Rani Holiday Village Negombo

... have been burned, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories, and now especially the last. I have been in the business of journalism a good long time. Indeed, 2009 will be the Sunday Leader's 15th year. Many things have changed in Sri Lanka during that time, and it does not need me to tell you that the greater part of that change has been ...

... is definitely not to be recommended. Having been kept waiting half an hour for our taxi to take us to the airport because the driver was ill and the replacement driver couldn't see well enough in the dark to drive (watching his attempts to reverse the taxi into the hotel drive way we were inclined to agree) we thought nothing else could go wrong. Leaving aside that the second replacement driver was more interested in taking his wife home than taking us to the airport we were just a ...

... the top. By then you were looking at another cliff and wondering whether the plane would stop in time to avoid falling off the end of the runway. The Maldives International airport on Hulele island has a runway which extends into the sea at both ends of the island. Coming in to land is easily the best part of a visit to Maldives; the shallow water around the coral reefs and scattering of ...

... deep end. Hard work. ! After a while i was stuffed so i went to the bar and had a few Coronas. Later i met up with my tour leader Bruno and the 4 other Aussies on my trip and discussed what was going to happen. After we walked to a nearly local restaurant and sat down to a yum meal of veggie soup and veggie fried rice. Venturing back to the hotel we relaxed by the pool for a nightcap then it was off to bed...

... walking under umbrellas, and local families gathered together. As a very rare tourist I was constantly smiled at or spoken to by nearly everyone I passed. Apparently, western concepts of privacy and solitude are little understood (I would have better understood why, if it had only been the ladies!) in an island whose culture is based on extended family grouping and closely knit societies in which everybody knows everyone else's business (a bit like the village ...

Ooooh! I had a really smurfy time in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) exploring the temples and nature and even a tea plantation. At some of the Temples you have to have your bags searched before you can go in. On one occasion, two very pretty Sri Lankan ladies, in stylish Army uniforms (and carrying guns) were very puzzled ...

... but I can't teach them that as you would need to translate what is being said - can't draw grammar or point to it in a book!! Anyway I did "shapes" today and got them to read a page each from a book. It was only a children's book but I was very impressed by their level of reading. I've noticed the other classes can only pronounce ...

... Next day we went to Dambulla, the home of the historic rock temples - at the top of a hill are a series of caves & shrines to Buddha, with ancient paintings on the walls & ceilings. That afternoon we drove to Kandy, the main city in the Central Highlands. Now i loved Kandy, a real ...

... marriages. Being rejected by the Church and be marginalized is very painful and one that affects her children. But she was reassured by the understanding that the Church is big. (Cite the paper) Metti: The presentation allowed us to journey with Astrid. Sharon: I am able to resonate with you. How to deal with extended families? Astrid: Extended families learned to grow with us. Christianity had acquired a face; it is Astrid. Nonie: Baptism as ...

... There wasn't very much to see because everything was closed and it's a fairly small place anyway, but it was very pleasant to be on the bikes and have a little explore. In the evening we tried to plan our time for the next 2 weeks, trying to see as much as possible whilst appreciating that 2 weeks isn't very long and we can't possibly see everything. Tune in over the next fortnight to see how our plan develops. (R)