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On our way to Kandy we passed through Matale and visited the Hindu temple – Sri Muthumariamman Thevasthanam. There is always someone on hand to show you around the temple (for a price of course) and this temple was very ornate and well supported by locals. Hidden away are five enormous and colorful ceremonial chariots which are pulled along by people during an annual festival. Shoes off – and this time an entrepreneural young man noted our western Tiva sandles and took them to safety in a cardboard box only to be disappointed when we took them back without payment – but many thanks as we thought they had been stolen….. We arrived in Kandy (still raining) with plenty of time to spend at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic and attend the nightly cultural ... read more

We spent 2 nights at the Lion Rock Guest House – close to Lion Rock and just a little way out of Sigiriya. Another surprising little guest house in the middle of nowhere – only 8 rooms – each building was painted aqua green with white trim and our room was painted lime green and the bathroom was peachy/orange….but the only thing I really wanted when I arrived there was to peel myself out of my clinging wet clothes and get into a nice hot shower….which we did and then followed that up with a nice cold beer. It was still raining heavily and we were getting a bit concerned about climbing up Lion Rock – this is the place that I really wanted to see on this trip and I was a little worried….but…thank goodness ... read more

Arrived in Colombo at about 4am after a 10 hour stopover in Mumbai airport. Found a quiet “sleeping” area with couches to try to get some rest but the others resting there spent most of their time on their mobile phones and talking….but did manage to get a few minutes of shut eye. Feroze of Bobby Travels was at the airport to meet us – which was great – he took us straight to our hotel and we went to bed at about 5am – slept straight for 7 hours. Hot and steamy in the middle of the day but a nice walk along the beach late afternoon and a couple of drinks and dinner and then I settled in for a couple of movies. Negombo is on the beach and is only about 10kms from ... read more

We have been in Kathmandu for about 2 weeks now and are settling into a bit of a routine. But, firstly, back to the beginning. We had a good easy flight with a stopover in our favourite little "airport" hotel - The Floral Shire Resort - not fancy but clean, breakfast and free transfers to and from the airport. Thai Airlines had offered us an extra 10kg each free because we were volunteering but I completely misunderstood their regulations and all our baggage had to be booked direct to Kathmandu from Brisbane to get the extra kgs - so a mad dash around the airport to buy toothbrush, deodrant, etc for an overnight stop in Bangkok. Met at Kathmandu airport by my very excited friend, Manoj, and Buddha (president of the Gandharba Cultural Art Organisation.....we were ... read more

Michael and I sadly left Vietnam towards the end of April – this trip had turned out to be a lot more interesting than we had anticipated. Our original reason for this trip was to attend a friend’s wedding…and we were very honoured to be invited to this wedding…..more about this in my next blog…… So, as you know from my previous blog, the four of us (Michael and Roslyn Amiss and Russell Ellett and Merri Hogan) went ahead and built a small shop attached to Hien’s parents-in-law house. The building was nearly completed prior to our returning to Australia. We were very surprised how quickly the building went up. Hien’s husband worked every day on the building aided by two talented assistants. We tried to go out to the building site at least every second ... read more