Taking the bus from Tissa further north to Ella was another cramped affair (at least one we were prepared for this time round). The bus navigated its way along the steep, twisting, narrow roads into the hill country where the bus peaked at around 10 miles an hour. Looking down at the steep drops to our right, we have never been so pleased to have 100's of people (okay, i didn't count but it was definitely a lot!) on the bus to slow it down - judging by the red strap marks on our shoulders, we reckon our rucksacks must have accounted for a substantial amount of the buses weight! Ella itself is a pretty little town in the middle of the hill country with tea plantations surrounding it. Walking up the steep hill to Little ... read more

Leaving the over crowded, polluted city of Colombo we headed further south by train to Hikkaduwa. After our bad timing of the trains we ended up with 3 hours wait in Kalutara where we met Henry, the local tour guide/busy body/doctor/traveller/story teller, who had something to say about everything (even when there was nothing) which was interesting, I think..well, the 20% that i could understand. In Hikkaduwa nearly every one is a surfer or looks as though they could be (apart from us, obviously). Where there are surfers, there is cheap beer and where there is beer, there are Scots. Well, Alec to be precise, the 66 year old pensioner we met who had by all accounts pub crawled his way from Fife and picked up some great stories and potential liver failure on the way. ... read more

36 hours travelling, 2 delays, 3 films, 4 magazines and no sleep later, we made it to Sri Lanka. Needless to say our taxi pick up was no where to be seen, but there was hundreds of eager taxi drivers ready to take us anywhere. We opted for the least sleaziest taxi driver to discover that in fact his truck/van/death trap was not fully operationaland required a push from 3 of his fellow taxi friends along the taxi rank! However we survived the drive to hotel - how the cyclists, tuk tuks and other drivers did, I'm not sure (the horn seems to be a signal for turning, overtaking and general bad driving!). Its a lot easier writing this by the pool, in the sun with a drink in my hand..almost forgotten the....how many hours traveling ... read more