Dear readers,
I am Nuwan Chinthaka Gajanayaka and since 2003 I have been working as a tourist guide lecturer, approved by the Sri Lanka Tourist Boad (now renamed SLTDA). Immediately after school, I started to work as a local guide in Mihintale in 1999. From then on I was fascinated by my job more and more, day by day, because I could meet guests from different parts of the world and learn more about different cultures with different mentalities and much different ideas. This motivated me to countinue this work and to be involved in the tourism sector. When working as a guide in Mihintale, I also met travellers who decided to visit other destinations with me and asked me to arrange whole tour itineraries and accomodations. Apart from normal classic tours and beach relaxation, I always like to show unknown parts of the country and daily life in Sri Lanka, what most tourists are missing when travelling in our country. So this is how I started my work as a guide and tour operator step by step. Still I was eager to expand my activities. Those days I started my dream project, which was to open my own guest house. So I worked hard years and years to reach that target. Now I achieved this goal and, beginning with the 2015 tourism season, I am running my first guest house in Mihintale with the help of my family and some professionals, renting very clean rooms to travellers. An educated Ayurvedic doctor will provide traditional treatments for guests who wish to stay for a longer period enjoying these facilities in my guest house. I can also arrange Buddhist meditation classes in cooperation with the renowned local monastery. Furthermore, I am now able to arrange round tours with my own new van. But still this is not the final step. I hope to open a second guesthouse in Negombo in 2016, close to Colombo International Airport, where almost all guests arrive and depart. And I will attend management courses in Colombo to be able to run an expanding Private Limited company, too, making it a one-stop shop for all travel-related services in Sri Lanka.. But my ambition will always remain to be the original one to allow my guests to come into contact with the country and its people and their genuine living culture, instead of seeing only the tourism industry's shows. On this website I will keep you informed about progresses and further facilities and offers. Your own suggestiones are welcome. In order to find additional travellers interested in the authentic culture of Sri Lanka, some former clients are helping me to develop this website. For example, they contribute images and translations. My close friend Ando Sundermann from Germany, whom I met in Minhintale in 2000, will provide regular updates of fresh content. I am thankful to all of them and to interested travellers who read the contents in order to prepare their holidays in Sri Lanka or to learn more about its amazing culture. Yours sincerely, Nuwan Chintaka |