"BUG DEATH"!!!!!

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Geo: 6.96879, 80.7857

We have noticed most winged inspects have a death wish! On every floor you can spot a crumpled pair of wings and a "mashed body". Tragic BUT TRUE.....please help and text "BUGGED OFF" to 56456. Text cost £3 and you could make a bug difference......

"I knew him since he was a larvae - why?? He always liked the bright lights.......

Perhaps they are Japanese by descent and still think the war is on - hence the kamakaze attitude - whoosh straight into Cathy's wine - floooop aim for the massive puddle on the balcony - but the results are the same.

RECAP: Yesterday was spent walking amongst little villages and Tea Plantations. All very enjoyable and low key.

TODAY: Pickup at 0945 and driven to Kandy Railway Station to catch the train to Nuwara Eliya a 3 hour journey through scenic hills to stay at a Colonial Hotel called the Cocoon Hills Resort (more on this establishment later...........)

WEATHER WATCH: Yesterday by clockwork, the sun packed up and went home at around 1600hrs and in came the rain. This is clearly a micro climate with the classic rain pattern caused by moist air rising up the hills during the heat of day and condensing as soon as the temperature drops. After "FLAPS BACK" at 0645 the weather is a misty but brightening start. We will see....

LEECH ATTACK! Sorry sir you are bleeding! Oh my god a major bleed from my left calf!!!! Snake bite! NO SIR - LEECH...but how....??!

TRAIN: From the 1850's and until 1948, The British built Ceylon's Railways and most of it's infrastructure. Today, this is wearing out and we are left with a rustic and quaint railway system based on 1920's technology but without the money or inclination to maintain it in a safe and viable condition.

We arrive at Kandy Railway Station and marvel at the old signal boxes, ticket office, control room and lever operated points.

At 1300hrs some 30 minutes late a grubby looking diesel pulls into the platform pulling several 3rd class open sided carriages and 2 tourist carriages. We pile aboard and settle into a comfy seat. We set off at about 15mph and accelerate to a breathtaking 20mph and hunker down for the 3 hour (63km) run to Nuwera Eliya, a hill station set some 1900m in the high tea plantations in the centre of the island. We bumble along passing defunct sidings, small rustic houses and lush jungle.

Our fellow travellers comprise a group of noisy Chinese, a pleasant retired couple from Manchester and a rather slick American, his Sri Lankan wife (somewhat underdressed) and two children both under 5 who proceeds to take up an extra two window seats and spray rice all over the carriage floor while her baby son - Christie screams and cries.

DERAILMENT: After about 20 mins, word goes round that a train has been derailed some 2km up the line and in the scenic section: the whole reason for the journey!!! Off we pile at the next station and wait for Lala to drive over 1 hour back (he was taking the luggage ahead) and pick us up! Time however well spent stocking up on crisps and ginger ale. The most remarkable observation about this station was the wreckage of another train between the two platforms! Perhaps it was better we forget the sorry episode.......

It is supposed to be a 2 hour drive through magnificent scenary to or next stop: a Colonial Hotel set high in a tea planation. Fog, rain, drizzle..............50m visibability........Lala enthusiastically points out virtual scenery despite barely being able to see the car in front. By this time Cathy is looking poker faced.........not a face you mess with....."I was told by our tour company that this was a good time to visit and you say it is the start of the Monsoon Season!" Trust me this will end in tears. However we console ourselves in the safe knowledge that we are booked into a lovely boutique hotel for three nights.....WRONG!!!!!!

We pass the Polo Club - manicured lawns ablaze with flame trees, The Hotel Grand - its golf course lush and clipped etc etc ......then turn up a "rubbly" side street and end up in someones driveway!!!!. My heart sinks as we proceed to enter a small lounge of someones house. "The Cocoon Resort".........h'mmmmmm.....at the best OKish B & B with a collection of two sofas, thirteen chairs and two tables - and a large refridgerator looking completely out of place.

"I'm afraid this is NOT going to work" squeaks Cathy to the tour operator in Columbo on our drivers mobile. We will be out of here tomorrow and off to a beach resort........

ANGRY we settle into the not so bad accommodation and watch the plastic electric coal fire gather pace (after blowing a fuse) and wait for our host (who is clad in a pair of jeans and anorak) to bring supper from an outside source we presume... (actually it was very very good....)

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Comments

[Chris]

Please keep the stories and reports coming. Wonderful commentary- thank you.