Sri Lanka (Galle) November 2018

eddtheduck

eddtheduck

Striker
As November will be my first visit to Sri Lanka maybe someone can help.

Flights and accommodation sorted for Unawatuna Bay, going for the first test in November

Tickets are £1.41 for locals but third party companies are responsible for selling on to Tour Companies who obviously ramp up the price.

What are the prospects/routes for getting tickets:-

1) Before we travel?

2) While in Sri Lanka

Cheers
 


The Rat said:
Wasn't there a big scandal about this? Saying they are pushing it up to 50 a day plus a 25 booking fee?
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Yep. Everyone I've seen who's flying over (albeit a limited sample) isn't going to pay it. Fortunately you can watch from the Fort for free though, or in a bar on the beach.

To the OP, I don't think anyone pre-bought on the last tour but that was 6 years ago and they may do online now. But if you don't get one it's fine, The Fort experience is good and it's dead easy to blag into the ground after lunch anyway.
 
eddtheduck said:
As November will be my first visit to Sri Lanka maybe someone can help.

Flights and accommodation sorted for Unawatuna Bay, going for the first test in November

Tickets are £1.41 for locals but third party companies are responsible for selling on to Tour Companies who obviously ramp up the price.

What are the prospects/routes for getting tickets:-

1) Before we travel?

2) While in Sri Lanka

Cheers
Click to expand...
Seriously. If you can’t get a ticket - you can watch on the fort outside.

My ticket for the India test a few years back only cost me £4 for the best seats. However, expect that to be massively bigger price. Lovely area to watch cricket.
 
Marcosplace said:
Seriously. If you can’t get a ticket - you can watch on the fort outside.

My ticket for the India test a few years back only cost me £4 for the best seats. However, expect that to be massively bigger price. Lovely area to watch cricket.
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Cheers, to be honest, going all that way I’d like to be “in”.

I’m sure we’ll sort something

We’ve booked ourselves and saved a fortune on the “packages” which didn’t even include flights.
 
eddtheduck said:
Cheers, to be honest, going all that way I’d like to be “in”.

I’m sure we’ll sort something

We’ve booked ourselves and saved a fortune on the “packages” which didn’t even include flights.
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You will get in. There will be loads of locals selling tickets wanting to sell their tickets for profit.

Lion beer is lush too. I bought it for 50p a can ! Probably a lot more for English fans. Ask the tuc tuc drivers for a fixed price too. Don’t accept their first price either.
 
Marcosplace said:
You will get in. There will be loads of locals selling tickets wanting to sell their tickets for profit.

Lion beer is lush too. I bought it for 50p a can ! Probably a lot more for English fans. Ask the tuc tuc drivers for a fixed price too. Don’t accept their first price either.
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Cheers marra, the owner of our lodge says he can sort tickets. If not, we have no problem using the locals as I’m sure they’ll be happy to help
 
Is there a test ground anywhere in the world which sells out bar in England and Australia when they play each other. That's probably only for the first 3 or 4 days.
 
All great stuff lads and really appreciated.

The Italian owner of our lodge actually volunteered to sort our tickets.

On another note, I understand that the Sri Lankan Rupee is a "closed currency" and you can't exchange in th UK.

What's the crack? Just draw fro Sri Lankan banks' ATM?
 
eddtheduck said:
All great stuff lads and really appreciated.

The Italian owner of our lodge actually volunteered to sort our tickets.

On another note, I understand that the Sri Lankan Rupee is a "closed currency" and you can't exchange in th UK.

What's the crack? Just draw fro Sri Lankan banks' ATM?
Click to expand...

From memory aye.

We just bought at the airport I think. Better than India which was a closed currency, alongside a banking crisis where 75% of the ATMs didn't dispense cash.
 
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.
 
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