Golden Sun Resort Kalutara

... off" with the help of my hand. Not very intelligent I know but he was behaving like an idiot!!

I came back to the hotel to watch Rennes on the internet and they lost 0-3 to Valenciennes at home which is pretty ****. The 2 guys working at the hotel were blatantly gay and acting weirder and weirder with me. First every time I went to ask them something they were simply looking at my crutch it was so obvious!! They kept complimenting on ...

... behind sandbags on city streets. The government has fought a civil war for decades with rebels who at this point seem to be isolated on the North and East coasts, far from anywhere we were going. But Colombo is still a prime target for rebel suicide bombers, who have attacked the main railway station, many buses and even the airport in the past. And my brother-in-law, a journalist who specializes in Asian crime and terror issues, told me, "The Tamil Tigers basically invented ...

... to get out of there. Later, when I checked their website, I was also unhappy to see they were still requesting donations in the name of the tsunami 4 years earlier, without being specific about what they were going to do with the money. (Their location is nowhere near the tsunami damage.) And by the way, both Jae and Miles LOVED the elephant ride. I suppose if "Dad" had fallen into traffic or onto barbed wire, that just would've given them a better story!

... metal steps, probably the scariest climb I've ever taken. There's a small British tour group just ahead of me and about 1/2 of them decide against making the climb.It's hard to imagine how people went up before the stairs were there.You can see some small steps carved into the rock. I don't know if the danger of the climb would have been worth the advantage of the protection of being at the top.Except for the great views, there really isn't much to see at the top except for ...

... us headed to the pool again in the afternoon and spent a lovely 3 hours heating up in the sun, cooling off in the pool, reading, sleeping, etc. It's a nice pool area but just needs the finishing touches - some rough edges. We left Max back in the room and headed off to see if we could get to the sea down one of the side streets - and the answer was yes - though we had to cross the railway line to get to the rocks and metre wide strip of soft ...

... the baby behind their backs to protect it. Maybe they thought that we would take their baby from them. We saw the elephants everywhere; in their watering hole, in the grass, on the road. It was a fantastic experience. One of the elephants even 'mock charged'. It was amazing that the driver could tell between a mock charge and a real charge at the car. We saw other wildlife too, like peacocks, hawks, eagles and monkeys. The monkeys were funny; they ...

... dolls with 80s backcombed hair and nylon dresses NAILED to the top. Behind that already weird line up was a set of symbols ( like you get on a drum set ) sadly I never did find out what the whole line up was for ( other than scaring small children ) as our lift arrived which was lucky as Del had just spotted last weeks airport obsessed tuk tuk driver heading towards us The down turn in the tourist trade meant we were able to afford a ...

... J CHAMIN, SHEHANI AND FRIENDS I went out with Chamin, Binny/Thivi/Sanjeeve's cousin for a night of drinks and dancing. He and his friends were lovely and showed me some good city hotspots. By the end of the night, I felt like I had known them for years...and we spent some good time teasing Chamin (I thought it only fair since I had my share at Kandana)! I also spent a weekend at the beach in Negombo with him ...

... then due to the war in the north with the Tamil Tigers. Our first night there was a quiet one. We had some food whcih we decided was not as good as Indian food and then went to bed. We were woken in the middle of the night by the sound of 4 explosions which we later found out to be the Tamil Tigers attacking the airport which was 10 km away. Lovely! We reassued ourselves that they only target the military bases, we made a trip into Colombo and we got the ...

... any money there. I went out of the holy room with the footprint in time to see the puja procession (offering) going by and people crowding to touch the offerings which passed right in front of me. I wished I could reach out to touch the puja, just as all the pious buddhists were doing. But there I was, an outsider and an unbeliever for whom everything was just a curious show.      Buddhists sat on the cold floor to pray. I wished we could stay ...