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K - I am writing this at Colombo airport. We are sad to be leaving Sri Lanka which is a beautiful island - full of variety with beaches, hill country, ancient cities etc. but we are excited to be moving on to Bangkok. We will be spending a few days there while we apply for visas to Myanmar (Burma).

We have spent the last few days on the beach at Unawatuna and Hikkaduwa. The former was a little too cramped and touristy for us and had the worst restaurants we have encountered so far in our travels - surreally bad service and average food. The food scene is actually the only area of Sri Lanka that has disappointed us. In general the Sri Lanken people are very friendly and hospitable but they don't really have a restaurant culture and it really shows - it can take an hour or so to get a meal and it will arrive in a random order so often Mark will eat while I wait or vice versa. And if you order a salad or some fries to accompany a sandwich it is more often the case that you will get the fries as an appetizer and the sandwich afterwards. We go with the flow on that one but waiting 40 minutes for a lime soda was a straw that broke this camels back - especially when the waiter was annoyed with us for chasing him! It is a shame because food is a very important part of our travels and I have got to the stage where I dont even want to go out for dinner as it is just so stressful.

Whilst in Unawatuna we also visited Galle, a pretty colonial town on the coast. It is quite surreal how European some of the architecture is and how un-Asian the atmosphere. However you then walk round a corner and its back to the chaos!

Dodgy waiters apart we would both highly recommed Sri Lanka as a place to visit. A final few photos are attached.

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