You can’t help but wonder if you're actually welcome when you travel to the USA. We’ve been since 9/11, but the security just seems to keep stepping up and up. It starts with a series of questions at the check in desk. When did you pack your bags? Where have they been since you packed them? And so on. We didn’t get seated together. I wasn’t expecting to, having tried to check in online the night before and not being allowed to. Also, our travel agent seemed to have already pre-booked all of our seats on the other flights we took, [View Full Entry]

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Did not sleep. We were both awake from 1.30am. Our car was picking us up at 5. We got up just after 4 and our alarm call came, as promised at 4.30a.m - but the coffee and pastries we'd asked for didn't. They finally arrived at 10 to 5 and we quickly ate before heading down to reception to pay our bill and check out. I was surprised to see that we'd been charged 600 rupees for a small plate of cashews that they sell for 250- in the mini-bar! Anyway..... According to Seelan, on Sundays, it takes "two an an [View Full Entry]

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Woke early and it is very hot again today. Saman IS nice, but nowhere near as perfect as our other hotels have been. E.g. the coir matting in the bed area, only 1 litre of water per room each day, a small tv. Moan, moan, moan. Actually, I don't like to watch tv on holiday but since Roy was ill, we got in the habit of switching it on and we got hooked on National Geographic channel. Roy likes reptiles, and there are some shockingly bad snake hunter programmes! Jungle Jake is just one of them... And there is an ad [View Full Entry]

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Woke at 5am with period pains. Great, just what I needed - and unexpected. Had some coffee on the balcony at 6.45am and watched the tankers out at sea. Ask anybody who knows me and they'll tell you how thorough I am at packing for my holidays. I'm using a packing list I've had for years and there is nothing essential that isn't on there. But (and you knew there was a but) this time, I did not bring any sanitary protection whatsoever. I broke the golden rule of never travelling without tampax - expecially in a developing country. Before breakfast, [View Full Entry]

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Despite having been warned by Roy NOT to wake up before 8am, I was awake at 5.45am. Mind you, so was he, so it isn’t all my fault today. We were out on the balcony having a coffee by 7.45am. I can’t believe the final leg of our Sri Lanka journey starts tomorrow. Breakfast at 8.30am. Eggs and beans for Roy, fruit and scrambled eggs for me. We’ve been getting bored at the beach - I never thought I’d say that - and so with Roy feeling a lot better now, we’ve decided to go out adventuring again today. We sat [View Full Entry]

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Woke at 5.30am! Roy still not too good. At 6.30 I was sitting out on the balcony, waving good morning to our very efficient and very cheery pool boy. It was quiet everywhere so I went downstairs to take some early morning photos of the pool and beach. At about 7.30am we went for breakfast and by 9.30am we were in place on our sunbeds! I went for a swim in the sea, it was lovely - very warm. Roy walked down with me and to his disgruntlement whilst I had a dip Chandika came along to talk to him about [View Full Entry]

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Woke at 6 again. Fed up of waking so early. Managed to get back off to sleep until 9. Roy is not feeling so great, but I gave him ranitidine at 6.30am, thinking he had indigestion from last night's curry - he said he had pain in his stomach. Got and and got ready, with Roy moaning that he felt like crap. But that he'd be ok to come down for breakfast. Bad move. I was eating my curds and treacle, and looked up to see Roy toying with a piece of pineapple... suddenly he was sick. Violently. Everywhere. In the [View Full Entry]

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Woke at 6, which was not my plan! Listened to music, watched the ocean and just generally lazed around until 8.30am. Last night, Aminda showed us the "best room" in the hotel - a suite called the Residence. It was huge, with a fibre optic lit private pool hanging over the gardens and sea. It had a giant jacuzzi and huge Smeg fridge. He didn't tell us the room rate! We like our room though. It has a huge bed, CD/DVD player, bose sound system, plasma screen tv and an ipod, loaded with 6000+ songs. We've got it on shuffle and [View Full Entry]

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I can't believe that today, we finish our "tour" and head for the beach. We got up at 6 to finish packing, drink our bed tea and start our walk. There are numbered/signed walks around each bungalow and this morning, we're doing C2 trail, which is about 6km long. What a stunning walk! We passed through the largely deserted village before 7 - it is Sunday - no work, no chanting! We saw a few people around, but not many. As we passed through the tea picker's cottages, I could smell the communal latrines. We passed churches, Hindu temples, creches and [View Full Entry]

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Woke at 5. Chanting tape on. Couldn't get back to sleep. It is 8am as I write this. I'm having my bed tea and I'm bloody knackered! All the other guests are leaving today - we're the lucky ones staying here for three nights. I wonder if there'll be new arrivals? Today we've asked Seelan to take us white water rafting. I'm apprehensive now as I'm tired, slightly hungover and it looks quite strenous from photos I saw up in the Summerville office yesterday. In fact, a sign said that you should only go if you are of "good fitness level". [View Full Entry]

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