Day One; Arrival in Colombo

---

After 24 hours of travel, including a brief stop in Dubai we finally arrived in Colombo. We were quickly initiated into the sticky Sri Lankan weather and the crazy roads as we took a 1 hour taxi journey to the hotel. Despite the tiredness everyone was in a good mood and we have quickly settled into our hotel, which we can't really fault. After dropping our bags Alex somehow deemed in necessary to go for a run in the 28'C heat, while the rest of us chilled.

A short walk to the beach lead us to crashing waves, and plenty of bars and restaurants from which to choose. The cocktails and local Lion beer went down well and the food was fantastic. By this point everyone was ready for bed except for Tom who was "too tired to sleep".

In the morning, Mesh contacted "Kumar", a tuc tuc driver, whom he knew from a previous trip, who agreed to show us the sights of Colombo. After a breakfast of fresh fruit we headed out to meet our drivers for the day. The tuc tuc's act as the "yellow cab" for the city, and every one is customised individually, my favourite bearing the quote "get rich or die trying". After a short ride along the coast, where I can assure you no gap between a lorry and a bus is too small we stopped at various points to take photos and had a quick look around "Majestic city", Colombo's high end shopping mall.

Next we carried on towards the centre of Colombo. The centre is dominated by large, luxury hotels, the various residences of the president and other political figures and numerous temples, mosques and churches. Today, there is a full moon, which is always accompanied in Sri Lanka by a public holiday. This allowed us a relatively peaceful and relaxing journey between sites; the exception and not the rule we have been assured by those who've been here before. Tomorrow we will find out!

On our tour we visited the "Gaulle Face" hotel, where a traditional wedding was in full swing; a buddhist temple built on top of a pair of arches, which offered a panoramic view of the city; a clothes market, largely empty due to the holiday; and a couple of bizarre looking temples. Next stop, much to the pleasure of the whole group, was lunch at the "Mango Tree", an incredible Indian restaurant, serving delicious curries for the equivalent of £5. Good work Mesh! Finally we visited another Buddhist temple on a lake before returning back to the hotel. Kumar kindly offered Marcus and I a quick lesson in tuc tuc driving. Marcus stalled and I nearly crashed - I don't think either of us will be venturing onto the bustling main roads!

We walked down to the beach to play catch and soak up the sun and met what seemed like half of Colombo on the seafront, making the most of their day off. Not so different from the Brits after all!

The group have now spent just over 24 hours on Sri Lankan soil and the acclimitisation phase is going very well. My first impressions of Sri Lanka are of a mixture of poverty and rapid development, a business-like, kind and very religious people in a country still heavily influenced by colonialism. We are beginning to build up an understanding of the culture and the people here, which will no doubt be invaluable in the business phase of the trip.

I wonder what new surprises tomorrow will bring.

Marcus and Alex

---