Not everything that glitters is gold

We spent the first night with about 10 hours of sleep, which were much needed, and now we set off to the next accommodation. I was especially looking forward to this one and had already booked it a few weeks in advance. The rooms were very spacious, there was a balcony with a view of the garden and a private beach access. Mega cool! We wanted to spend the next 4 nights in this accommodation and just settle in peacefully. So after breakfast, at 30°C, fully packed, we walked to the bus that took us from Negombo to Colombo, the capital. We have always been lucky that we had so much luggage with us, because that way the buses actually stop and the driver can store our backpacks in the trunk. Usually, it often happens here that the buses don't even stop properly and people jump in and out while the bus is slowly passing by. Things are a bit different here :D

After about 1 hour of turbulent ride, we arrived at the train station in Colombo and bought a first-class ticket to Bentota, our next destination. The train prices here cannot be compared to German prices, that's why we chose first class, air-conditioned and with adjustable seats. It's quite comfortable, but next time we will try second class, at least we will give it a shot. Now that we had our tickets, we had to wait for another 2 hours. The train to Bentota only runs 5 times a day. We sat down by the platform and just observed the hustle and bustle. The trip to the toilet couldn't be avoided during that time and with the amount of water we drank. Let's just say that German train station toilets are, literally, not the worst. You will see it in the pictures.

The train ride along the Indian Ocean was beautiful and we got a glimpse of life outside the cities. Getting off the train and into the tuk-tuk, we headed to the accommodation. We were welcomed very nicely and everything looked good. We put our stuff in the room and soon enough we were served a welcome drink, which we enjoyed on the balcony.

Feeling refreshed, we took a closer look at the room. After all, we are in the tropics and they are, among other things, known for creepy crawlies. So we checked every corner and quickly found something. There was a large dead cockroach behind a nightstand and the bed was crawling with bed bugs. The towels were dirty, as well as the bed sheets, which were covered in red and brown stains. We're not picky, but the bed should be clean and especially not full of bed bugs. So we went to the reception and asked for a new room. The nice gentleman wanted to make sure that we weren't making things up, so we showed him what bothered us. He didn't seem impressed and swept the bed bugs off the sheets with his hands and asked if he should spray some chemicals over it. No thanks! We asked to see another room, which unfortunately wasn't any better, so we decided to leave the hotel. Fortunately, we got our money back, but it was already late afternoon and we had no accommodation. So we took a tuk-tuk and went from place to place, but every single one had dirty beds that we definitely didn't want to sleep in. When it was already dark, we arrived at a guesthouse, which at least had a clean bed and was otherwise okay, no animals and not extremely dirty. A different standard, indeed. Now we just quickly had something to eat and then went to sleep, that's not how we imagined it. The next morning, we woke up to bright sunshine and saw where we actually ended up. From the balcony, we could see the beautiful garden and the river. Breakfast was served in the garden, where we stayed for a while and actually saw 2 monitor lizards and a mongoose. The hosts were very welcoming and tried to make our stay as pleasant as possible. We had only booked for one night, as we wanted to find accommodation near the beach again, so the search started again.