I was there last time, I missed the first day in Galle and saw every other day in the 2 Tests and the wifey ( no) went to 2 days.
Between us, we paid about £55 for 11 days admission.
On the gate it would have been £25 per day, up from £2.50 per day when the Aussies played them a few months earlier.
They had built a white elephant of a stadium in the middle of nowhere for the world cup and wanted to fleece us to pay for it.
Loads stood on the fort, across the road for free,( about) 10 or 15 metres away from a paid seat inside the ground.
I paid not a rupee to the Sri Lankans cricket board.
Various ways to get in included:-
Using a spare pass out from the day before.
Using the top "specimen" ticket from a block of 100 tickets, that someone took out of the bin in the ticket office and gave me.
Buying a comp for a tenner.
Bribing the man on the gate.
Walking past the copper on the main gate, when his back was turned pretending to be on my mobile.
Watching from the Fort until lunch and then just walking in as everyone else was walking out.
Sri Lankans could pay to get into the shitty part of the ground for 500Rs ( up from 100Rs) but they wouldn't let us in there.
They sell beer in the ground, and there is a pub outside on the corner.
The price of a 600 ml bottle of beer went up daily from 200 to 250 to 300 Rs.
Unawatuna is nice, but because it is so close, almost everyone stopped there.
I stayed at Marissa beach ( check spelling) which was much quieter but about 45 minutes away
Buses going all the time.
In fact, I walked 2 minutes from the hotel to the bus stop and got a bus direct to Colombo (5 hours along the coast all the way)
Stayed in Mt Lavinia, which is a nicer area of Colombo. A lot of England fans stayed there.
Just took rickshaws to the ground there.
A friend had arranged for me to get a taxi from the airport to Hikkaduwa( 5 hour drive) from the airport for iirc was about £50. He didnt use the toll road though. That would have only taken about 2 1/2 hours.
The food is ok but super hot, l prefer North Indian food, but I don't even recall South Indian food like masala dosas or idlis being sold in Sri Lanka. Beach resort food is not quite so hot
Last night, you could stay at Negombo.
I f***ing hate it, but it is a package tour beach resort and very close to the airport.
I also forgot to mention that I saw three English girls going into the ground, walking past the ticket inspector (without tickets) saying "No thank you, no thank you, no thank you!"
Also, it was easier to walk into the ground without a ticket on day one, also the press box and very expensive seats.
Day 2 onwards they tightened up a bit.
