The room itself was wonderful. A/C worked beautifully, hot water for a shower was heaven, and I slept like a baby.
Breakfast was at the Governor’s restaurant, another buffet with much stuff. Fresh fruit, pastries, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, juice, and even omelettes if you wanted. It was good.
Fahim, the geek, stayed in the room and did geek things while I walked down to the beach and sat on some rocks and watched the waves crash. I love water, and I’m always up for a good beach.
This is the beach for the guests of the hotel, and yet… Where I sat, on the rocks, which is just underneath the hotel, there was a lot of debris & garbage. Old ripped up clothes, shoes, and the like. Now, don’t think I’m totally stupid for sitting on the rocks – they were a good twenty or so feet away. But it seems to me that it would be prudent to clean things up so it looks its best for the guests. But then, that’s just my North American egocentricity talking.
When we checked out, we were presented with the bill for all our drinks (all non-alcoholic, of course) and our dinner the night before. The meal was eventually removed, but the front desk staff didn’t understand when we tried to tell them that I was here on a hotel review, and they blatantly disregarded my requests for them to contact the PR manager about the drinks bill.
So what do we do? We pay it. What else is there to do?
Would I recommend this hotel? The rooms were nice, some of the food was very good, others not so much. I enjoyed our stay. The problems we had all had to do with human interaction, and realistically, I expect you’ll get much the same thing at any other hotel in Sri Lanka. It seems to me that Sri Lankans either have no idea what foreigners expect in their hotel stays, or they just don’t care. Probably a bit of both. I expect that the human interaction at other hotels in the country will be much the same. For experiencing a piece of interesting history, yes, it is nice to stay there.
