Blue whales, the largest mammal on Earth and a lifelong dream of mine to see them in the wild. The Indian Ocean is one of the best places to do this as its a breeding and feeding ground as opposed to a place they pass through as is the norm with so many other blue whale spotting locations. The morning started as most on our holiday: waking before sunrise, then being picked up by a tuk-tuk at 5.50am to take us a distance we could easily walk. Glyn had pre-booked us with 'Raja and the Whales' and upon arrival we were offered sea-sickness tablets. Now having been on many boat trips and never once suffering from sea-sickness in my life, I wasn't going to take one and was concerned it may not mix with other medication ... read more

In the UK if you get a puncture in your car tyre, you have to pay a small fortune to replace it. In Sri Lanka, you repair it the same you would a bicycle tyre. I got to witness this today and Thuminda, our driver couldn't believe that we throw away a tyre for the sake of one small hole. Today we were heading to Mirissa on the south coast which is around an 8 hour drive from Sigiyira, although Thuminda said it could take longer if we need to take detours due to floods. Driving through countryside and towns I saw a lot of 'driving'. Copious amounts of beeping - to let others know you are tailgating and about to overtake despite oncoming traffic. Mopeds undertaking on the left, buses overtaking on the right regardless ... read more

Glyn and I caused quite a stir with the many stray dogs of Sigiriya this morning. It was 5.30am and they weren't expecting tourists to go walking down the road, so every single dog either barked or howled. The residents of Sigiriya must have loved us. The manager of our lodge was perturbed, the Rock wasn't open yet. We explained that we were off to photograph the sunrise; she looked bemused and just warned us to be careful of wild elephants. 'What?!' I said to Glyn, 'that would be awesomeness!'. No. It would be extremely dangerous, I was told. We walked to within view of Sigiriya Rock and waited for the most unimpressive sunrise ever. And to cap it off, no wild elephants, well, not yet... Thuminda arrived at our lodge just after 6.45 to take ... read more

After 3-4 hours sleep, my alarm went off as Glyn and I were to be picked up at 5.30 for a safari around Wilpattu National Park. Upon stepping out of our room, Bandara was straight on us, wanting to give us coffee but we tried to explain we had no time, 'but it's included' he called. 'We are due to be picked up in 5 minutes' we explained. Undeterred, Bandara followed us up the dirt track to the roadside where we waited for our pre-booked Safari, but Bandara wanted us to do our safari though him, despite Glyn explaining over and over again, and showing him a print out of the booking. 'Jeep man come?' he said (not for the last time by a long chalk). Jeep man was late and after 10 mins, Bandara was ... read more

I've gotten off a train at the wrong stop before but never a plane! Glyn and I were concerned that we seemed to be arriving 2.5 hours early because we had arranged to be picked up from the airport and there would be a lot of waiting. It wasn't until passport control that we found out that we were not in Sri Lanka, but the Maldives! No one told us that the plane stopped on the way from Istanbul. Looking out of the window at the many tropical islands below, a lot of which were entirely holiday accommodation, I did think it looked like photos I'd seen of the Maldives but just thought it must be similar. I also thought that the airport seemed very small for a capital city too... Apparently this does happen a ... read more