{"id":6877,"date":"2026-08-25T17:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T15:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journeys.saltoftheearth.de\/?p=6877"},"modified":"2026-08-25T17:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T15:46:22","slug":"nilaveli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journeys.saltoftheearth.de\/?p=6877","title":{"rendered":"Nilaveli"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Friday, we continued on to Nilaveli. We spent the next two nights at Anukama Resort. Since we were all pretty tired, we decided to stay at the hotel and have dinner there as well. That was a mistake. The food was both carelessly presented and barely edible in terms of taste. We really cannot understand the good reviews on Google. Afterwards, we cooled off briefly in the pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning, we wanted to go snorkeling at 8:30 a.m. Unfortunately, Noam was not feeling very well. He had a bit of a stomachache. Luckily, we had packed plenty of travel medication, so we did not have to cancel – we simply postponed it until lunchtime. So we set off for Pigeon Island by boat with a slight delay. As soon as we arrived, we got into the water. The sea was very rough. We were lucky enough to spot several turtles right away. We also got to see & touch some jelly fish (the harmless kind). Unfortunately, we were too late to see the reef sharks. They can only be seen in the morning. On the other side of the island, the sea was calmer. Unfortunately, there were far too many people there. There were so many that it was almost impossible to get into the water. The strange thing was that most of these people could not swim. Eight of them were clinging to a single inflatable ring, which a guide was pulling through the water. In our eyes, this was simply irresponsible and reckless. We were happy to have the opportunity to observe turtles, but we would not do this trip a second time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
picture by Noam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
picture by Noam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
picture by Noam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
All non swimmers clinging onto the safety ring<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before going out for dinner, we walked to a nearby lake. Supposedly, crocodiles lived there. When we arrived, other tourists were already eagerly waiting for the crocodiles to appear. A guide approached us and offered his services for a fee. Since we felt confident that we could spot the birds and crocodiles ourselves, we politely declined. After waiting for a while, Nate suddenly noticed something moving in the water. It was indeed a crocodile. Shortly afterwards, we spotted a second one. We had hoped that the crocodiles would come further out of the water. According to our guide, however, they are afraid of people and only come out at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Afterwards, we looked for an alternative place to eat. Fortunately, our driver Sandun recommended a restaurant called \u201cThat\u2019s Why\u201d on the beach, so we headed there. The restaurant was actually situated right on the beach, so we were sitting just a few metres from the sea. The food was absolutely delicious\u2014not at all comparable to what we had eaten the previous evening. The waiters were also very friendly and attentive. Afterwards, we made our way back to the hotel with the help of a flashlight, as the sun sets here as early as 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This was our last night in Nilaveli. We were relieved, because the hotel\u2019s value for money was absolutely terrible. We did not have hot water, we had to modify the airflow of the always-on-high-power AC to avoid being icicles at the end of the night and if we left and locked the room power would be out, meaning no AC. But we solved both of those problems, see photos:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, the best part came at the end, when we checked out. We had agreed in advance to pay in cash in euros. Since hotel prices are always listed in US dollars, the relevant exchange rate should have been the one from euros to US dollars. Not at Anukama Resort, though. They calculated our bill using the following conversion route: USD \u2192 Sri Lankan rupees (LKR) \u2192 Euros. As a result, the final bill was immediately \u20ac10 more expensive. After we protested, they quickly gave in, but it still left a bad aftertaste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time to set off again. We had the longest day of driving ahead of us: 260 km\u2014which in Sri Lanka means a good six to seven hours on the road. On the way we stopped in Trincomalee to buy a luggage belt for the broken suitcase. Sadly, no luck. But at least we got to visit the fish and vegetable market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shortly before arriving in Arugam Bay, we were able to spot a number of crocodiles\u2014around 20 to 30\u2014in a river. At least they were much easier to see than the ones in the lake the day before. After a very tasty dinner in Arugam Bay, we checked into our next accommodation: Stay Golden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, we continued on to Nilaveli. We spent the next two nights at Anukama Resort. Since we were all pretty tired, we decided to stay at the hotel and have dinner there as well. That was a mistake. The food was both carelessly presented and barely edible in terms of taste. We really cannot … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[258],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sri-lanka-en","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeys.saltoftheearth.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeys.saltoftheearth.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeys.saltoftheearth.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeys.saltoftheearth.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeys.saltoftheearth.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6877"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/journeys.saltoftheearth.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6923,"href":"https:\/\/journeys.saltoftheearth.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6877\/revisions\/6923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeys.saltoftheearth.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeys.saltoftheearth.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeys.saltoftheearth.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeys.saltoftheearth.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}