Asia's best kept secret…

Am using the wifi in the lobby of the Palm Garden Village Hotel to write this. I arrived without incident yesterday and things were off to a promising start. My luggage indeed was transferred from China Air to Srilankan Air, my driver/guide was waiting for me with water and sandwiches prepared by his wife – thoughtful. And then came the Pinnawalla Elephant Hotel (and I use the word lightly). After a long day of travel, I had to schlepp my bags up literally 6 flights of stairs to a room with no lights, a sheet for a blanket, and a bathroom that was just plain scary. I figured out how to use a newly-purchased adaptor to recharge my cell phone and turned the AC off. I fell asleep to the sound of the Maoya river and woke up early to meet my guide at breakfast (read white toast, marmalade, and scrambled eggs that were…I forgot them already). I found out later that they had no place for my guide to sleep. Then came my first lesson about Sri Lanka: it’s ALL about money. I’ll go into more detail later, but suffice it to say, not the best first impression for a country that needs all the good press it can get.

Maoya River