A Luxurious Stay, a Bank and a Life Threatening Safari

During the 6-hour drive from Adam’s Peak to Udalawawe, we kept the ladies busy by searching online and choosing a hotel of their choice. As mentioned, we had to keep our promise of luxurious stay after all what we’ve been through during the past 2 days (Rain and mud at Nuwara Eliya, and a budget accommodation at Adam’s peak).

We parked our mini-van at the entrance of the “The Grand Udawalawe Safari Resort”, which was the hotel the ladies had chosen. 3 priorities were on our to-do list that afternoon:

Wash up and relax
Exchange money
Beer

Although Washing up was the first priority for the ladies, we, the guys, focused more on exchanging our dollars into Sri Lankan rupees and buying some cold packs of beer. At the end we deserved a treat or at least to celebrate our achievement. In slippers and shorts and used-up shirts, we headed on foot to a nearby market. Our first impression was that this place was not as friendly as Kandy or Nuwara Eliya, so we needed to be careful.

A few meters ahead, a liquor store sign was hanging so we came closer to check it out. A dozen people were crowded next to a half-open window for deliver. We could hear the loud tones of half-drunk people all around who all seemed to have a sure plan to get drunk before night came. It was a Wednesday, the week-end was way too far off, we thought to ourselves. We retreated unnoticed by the crowd in a discrete search for an exchange office.

A Bank, Armed Guards and Pack of Bills

We could have exchanged our money at the hotel, but the rate they gave us was gravely inflated. Our best option was the bank. I asked Ronnie to wait for me outside, so I could ask the help desk at the bank. I pushed the fortified glass door in, and I was welcomed by 2-armed guards. They had their full light green army costumes on and loaded rifles in hand. That was a surprise to me.

I was confused. Was this bank being rubbed? Was I going to be a hostage that the Sri Lankan News will talk about this evening? Dozens of questions rushed into my mind and I guess it was apparent on my puzzled face. Several seconds passed and felt like eternity to me before one of the armed guards took a step towards me and unexpectedly, he smiled to me and welcomed me.

“Is it a trick? I hope not” I thought to myself. I observed the people inside, nothing suspicious. The bank activity was running smoothly. I took a deep breath and said: “I would like to exchange my dollars.” His English was a bit weak, but I guess he understood. He stretched his hand and pointed to a cashier behind a double glassed window. “I would like to exchange $900” I said to the cashier. She stopped typing on her keyboard, looked at me and asked her assistant to walk me to a nearby desk.

As I was moving toward that desk, I noticed that the armed man was keeping my company. I handed the cash amount to the bank representative and he gently asked me to wait for a moment. I guess I should have exchanged a smaller amount, but the amount I had was for the 6 of us, so it was 300 USD per couple.

After a short while, the representative came back to me with an envelop full of cash and some documents to sign. He asked me to count the money to double check the amount in rupees. At first I hesitated but I had to count them since the man was expecting me to do so. I felt embarrassed having all the people at the bank checking me out while I counted the money. My mind wasn’t even focused on the money, I just flipped the bills put them back in the envelop, straight into my handbag thanked the bank representative and then saluted the guard and exited the premises.

It All Became Clearer

Back at the hotel, I was curious to know what the minimum wage in Sri Lanka was. After a brief Google search, I quickly realized that the money I just exchanged exceeded half the yearly minimum wage which was approximately $1,600.00 per year. Well, that explained a lot!

The life threatening Udawalawe Safari Trip

“Meet me outside the hotel entrance gate” our Safari guide said to us over the phone.

On our way back from the bank, and after our unique money exchange experience, we picked up some packs of beer and headed straight to the hotel. That area didn’t seem a convenient place to be hanging out, so we decided to enjoy the evening at the luxurious hotel chosen by our ladies. We kept our promise.

You Get What You Pay For

Before entering the hotel gate, a man approached us nicely and he offered us a Safari ride to the National Park 15 km away from our hotel location. He showed us his pick up truck and some photos of the park. The Safari tour was the main reason for our stop in Udawalawe. His offer was half the offer we received at the hotel reception. And this guy was flexible regarding the pick-up time. From what we knew, a Safari is usually done either early in the morning or late in the evening. But due the lack of sleep we had for the past 2 days we decided to grant ourselves some rest.

“Call me back before 6 pm today to confirm your ride” he said while handing us his number hand written down on a shredded piece of paper. Somehow, we neglected all these signs and decided to book with him. “Meet me outside the hotel entrance gate” he said. The next morning, at around 10:30 we met our guy outside and hopped into his pickup truck. After a short ride, we hit traffic on our way to the park. After spending more than 30 stagnant minutes in the back of the pick up in the heat of the burning sun, trying to find some shade under a blanket loosely fixed above the pick up trunk, we understood from the cars coming the other way that there was some road work ahead of us and we should expect it to be at least an hour to reach our destination. That wasn’t the good news that we expected to hear. An exhausting hour passed and we were still barely moving. What should have taken us 35 minutes took around 90 minutes. At noon we arrived at the entrance of the park.

Without a cloud in the sky, the sun was roasting the vehicle. The dirt road was so dry that one turn of the wheel could generate a cloud of dust behind us. Immediately we knew it wasn’t going to be the safari of a lifetime.

Up Close with The King

Passing across some dry trees and bushes, the guide shouted in a fainted voice “be quiet”. He stopped the car and turned off the engine. “Look at those wild buffalo resting in the muddy water behind the bushes.” He said while pointing at them from the driver’s seat. The same thing happened on other locations where we came across some bathing elephants.

We drove deep into the park and we arrived at a lake infested with crocodiles. We were enjoying our time taking photos and contemplating the scenery until the vehicle started showing some signs of distress. At some point the driver turned the ignition key, but the engine wouldn’t start. Several other Safari vehicles passed by while he was trying to restart the engine but none of them offered any assistance. Instead, one of those drivers stopped and seemed to be very angry with our driver. They exchanged few loud words for a minute and left us behind. It didn’t seem to be a problem with the battery, instead it was some kind of ignition or spark failure. At a distance we noticed a huge elephant standing tall and grabbing the high branches of a tree in search for the soft leaves.

Don’t Mess With The King

“That is the king of this park. That is the dominant male and he always wanders alone” he said with excitement. “You are very lucky to see him. He is an unsocial animal and rarely shows himself to tourists.” He continued while still trying to start up the engine. The elephant seemed to have noticed us. I had my camera zoomed in on him while the others were trying to get a selfie with the elephant in the background. Suddenly, a rush of liquids and solids covered the ground beneath the elephant. Nature Call! Well as they, say better out than in! To our surprise we laughed loudly. This really pissed off the elephant. Without warning, it spread its wide ears like angel wings, lift his trunk and charged.

“Turn the engine on!!!” we screamed in a state of panic. The engine stalled several times and miraculously the pickup came back to life. In a cloud of black fumes and dirt, the vehicle launched like a rocket. From the back we could see the elephant getting a couple of meters away and then we started gaining distance until we reached a safe zone.

We continued our tour inside the park until 2 o’clock in the afternoon. In addition to the buffalo and crocodiles, we saw few peacocks and tens of other bird kinds, giant water lizards and Peafowl.

Would You Still Trust the Locals?

Trust the locals is my motif when traveling. Several times during this trip, trusting the locals brought nothing but good experiences(The Good Samaritan, the Tea Factory tour guide…) The guide dropped us near the hotel entrance. At reception, I asked for more information on how the safari tours are organized and if those guides need to have a license. Well it appeared that our guy was nothing but a pick up driver who took us on a crazy ride into the animal kingdom with a car that barely functioned. I guess we were lucky to have escaped the elephant. It will always stay in our mind as a lesson and a nice memory that made us laugh every time, we remembered it. My advice would still be to trust the locals; I believe that people are good at heart but some of them are blinded by greed.

If you want to know more how this road trip came to an end, click the link of the upcoming posts as we headed South of Sri Lanka

If you like our stories show us your support by subscribing to Lawayn Next [mailpoet_form id=”3″]

Checkout LawaynNext Facebook Page and Instagram for more photos. Use the Hashtag #LawaynNext for related travel posts.