Oh well...here it is - the last blog. It's Sunday evening - the day before WORK !!! Six months off....it feels like going back to school after the summer holidays :O( Anyway....we came back from travelling with a month to go, and whilst we were away we hatched a plan to go and see a bit more of the UK. It's funny - but whilst travelling, it's very easy to romantise about being 'back home'. Talk of pubs, and the BBC, and simply being able to cook up some beans on toast are a common occurrence. So...we decided rather than sitting [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone. Seems a bit strange to be writing a blog about an Indian beach when sitting in a traffic jam on the M25 (Lou's driving), but that's the wonder of technology eh? One hour and two junctions! Welcome back to the real world. We've just finished our final leg (the British bit), which will follow in a blog sometime soon, and which has been great fun - so we had a bit of time to chose some photo’s from Goa. Now…what can we remember... Hmm...So Goa eh? What can you say. After all we've done over the last 5 months, [View Full Entry]

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So...Bangalore...the silicon valley of India. What a cool town. Stuffed full of ultra cool bars and quality restaurants, with tree lined avenues and parks and pavements that people use, and if we are not mistaken, a few decibles less on the horn usage. It feels like we've been on an Easyjet weekend rather than visting an India city. Steve would surely like to come back for work and live it up on expenses. Intially though, we had real problems finding a hotel ..everywhere we called was full, even the seriously cheap....we found out that some spritual guru was in town for [View Full Entry]

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Au revoir!! As Chennai doesn't have that much more to offer the tourist, we decided to take a bus trip down the coast to Pondicherry, a lovely town that was occupied by the French years back and still retains lots of French influence. We found a great hotel (Ram Guest House), which was more like a hotel you'd find in a modern european city. The streets are lined with beautiful trees that give a wonderful dappled shade from the seering heat and the majority of the houses are in a wonderful old french colonial style. We had pinch ourselves quite a [View Full Entry]

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So we're back in India. Chennai/Madras is quite a shock to the system after Sri Lanka...it is the dirtest city we have visited so far...the dust, heat, smells and poverty are all ten fold. It's great to be eating Indian food again though...we found a great veg restaurant for our first lunch. There are hardly any tourists in the city, so you the food is very authentic (but no Madras. Steve was gutted!) We paid a rickshaw guy to take us round the sights for a couple of hours. We visted the amazing Kapaleeswarar temple, an ancient Shiva temple, the biggest [View Full Entry]

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Oh well...you know...after a few months travelling - one needs a holiday. Cue the South Coast of Sri Lanka (Tangalle & Unawatuna). Picture perfect beaches, turtle watching & setting free, rooms 10 steps from the water, watching Arsenal play live on Sat at 9pm with the sand in our toes (1-1 Bolton - close shave - but at least Chelsea lost). Not much more to say really.... S&L x PS: Actually - there is a little bit. This was the area hit by the Tsunami. We heard some harrowing tales from people who were actually there, and who had lost loved [View Full Entry]

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So our next adventure was a safari in Yala National Park on the South East Coast. We stayed in a lovely little hotel called Vikum in Tissa and the owner arranged a full days safari, with a great guide and just the two of us. We had been warned that it was very difficult to spot the Top 3 animals: the Leopard, Elephant & Sloth Bear....but we were extremely luckily and saw all 3! the leopard bing the hardest to spot, lying high up in a tree (especially when you have shit binoculars!) plus lots of beautiful peacocks, crocs, mongoose, deer, [View Full Entry]

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Islington Gazette Headline Steve Holland in non-Cuzza Shocker !! In a surprising turn of events, Islington local Steve Holland was spotted out last Tuesday in an English Restaurant - The Hill Club in Kandy. The significance of this cannot be under estimated, as for the last 15 years, the self confessed curry-a-hollic has celebrated on that date - his birthday - with a Chicken Madras and several Kingfishers. On catching up with him outside the restaurant he had this to say: " Well - you know - we've been in India and Sri Lanka for 6 weeks, and if you think [View Full Entry]

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So…Adam’s peak. The guide books describe it as a stunning climb up a pilgrims mountain (apparently it’s the place where Buddha first stepped on earth). We decided to give it a go…sounded like fun. Oh boy ! Talk about hard work !! It turns out Adam’s peak is a 2,500 meter tall perfect 45 degree mountain peak. The nice people of Sri Lanka have built steps all the way up…but that basically means a stiff climb up over a vertical kilometer…stairway to hell more like !! Oh..and just to cap it, it turns out the best thing is to see sunrise [View Full Entry]

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So...after Kandy and basically off for a circular tour of the 'old bits' of the island, and my my it's a fascinating place. We started off on a small detour to a herb and spice garden. A bit of a tourist trap, but we had a fantastic talk from a professor of something or other, and then a 'free' massage. Wow - beat anything we had in India by a long shot - incredibly soothing - done by pressing with hard fingertips. Not sure what they put in the tea, but in a rather unusual act for us we ended up [View Full Entry]

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