8pm. The tour route looked like this:

Stop #1 – An Unexpected Temple

Right off the bat we were caught off guard that the first stop was a temple, and we were going inside. JC wore a skirt and AC wore shorts because there was no mention of needing to dress for temples. I didn’t even want to go in and I could see nobody else did either, but we didn’t want to object to the first stop. It felt like we were invading the Buddhist ceremony, so this stop only lasted about five minutes.

Today is a religious holiday that happens every full moon, so the place was crowded. We got as far as taking our shoes off and walking up a flight of stairs. That’s when we saw so many people there truly worshiping and we were the only tourists. Being clearly out of place we turned around and walked through an underground walkway to the other side of the street to see a different part of the temple grounds. We felt equally out of place there, so we left.

Bentota Beach

The next stop was at Bentota Beach. We started seeing white people as we approached the outskirts of town, so we knew it was a tourist destination. The beach was very nice looking, and if these beaches didn’t have sewage flowing into them, it would be a premier beach. Our guide bought us coconuts to drink, and we just walked the beach. Bentota is a place I would definitely consider staying.

Kosgoda Spice & Herbal Garden

This was the worst stop of the tour. It felt like we were tricked into going to a timeshare presentation. We basically had a sales guy assigned to walk us around on a tour of the grounds. He showed us different plants that were part of different products they sell. They range the full spectrum of human ailments, including but not limited to face youth creams, weight loss drugs, sex enhancers, and hair restoration. AC and JC got a face cream demonstration which was very uncomfortable, seeing it through the eyes of all parties, with two sales dudes rubbing down their faces.

We did get some really good tea to sample which was the only upside of this stop. The down sides were plenty though. After the guy finished presenting in the demonstration area, he asked for donations. The pitch was that he’s a college student and interning at this place, and the donations help him a lot. We gave him 5K rupees which is $16.66, and way more than I meant to give him. I just did bad math in my head and thought I was giving him more like $8.

We were then ushered into their sales shop. We pretended to give a shit for a few minutes, and then left without buying anything. The 5K donation bought us the right to walk straight out of there as far as I’m concerned.

I didn’t hide my frustration with this very well apparently, and I could read the tour drivers face that he could read my face. At the end of the tour he told us we could tell him if we didn’t like anything from the tour, “like maybe you didn’t like the spice thing that much”.

Sea Turtle Hatchery & Rescue Center

We initially told our guide that we wanted to skip the turtles because it was an expensive add-on at $50. The kids wanted to do it though, so we did it.

This hatchery and rescue center has various wall tanks with sharks, eels, and other fish. They also have many tanks with injured turtles, or turtles they have hatching and will be releasing. Their mission is to elevate the turtle population because the eggs in a natural setting have too much pressure on them from predators. For the injured animals, they keep them because they wouldn’t survive on their own. Besides injured animals, they also have ones with genetic defects such as albino turtles that can’t survive in the wild.

AC and I agreed they should just let nature take it’s course. She pointed out that if you let natural selection run, you will eventually get a turtle that for example lays sand colored eggs that evade predators.

The kids got to hold baby turtles while JC and I declined. The turtle guide emphasized way too much that they release all animals according to laws and regulations. That’s good, but when you say it literally 10-15 times it sounds suspicious.

Lunch at Peraliya

The guide had an initial place picked out for lunch, but it was crazy busy with the holiday. We moved on to another restaurant in Hikkaduwa called Peraliya that was empty when we arrived. We seemed to have at least three people waiting on us. AC and I ordered American stuff, club sandwich and a burger. BC and JC got some sea food pasta. It took about 50 minutes to get our food, and it was pretty expensive at nearly $40, but the food was good.

Tsunami Photo Museum & Honganj

In 2004 there was a massive Tsunami that primarily impacted Indonesia, but also devastated other countries as well. Sri Lanka was impacted in a big way with 30,000 people dead. It also resulted in the biggest rail disaster in history when the Tsunami wiped a full train off the tracks.

The site has an impressive Buddha statue, and a museum outside of Hikkaduwa commemorating this tragedy. The museum really needs some work to match the reverence of the topic. It’s really nothing more than pictures, not in frames, pinned to the wall in a very small room. The pictures are gruesome with wrecked trains, dead bodies, destroyed houses etc. Adding some frames, plaques, lighting, and floor space would help it feel less like a serial killer’s trophy room.

Hikkaduwa Turtle Beach

If we had a printed itinerary of this tour, I would have circled Turtle beach in red ink. The stop was going to tell us either that we missed out on a great stay, or that we dodged a bad stay.

We came away feeling like we really made the right choice in avoiding Hikkaduwa. The beach and town are both pretty dirty and overrun with people, probably especially so because of the holiday weekend. We saw the turtles being fed by locals, which is not supposed to happen. The view of the town down the beach was grimy and off-putting as well. We are glad we didn’t spend two weeks there.

Galle Fort

We thought this was going to be the coolest stop of the trip. The Galle Fort was built by the Dutch and is a UNESCO world heritage site. The reality of our jam packed itinerary is that we only spent about 45 minutes here. We saw the fort walls and cannons, a couple of christian churches, a beach just outside the walls, and a light house. We expected more, and I think there was more to see. The guide mentioned that if you were staying in Galle you could spend a few hours at the fort.

Temple #2 – Japanese Peace Pagoda

The second unexpected temple of the day was the Japanese Peace Pagoda. We went into a church-like structure, and then walked around a large pagoda with a great view. The highlight of this stop might have been talking to an American monk. He was from New Jersey and is a Zen Buddhist. His Buddhist order is the order of monks who donated the peace pagoda. Their mission is raising awareness of the dangers of nuclear conflict.

There was a plaque on the temple about the Russian Ukraine war, and their fear that the US and Russia could end up in a nuclear conflict. Also interesting is that part of his travel party had their return flights cancelled because of the US bombing Iran, and the Iran response hitting the UAE. We’re hoping none of our flights are impacted.

Jungle Beach

Our final stop was at a beach called Jungle Beach because you have to hike through about a quarter mile of jungle. It wasn’t the most picturesque beach, but it had a cool vibe to it. There were a lot of people there because of the holiday. It had a cafe where we got some really bad coffee.

Gas Lines

Throughout the drive on our tour, we saw incredibly long lines for gas. This is apparently due to some dispute between petrol companies, and nothing to do with the middle east bombings.

Return to Colombo

We told our guide we were ready to go back to Colombo, and he sort of encouraged us to go to another beach called North Beach I think. It was already getting late and we were spent, so we declined. We took the expressway back, which took about 2.5 hours. We tipped him 12K rupees (~$40).

All in all this was a really good tour. None of the sites blew me away, but it allowed us to see a significant section of Sri Lanka. We would have regretted spending our entire two weeks in Colombo. No doubt we would see glamorous pictures and videos of the coast to the south, making us think we missed out. When you see these type of things first hand you can see through the picture the influencers are trying to paint.