We left!

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We actually left!


I write this now (This is now out of date. We are in Arugam bay but wifi has been shocking at all places we have stayed so far!) sitting in our first airbnb here in Negombo, Sri Lanka. It still doesn’t feel quite real being here knowing we have such a long time overseas ahead of us.

Going for 6 months (and having a child) really changes the dynamic of going on holiday. There wouldn’t be so many good-byes and preparation if you were only travelling for a couple of weeks. Cairo interestingly seems more settled despite the very different environment. I think now we have arrived he is better able to understand what we are doing even if we haven’t quite figured it out!

We flew out of Auckland at midnight and were in the air for 12 long hours. Cairo slept ok which meant we didn’t sleep at all. He was sat between Sarah and I spread across 3 seats moving constantly!

We landed in Singapore and spent 3 hours there. I suspect a lot of people already know this but the airport is incredibly large. As expected it was all very orderly and clean. Sarah was hating life after being awake so long and questioning why people bother travelling such a long way for short periods.

We then flew another 4 hours and landed in ‘Colombo’ (actually about an hour out of Colombo). We got a SIM card ($16 for 22gb of data and a lot of calls/texts) and got a taxi across to Negombo, a popular place for people to stay a couple of nights after long flights.

Negombo is supposed to be a bit average, and it is. However, the place we booked was really great. In middle of a little local community without any other tourist things around, you get a real sense of what the local people are like. Highlights so far have been, going to a place for dinner where we got a great selection of curries and rice for $2.50. Going to a local bakery down the road and getting heaps of bread/muffins for $1.50. And, doing a little trip into the heart of Negombo and seeing where the locals catch, salt and dry fish lying out on mats on the beach. Kind of shocking how many fish! Fresh resolve to stop eating seafood and contributing to overfishing!

We are now going to embark on getting to Arugam bay which is on the other side of the island. We plan to go most of the way other with trains largely to save money but also because people say they are really cool. The fist trip is from here to Gelioya tomorrow.

So far Sri Lanka feels super safe, I think having Cairo is like a magic ticket, people love him and seem to be pretty accomodating because of him, he keeps getting his cheek rubbed, and everyone says hi. He’s doing really well despite being hotter than he’s ever been, and is totally happy just drawing and driving his cars around and digging around in the sand (neglectful, distracted parenting is paying off!). Our toilet has a hose (and toilet paper, your choice) and he has decided he loves using the hose ‘cause it feels nice, so that was a painless transition! I wish we’d bought some kind of game with us for the hot afternoons, but hopefully something turns up!

I’m not sure how often I’ll post but keep coming back to see more!

Meltdowns: 1
Tuk tuks caught: 3
Ripped off: once
Meal of the day: Vegan burger and watermelon juice
Budget: Over! The vegan burger and chips was a $10 blow out

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