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Scandinavia to Sri Lanka Direct

Fly Dreamliner direct from Stockholm or Helsinki

thomson 787 dreamliner 1Thomson Airways now flies their new luxury Boeing 787 Dreamliner weekly to Colombo Sri Lanka from Stockholm in Sweden and Helsinki in Finland.

These are both direct non stop flight of 10 hours and Premium Class are also available.

These flights are a real show to Thomson Tui’s committment to Sri Lanka as they are an addition to the direct service from London Gatwick.

Seats are sold on the aircraft as part of package holidays or seat only.

What’s different about Dreamliner?

thomson dreamliner cabinBigger Windows
The windows on a 787 Dreamliner are about 30% bigger than those on your average plane. What’s more, when you’re ready to sleep, you can dim them at the touch of a button.

Room Overhead
Even at its lowest point, the Dreamliner cabin is over 6-foot high, so there’s a real sense of space.

More Oxygen
You’ll leave the plane feeling fresher when you fly on the Dreamliner. This is because its cabin pressure allows more oxygen to be absorbed into your blood.

Mood Lighting
Your body clock is more in tune wherever you’re heading on the Dreamliner, as the plane features a high-spec mood lighting system that can mimic things like dawn and dusk.

A Quieter Flight
The Dreamliner generates 60 per cent less noise than standard planes during take-off and
landing. It’ll be quieter in the air, too.

Quality Time
You can indulge in some proper ‘me’ time on the Dreamliner. It’s kitted out with state-of-the-art seatback TVs – and you can even plug your camera into them.

More fuel-efficient
Thanks to its composite structure and revolutionary engines, the plane is more fuel-efficient and emits less CO2 – about 20 per cent less carbon on a flight from Britain to America.

A bigger reach
The 787 Dreamliner can fly about 8,000 miles without stopping, which means it can go direct to destinations other planes can’t reach.

thomson 787 dreamliner cabinUpgrade to Premium Club :

For a bigger luggage allowance and seats with a bigger recline and a 38-inch pitch. You’ll also get priority check in and boarding, security fast track and UK airport lounge access, plus luxury extras like a Rituals cosmetics kit, a bigger TV screen, and a complimentary drink before you fly. And if you’re on a night flight, they’ll supply a duvet and pillow, too.


To check out these flights and others to Sri Lanka and beyond click HERE

Portuguese Surnames

Portuguese surnames and titles are very common among the Sinhalese

Sri Lanka’s first Prime Minister, Don Stephen Senanayake, bore the Portuguese title Don as part of his name.

The arrival of the Portuguese on Sri Lanka’s (Ceylon) shores in 1505 had a profound impact on local society and the Sinhalese.

For one thing, the Portuguese title of Dom, originally applied to nobles and churchmen. Caught on by undergoing a slight change to Don to precede the proper names of local men. Its feminine form, Dona, applied to ladies of very high standing  local women, especially of the south.

J.W. Bennett noted in his work, Ceylon and its Capabilities (1843), how the Sinhalese of his day still aspired for Portuguese names and titles. Adopting names such as Don Louis and Don Christoffel. “German Barons” he says, “are scarcely less plentiful than Ceylon Doms and Dons, and the latter appendage is just as easily assumed as the former title”.

The Portuguese also left a very large number of their surnames behind.

Although this does not mean that those who bear them have Portuguese ancestry. Rather, these surnames seem to have been adopted by their forebears when they converted to Christianity, possibly taking after the names of Portuguese godfathers. Such Portuguese surnames were called alukunna from the Portuguese alcunna, which in turn had derived from the Arabic al-kunya.

While common Sinhalese surnames like:

Almeda, Cabral, Costa, Dias, Silva, Perera, Fonseka, Fernando, Pinto, Rodrigo, and Salgado are pretty straightforward Portugues.

There are others that have undergone slight variations such as:

Aponsu (Affonso), Livera (Oliveira), Grero (Guerrero), Peiris (Peres), Nonis (Nunes), Gomas (Gomes), Mendis (Mendes), Suwaris (Soares), Sigera (Siqueira), Pigera (Piqueira), Tisera (Teixeira), Thabrew (D ‘Abreu), Doluvira (De Oliveira), and Salpadoru (Salvador).

Many of these Portuguese names have lovely meanings.

For example, take Silva (of the Woods), Costa (Sea Coast), Perera (Pear Tree), Oliveira (Olive Tree), and Correa (Place covered with Carriolas plant). Yet others are diminutives, like Pinto (Chick) or suggestive of a heroic tradition, like Guerrero (Warrior).

Negombo Beach North

2b3d4ab0-2361-4989-a0f3-f12d7169f9aaPalagathura known as the New Negombo Beach North

In the last 12 months Palagathura junction has been transformed and now comprises of some of the best bars & restaurants in Negombo. However compared with the rest of Negombo, they offer you much better quality and lower prices than the established bars like Lords, Rodeo & Serendip which are situated near to Jetwing Blue.

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Sunnys Restaurant

On the land side of the road is the delightful family restaurant run by 2 twin brothers. Sunnys Restaurant with its modern setting and interesting attached art gallery. Sunny specializes in seafood and Sri Lankan rice & curry.

On the same side of the road, close to the junction is Machang (which is Sinhala for mate) which is a new bar/restaurant. This is a franchise owned by Lion beer so here you will find the cheapest beer prices on the whole strip. You can sit upstairs and watch the world go by.

Opposite Machang is Bee Beach, again newly opened and has a lovely beach setting. It’s great here for sunset watching and they have a large assortment of foods on offer – great seafood, Chinese meals, Italian style pizzas and their Sri Lankan rice & curry comes highly recommended.

Bee Beach

Bee Beach

We can also offer some lovely rooms at Bee Beach.

You simply cant get any closer to the beach than Bee Beach, new modern air conditioned rooms set just 20 feet from the beach in a resort with lovely beach bar & restaurant. Located 20-30 minutes from Colombo airport.

Click HERE for more details. AC rooms from just $30 per night.

Just to the left of Bee Beach is Coco Beach, again a delightful modern beach setting. Prices are slightly higher than its neighbours. Here they specialize in seafood where you get to choose what you want and how you want it cooked. It has an open clean kitchen which gives confidence of its high standards.

Coco Beach

Coco Beach

Palagathura Junction is now a new buzzing scene of Negombo. If you are looking for something late at night where you can drink with the local boys and its cheap. I mean cheap! Where its just 450 rupees for gin & tonic or 350 rupees for beer then it has to be Macerena which is just the other side of Bee Beach. Macerena however doesn’t get busy til after 11pm and at weekend its normally open til the early hours.

NEW to Airbnb? Click here and Get $20 FREE towards your first trip

Sri Lankan Tea Sector in Crisis

ACTIVITY-tea-pluckingSri Lankan Tea Sector in Crisis

The Sri Lankan tea sector is going through rough times. The tea plantations were nationalised in the 1970’s in an effort to run the estates under one umbrella. but with failing output, they were offered back via public auctions in 1992. Various conglomerates such as Keell’s, Aitken Spence and Hayleys saw an opportunity to vertical integrate tea production for sale and became major share holders of some of the estates on offer. Now tea estates in private hands go under the name of Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) which now own 93% of all tea estates in the country. There are currently 20 RPCs and 3 government controlled tea estates.

Under private management, productivity increased but still is much less than other tea producing countries. For example the average yield in Sri Lanka is 1,700 tons per hectare, whereas in Kenya and India they manage to have a yield of over 2,000 tons per hectare.

Besides increased costs in transport and fertilizer, increased labour costs have been a major concern. Union officials are demanding protection of workers’ rights, insisting on higher wages. The daily wage of a worker is currently 620 rs, and the trade union wants this to be increased to 1,000 rps per day. One of the major factors is that workers pay is currently based on presence – turning up for work, as opposed to being based on productivity. A change to a productivity system is requested by management but then other non tea picking duties such as weed control, tea bush maintenance, transport and packing have also to be taken into account.

Regional Plantation Companies

The RPCs have also been accused of not investing in their estates, and asset stripping. Evidence of this is that some tea bushes are over 100 yrs old, whose tea production are a lot less than younger ones.. It is beleived that 2% of the land should be planted with new plants every year to maintain a good rate of production with a view to looking at the future.

RPCs have also been accused of a failure to invest in other types of industries to compliment tea, such as farming and other crops. Responsible for education and health services of their labour, there is also a belief that young workers should be able to progress through a management system thereby giving an incentive for the youth to want to be employed in the sector.

The RPCs on the other hand claim to have turned around tea estates under their control from loss making to profit making, have contributed to the government with payments of over Rs 7 billion through renewals of leases, and have already increased wages by 40%.

So whilst finger pointing seems to be the order of the day, with supposedly mismanagement and higher costs of labour and production, the main crisis is due to the fall in the price of tea. Tea has fallen about 66-67 rps per kg since 2014.

There is a levy that contributes to a tea fund for the marketing of the Ceylon Tea. Putting this to good use to recapture markets lost would be a good way to kick-start tea production as would a wage system based on productivity. That is not to say that this would solve all the problems, but may go to a long way to helping it.

The Sri Lankan Piggy Bank

the sril ankan piggy bankWhen it comes to saving, Sri Lankans have a lower saving rate than other Asian countries. Compare for example the Sri Lankan saving rate of 23%, compared to that of Singapore (53%), and of Malaysia (33%). India and the Philippines also have a higher saving rate of 31%.

Reasons for this could be the low average salary of say 20,000 to 30,000 rps (US138 to US207) per month. However it may be down to the fact that the civil war taught people to look at surviving through the day on a day by day basis where the immediate presence far outweighed thinking of the future. Given that the war ended in 2009, that is only a mere 9 years ago. It may take many more years, and perhaps the next generation to change that mindset.

One thing Sri Lankans do like to do though is party.

When it comes to eating out and drinking with friends, they love to spend to enjoy themselves. Indeed don’t be surprised if they ask you to join in their festivities. Their hospitality is like no other. Whilst this may reduce the savings of some, it must also mean that others are lining their pockets.