But I want to paraphrase it as not only good things happens there.

Somebody probably checked my photos in 7 super shot post and can be surprised why in posts about trip to Sri Lanka I was using pictures from flickr. Explanation is in this picture:

That is that I found in the bag after night ride on the train in India.  The photo camera bag was empty. Only lens cap and hood left and my beloved Canon 20D and Tamron 18-50 lens were gone. I even don’t know when it did happen. My large backpack was  chained to the bedpost and another small day pack with camera bag inside I was keeping beside my head in the bed.
The train arrived to the destination very early. I checked my bed for any my stuff I could leave and got out of the train. The hour later I opened my day pack and saw empty camera case. What?!?!
During night I did left a bag for a couple minutes, other time the bag was always with me. I can say only one word – incredible. How did somebody managed to steal it?
Nobody could believe it can happen in India, but it did…This camera probably three or  maybe even four times traveled around the world with me. It is quit old Canon camera and  had a lot of wear signs, so it didn’t have much value. Not the camera and lens were biggest lost. I lost flash card with all pictures from my journey to Sri Lanka.
The rest of day I spent in police office. Everybody was very nice, but of course nobody could promise anything and I didn’t have much hope. Actually I didn’t have any hope to recover my camera with my photos.
Are there any travel insurance which covers stolen items? Of course if won’t restore images, but at least it would be possible to buy another camera. Let me know if you know such insurance coverage.

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View Sri Lanka in a larger map

Day 0

Arrival to Colombo international airport and transfer to Dambulla or Sigriya for the night.

Day 1

Sigiriya (Lion’s rock) 7:00 – 19:00 (7am – 7pm). $US30. A large stone and ancient rock fortress or ruins of the fortress dated back to 5th century.
Polonnaruwa $US25. 1000 years old ruins of the second most ancient of Sri Lanka’s kingdoms.

Day 2

Dambulla Cave temple 7:00- 19:00 (7am – 7pm). LKR1300. It is the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka
Stop at one of numerous spice gardens between Dambulla and Kandy to see many different types of spices and check handcraft shops on the same road. FREE
Just before Kandy check Mariamman Kovil largest hindu temple in Sri Lanka
The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy. 6:00-17:00 (6am – 5pm). Cost LKR1000. It houses a tooth of the Buddha.
Royal Botanic Gardens 7:30-16:30 (7am – 4.30pm) The largest botanic garden in Sri Lanka.
Tea factories on the road to Nuwara Eliya. FREE

Day 3

Nuwara Eliya is small summer resort used by British to escape heat in other parts of country.
Take a train from Nanuoya to Ella. LKR750 Railway pass Horton Plains NP with pictures waterfalls, mountains, tea plantations and view to World’s end,
Take a road B35 to Tissamaharama which passes Yalla National Park. You’ll have good chances to see elephants on the way.
Stop at Kataragama.  It is the most important religious pilgrimage site in Sri Lanka

Day 4

Yala National Park. Safary cost ~$US40.  The park is famous for largest concentration of leopards
Mulkirigala Rock historical temple. LKR200. It has little of Dambulla and Sigiriya.
Take a rest at Mirissa beach which is still not overdeveloped with holiday resorts.

Day 5

Galle is the best example of a fortified city built by Europeans in southeast Asia
Stop at one of turtle hatcheries North of Galle
Take a scenic cruise along Madu Ganga river.
Departure at night.

You can see a lot in 5 days, but…I would suggest to take at least 10 days and make it in much slower pace and definitely you should rent a car with driver, but don’t drive yourself if you don’t have driving experience in Asia. I can recommend our driver Gamunu, who helped a lot with finding accommodation and was working long hours to make sure we will see as much as possible in such short time.

Of course you can use public transport, but then you’ll need even more time.

Check here details of each day:

Day 1. Sigiriya(Rock) – a large stone and ancient rock fortress, Polonnaruwa, wild elephants
Day 2. Dambulla Cave Temple,spice gardens,The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, tea plantations
Day 3. The train trip from Nanuoya to Ella, Rawana Ella waterfalls, Kataragama
Day 4. Spotting leopard in Yala National Park, Mulkirigala Rock historical temple, Mirissa beach
Day 5. Galle fort, baby turtles at turtle hatcheries, Madu Ganga river scenic cruise

The post Sri Lanka in five days. Full itinerary appeared first on Vi Travel Tips.

Are planning trip to Japan? You should buy Japan rail pass for your trip.  If you read previous post about travel cost in Japan you already should know that big part of your travel budget will be spend on any kind of transport in Japan. But by buying Japan rail pass your saving would be significant. You can save about 30-40% by using JR pass instead of buying train ticket each time you want to go somewhere.

You can just check online the prices for the routes you are interested if you already have your trip to Japan itinerary ready. The best site to do it at hyperdia.com. This site links routes of all public and private railway companies in Japan and it is best to plan you trip. Important to know the JR pass is not valid on “Nozomi” and “Mizuho” bullet trains (shinkansen) so you should uncheck check box on route search screen for these trains as it is shown in picture below:

Here is table with train schedule during my Japanese adventure:

Train tickets in Japan consist of two parts – route fare and seat fare.
Route fare is a constant value on that route while seat fear depends on which train you are taking (shinkansen or express), are you reserving ticket in advance(reserved, unreserved or sleeper car).

In my case full journey on railway could cost ¥44790 for unreserved seats or ¥46340 with reserved. You don’t need reserve tickets for local trains, but you will need to make reservation for raiding shinkansens as I missed one train because I didn’t have reservation and was no seat available when I showed up in train station. So by my calculation I would need to spend ¥46340. By todays currency exchange rate it would be 600USD. But..I saved almost 250USD because I bought Japan rail pass in advance.  You can do the same.
There are two types of JR pass – ordinary and green. The green pass is like first class ticket, but seats on ordinary class cars were very comfortable and enough space for my legs, so I don’t know any reason why should pay more for. 7-day ordinary JR pass costs ¥28300, while the same duration green pass costs ¥37800. JR passes are 7-day, 14-day and  21-day duration so you need to plan in advance to make most of your rail pass and to know which kind of pass to buy.

It is very important to know you must buy Japan Rail Pass before your arrival to Japan. Actually you are buying not pass itself but exchange order and while in Japan you must turn that order to one of the JAPAN RAIL PASS exchange offices with your passport to get JR pass. At the time of exchange you can specify the day you want to start to use your JR pass.

Exchange Orders for Japan rail pass can be purchased only from JR authorized sales offices and agents. The list can be found here.

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You most likely will use train if you are planning trip to India. I should disappoint you if you are hoping to get train tickets when you’ll be in India. It is better to buy tickets in advance ff you want your trip to be without hassle. During my preparation I find out that tickets on some routes were sold out even two months in advance. So don’t wait till last minute.
The next question: where to buy these tickets? There is railway tickets reservation system (IRCTC) funded by Indian Government but is not very user friendly. Also you need to have Indian phone number as otherwise you won’t be able to register there.
The best site to make your tickets reservation is Cleartrip which is created with IRCTC association but looks much easier to use and there more search options which helps you faster to find tickets you need.
I hope this will help your trip planning and enjoy India.

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