I have instantly fallen in love with Sri Lanka. What's not to love? We arrived to a balmy afternoon, smiling immigration officials (who got a bit star struck when the West Indian cricket team arrived the same time we did) the airport was easy and straight forward and our taxi driver was calm and cheery. Driving into Negombo-our home for the next four nights-we were met with Buddha images, huge standing Jesus' in glass cabinets and lush green tropical gardens. Sure, there's some pollution on the side of the road and the beach is dirty but after Egypt, this place is paradise!
The ladies at the airport are breathtakingly beautiful-some are wearing peacock saris and other have an intense blue sari. I love the colours, the smiles and the ease of which the Sri Lankan people interact. I'm busy gushing over their glorious saris when Tony pulls out his 'Remember what the monk said' a hint to me on materialism when I spot an actual monk. He's pushing a trolley overloaded with bags so I smile back to Tony and point. I clearly have a lot of shopping to do to catch up. Tony's smirk disappears.
Our guesthouse is immaculately clean and has a beautiful garden and inviting pool. The Sri Lankan ladies who work there are amazing and we are loving the chance to do absolutely nothing and catch up on emails and our diaries. It doesn't take long to see through the facade of the Brits who are running it though-shouting at the staff and their neighbours and being rude and demanding to us. I'm reminded of the caste system in India where the elite treat those below them with disrespect and wonder what the rest of our time here will show us. Wealth and privilege so often seems to equate to arrogance and intolerance and I can't help but dive under the water every time I see my hosts.
Still, it doesn't totally ruin my experience as it's punctuated with eating, swimming and exploring. I've found some fabulous veggie curries and try a new restaurant every day. Our favourite is 'Coconut Primitive' which gave me the most incredible coconut salad I've ever tasted. Fresh desiccated coconut mixed with chilli and lime juice. Heaven! Negombo is quite touristy and has a southern Thailand island feel-the best part of that being cold beer whilst watching the sunsets. Normally I wouldn't think much to it but I'm happy taking the intensity down a few notches and being lazy. We've also seen some funny little mammals-a Lena, which is the size of a large mouse but looks like a squirrel and also the standard mouse. The mice here however were entertaining us with catching the local flying ants and moths though! I've also managed to float so I practice this newfound skill regularly-watching the cloud formations and the gentle sway of the palm trees. Swim, write, swim, read, swim eat. Repeat!
We are well and truly ready to begin exploring as I've turned into a mermaid with all of my swimming. We head off to our new hotel, watching in amazement as out tuk tuk driver manages to squash all of our belongings-bags and bodies included into his vehicle. Dropping Tony and the bags off at reception, I continue on to the Sunday market further up the road. The market is a very local affair and I'm surrounded y plastics, hair clips, thongs and undies. Continuing along the lebthg of the pen air market, I came across a Hindu temple amongst all the vendors. Snapping a photo, I realised how dark the sky had become. Moving into the covered section, I'd found myself in the dried fish section. Hundreds of locals were sitting on the floor selling their stinky collections when a lady asked me if I'd like to buy some.being the only white person there I stood out like a sore thumb and after a polite exchange, I was given permission to take her phot surrounded by her fishy friends. Making my way to the end, being pushed along by the locals, the heavens opened. I had of course left my brolly with Tony so my only option was to wait. I found a patch of cement getting the least amount of rain, watching in amazement how tropical skies open with intensity. A few local women were beckoning me over into their homes which was very sweet however I would have been soaked to the bone if I took up their offer so continued to gesture about the rain and smile as I waited. I spotted a few sneaky cats, lurking around watching the men machete their way through huge dried bream and catching the flying pieces as they skidded across the floor. An old lady saw me standing and gestured for me to sit down. I tried to say no, but she ,over everything around in her fish 'shop' for me to sit, giving me her plastic seat whilst she squatted on the chopping block. That was very humbling-not only was this woman ancient, but she could squat better than anyone in a western yoga class-happily helping another human whilst inconveniencing herself. Afte about half an hour, the rain subsided from drenching into a welcome relief from of the heat so I took my chance to escape. Finding the temple grounds totally flooded, the only option was to take off my birkis and wander through the muddy pools the best I could, grabbing a tuk tuk back to our room. Tony had already settled in and we'd had a note under the door from our tour guide so went to meet our travelling companions with high hopes. Everyone was lovely once more, and we set off for dinner together. Our leader Asanga had heard me taking about the amazing coconut salad I'd had so asked the kitchen to bring some out. Called 'Coconut Sambal' it is an accompaniment to rice and curry and this one was also great. With a wonderful beginning to our group, Tony and I climbed into our beds, eager to explore this fabulous new country more.
The next day we left bright and early off to Anuradhapura. Along the way we stopped at the fishing village to see the yachts sailing and the fishermen repairing their nets from the mornings catch. These were Muslim fishing villages, having had the coastline converted either to Christianity or Islam. There were also catamarans and old Dutch canals which were used to transport goods out to the harbour. Along the way our driver stopped off to drop some coins into a Hindu/buddhist temple to ensure our safe travels and we continued on to see a massive Hindu temple. dedicated to Ganesha's brother Skanda, it was owned by a wealthy man who'd spent years creating the enormous temple. Next door was a coconut plantation where the men there had strung up coconut husk ropes between the canopies of each tree for tapping the coconut flowers. Climbing deftly up the coconut tree, the man had tied on his waist a few implements-non of which were safety based, but focused entirely on collecting the nectar from the flower. This nectar is in fact alcoholic and is the local 'coconut toddy'. We drank it immediately, and it was definitely alcoholic! Left for more than four days is ferments further turning into vinegar, which is then boiled up into treacle or further boiled until it creates juggery.
We found out as the strong man got his feet on land again, that sometimes mice chew through the husk ropes so not only are these men climbing with no safety equipment, their ropes often break leaving them to plummet into the ground. All for some beer.
The men at the coconut plantation explained the difference between the 'King Coconut' an orangy coloured one which is only used for drinking from as well as the young coconuts and the mature old ones. Handing out pieces of the dried coconut, they soon realised I loved it, coming back to give me extra pieces. Yum!
I was particularly excited on the next section of our drive, as we were heading through one of the elephant corridors between national parks. We've hit Sri Lanka in between seasons (dry season is best for viewing them) so I keep my eyes pealed for wild ellies, but satisfy myself with a road sign of elephants. We did see a mongoose and her baby though which was very cool and some open billed storks fishing for their lunch. Asanga found some 'Mimosa' lanes for me to play with, calling them sleeping plants. They were the same ones I used to play with in Thailand-when you touch their tiny fringed leaves, they curl up into themselves, displaying the red colouring underneath them.
In the afternoon, Tony and I visited Mihintale- the sacred birthplace of Sri Lankan Buddhism. On the top of a mountain and surrounded with ancient caves and writing, the temple grounds were filled with ruins, frangipani trees and.....the dreaded macaques. As naughty as they are, I never cease to be amazed by these feisty little beggars, and true to their nature, we spotted one jump on the top of a bus and squeeze his way into the driver's window.
In 247BC, the king of Anuradhapura was hunting a stag when he was approached by the son of the Indian emperor, Mahinda who was a buddhist. He was converted on the spot thus why Mihintale is so important. We walked up a set of rock stairs to see the huge fire brick stupa, surrounded by the forest and a natural rock cave. Asanga opined out where the monks had made a 'drip ledge' which stopped the rain leaking into the temple by carving a ridge into the rock. We continued up into the main section where we find ancient inscriptions of what the monks duties were and the employees pay scale. A huge Buddha sat on a hill and we began to climb what is called 'meditation rock' which has a set of stairs drilled into the stone. Slightly precarious as the wind picked up, we were rewarded with an amazing view of over the grounds and valley below. We continued our climb up to the White stupa which gave us views over Anuradhapura and the sun which was on its way down for the day. We drove back into the guesthouse to pick up the group and then headed into a small local restaurant. It was serving coconut bowls, which was rice flour and coconut milk swirled around in a circular bowl which when cooked became hard and crispy and could be used as a bowl. There was also roti and kettu which is roti bread chopped up into little pieces with eggs and vegetables mixed in. This was really tasty-a bit like pad Thai but heavier.
The next morning we began our exploration of the archaeological park in Anuradhapura bright and early. We were cycling around the site and began by visiting the temple which used the sacred Bo tree which was given to Sri Lanka from India-a sapling from the original tree in Bodhygaya in which Buddha gained enlightenment. It was full of devotees paying respect and the original tree is slowly dying, being propped out with big gold supports whilst new trees from the same tree have been planted alongside for it to lean on. I was incredibly touched to see a group of elderly devotee woman picking up every leaf that had fallen onto the sand, carefully placing it in their shared bin ensuring that the sandy grounds around the building were kept immaculate. We saw another huge ancient stupa that apparently could make 9000 houses from the millions of fire bricks it contained. It was here we came across our first black faced langurs which were a delight to observe. Calm and very well behaved, they had beautiful long tails that they curled into question marks when they walked as well as gorgeous black faces and black feet. I adore them.
Jumping on our bikes again, we cycled around the huge park, stopping to see many sites. We saw the twin ponds which are where the royal family used to bathe, a moonstone which is a semi circle piece of stone which is ornately carved and placed at the bottom of a set of stairs and a guard step which holds the stairs in place and has carvings of deities on it. There had been some 5000 monks living here and some of the ruins were the feeding troughs for the monks-big stone slabs hollowed out to pour in rice and a smaller one in which to place curry.
It was crazy crazy hot out there, cycling around in the heat of the day so we had a welcome break when we stopped at a massive pond to have our lunch. Our back up driver's wife had cooked us an amazing picnic lunch and he deftly set up a picnic table complete with an umbrella, and opened up numerous Tupperware containers full of different curries. Luckily, his wife had made some coconut sambal so everyone looked to me to see if it was as good as my first.....I couldn't let them down so happily ladled it onto my plate. Sitting in the grass overlooking the monks bathing pond, brought back some very happy memories for me. Whilst leading in Thailand, we had a trip that visited Sukhothai. We also hired bicycles, and in the middle of it we had a picnic lunch in the grass cooked by the local ladies. Happy days and happy memories, in fact Sri Lanka feels similar to Thailand in a few ways as well as comparative to India. It has elements of those two countries in it wrapped up in one lovely, kind and friendly Sri Lankan curried way. I've already decided that I'm coming back again one day. On the way back to the hotel, we cycled through small villages with the local children giving me high fives. It was a lovely way to finish the day.
That night we stayed in the hotel for dinner for what we were told was a very special meal. It was a meal of string hoppers which was a pancake of rice noodles with you ate with curry and some powdered rice things which also cooked up the curry juice. It was indeed very special and the dessert was a buffalo curd with treacle on top. Our evening was kept alive listening to the stories of the massages that the rest of the group had had complete with ten minutes of breast massage and a man who'd had his nipples flicked. I'm glad I chose not to go!
The next morning we headed off bright and early, somehow managing to convince the local bus company to pick us up before the rest of the Sri Lankans. I'm not sure how I feel about the ethics of that, there must've been some money exchange hands I'm sure but I am very grateful I didn't have to carry my bag too far. We pulled into the bus station about 30 minutes before we were due to depart so I had enough time to wander around the local shops where everyone was super friendly. Our bus seats were made for tiny locals not westerners and whilst Tony and I had snuggled up on the smallest ones to leave space for the locals, we were struggling to stay on the seats. Every corner we turned, I had to brace myself against the opposite chair much to the amusement of the local ladies!
The bus was blaring radio music when we left but about half a kilometre down the road he decided to put on a dvd for us. I thought it might be a movie but instead it was a collection of local film clips which was played at an even louder volume than the radio. My favourite was the 'Tuk Tuk' song which was by a rap group followed closely by the calls of the 'Somebody somebody sambal' man. He was a man who got on our moving bus, trying a sell some of his fresh mangoes. Repeatedly calling out 'Somebody somebody sambal' (or something to that effect) he placed his bowl on his shoulder and picked his way through the crowded bus. There was a whole aisle's worth of people that got on the bus whilst various sellers were moving back and forth yet the bus didn't actually stop. Impressive.
We quickly dropped our bags at the hotel, had our lunch that we'd pre ordered on the bus and then went cycling around the historical area. We had a local guide here and he had played in the site when it was in ruins, deciding then that he wanted to be an archaeologist. He had been a part of the team that had begun excavation and now he's trained as a guide.
He began by taking us to the museum where we saw a model of the archaeological park and it's noteworthy sites. As it was another hot day, we began by cycling all the way to the end where we found some very impressive rock carvings. Standing 14 metres high and carved out of granite there was a standing Buddha as well as a sitting Buddha that was surrounded by scaffolding. The local macaques had taken the opportunity to see this as their personal playground and were sliding down the tarpaulins left behind, as well as ripping them up and popping their cute but naughty faces out through the holes. They were very distracting to what was an ancient sacred site but I tore myself away to see the highlight-the reclining Buddha carved into the Rock. This site is considered to be the zenith of singhalese carving. We moved on to see another huge stupa, surrounded by camouflaged chameleons as well as a huge standing Buddha in a ruined temple, this was the best preserved temple we'd seen in particular for the ornate designs remaining on the exterior. Finally we visited another temple where we found large groups of both macaques and langurs. I was amazed to see a macaque who had made friends with a langur and the two of them were snuggled up with the macaque preening the langur. The image is one that will stick with me for a long time as it displays such hope for humanity where different species can not only coexist but take care of each other. That night we had been told by Asanga that we would again have a very special dinner-of curry and rice. We were taken to a small local restaurant called 'Banana Leaf' where they had over 18 different curries most of which were veggie.

Another early start and more local buses
Kissed on the arm by a lady selling lottery tickets and called beautiful by a man selling food at the bus station.
Buses filled with burning incense, jasmine lanyards photos of waterfalls and Hindu gods.
Arrived at Dambulla Immediately dropped bags, went for a walk around town and found the best coffee in Sri Lanka. Then went to the golden toke to see cave paintings. Incredible condition and very serene. Blessed by Hindu man at the Hindu section-most buddhist hemp lose have Hindu sections for Indian visitors predonominantyl the royal family.
Headed off to the a,axing ayuvadic massage. So so good and finished with a herbal steam room complete with leaves scattered all over the floor and steam cloves and cinnamon
Went to national park Kaudulla to see elephants, saw a big male on the side of the road on the way in and then three or fr different herds. There were 30 in the first herd and about 40 in the second which we stopped to watch, a few adolescent males and some trumpeting of an elephant being chased by another. So serene and quiet also spotted loads of different birds
Quail
Blue and green tail bee eaters
Open bill storks
Chameleon
Langurs
Peacock
Elephants
Forest toilet beautiful view
Driving home in the sunset and watching the stars twinkle in our open top jeep
One of my best days ever.

Yet another 6am wake up. Leaving by 6:30 to go to sigyiri Rock
Lots of caves and ponds, main section up the side of the rock blowing a gale. Incredible views ancient paintings on plaster of ladies with their breasts out. Happy king.
Asanga had brought us breakfast afterwards then back to hotel, shower and coffee then heading towards Kandy.
Vegetable markets
Stopped along the way to check out a Hindu temple in a Muslim village before having lunch in the spice gardens. Fantastic curries again with the best coconut sambal. I've turned into a coconut sambal critic. Tour around the garden learning about all of the medicinal herbs and plants before a quick foot massage by one of the Ayurvedic massage students with their 'red oil' boiled in copper pots and contains over 30 secret ingredients. Headed into Kandy and after a few hours chilling out and for me, hand washing, headed to the tooth trmple.
I didn't realise but the tooth temple is the most important buddhist temple in the role as it contains a tooth relic of Buddha. When we got there, they were banging drums and playing the snake cobra charmer flute as offerings to the relic got taken in. Watched for a while before moving upstairs. The doors to the tooth relic room were open so asanga pushed me to the front to lay my offering of lotus flowers in front of the relic. Locals were walking past and handing theirs directly to the monks but die to the queue we stayed back. As the queue died down, I saw my opportunity to see inside the room and pay respect to the tooth so joined in. It is encased in a white Chedi type structure which was shiny but with so many people pushing to get near, my look was brief and so was my wai. After a busy day, everyone was tired so had dinner in a Chinese/Indian restaurant before heading back to bed. Maybe tomorrow won't be a 6am departure!

Departure was 8am, heading to a woodworking factory and a batik factory. They do a crackle effect by covering the whole piece I wax, then crushing it to allow some ink to come through into the cracks.
Drove up to a tea plantation to see the factory at work. Old conveyor bel to brink rubber wood down to keep their fires going. Air dry first then big machines that crush the leaves before fermentation and drying with the fires. Graded, lowest quality goes into tea bags (called dust) and the White or golden tea is just the tiny bud of the leaves which is not fermented at all and not crushed. Least manufactured but the most expensive.
Went to a gem museum and jewellery factory which had stunning pieces but a bit too extravagant for me! Dropped off in town, Tony caught a tuk tuk home and I woven turned around the lake to find the buddhist publication society to see if they had ajahn brahm's book which asanga had lent me to read on the bus. I remember listening to it as an audiobook once so was really excited to own a copy. He tells great buddhist stories using humour which will help serve as reminders for Tony and I of our our meditation lessons.
Afterwards I made my way back to find a fair trade ship I'd seen as well as grab some lunch from a vegan curry place. Yummy! Happy days. Spent the afternoon uploading some photos and being very distracted by elephant videos. Early evening we headed off to see a kandyan performance of dance which was a colourful, loud, energetic and daring hour. The dances consisted of stories of gods, life in the town, how illnesses come from Devils and inspiration from animals with intriguing costumes, incredibly loud drumming an acrobatics. The finale was outdoors where in a frenzy of drumming, fire throwers walked on fire. Not a little bit of fire, but a huge fire pit with burning coals and flames leaping into the air.

Off on our seven hour train journey which is meant to be incredible. We have provisions from the supermarket for our lunch and are hanging at the station waiting for our train. The platform is full of little motivational slogans such as ' this is the historic sacred town that our dignity is protected to the world. Let us keep it clean!' And ' He who has never learnt to obey cannot be a good commander' the Diesel engine on the platform opposite chugs into gear and the best of British can be seen int he ordered planned station which is perfectly clean.
Pine trees then lemongrass for nitrogen, waterfalls, tea plantations
children singing then shouting through tunnels. Loud clickety-clack of metal on the tracks
Hat on story of masters in tea plantation thus Hatton
Adams peak, fourth highest mountain and surrounded in clouds. 5000 steps up to temple
Popcorn sellers and more somebody somebody sambals
Stayed in a nice guesthouse on about the 7th level up-I'm guessing it was training for the trek.
Went to a family's house to learn how to cook Sri Lanka food. Really easy and yummy food. All went to bed early so we were ready for the trek.
Woken up at 5something am to leave for the trek and waked to the train where we went backwards a few stations to Idalgashinna where we met our trekking guides. We immediately began walking, heading off over the train tracks and up the closest hill. The walk was through muddy and slippery tracks from the rain throughout the night and took us into the eucalyptus where we found ourselves in the clouds. Suddenly dropping temperature dramatically, we continued on where the oath changed into more tea plantations. As we stopped to take a break, a lady turned up with mugs of hot tea for us all and it turns out she was one of the Trekkers wives and she was taking a day off tea picking to make us tea. Asanga tipped her 1000 rupees and the maximum she'd earn picking over 16 kg of tea would've been 650 so it was an easy win for her. And us. After England, u don't think over ever drunk so much tea in my life.
We came across a Hindu place of worship, under a tree and the boys performed a blessing ceremony to keep us all safe. Throwing down a coconut and seeing it smash into loads of small pieces meant we would be protected along the track, it also meant some people are coconut. The boys gave us red bindis to show we'd been at the temple and we continued on. If any of the villagers needed medical attention, they'd have to run along this track for help so they needed a temple to give respect to in order to keep them safe. Continued on higher and higher until we were totally in the clouds and mist and it was feeling cold. Hearing the sounds of goats bleating, we followed them around the corner and then We found ourselves in intermarriage village and I guess that is all that needs to be said about that apart from the fact none of the children ever went to school and they seemed to have totally isolated themselves off from society.
Continuing on through rocky outcrops and the beginning tea plantations, we saw our first 'tea puckers'. Tea puckers are all female as they pick carefully and only the best quality. Tea consists of the top bud and the next two young leaves-that's all from the camellia tree. It does in fact grow into a tree if left unpicked and with a massive issue of soil erosion, some are left to turn into trees as well as eucalyptus trees are planted to reduce the problem.
Small holdings given to workers to grow their own vegetables which had been worked ready for planting rice and new crops with the rainy season approaching.
More workers on the side of the road picking, one a 'retired' picker who'd come back to work as shed spent all of her pension in one hit and now had no more money. Free health care and education and midwife and teacher walk in 12kms and out 12kms each day to service the villages and tea plantation families. Little waterfalls began emerging and soon we'd reached our home for the night, narrowly missing the rain which came about thirty minutes later.
Our home was a humble building with five rooms, and in those rooms were five beds and a shared toilet and shower. There was a lounge area to hang out in and as soon as we arrived, a big pot of tea landed on the table. As we rested our weary bones, people began showering and relaxing and a few had snaeaky sleeps. After an early dinner I was shattered but the rest of the group stayed up singing and drumming and dancing with the Trekkers and our cooks, drinking local beer and arrack. Popping my head out briefly to see the spectacle, it looked like awesome fun but I was knackered from the 5am start and our morning of walking. I also wanted to get ahead start on our snorer. The plan failed.
The next day we had another early beginning and I wasn't feeling so hot. Feeling proud of myself for keeping down my cup of tea and a banana, we headed off again, this time through a mostly concreted and rocky road. We were heading to a big waterfall, which was the highest in Sri Lanka. Seeing it from a distance, the rain the previous night had added some extra volume and it was a lovely sight to see. We had found an extra addition to our group by now-a stray doggie friend who even accompanied me to the bushes when I needed the toilet and politely turned her head when she saw what I was doing. Added to the serenity was the fact another local man had snuck up before us and already had the kettle on the fire, brewing us up a heady tea mix. Tasting quite smokey, we were given a proper porcelain cup to drink from which was remarkable that he'd somehow managed to carry all of this up the hill and make us tea. Impressive. The second day seemed to be longer than the first although I'm quite sure we didn't reach the 12 km each day we were predicted to. The second day felt a lot harder as it was downhill the entire time so the old knees and hips are making themselves known.
After our tea we continued on for another five kilometres until we reached a larger village where lunch had (once again) been loving prepared for us and was waiting on the table. Still feeling unwell I stared sadly at the beautiful banana flower curry and baby jackfruit curry, eating some plain rice instead. Within minutes of us all sitting down to eat, the heavens opened and we had once again somehow managed to escape the rains. Our little doggie friend was given our leftovers and we drove off back up the hill to our guesthouse in the hills.
Wanting nothing more ths a hot shower and some clean clothes, everyone disappeared and emerged a few hours later, our guesthouse was high up in the hills and the clouds and mist had decencies. I felt so cold-I had on my beanie, my wool top, both pairs of leggings including my compression leggings and my bamboo ones, two pairs of socks and my duck down jacket. Brrrr! Still feeling a little unwell, had a simple dinner and then went to bed, delighted to snuggle down in a thick and heavy blanket wrapping me up in a delicious warm embrace.
Feeling much better, we left towards Mirissa. Stopping along the way, we grabbed some rottis for the journey-a banana and honey one for breakfast and a veggie one for lunch. We were in Ella which seems to be quite a touristy little place despite its size and there were loads of female runners and a shop selling 'Run Ella' shirts so I guess there are a few crazy ladies who live running up mountains. It looked like a cool place to chill out and the coffee was great albeit Sydney prices. We continued along the very windy and narrow roads, making our way down the mountain. Stopping to take a few photos at a pretty waterfall briefly, we continued onto the elephant transit home. It was on the edge of a national park and it has been set up to support the numerous baby elephants who end up orphaned when their parents die-usually as a result of humans. The elephants are fed milk and leaves three or four times a day and are then put back into a semi wild environment with as little human interaction as possible. They try and support them to be self sufficient and to be unattracted to humans so they can join a new herd and be totally wild. There are loads of electric fences around Sri Lanka along their elephant corridors to keep them in the national park zones and force them to cross at specific areas where there are few humans and farms. Fantastic to see so many elephants but the reality is it is sad that they're there in the first place.
Our long drive continued to Mirissa which had been described as a 'Paradise you won't want to leave'. My expectations of beaches overseas is incredibly low as I've been spoilt with our amazing Australian ones however

Train from Galle to Colombo-early departure so we can get a seat. Loads of Sambal men and one salesmen in particular-pen man.
Colombo very sleepy for a big city. Walked through the veggie market and into little back alleys with hidden markets behind shops. Colombo quite uninspiring, went to two malls for coffee and supplies and the independence monument then into our hotel. Colombo is right on the edge of the water so our hotel overlooked the sea and had an infinity pool with views over the ocean. very u intrepid but fabulous. Nice farewell dinner with everyone
Back in negombo watching the lena's play (although the littlb bugger who woke me up at 5am chirping was cursed repeatedly. Perfecting my floating in their beautiful pool and watching the clouds float by. Guesthouse one of the best I've ever stayed in-staff incredible.
Negombo-man brushing a stray dog with his broom
Tuk tuk man managed to fit our bug bags behind our head and hang our others off the side of his seat so our seat was totally free for Tony and I to sit on. Amazing.