Soggy Sri Lanka!

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Hello from Sri Lanka :-)
Thank you all for the emails/messages, missing you all!

First of all... Dean needs to get something off his chest! WALES! AGAIN....GLORIOUS WALES! Needless to say he is pretty chuffed with the result of the grand slam/6 nations! He say's Shane Williams is a legend, bring on the Aussies....

Right, anyway :-) Got into Sri Lanka just over a week ago. Started our journey in Negombo as we avoided Colombo partly because of the trouble and partly because I have had enough of the city scene. Our first night and we had rain, not just a bit of rain, but big fat tropical rain! So British weather suddenly doesn't seem so bad! Doesn't help that we have only come prepared for warmer climates! Although Silver Sands, our hotel, was cheap and nice the beach wasn't quite what we had in mind and the rain spoiled it slightly! Also the restaurant came complete with an American babbling fruit and nut cake so we had to make it out in the downpour for some dinner (didn't mind too much though because there was 2 quid fillet steak on the menu!!)

The next day we met our driver and headed off inland to Pinawala Elephant Orphanage! See the pics (there are many!) The smellipahnts were truly amazing, it was brilliant to see them all in the river having fun. I think I was in shock the whole time-there were loads of them and a lot were in toching distance, which we did (Dean got a bit scared!) :-) Which he says 'is quite natural considering how massive they are!'. Thought he would feel like 1 of the heard, he he! It is definatly one of the top 5 highlights so far. Our driver also took us to a smaller elephant centre where we went on a bareback elephant ride (again Dean was lets say a little frightened) which he thinks is justified because there was no safety talk and the elephant pushed down a tree (his lunch) half way through the walk. After the ride we got the chance to get in the river with another smelliphant (I had to go first, what a gentleman!) After elephant washing it was my turn! See pics!!!

We carried onto Kandy (in wet clothes!) Our hotel, Palm Garden Hotel, on the outskirts of town, was very nice and very clean! Even had a lovely hot shower. That evening the hotel flooded (as it did the next day!) Luckily we had a first floor room. The next morning the weather was much brighter so we headed out to the Botanical Gardens (Grandparent heaven) and it was lovely. Another highlight, it was much more wonderful than we expected and yep, I think we are getting old! Afterwards we headed to the Temple of the Tooth but had to go back the next morning because Dean was denied entry as he wasn't suitably dressed! (He didn't have full length trousers on, don't worry he's not into wearing sarongs yet!)

The second time round it was very interesting even though we were short on time. Pics! There were a few problems with the trains so we ended up getting a rickshaw all the way to Kitugale (3 or so hours, it's got nothing on the average Indian journey). After a bit of searching we finally found Rafters Retreat! The main house was like a set for a stereotypical haunted house film (an old tea estate mansion) but we were staying in the highly comical, flintstone cross tarzan type wooden treehouse (but on the ground). It was like being a kid again-great fun, and it was right next to the river-literally! Again, the pictures probebly describe it better. While we were there the only other people that turned up to stay on the tarzan complex was a honeymooning couple from Bristol called Rachel and Dave. This helped us to get numbers together for white water rafting (else it would have been Dean and I with a paddle each on quite a large raft!)

The rafting was brilliant fun :-) (Dean says to Susan that it was a bouncy alpine grade 3). This apparently means that I was lucky not to end up in the water on my first time, but it did come close a couple of times. Dean and Dave seemed to have the hot seats as they were up front and took the brunt of the rapids. Our guide was happily sat in the back taking it easy yelling the necessary. We would love to do it again, think Thailand will be the next place to step it up a gear!

Before I forget to mention the worst bit about staying in the forest-LEECHES! Never seen one before, not until I looked down at my ankle before bed! Freaked me right out! Dean managed to get the little sucker off, although it didn't seem to happen as easily as it should. He then realised he had one on him too. The little blood suckers! They were everywhere.

Anyway, from Kitulgale we took another marathon rickshaw ride up to Nuwara Eliya. No matter how much you read about the Englishness in the guidebook it still didn't prepare us for just how Englishy it was! It had grey clouds, hedges, horse racing, golf, fresian cows, an old post office, 'Travelodge', floral curtains and as much tea as any Englishy English person could drink. That's just to name a few things! It was great though but the weather did live up to the normal Brit standards! We did manage to go out and visit a tea plantation/factory-lovely tea unsurprisingly. Managed to get some amusing pictures of us both!

We also had a jolly spiffing good meal at St Andrews on our last night-complete with 5 courses and tea by the log fire to finish the evening off. Our meal even included a tour aroud the kitchen and wine cellar. All of that for a mere six English pounds each :-)

We left by delayed train to go onto Haputale, which turned out to be worth the wait. The views were stunning, Dean had his camera on the ready for the whole journey. The ticket cost about 24p each, not bad. Haputale could have been the most scenic place of our travels, unfortunatly the rain and clouds were around for most of our stay so this put a stop to our planned hiking. This morning we did try to forget about the rain and get up super early to catch the view up by Liptons Seat-unfortunatly the clouds and rain were there and it meant we didn't get to see much! The Hilltop Inn, by the station, was fantastic value. Four pounds a night bought you two double beds, a clean bathroom and a breathtaking view. All in all it was still worth going there, it would be a great place to revisit minus the rain/cloud.

Our next stop was Bandarawela, 10k downhill from Haputale. We have just finished a Sri Lankan cookery lesson at the Woodlands Centre. Yom yom, food = very very good. Will be cooking some interesting meals when we get home. Well, the weather now seems to be on the up as we have seen some sunshine through the clouds. Fingers crossed for tomorrow for our final hill country stop, Ella.

Next blog will be from the coast, will hopefully get the chance to try out some more water sports!

Miss you loads.
All our Love, Sar and Dean xxxxxxxx

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