Tour Sri Lanka
When
I went to Sri Lanka the first time, I booked a tour through a company
and was lucky enough to get a guide and chauffeur called Upul Wijesurya.
He is a Government qualified tourist guide and chauffeur. I had a
marvelous time with him. He didn’t just take me to see all the places I
had originally asked for, he included many others along the way.
Everywhere we went he was a fount of knowledge.
In addition I
kept asking him, “Can we see this?” and “Can we see that?” This didn’t
faze him at all. Amongst other things, we went to visit playgroups,
schools, a hospital, a Buddhist Temple on the site of a previous Tsunami
from hundreds of years ago and a Buddhist monk living in the jungle who
had a young elephant come to visit him each day for food.
Despite
being poor himself, Upul (next to me with the binoculars) is a great
philanthropist who helped the Volunteer Sri Lanka Project in the early
days when we were building the Tsunami Memorial Library. He helps many
small projects in Sri Lanka whilst at the same time working as a tourist
guide and chauffeur.
Upul is very
reliable and completely ethical. If you go to Sri Lanka, he will help
you arrange a tour to suit your needs or you could take one of his pre
arranged tours. You can join a group if one is going at that time or
safely travel alone with him as some volunteers have. All you need to do
is contact him to discuss where you would like to go, the grade of
accommodation you would like etc and he will work it all out for you.
With his extensive knowledge, he is sure to have additional suggestions
to augment your ideas, too!
His tours will include anything you wish, cultural and historic sites, temples, villages, botanical parks,
elephant
rides, climbing mountains, hiking, beaches andwildlife viewing of
animals and birds in the National Parks – everything up to leopards!
One
of the many beauties of booking with Upul is that there aren't any
middle men taking extra slices of money at your expense and you know
that you are directly benefiting local Sri Lankans.
Upul will
pick you up from the Colombo airport to go straight on tour or if you go
somewhere else first, he will pick you up from there and return you to
the airport for your flight home. So, the best way to arrange this is,
in plenty of time, prior to leaving for Sri Lanka email him telling him
how you know of him and with your tour ideas and requirements. He will
then get back to you to discuss it all and when you have finally decided
on your itinerary he will give you a price. It is always better to ask
for a HB hotel arrangement and a complete price that includes the
entrance fees. Also stipulate the quality of hotel you want as in
Luxury, Medium or Budget so that he knows if you can’t afford too much.
Mobile phone number: +94714879046 or Landline +94112817360