Colombo Airport to Mirissa

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Day 2: DUBAI - COLOMBO AIRPORT - MIRISSA

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Today begins in the Dubai airport, where we landed a little more than half an hour late and although we have already read that it is one of the largest airports in the world, we know that when flying with Emirates, flights arrive and depart from the same Terminal, so no We will be in such a hurry of time. We still have another flight today, but we are looking forward to it and we are looking forward to getting to Sri Lanka to make our way from Colombo Airport to Mirissa.


Dubai Airport Travel to Sri Lanka and Maldives

We follow the traffic signs and see that our flight leaves through a door that is very close, so we allow ourselves the luxury of not going too fast and take a look at the different stores we pass.


At 2 in the morning we are already at the boarding gate and within a few minutes we are already inside the plane, ready to face the second part of the flight that will take us to what will be our trip to Sri Lanka and Maldives.
At this point in the journey we see that the passengers change their nationality and we are totally surrounded by Muslims, with children and all women with burkas.
We are struck by the cultural change it entails, to find ourselves “literally” run over by them at the entrance to the plane, without even hearing an apology and observing an excuse look…
Even the hostesses make some gesture of apology, trying to soften the moment.
We settled in our seats and we set out to spend the almost 4 hours we still have left ...


Sri Lanka Road ...

The flight passes quickly enough that between reading and movies we hardly realize that it is practically 8 in the morning when they announce that we are landing.
We can not stop looking through the windows, looking forward to seeing what will be our home the next few days and above all, trying to verify that the internet is wrong and it is not bad weather or it is raining!

A few hours after starting the trip, we have to say that we are traveling in the middle of the monsoon and that the weather forecasts are not encouraging at all.
We have been looking at the weather for several months, almost daily of all the areas we will visit in Sri Lanka and there has been no day that we have not seen rain, storms ... during all hours of the day!
We had been told that at this time there were rains, but they lasted very little time, although the internet says otherwise.
This is not that it has encouraged us too much, as you can understand and the truth is that we are already looking forward to putting our feet on the ground to be able to verify it in person.
And as soon as we land, an incredible vegetation surrounded by a sky dark enough to make us look at each other a couple of times before we unbuckle our belts ... luck is on!

Before collecting the backpacks, we passed the immigration controls in a few minutes, in which we do not even have to show the electronic visa we had printed and we explained the first day of this trip.
After having a new stamp in our passport, we see the famous appliance stores, which everyone talks about.
Yes, it is true that we are surprised to see people with trolleys dragging refrigerators, washing machines, while we go in search of our backpacks.
We wait a little more than half an hour in front of the tapes, hoping that the experiences of Indonesia and the US will not be repeated, where my suitcase did not appear and finally, after a few minutes of nervousness, we see them appear.
Now we have everything, now we can say that we have started our journey!

Upon leaving we find a room where, with just a glance, we see the sim card stores we need, exchange offices and agencies that offer cars with drivers.
We have everything at hand, so now we just need to decide the first of the things we want to do.


Negombo airport. Sri Lanka

In Dubai, we were able to connect through the airport's Wi-Fi and we saw that the change was at 169.29, so with this data we approached the first exchange office, where we met a couple of Spaniards who told us that they had already traveled all and the maximum they give are 165 rupees, so we make accounts and seeing that we don't lose much, we change enough money so as not to have to worry in a few days.

Currently and after many trips to the back we recommend, if you do not want to pay commissions when taking money from ATMs abroad and always have the current change, use the N26 card to pay and the Bnext and Revolut cards to get money in the ATMs They are the ones we use, They are free and will save you a lot.
You can find more information in this article about the best cards to travel without commissions.
We see that the entire airport is very organized and there is not the slightest problem to find the things we are looking for.
This is one of the things that always happen to us, we come with the uncertainty of not knowing how everything will be organized and in the end, when we arrive in the country, we see that everything is much easier than we thought!
With the money already in our hands, we go straight to find a car that will take us to from Colombo airport to Mirissa, which will be our accommodation for the next 2 nights.
We see a couple of options, in different stands, that offer us the service of the Colombo Airport to Mirissa for 14,000 rupees and the second, after rejecting it for being too expensive, a man from another agency comes behind us, offering us the same, for a price of 10,000 rupees and the option to pay 500 rupees more to go on the highway and take about 2 hours, when the first option takes about 5 hours of travel.
The latter is not very clear, because we had not read that there was this option, until the man explains that the highway has been operational for a few months.
So without thinking much more we accept this option and tell you that before we want to go buy a phone card, but we will return in a few minutes.
We go to the stand of Sri Lanka Telekom, where we coincide again with the Spanish couple, who also tell us that they have already compared several options and this is the best, so we do not think so and after seeing the different options, we decided to a 1000 rupee card that includes about 20 minutes of international calls, 1 Gb of data and local calls at 2 rupees per minute.

Another option is to choose to buy one Holafly SIM card being in Spain, with which you will have internet from the moment you land, saving you all the time of the negotiations and making the whole process to have internet in Sri Lanka much more comfortable, fast and easy.
In this case, with the Holafly SIM you will have several Gb to surf the Internet (depending on the option you choose), they will send it to you for free at home, you will keep your WhatsApp number and you will have assistance service in Spanish. You can buy your Holafly prepaid SIM card here with a 5% discount for being our reader

More information on the Holafly post, the best prepaid SIM card for travel

More practical information to prepare your trip to Sri Lanka

- 10 essential places to visit in Sri Lanka
- 10 essential tips for traveling to Sri Lanka

And with the card and the change already in our possession, we go in the company of the man in the car that will take us from Colombo airport to Mirissa, to look for him outside the airport.
Upon leaving we notice a moisture that leaves us with our mouths open. The heat that makes or rather the sensation of heat we have is exaggerated.
We did not expect this exaggerated time change.
After putting the backpacks in the trunk, we set off.
As soon as we leave the airport just by looking out the car window, we have moved to Indonesia, the atmosphere, the green that accompanies us, even the smells ... I don't know why, but even the streets remind us a lot of that country.


From Colombo Airport to Mirissa. Travel to Sri Lanka

The first leg of the trip is to cross Negombo, at this time with a chaos large enough to know that the two hours promised to arrive from the airport to Mirissa would expand somewhat more.


Transportation from Colombo Airport to Mirissa. Travel to Sri Lanka

Halfway the driver asks us 5000 rupees for gasoline, something we agree to give him, not before looking at each other, with that cautious look that we like so little, but that is inevitable in some cases. Especially at the beginning of a trip, when we have not had much time to "know".
After 1 hour and a half or so, we arrive at the entrance of the highway where we already see the sign that indicates that Galle is 103 kilometers ... so we who will stay in Mirissa, we have to count about 15 kilometers more!
It is clear that the initial two hours will become about 3 hours.
Although we can not complain compared to the 5 we expected to take.
The views are impressive even if we go on the highway. Everything is green. Always, when we arrive in a country or a new city for us, we tend to associate it with a color.
For example Marrakech, as soon as we arrive we associate it with pink.
Here in Sri Lanka we cannot have any doubt about that color, Sri Lanka It is green. But green in capital letters. A green with so many nuances that borders on perfection.
And the path from the airport to Mirissa It never ceases to be, like the whole country, of that color.
We see the cartel that tells us that Galle is 5 kilometers away and at the moment we leave the highway, for the last exit that is this, we arrive at a crossroads where we turn left, leaving Galle on the right, to enter the that looks like another world, the south coast of Sri Lanka.
As always when we travel by car, the routes become small films that we see passing so close to us, that we also become actors.


And finally we arrived at the coast in our transport from Colombo Airport to Mirissa

The landscapes we see from the window of our car are incredible even though the day is cloudy.
As we move forward, much slower since we left the highway, and always moving parallel to the coast, we cannot help remembering the tsunami and the deaths and damage it caused on the island.
From afar we see the first “mosquito fishermen”, but we do not stop, tomorrow, we plan to go to Galle we will do this same route and we can stop as many times as we want. We will have all day!
We just got to Sri Lanka and it seems that we are going to lack time to do everything we want to do.
We arrive at what will be our accommodation the next two days, the RiverSide Cabanas about 1 noon.
Before choosing the car as Airport transportation to Mirissa, we had been looking at the train options, which is the fastest and having only two schedules from Colombo and one being past 9 in the morning and another about 2 in the afternoon, we opted for the car as the best option to arrive from the airport to Mirissa.


We arrive at our accommodation after the journey from Colombo Airport to Mirissa

Riverside Cabanas entrance in Mirissa

Upon entering the door of the Riverside Cabanas, they receive us perfectly at the reception of the hotel, with a natural juice and after giving us some explanations about the facilities, we go directly to the room to take a shower and take advantage of the free Wi-Fi to call House.
We are very surprised by the large room and the huge bed!


Our room at the Riverside Cabanas in Mirissa

Apart from all this, we have a great terrace overlooking the garden to the scandal garden!


Our terrace at the Riverside Cabanas in Mirissa

After resting for a while in the room and giving us that shower that we needed so much, we asked the hotel staff where we can go to eat and with a big smile on their faces, they invite us to stay with them, showing us the letter.
After giving it a look, it is clear that we cannot decline that offer.
We ordered a plate of pasta and a fried rice chiken, more water and cocacola.


Eating Fried Rice at the Riverside Cabanas in Mirissa

The food is very good and on top it is very cheap! Coca Cola is 100 rupees and all dishes an average of 400 rupees.
The total meal, adding a tea for each one after eating, is Rs 1105.
It is very clear that we will not spend much on food!
One of the things that catch our attention is the company we have of squirrels in the outdoor dining room of the RiverSide Cabanas ... somewhat different from the rats we find in some of the restaurants in India 😉


Riverside Cabanas Dining Room in Mirissa

We only carry on Sri Lanka a few hours and really we have not seen anything, but we already intuit that this country we are going to fall in love.
After lunch and tea, we went for a walk with the firm idea of ​​making our first stop on the beach.
Time seems to be with us and ignores internet predictions, how scared the last days have been.
We just have to cross the road to reach one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen!


Mirissa Beach Road

The amazing beach of Mirissa

We started to walk and without realizing we noticed that we took off our shoes, to enjoy the sand.


Enjoying the amazing beach of Mirissa

We walk, touring the beach, marked by different areas, where we cross, from time to time with local people, who does not stop to greet and smile at us.


Mirissa Beach

In the walk along the beach we meet local fishermen, people bathing ... even with the famous sticks of the fishermen, who remind us of those images that we have seen so much!


"The sticks" of the wading fishermen on the beach of Mirissa

From time to time we look back and see that we have already traveled a good stretch of beach, but we are not satisfied and we continue to border it, passing through the ground of a hotel that has a hammock on the beach that seems to be calling us !


Mirissa Beach

We do not want to pay too much attention to "that call" and we continue our walk until we reach an area where our eyes open like plates ... if the former was impressive, this area is already paradise!
The image of the palm trees that are practically defeated on the shore of the beach, next to the boats, also on the shore and some local fishermen, make us slow down and sit, for the first time on this trip, just to observe.


Images of Mirissa beach

As we always say, there are times when there are plenty of words, even images too, but we can't stop teaching you the latter, so you can judge for yourself ...


Enjoying Mirissa Beach

Fishermen on Mirissa Beach

After a good time enjoying what this beach is offering, we continue walking until we reach an area where the water already covers and we cannot continue.
So we finish the tour and turn around, going back to the path made, this time with the sun much lower and an incredible light.


Mirissa beach bath

Paradise in Mirissa

We find it hard to get away from the beach, but it's almost 6 in the afternoon and we have to recognize that the flight and the route from the airport to Mirissa It starts to take its toll, so, even if it is against our will, it is best to return to the hotel.
Of course, we cannot stop turning our heads back and forth, thinking that if this is what the country has "given" us the first day, a journey ahead awaits us!


Mirissa

It's time to say goodbye to Mirissa beach ...

In the middle of the beach, we decided to go out on the road and make that piece of road back through “land” and we meet again with those greetings and those smiles that make us smile at each moment.
When we arrive at the hotel, we order dinner and they tell us that they will have it ready in an hour or so, so after resting for a while in the room, we go back down and have a couple of pizzas and water for 1580 rupees.


Having dinner at Mirissa's Riverside Cabanas ...

At the end of dinner we ordered a couple of teas, we have not been slow to get fond of this drink! And after talking for a long time with the staff of the RiverSide Cabanas, which by the way, do not consent to us paying for tea, we look at the clock and seeing that it is 10 o'clock at night, we decide that it is time to make a thought of break.
We go to the Riverside Cabanas room about 10 at night and after sending some emails, we fall like children, listening to the rain.


Mirissa Beach
Day 3
SOUTH BEACHES OF SRI LANKA (MIRISSA - WELIGAMA - UNAWATUNA) - GALLE - MIRISSA

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