Success stories

Who we are

We are a couple from the Czech Republic, and in 2017 we were planning the trip before our wedding. We are people who normally prepare and do everything by ourselves. We had done Costa Rica, Africa, Thailand, the USA, Canada and Iceland on our own, usually with a rented car and booking reservations. What we dislike is arriving somewhere beautiful at the same moment as two coachloads of other visitors.

How we found Kumar

By accident, in a conversation after a work seminar. We mentioned we were planning a trip to Sri Lanka, and it turned out that the man who had run the seminar for our company has an adoptive son on the island who organises trips there. That son is Kumar.

The planning

We emailed him our dates and a wish-list full of the famous names: Mirissa, Galle, Sigiriya. He asked good questions. He kept the places we insisted on, and for some of the others he suggested alternatives we had never heard of and that agencies do not put in their catalogues. We were sceptical at first, and then grateful. Similar beauty, a fraction of the visitors.

We sent part of the money in advance, booked our own flights, and landed in Negombo. That was the last thing we had to organise ourselves.

The trip

Kumar picked us up and drove us to Aluthgama. After three slow days around Bentota, the beach, the river and the turtles, we set off on a road trip around most of the island. We rarely slept more than two nights in the same place. Somewhere along the way our guide Indika stopped being our driver and became our friend, and we have been in contact with him almost daily ever since.

What stayed with us

It was simply a very good holiday, and what surprised us most was how good an organised trip can feel. It was nothing like a coach tour to Amsterdam or Paris, where you see a city through a window on somebody else's schedule. It was nothing like a package holiday either, where the agency rep warns you not to buy anything from local people on the beach because they would rather the money stayed with the agency. It was a guide who looked after us the way you look after family.

Why we went back

The strongest recommendation you can give a guide is to come back. We did.

We love travelling and we rarely return to the same country twice. There is too much we have not seen. This return was worth it. Our first trip was the one before our wedding. After it came the wedding, and then our son. Indika had a daughter in the meantime. We had stayed in contact the whole time, sending photos and birthday and Christmas wishes, so this was less like booking a holiday and more like visiting people.

Booking it the second time

Everything was easier. Kumar already knew us, so there was no deposit to send: we simply brought cash with us. He also knew what we like, quieter places, local food and fewer people around, so we did not have to explain ourselves again. He planned accordingly, and Indika was waiting when we landed.

Around Bentota

The first days were slow on purpose. Beach, pool, a temple, a sunset and dinner at the hotel. Kumar invited us to his home for lunch and introduced his family. Another day took us to a temple, out through the rice fields to the Thambadola Ella waterfall, to a local lunch, across the Bentota river by tuk-tuk and ferry, and on to the turtle sanctuary. There was an afternoon of watersports, and dinner at the hotel with Indika and his son.

The last day by the sea was swimming and sunbathing, lunch at Kumar’s again, and a boat up the Bentota river through the mangroves to look for crocodiles, where a proper downpour caught us out on the water. That evening we ate at Indika’s home.

Then north

We left early, in a van this time so that three of us and the luggage fitted comfortably. We said goodbye to Kumar at the coast, and from there Indika and Gayan looked after us. We stopped at Diyaluma Falls on the way to Ella. Rain cancelled the Ella Rock hike, so the plan was simply rearranged around it, and we went to the Nine Arch Bridge and then up to the tea plantations at Nuwara Eliya instead.

After that came Kandy, Matale, and a treehouse in Dambulla with the jungle outside the window. Then Sigiriya, the Dambulla cave temple and the golden temple, and Pinnawala. On the way down to Negombo we stopped twice at a stream and washed an elephant ourselves. A close encounter of the third kind, except that the visitor was grey, enormous and very fond of water. We spent the last evening in Negombo, said goodbye to our guides, and flew on to Dubai.

Travelling with our son

Our son travels a lot and we are not parents who fuss, so this was never the part we were nervous about. What we did not expect was how completely he was taken in. Kumar and Indika have children of their own, and ours was fed, carried and played with as if he were one of them. When it rained, the day changed shape around him instead of being endured. When we wanted to swim in a jungle pool, somebody was already at the edge of the water with him: close enough to help, far enough to let him try it himself.

What stayed with us

It was very moving. Kumar and Indika welcomed us as members of the family, invited us into their homes, introduced their families and laid out a feast for us. We felt honoured. We enjoyed the trip again, saw new places, and repeated the ones that were worth repeating.