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Yesterday was a really quiet day, we left Yala National Park and headed off for an overnight stop in Tangalle. We arrived at our hotel somewhere around lunchtime and were free to relax for the rest of the day, this for me meant a swim in the pool followed by far too many beers and cocktails in the bar!! The hotel was located next to the beach, but, the sea was really rough. It's definitely advisable to keep an eye on the warning flags before going anywhere near it.
The last day of our tour sent us ultimately to Colombo with a few stop offs on the way. We stopped at a lighthouse which was in a beautiful location, again the sea was pretty rough so there were some spectacular views of the waves hitting the rocks around the lighthouse.
After a while driving we stopped off at a restaurant for a drink in the early afternoon, I have to say this was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. We arrived at the hotel and there was a wedding underway, we were taken inside and shown all the wedding decorations, food etc. and given a table
in the gardens surrounded by wedding guests, unsurprisingly we got a few funny looks rocking up in our shorts and flip flops... Quite clearly wondering where grow odd group of wedding crashes had appeared from! As soon as we could escape, we did and went to see a local lace maker. We were briefly shown how lace mats, table runners and things were made, I was amazed how quickly the woman was working with all the different bobbins and she wasnt even concentrating either!
Next stop was Galle Fort, a Dutch era fort which is basically a city within the walls of the original fort, there are many little streets within the walls with all many of shops. Many antiques to browse through, most of them with a very British origin. There a few museums and a few of the buildings were undergoing some restoration work. I headed up to the fort walls to get a view of the sea, it really was beautiful. Unfortunately, due to our schedule we had a very minimal amount of time to spend here which away a real shame, you could easily spend a good half day wandering round the area and take
in all it has to offer.
We continued the long drive on to Colombo aiming to reach the hotel by 5pm, we were staying in The Cinnamon Grand Hotel for the night, we checked in and met for dinner around 8pm. The hotel was lovely, kind of a more upmarket Marriott and the food was amazing.
It was an early start for the rest of the guys who I spent the last 12 days with as they were off to the airport, I got up early to wave them off and say goodbye to the lovely Nanda, our fantastic tour guide (and peacekeeper) for the last couple of weeks. I have to admit, I was very sad to see them all head off and being the big softy that I am, shed a few tears! I have 3 more days in Sri Lanka to chill out and I'll really miss everyone... Well apart from mental guy of course. I've been very lucky to have met such lovely people - Jan, Stuart, Kate, Richard and of course the lovely Nanda :-)
As I've said, I'm here to chill out for a few days in Negombo, I'll upload some
photos and things over the next few days.
Mental guy update: I had a row with mental guy on Tuesday as he was being more rude and childish than normal. It generally takes a lot for me to bite, but, this guy is something else. He then decided he wasn't going to talk to us for the rest of the tour HOORAY! He's been avoiding me like the plague ever since. When we checked into the last hotel he realised that due to the early morning pick up for the airport transfer, he'd miss out on breakfast and kicked off like you wouldn't believe at reception as we were checking in. The hotel said they would arranged a packed breakfast for everyone heading home... This clearly wasn't good enough because he couldn't spend a good half an hour shovelling food down his throat that would feed a family of 4 for at least 2 days! According to him it's the worst hotel he's ever been to. Oh well, I'm pleased to say I'm finally rid of the lunatic from London :-)
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Kate, your tour mate
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What a great blog ! Loved reading it and much better than my diary. I do fear that so much mention of the shuffling nutter meant that his negative impact on all of us was quite significant - which I suppose it increasingly was but the rest of you were soooooo lovely that, to me, he was more than cancelled out. As for your soft-hearted display on the last morning - Jan and I loved it and felt much the same way. Silly girl ! Do you suppose we all got on so well because we are all cat and animal people ? love and hugs x