Chapter Zero.Two: In transit in Srilanka

We were put up for the night at the Tamarind Tree resorts which is hardly 5 km from the airport. The onward flight to Paris was scheduled for 5:30 AM the next day. The route from the airport to the resorts were very deserted and manned at frequent intervals by security personnel with automatic arms on account of the recent militant activities.

The Tamarind Tree, however, painted a very impressive picture. The rooms were in effect arranged into cottages and we were welcomed to a dinner buffet spread that boasted of a wide variety of the ubiquitous South Indian preparations (like Dosas and Chutneys) and other ethnic preparations like the spicy vegetable curry sprinkled with pineapples. The dish starts off fiery till the pineapples sink in to effect.

We were welcomed into our rooms by an enthusiastic bellhop who spoke broken English. He, unfortunately, led us to the wrong rooms which were also thankfully unoccupied. When asked why we could not occupy the rooms that he showed us, he whole-heartedly agreed with us and excused himself so that he could get the keys to the actual rooms. The thankless job of waking us up the next morning in time for the flight was also left to him and he excelled in that as well by repeatedly knocking on the glass door at 4 AM and screaming "Wake up call!".

Even though our Srilankan detour was extremely brief, the resorts were very impressive and I daresay I would like to head there for a full blown trip sometime. Till then, its the spicy pineapples and the hyperactive bellhop who serve the purpose.

Note: The image of the Tamarind Tree resorts has been sourced from India Travelite.