Dear Mr Metcalfe,
Thank you for your letter of 15th July welcoming us back home. We
will put the questionnaire into the post in the next day or two but
we would like also to make some further comments on our time in Sri
Lanka for which there is not sufficient space on the form.
As you will remember from our initial enquiry and the details then
provided on our itinerary, the sole purpose of a first full day in
Colombo was to visit the National Museum and we were therefore very
disappointed to discover on arrival that it was closed for repairs
and essentially had a wasted day. We feel strongly that your local
agent, Pan Lanka Travels & Tours, should have been aware of this
and warned us of the fact; if this had been done early enough, we
might have had opportunity to make different arrangements. Also,
two mattresses on a single base (which therefore could not be
separated at all) which was provided at Vil Uyana by the £380
upgrade to a Forest Dwelling scarcely qualify in our opinion as twin
beds. By contrast, the provision of an extra single bed at the
Tintagel Hotel was perfectly adequate and the rooms at Ulagalla and
Galle Face Hotel had twin beds as standard.
The location of the Tintagel Hotel would have been ideal for
visiting the National Museum but its rooms are rather a case of
faded glory (with limited drawer space, only a single usable
electrical socket in our room and no lift) and the Galle Face Hotel
even more obviously trades on its reputation (being overstaffed with
under-motivated personnel in the middle ranks) and its excellent
sea-front location. Both Vil Uyana and Ulagalla were undoubtedly
luxurious (and we appreciated the private plunge pool at each) but
they were obviously chosen for that reason by, we presume, Pan
Lanka. Despite the address given for it, Ulagalla is in fact at
Tirappane and so some considerable distance south of both
Anuradhapura and Mihintale – unnecessarily so, since there are
clearly perfectly adequate hotels in Anuradhapura itself (such as
the one that our guide took us to twice for lunch). However, the
luxury for guests at Vil Uyana and Ulagalla is not matched by the
totally inadequate standard of accommodation provided for their
guest's drivers, as we discovered by some questioning of our guide
about the whole concept of such establishments in that context; our
guide, incidentally, was excellent and sufficiently knowledgeable to
appreciate that we did ourselves know something about what we wanted
to see and even to be keen to learn from us on some points, as well
as looking after us very considerately. Could some remark on this
accommodation issue be passed on to the two hotels without
identifying the source (we would not want our guide to suffer
because of information that we elicited from him rather than his
volunteering it)?
The questionnaire asks, inter alia, for an assessment of the
destination guide notes. May we point out that Sri Lanka is not on
GMT plus 6 hours but, like India, differs by an odd half hour? Also
in our itinerary the Sri Lanka Airlines baggage allowance was given
as 20 kg, whereas to our relief it is in fact 30 kg (and clearly
advertised as such on the website), and their online checkin opens
24, not 48, hours before the flight.
The above is intended as some candid and therefore, we hope, useful
feedback. We would like to conclude by assuring you that we greatly
enjoyed our time in Sri Lanka overall and came away with many
favourable impressions and happy memories.
Yours
John and Mary Brockington
Professor and Mrs J.L. Brockington
113 Rutten Lane
Yarnton
Kidlington 0X5 1LT
tel: 01865 849438