I'm thinking of doing a weekend trip down to Sri Lanka. Anyone been there?

I've been looking at the wind there with great interest lately. It appears to be quite good.

From what I've seen on the internet it is fairly empty there. I'm wondering if it will be a real hassle to show up there and find a place to stay. I've been watching the KiteKuda guys and they advertise beach shacks for 45 Euros a night, which is extortionate for South Asia, but fair enough, I"m sure some people pay that much and more.

Is there much infrastructure down there?

Infrastructure? It is Sri Lanka. You've been in India. Enough said.

As for getting a cheaper place to stay, well, it is a developing country. You can obviously go into a village and someone will be willing to let you stay in a bare concrete room under a tin roof. With a mosquito net (bring one) and a fan (buy one) you'll be alright but it won't be the most comfortable. Food in the villages can be an issue, but you can usually find a tuk-tuk that will drive you out to a main road (well, more of a dusty thoroughfare) where there are a couple of eating shacks (don't expect too much though). For some comfort (and food) your options narrow down to a couple of places that cater to foreigners, and they are not exactly cheap, no.

As for the spots, I would not call them empty, not anymore. A few years ago, yes. By now the few good places are getting quite crowded.

Ok, yep that sounds like India.

Haggling with the locals is a specialty of mine.

I shouldn't expect it to look like GOA though? Its not gonna have a plethero of affordable (but still very south asian) shacks for 5-10 dollars a night?

No, nothing like Goa...

was thinking about a trip there in week or so...what area is the best wind wise??

Saami makes it sound awful. Mate, it's NOT. You cannot find a happier nicer race of people on the planet. Food is great. If your a euro travel snob then you will be disappointed, obviously, but if you have an open mind you will LOVE IT! It's one of my most favorite holiday spots. There are guest houses that you can stay at. Simple but clean accommodation. Deadly cheap by any stretch of western pricing, sure you may pay a little more than a local, but no one will try and completely rip you off like they do in Thailand. I hate seeing western tourist haggling like mad to save a couple of cents here or there. For the locals those couple of cents that you save is a big deal to them. Usually the tiny bit extra you pay as a foreigner can get value in a informal tour of the area or a recommendation of a good spot to visit. Well worth the couple of extra cents it cost you.

Sri Lanka is very nice for kitesurfing. I have been there a few times and if you go there in the right time of year it's very windy.
Kalpitiya is a very beautiful place and good for kitesurfing but there are other places too and it's depend on the season where it's best. Negombo, Bentota and Hikkaduwa is not as windy as kalpitiya but can be good sometimes. The war has ended since I was there last time and I think the beaches are more crowdy now (especially Bentota and Hikkaduwa)
Earlier there was a company elements.lk that had kite events in kalpitiya but it seems they are not running those right now. Earlier they had a good wind guide on their homepage.

If I don't remember it wrong August is very good for kitesurfing in Kalpitya.

Today it's also possible to go to the east side, Trincomalee shall be a really nice place but I have only heard of it. Shallow water and white sand.

Maybe you can google for some information about the wind direction in different seasons.

Here is a link to some pictures from my visits to Sri Lanka
http://kitesurfingsrilanka.blogspot.com/

In Negombo there is a hotel owned by a german guy, Marc, and it's kind of a kitesurfing center.
You find more info about it here:
http://pearl-negombo.com/


have fun!
henrik

I was in Sri Lanka this winter (Dec-Jan) and brought my own kitesurfing equipment even though it wasn't the windy season. But I didn't go there primarily for the kitesurfing. There is so much else to do in Sri Lanka.

Negombo was quite windy but is otherwise boring with a dirty beach. Me and my fiance went to Kalpitya for a week and most of the days were windy enough to kite. Kalpitya is such a nice place with deserted beaches and mirrorflat lagoons. And the food is great, you can buy shrimps and fish caught in the lagoons directly from the fishermen. We stayed in the Kitekuda camp and also a day in a shack that the Pearl-Negombo-blokes have built. The huts are very basic but you do have a shower and you cook your own food. This experience might differ if you go in the summer which is the high-season for kiters to go there.

The downside of Kalpitya is that it's rather expensive to get there and to stay there. It costs a lot more to stay there than it does in Hikkaduwa for example. And for that you get very simple living. I don't mind to pay a little extra to the locals but the guys running the kiteboarding business there are Germans and Austrians. We "got a ride" there with the Pearl Negombo guys and it cost us 80 EUR! Renting a car for the whole duration up there would have been cheaper but we didn't realise that until later. But on the other hand, since Sri Lanka is a developing country it can be very expensive sometimes and somtimes not.

I kited in Hikkaduwa and Bentota as well, which was very nice but not as windy.


Enjoy your stay!

I'm looking for a place stay in Kalpitiya. I really only need a shack with running water and nothing else. I would expect to pay about 5-10 dollars for that. The kitekuda camp costs about as much as my accommodation in Tarifa.

CT, my reply (when I was talking about a lack of infrastructure) was about Kalpitiya. Yes, you can find a shack with running water, no problem. Power still goes out in Kalpitiya now and then and when that happens the pumps to the wells will stop, so you may have some minutes or at worst hours without water, but basically you'll have no big problems. The two fancy places to stay (Alankuda and another place closer to the small Kalpitiya town) have backup generators, but then you are looking at charges even greater than at the place you mentioned. Basically, this area isn't set up for middle-of-the-road tourists, not yet (you either go very basic and cheap, or quite expensive).

But sure, it's a nice quiet relaxing place and the people are friendly (like rural people everywhere in South and Southeast Asia tend to be, I would say - you will be greeted with the same warmth there as in the rural Philippines or rural Thailand).

Now is high season and the lagoons can get quite crowded. The best lagoon, by Kitekuda, is small and can handle only around 10 riders comfortably (maybe 15 riders if they are all skilled riders who knows how to ride in circuits, but usually there are always some beginners). There are two or three other lagoons but they suffer from problems (strong gusts because of upwind obstructions, mud with a lot of sharp shells in it, etc). Of course you can always go in the ocean (mostly choppy water and some small to moderate-size wind-driven waves; basically better than the Mui Ne washing machine but not great either).

One thing to be aware of - some of the local communities can be a bit conservative, particularly the villages with a lot of muslims, so in order to be a good guest and not offend any local sensibilities you might want to limit yourself a bit in terms of how you dress (if you're a girl) and avoid drinking in public. No local is likely to actually say or do anything, except perhaps stare, but as their guest it is best to be respectful.