Rosen Renaissance Hotel Kataragama Beruwela

... in a jeep and saw eagles, peacocks, wild buffalo, wild boar, mongoose, spotted deer, crocodiles (as if we hadn't seen enough!) land monitors, beeeaters, elephants, but still no flaming leopards! We did find a pawprint of one though - and supposed tracks where a leopard had killed something... That afternoon we headed to Tangalla, a smallish ...

... elephants were quite cheeky and kept trying to slyly get back into the penned area to get more milk!! It was hilarious to watch! When we were in the national park we saw about a herd of these young elephants, they had been released the previous year and all had little collars on their neck to identify them........ they were gorgeous! I am definitely in love with elephants! After all the excitement of the elephants we ...

... and has the highest number of all the national parks - so I hope they play the game this weekend. Will try to update each week on what I get up to at the weekends - I have put together my target list of places I want to visit so we will see how I get on. The following ones won't be as long - just wanted to introduce my NGO etc as well because that is the main reason I am here! Would like to post more pics but they take such a long time to upload!

... down or take up a space which could be taken by a passenger. Here we are talking about old fashioned single-decker forty eight seaters which would be allowed eleven standing in India, not that the average Indian driver feels that is a restriction on adding a couple of dozen more. In Sri Lanka the norm is to have more people standing, crouching beside the driver, hanging from the platform or any other place they can be shoved than there are seated.

... was impressive, but wasn't enough to stop me heading back to meet Karu after less than an hour.More heavy rain fell as we drove through Galle (where I was due to return later) and a further 5km south-east to the ever expanding village of Unawatuna (Una-what-una), my base for the next 4 nights. Unawatuna is now firmly established as Sri Lanka's most popular resort for independent travellers. Set snugly in a pretty semi-circular bay, picturesquely terminated by a ...

... part of the day occurred, and the next 12 hours are ones that i will never ever forget. The phone rang and it was Ronali. Made the fatal mistake of first off asking if i had seen the news today. Alarm bells ringing i answered nervously no.. what happened. She went on to tell me that there were a couple of worth quakes in the same place as the one that caused the Tsunami in 2004 and that there may be another one on the way. Throughout this, i ...

... through Sinharaja, turning a forest of frog calls and cicada droning into a wide array of sound, with birds flying around similar to the TIE Fighters and X-Wings battle scenes of Star Wars. First, all was calm as I followed the drilling beak sound from a couple of Crimson-backed Flamebacks. The sound is best described as a marble dropped from five inches onto a kitchen counter. Soon, a group of Ceylon-crested Drongos flew from tree to tree in the ...

... I realised the extent of what Ngombo had to offer. Prostitutes, hassle and 4 other tourists over 65 in a fairly big town. One pleasant woman who didnt shut up, a racist yorkshireman, a german pervert and a spaniard who whilst was pleasant turned out to be full of false info. Down another snake. I decdided to go to bed at 6.30pm and like a kid on christmas eve bring the new day faster. And so I escaped to Colombo on the bus. A white knuckle ...

INDECOS has a celebration every January 1st with its staff and board members. This put a decisive kink in my habitual New Years Eve celebration, but my vacation was drawing to an end and I missed my girls (plus habits are bad)! So I made my way back to Matara on Dec 31st. January 1st, Nilu and Pati wished me a happy new year by offering me kiri bath, sambol and cake. Kiri ...

... out... But I digress. The registration. So we got to Conrad's, the bride was whisked in and sat next to the groom at a table in the living room. They signed a bunch of papers. Lots of pictures were taken. They exchanged rings. Then they kissed. Cut the cake; the bride and groom feed cake to their parents and in-laws, the parents and in-laws feed each other cake. Then they took a bunch of pictures. They reenacted the bride's mom feeding milk to ...