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This is my first TR, so please feel free to ask any questions if there is something I’ve not covered, and by all means share any thoughts to help improve this and future reports as well.

We arrived at CMB on CX 711, landing around 10:30 at night. We flew business, though I don’t recall if we were provided with any FastPass’es to clear security. Regardless, at that time of night everything went fairly quickly*, and after clearing customs we grabbed some cash from an ATM and negotiated a taxi into Colombo proper – I believe it ended up being ~ 2500 LKR – where we had a one-night booking at the Cinnamon Grand.

(*Note: I arranged for our Sri Lankan ETA visas online, which I highly recommend. No need to get one on arrival and spend more time at CMB than needed. It takes no more than 10 minutes at http://www.eta.gov.lk/slvisa)

As we were getting in late and catching a train in the morning, I saw no need to spend a bundle, and was perfectly happy with this choice.

Check-in went smoothly, with a bustling-for-the-late-hour lobby decorated for Christmas


We’d booked the lowest category room for our 9-hr stay, a Deluxe Room – while certainly not luxury, I had hardly any expectations and was pleasantly surprised when we entered.


With complimentary WiFi, strong A/C, turndown, concierges, etc, I’d rate the Cinnamon Grand a solid 3* hotel, and a place I would recommend staying if you need a Colombo “crashpad” before catching a train to Tea Trails, which is what we did. Especially nice, given how horrendous Colombo traffic can be, is that it is located a short ride away (~10 mins) from the train station.

As best I can tell, one has 3 options for getting from CMB to Tea Trails: train, car, or chartered plane (in order from least to most costly).

FT’er behuman had graciously PM’ed back and forth with me about his experiences before in Sri Lanka, and highly recommended taking the train when doing a Tea Trails/Amanwella/Amangalla itinerary… primarily due to the long car voyage from TT to Amanwella. There are several trains from which to choose, and I would highly recommend perusing the following sites to help you in your selection:

http://www.seat61.com/SriLanka.htm#.UPNA-uhXy2w
http://www.exporail.lk/
http://rajadhani.lk/
http://lankalog.net/2012/09/the-rajadhani-express/

Both Exporail and Rajadhani are the two luxury options. They have complimentary WiFi, restrooms, and food (complimentary on Expo, and available for a pittance on Rajadhani), and fairly comfortable leather seats that are selected when you make your internet booking (i.e. reserved seats). You will want to book the "Colombo - Badulla" option, and then get off at Hatton.

Please note, they are not separate trains, but cars attached to regularly scheduled trains. I believe they alternate daily, and your options for departure times are either 0555 or 0945, arriving Hatton at 1100 or 1430 respectively. Given we arrived into Colombo so late, there was never any choice other than the 0945, which for us meant taking the Rajadhani Express (I stumbled onto this thread on TA I found very helpful in helping to choose my seats: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...Sri_Lanka.html)

If you choose this option, you’ll need to pick up your boarding pass on arrival at Colombo - Fort station. If you’re facing the station from the street, head to the office on the far left, which I believe is labeled “Mobitel” or “M-Ticket”. I had my email confirmation out and simply showed it to the man behind the counter, who printed up my two tickets and off my wife and I went into the station.


We had a very pleasant journey, and while I’m sure taking a car is fine, too, I greatly appreciated the ability to get up and walk, or eat, or use the restroom, or surf the web while traveling. The food we had was perfectly fine, and ludicrously inexpensive.

Here are just a couple quick pics I snapped on the ride:


The car also has a flat-screen television, on which they play a variety of Hollywood studio films (I believe the showed three, none of which I watched, but I do remember one was the Steve Martin Pink Panther … an interesting choice, to be sure).

Finally, after a somewhat long though pleasant journey, we arrived in Hatton, where we had arranged transfer through Tea Trails (I believe for 2500 LKR).


Up next … Tea Trails!