Galway Beach & Spa Beruwela

... a tuktuk to Tissamaharama as the constant military checkpoints meant it would take a ridiculous amount of time to travel a short way. We arrived at Tissa and found a place to stay, and arranged our safari for the next day with a tout who had a sob story about his 9 month old child and no tourists because of the troubles in the north etc etc ...

... brown on the outside and soft on the inside - ah - custurd apples! And mangos and more papya and I even tried some curd - which was not a fruit but severed alone with - and is perhaps an aquired taste - Im not sure if i liked it or not - but its in between yogurt - cheese and milk - and interesting taste for sure. My short stay here has not been long enough and hopefully I will come back again! Now I jet of for a strong contrast to life here - Tokyo!

... including the cricket ground got destroyed. I then headed up to Colombo and met Cath the CWW SL representative and stayed at her place. The training the next day was more a welfare introduction to the country and there were 3 others there too so was good chance to meet them and we got Domino's pizza which was quite exciting after a week of curry! I also saw a KFC so got excited thinking there might just be Starbucks - but there ...

... and Foreigners Only policy then you deserve to be paying the extortionate prices he charges. He is well known locally; his nearest neighbour invited us to use his house (and his local style bathroom) Free. We know there's nothing else we had another five kilometre treck, bags and all, just to make sure. It also taught us that the bus drivers in Sri Lanka are not only pisu (we knew there was a reason for that tourist advice) but they are ...

... and remove the offensive pieces. He brought back shell-less, antennae-less and legless shrimps. I made the same mistake (I must be getting old) at a lunch spot just the other day.. the shrimp were mixed in with the rice.. eyeballs, hairy antennae and legs akimbo.. ugh ugh ugh. I picked out the bodies, and ate the rice. It's embarrassing admitting my peculiar preference, but people are so kind, they hate to think you've been offended. You gotta laugh.

... how to do it and tried myself, which did not work as the howls of laughter from the builders emanated from the building site. So one of them came and helped me with it, and after about 20 Min's of sweat (builders) and tears (mine) it finally went on. Got the bus to the prison, which is like a roller coaster. It is essentially a tank that carries people at 80 miles and hour across the landscape, scattering all before it. The ride itself ...

... after disturbances that make vacancies in the growing space. The kind of knowledge gained is a key part of the basis for developing silviculture [the art, practice, and science of growing forests] that will sustain and augment the various forest values of the future." From Martin's strategic location, I hiked into Sinharaja with a highly-knowledgeable guide who was full of excuses not to stay in the forest. Guided walks are supposed to last all day ...

... my hands since Chamika and I met and he gave me the proper instruction. Its a bit weird at first, eating curry and rice with your fingers but you get really used to it and whats more; Nirosh is right, it does taste different. You just eat then wash hands in finger bowl after, drying hands on a sheet of newpaper provided and thus defeating the object by smearing your hands in news print! Another thing I forgot to tell you ios my constipation has come to a very abbrupt end!

Disclamer: this post is sad - skip it if you're not in the mood... After the New Year celebration I returned home to find Coffee (or Coppy - the gargantuan dog) lying on the ground semi-conscious. They figured he had ingested rat poison. He had gone to the vet that morning for some shots and an IV, but he was not improving ...

... so I could be in my sari (with much help from Nilu - the woman downstairs) by 8. (Dad - you thought it took 5 girls a long time to get ready? Can you imagine if we all had to get in a sari? There's no way we would we have ever made it to church on time!) When I was told Nilu and I would be picked up, I assumed one of the other guests would be coming for us, so I was quite surprised to find the bride in the van! The van was late, so the driver got ...