Bentota, Hanbantota, and Unawatuna (Oh My!)

I'm going to try to finish up with our "adventuring" today because really, the majority of the second half of our trip was relaxing on the beach - and how much can you truly write about that??  We spent a few hours driving from Kandy to Bentota and honestly, it might have been the high point of the trip for me.  It was a bit reminiscent of the opening scenes of Romancing the Stone (minus sliding down the hillside in a freak rainstorm).  The views were incredible - banana trees, coconut trees, daring mountain drop-offs feet away (or meters since we love the metric system here), tea bushes, evergreens...  You name it, we probably saw it that day.  And it was all beautiful.  Can't say enough good things about that drive.  We stopped for lunch and happened to find a place that served both tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches, but B officially deemed the tomato soup "yucky" and that was that.  We had many opportunities to discuss with our kids on this trip that it's "fun" to try new things and see how different people do things in different parts of the world.  He wasn't really buying it that day, and he definitely wasn't finishing his soup.

View from the hotel in Bentota

We rounded off our travels that day with a trip on an actual highway.  I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but there is only one in Sri Lanka, so it was nice to drive on it.  After days of winding ridiculousness and potholes at every turn, it was so pleasant to drive in a straight line on smooth roads.  We quickly arrived at Bentota Beach and were promptly upgraded to a room on the top floor since our room was not yet ready.  Good news?  Great views of the ocean.  Bad news?  Having to walk up and down 6 flights of stairs with kids every time we wanted to go to said ocean.  Oh yeah, and 2/3 of the hotel was currently undergoing renovation. It was kind of like one of those expedia or hotels.com commercials where you're suddenly surprised to find that the pool is being renovated in the middle of the summer.  Luckily, their pool was not being renovated, and the noises weren't terrible during naptime in our section of the hotel.  While staying in our "splurge" hotel, we had a bit of a heart to heart about the finances of IRT.  A lot of our planned expenses were covered because this is official travel, but it's those unplanned expenses that really bite you.  All of the admission and entrance fees add up, and meal costs had been higher than expected as well.  In general, our cheapest option at every hotel has been room service.  Totally weird.  Who would have thought that ordering a full meal to the room that easily fed all 4 of us (beer included) would be cheaper than one of us eating a meal (drinks not included) at the restaurant on site.  Such was the case today at our restaurant.  I just don't get it.  It's unfortunate, but with all of the expenses, it's tough to really feel like this is a great place to visit.  Add to that the fact that our driver is purposefully taking longer routes than necessary (which we didn't know at the time) to squeeze just a bit more money out.  Oh well.  Time to take a deep breath, look out into the ocean, and relax.

Eating food the "local" way - no utensils required

We spent the whole next day either on the beach or out in town getting a feel for local culture.  We hired a trishaw to take us to a local mask factory where they make dancing masks (masks that they wear while doing traditional dances, not masks that dance) and had a meal out on the town.  It was super-relaxing and totally what we needed to recharge ourselves for the second half of our travels.

We spent most of the next day in the van driving from Bentota to Hanbantota.  For two towns with almost the same name, you'd really hope they'd be a bit closer together.  Oh well.  We had one break for lunch (and another slightly shorter break to pee on the roadside - which is apparently just as acceptable in Sri Lanka as it is in the States in case anyone was wondering).  Our trip to Hanbantota was only for one night, and there honestly wasn't a whole lot to see, but it's arguably a pretty important area for Sri Lanka right now as they are in the process of building a new port there.  The city itself is tiny (little more than a few square blocks of buildings and shops), but there is quite a bit of money pouring in (mostly from foreign investors) to try to get this port going.  There's also a large international convention center under construction (also courtesy of foreign investors).  Hanbantota is on the southern edge of Sri Lanka and about 5 miles offshore is the world's busiest shipping lane.  Adding a port at that location could be a huge money-maker for the country (depending on who you ask).  Others will say that key members of government are using their power to pour money into the hands of friends and family in their hometown.  The reality?  Probably something in between.  Time will tell.  But this isn't supposed to be a political commentary.  I'm focused on having fun!!

The hotel we stayed at was, again, on the beach, but the water got very deep very quickly (as is probably appropriate for an area that has large ocean-going vessels) and the currents were treacherous for swimmers, so we decided to enjoy the pools instead.  Josh went down to scope things out because we had 2 pools to choose from.  He came back with some ridiculous story about a family of 15-20 monkeys (larger than K) who got into a territorial dispute with him at the pool that resulted in broken patio furniture.  By the time we suited up and returned (with the camera), naturally there were NO monkeys to be seen.  In his defense though, there was a bit of an odor of urine in the area, so I am willing to be convinced that this was actually "their" territory.  Both kids ended the evening by requesting to watch cricket on TV (normally a sure bet anywhere in South Asia), but sadly all we had was football (soccer).

Josh and kids at Unawatuna

The following day, we re-traced our steps and returned to a city we had driven through the day before and checked in to our final hotel in Unawatuna.  This was a typical beach tourist town, so while it was a bit short on Sri Lankan charm, it was still a great place to stay for a family vacation.  The pizza and baguette sandwiches were ridiculously good and we received a complimentary fruit basket upon checking in (complete with a quarter of a pineapple, a huge hunk of papaya, apples, and oranges).  We spent some time at the pool and some time on the beach, did some shopping, went to a turtle hatchery, and pretty much just had a great time.  When we left Unawatuna, I think we were all ready for our vacation to draw to a close.  But we had 2 more key stops to make.

First, we hit up Dutch fort at Galle to walk the ramparts (in extreme heat I might add).  We ended our day however with the Intrigue Family (our counterparts in Colombo) where they graciously allowed us to stay in their humble little house (read MANSION).  It was ridiculously fun and relaxing to spend time with other people who are "living the life" if you will.  We gained some great insights on life in Colombo from an American perspective and hopefully were able to pass on some pearls of wisdom on our life so far in Dhaka.  Miracle of all miracles, the kids all got along!

We parted ways with our van driver (who did in fact manage to rip us off) and hired a cab to come pick us up at 4:00 in the morning so we could catch our flight home.  So, as with all of life, you take the good with the bad.  We had some extremely rewarding experiences on this trip, and we learned a lot that we hope to put to good use when planning future excursions.

We arrived back in Dhaka and I was strangely happy to be back.  Sure the traffic is ridiculous.  Sure it's not the cleanest place in the world.  But it's home.  And it's always good to be home.