Well, now that we've finally got our bags and visa's sorted, we thought it might be about time to write about some of the actual cultural experiences we've had. Chilling out at the guesthouse, and oasis of calm in chaotic Colombo, it's given us a chance to put our heads about the parapet and reflect on the experiences we've had so far and to look forward to some of the things we're going to do in Sri Lanka. We've barely met a Westerner since we've been here! Aside from Tom the sweaty sock who has had similar fun obtaining an Indian visa, we've been surrounded by genuine, down to earth Lankans; Sunil, the Ferrari-driving cabbie with his home-made religion, Somasasa, the enthusiastic chef with his unquestionable desire to seal his new found friendship with an entire ... read more

Hello everyone, we are due to fly on Monday and are frantically getting ourselves sorted out. We planned to get our visas at the start of this week but after finding out there was an Indian festival on Monday we waited until the visa application centre was open and headed over on Thursday to sort out our visas for India. From experience we knew it would be a day of long queues and boredom but we would come away with our visa at the end of it and finally feel like all of this is real! Sooo.... imagine our surprise when we got to the centre in Hayes, found an orderly waiting room and were called to our desk within 5 minutes of arriving! All the documents were put through and we were informed collection was ... read more