The Foreign Office has just relaxed its warnings about travel to certain parts of Sri Lanka, including several areas ripe for tourism that have been off the map for ten years. So are these areas worth a visit, and will they soon take off? Here are the thoughts of Oliver James, part of the expert Sri Lanka team at Real Holidays:
“Yala National Park, in the south of Sri Lanka, is renowned as a great place for spotting leopards, so it’s good news that the FCO is again backing travel there. However, I’d advise visitors to wait a little longer until visiting: at present there are only a few quality places to stay, with Yala Safari Game Lodge, on the dunes just outside the park, the best current lodge. More importantly, the park’s offerings are also limited for the moment: while you can do safaris from the lodges, there’s still a restriction on overnight camping – and overnight mobile safaris are, in my opinion, the best possible way of experiencing Yala. That should soon change though, and if Sri Lanka stays peaceful, Yala will really take off.”
“Trincomalee is a nice seaside town on the eastern coast, but one that’s currently lacking in decent beach hotels – something readily available elsewhere on the Sri Lankan seaside. There were a couple of half-decent three-star options a couple of years back, but for obvious reasons there’s been nowhere especially good to stay for a while now. Trincomalee desperately needs a great hotel to compete with other Sri Lankan coastal towns.”
“Arugam Bay is a real “surf’s up, dude” type of place – but this ‘boarder hang-out again suffers from a lack of quality accommodation. The Bay’s always been touted as the Next Big Thing in the Sri Lankan tourism terms, but the tsunami and war have left this predicted boon about six or seven years behind schedule. Watch this space, though – once more assuming stability, I’m sure Arugam Bay will develop over the next couple of years. The likely arrival of a luxury villa or funky beach hotel should enable it to combine with Tangalle, Yala and/or Galle very nicely, thank you very much.” Richard Mellor.
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“Is this the embassy? Where’s the best place to buy some new shoes?”
Thursday, August 13th, 2009Advice on where to buy a particular brand of shoes in Italy is just one of the bizarre requests British holidaymakers have recently been making to embassies across the world. Other enquiries revealed by the Foreign Office included a jam-maker asking what ratio of fruit-to-sugar he should use, and a woman seeking help after becoming unhappy at the size of her surgically-enhanced breasts.
While these tales may make us chuckle, it is worth remembering the more serious issue that they bring to light. The Foreign Office have been prompted into reminding tourists that consular staff are emplyed only to help British citizens in time of serious difficulty – when a national has been involved in an accident, say, or when a Briton has lost his or her passport.
These reports of such unncessary requests echo previous stories of frivolous 999 calls made to police. In December last year, a woman called the emergency services to complain she was unable to get through to Strictly Come Dancing to vote for Tom Chambers in the final. Equally frustrated was a man who complained staff at a pizza shop had put mushrooms on his pizza without being asked, and a chap who dialled 999 to ask what his mobile number was. Again on a serious note, the police revealed these details in order to remind the public not to call emergency numbers for ridiculous reasons.
It’s quite unbelievable that we live in a world where we need telling such things - can the average human being now not do anything unassisted? Perhaps the advice issued by government officials last year on how to use a step ladder – mocked by so many – wasn’t actually an over-reaction, but actually sensible instructions for a very needy nation! And perhaps it is us, not the government after all, who have gone mad?
Although the advice issued in May that householders should prepare for a potential heatwave by painting the outside of their homes white (to reflect the heat) may be taking things a little too far…
Tags: "foreign office", "silly government warnings", advice, FCO, heatwave, humorous, “travel pr”
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