Tea and spices from Sri Lanka

We don't check out until 7pm tonight. This means we have to pay for 1/2 night's accommodation, but then we can relax a bit before heading to the airport to fly back to Dubai. Our flight doesn't leave until 1:55am tonight. We haven't bought any spices yet. There is plenty of tea available in many places in Sri Lanka - especially in the highlands where tea is grown. It is immediately difficult to find a large selection of spices. We went to Pettah, which is supposed to be the place with the large spice selection. You can of course buy spices in supermarkets, but we prefer markets. The selection is not large, but there are simple shops. We came from there with various curry, chili and saffron spices - 1.5 kg cost 500 rs. If you come across spices while traveling around the country, don't wait to buy them until later. It's much easier to wait to buy tea, there's plenty of choice everywhere. The question is whether you want to know exactly which factory it comes from. Our hotel charges 4000 rs for a taxi to the airport. When the chef heard this, he couldn't hide his surprise. We were on the verge of letting them book a taxi so that we would be sure to get to the airport without any problems. Instead, we called the airport to get the phone number of an authorized company as the hotel was not allowed to help with this service. So now we only paid 2300 rs to get there :o)