Blogs from Western Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 27

hello all! I have had the most manic 10 days of my life! So much has happened and when I am trying to put it in words for you now it sounds pathetic how worked up I have been! So last time I spoke to you I was on my way to see an amazing temple then I went to see the massive buddest festival in Kandy which was so beautiful it was about 4 hours long (will wouldn’t have hated it!) there were over 50 elephants in it all lit up and hundreds of dancers. The next day I went to an elephant orphanage and then on to do an elephant ride which most of us came away itching from! Finally a week after I arrived my bag turned up it had been stuck at ... read more

From Brunei, we went back to KL airport, where we stayed overnight in an airport hotel (we just couldn't bring ourselves to sleep on the airport lounges..), and then flew to Colombo, Sri Lanka. We stayed with my uncle (mom's brother), aunty and grandmother, in the house my mother grew up in, and where we have spent most of our childhood summer holidays in... Sri Lanka is amazing... if I do say so myself. A tropical paradise in the true sense of the word... shame about the civil war huh? We had an amazing time there...... read more

After leaving paradise behind we certainly landed with a bang - the flight back to Chennai was pretty uneventful but unfortunately we had to waste about 8 hours at the airport before our next flight - oh the joys of travel. We've been using the airport business lounges where possible but unfortunately we weren't allowed to check in to the international airport 8 hours early so we had to go mad in the Indian heat one more time. Anyway we eventually made it to our flight and to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. And guess what - it was New Years night - again, that’s 4 New Years in 4 months, and of course alcohol is banned on New Years - don’t ask... As on our previous few trips we've really been leaving it to ... read more

Geo: 6.9155, 79.8572From the southwest shores of India, our journey took us beyond the tip of India, southeast to the teardrop-shaped country of Sri Lanka (formally known as "Ceylon"). Its biggest claim to fame is tea and chances are, if you are drinking a nice hot mug of tea right now, it probably came from this heavenly land.We had a short two-hour hop on Sri Lankan Airways and arrived 30 miles north of the capital city of Colombo. We describe Sri Lanka as "India-lite" since it didn't have the chaos and intensity of India (which, for us, definitely gave India its charm). The root of this basic difference seemed to be, at least to us, the huge difference in population - 20 million versus India's 1.5 billion! Probably the best part about Sri Lanka was that ... read more

Well its been and interesting three weeks, but now tis time to move on... But before we do that, we'd better update you on wot we've been up to for the last week, as we have been so busy and too knackered to write!!! It turns out that this tour round Sri Lanka was a lot more physically challenging than we'd first anticipated. Steve was fine of course, dont know where he gets the energy, but Rozi was flagging a little climbing hills in 30 degree heat, having had virtually no sleep the night before thanks to geckos. So glad we dont have them at home. They look cute, but believe me they are noisy!!! We did a 2 day hike up in the highlands in the middle of the island around a national park and ... read more