Sri Lanka - village tour

Village tour. That was a name in our itenerary and I was not sure what to expect. It promised catamaran ride and bullock cart ride. Before we arrived to Sri Lanka, my imagination about this one was we are sailing on a huge white polished catamaran I often see in Croatia on a lake similar to the Geneva lake in Lausanne, Switzerland and admiring the village (city) houses around. Hahaha. So wrong!

Our driver stoped on a main road and took us to some hut right at the edge of the road. Then I saw this poor bull and a cart. I know, all my animal protection friends can hate me right now, but this was our ride. To be honest, I can walk faster. It took ages untill this bull took us to the lake (which really was not further that 2 kilometers I think). The lake was quite small and the catamaran was like four wooden boards jointed together and floating on something. The catamaran ride took less than five minutes. Good thing we saw Sigiriya Rock from there.We stepped out of it and walked to another hut, the sun was setting down so the light was beautiful. There was this woman in the hut and without any words, she started to prepare some typical local food for us. Then it striked me, that this is something like presentation of a typical srilankan life going on here. She made some flatbread from coconut flour, served it to us and then asked for money. It was all really weird, especially when you think that this is something offered by travel agencies. It is all happening without any words, introduction, anything. After we gave her some money, our "guide" called a tuk-tuk and took us to the hotel. Very weird. Despite the beautiful sunset and light, it was very weird. Maybe it all had to do with our main problem, which I did not mention untill now. Despite we hired a guide recomended by my friend, he did not show up at the beginning of our trip and sent a substitute. Which would be ok, but this guy did not speak English, or very little. So we really did not have a guide. We had a driver. He took us across the country but without saying anything about it. Which I think was a big dissapointment for us, expecting to learn about Sri Lanka from a local. Big bummer.

Village tour (prehliadka dediny). To sa objavilo v našom cestovnom itenerári a ja som si nebola istá čo čakať. Sľubovali jazdu katamaránom a nejakým kravským povozom. Predtým, než sme prišli na Sri Lanku, som si naivne predstavovala, ako sa plavíme na bielučkom katamaráne, aké vídam v Chorvátsku, po obrovskom jazere podobnom tomu Ženevskému a obdivujeme stavby naokolo. Hahaha. Čistý omyl. Kde som dala rozum?

Náš vodič zastal pri okraji hlavnej cesty a odviedol nás do nejakej polorozpadnutej slamenej chatrče počkať. Potom som zbadala toho úbohého vola a slamený voz. Teraz ma právom môžu neznášať všetci ochrancovia zvierat. Lebo ten vôl nás ťahal a trčali mu rebrá. Peši by som bola určite pri jazere rýchlejšie. Trmácali sme sa večnosť a nebolo to ďalej ako 2 kilometre. Jazero bolo malé a katamarán  tvorilo pár dosiek zbitých k sebe, ktoré sa na niečom vznášali.Plavba trvala asi 5 minút :-). Pozitívne bolo, že sme konečne videli pekne Leviu skalu. Vystúpili sme a kráčali sme smerom k nejakej chatrči, slnko práve zapadalo a svetlo bolo v tom čase skutočne úžasné. V chatrči stála žena a po našom príchode sa bez jediného slova pustila do prípravy lokálneho jedla. Urobila placku z kokosovej múky a nejakú čili kokosovú omáčku k tomu, naservírovala nám to a vypýtala si peniaze. Celé to bolo dosť čudné, hlavne keď si zoberiete, že táto "tour" je niečo, čo ponúkajú agentúry. Všetko sa deje bez nejakého sprievodného alebo úvodného slova.Po tom čo sme žene zaplatili , náš "sprievodca" zavolal tuk-tuk a odvizol nás do hotela. Čudné, veľmi čudné. Napriek nádhernému západu slnka veľmi čudné. Možno to má niečo do činenia s našim hlavným problémom, o ktorom som sa doteraz nezmienila. Napriek tomu, že sme si najali sprievodcu doporučeného mojou kamarátkou, ten proste na letisko neprišiel a poslal za seba náhradníka. Čo by bolo v poriadku, keby ten náhradník vedel po anglicky. Ale nevedel - takže sme nedostali sprievodcu, ale vodiča. Viezol nás cez celú krajinu, ale nič nám o nej nepovedal. To bolo pre nás veľkým sklamaním. Celé zle.