Sunflower ( A/C) Negombo

One final utterly serious note to end on. While we were in Sri Lanka, the Civil War raged in the far North, although we would never have known it. There were no journalists witnessing or reporting on the alleged atrocities being perpetrated by both side and ordinary people didn't want to talk to us about it. They are so frightened of harming tourism - their livelihood. It was like nothing was happening. At some point during our stay, the Editor of the ...

... down I called the CEO but he was out of the country. His Chief Commercial Manager tried to get us a transfer to Sri Lankan with whom they have a transfer arrangement on the sector but Sri Lankan wouldn't play ball so the best they would do was arrange a full refund of our fare for the sector. Had I not complained we might not have got that; the cancellation docket actually charged us a $25 per person cancellation fee. We managed to find an alternative flight, at higher cost but it ...

... the claimed 1991 adult literacy rate of 98.2 percent would make Maldives the highest in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. Ahmed joined us for dinner, which saved us from another rip off. The restaurant was a fixed price buffet at $10 per head or 100Rf for locals - a twenty five percent discount which is what we paid. Not much to do after dinner, no bars and not a ton in which to wander at night, its too tightly packed with narrow pavements and constant traffic; so to bed.

... happening (well 5 at a time) and stood on the sidelines and had a look. God must have known there was a heathen in the building because a bird shat on me.! I cleaned myself up and made my way down to the dutch fort and the fish market again. There were thousands of fish, barramundi, mackerel, shark all drying on the beach. I found a cool veggie market nearby and walked through then got lost again - a tuk tuk ...

... a table and chest of drawers, whilst family photos and various religious artifacts were pinned to the walls near the entrance. Anna teaches the children herself because of difficulties getting them into the local school, initially because they are not classed as 'local' residents and latterly because she simply cannot afford the materials to get uniforms made. The more questions she asked about my privileged London life, the more uncomfortable I felt. Having ...

... a hole in the top of the rocks, and you hear a rumble and then a big explosion of water comes firing out, it was pretty impressive. We have been having lazy days, enjoying the weather, 45 degrees today!! going for long walks, and chatting with the locals on the beach. We have seen Monitor Lizards, monkeys, toads, along our walks, we have gecco's in our room at night, but so far nothing too scary!!!! The guys who work at our Hotel are ...

... the elephants are scared of the revving engines! It was amazing to get so close to them. They come out from the wilderness everyday to feed from the dump - they know where to get good food. I don't want to think about what I walked over to see them but it was worth it! Needless to say my feet had a good wash! Also there was another novelty today....a Saturday with power. It was only off for about 2hrs today, which is a first since I've been here!

... country & ramming an elephant. As our guide Jan said, 'when a car hits an elephant, car is like a poppadom'. Well said Jan! The safari was brilliant - saw about 50 wild elephants in total, rambling their way through the plains & jungles of Central Sri Lanka, it really was great ...

... to interfaith marriage. The choice is primarily motivated by love; differences in religion sometimes take a backseat. Early on, she had to grapple with differences in culture, tradition, upbringing, etc. However, should we look upon these differences as opportunities to grow creatively as a couple, and a family? She thinks yes. Institutional Church is slow in accepting interfaith marriage and after 18 years, she still remembers the pain of ...

... the national dish, known as curry rice, a name which belies its variety and size. I went for prawn and Tim had fish, and with those we also got 4 bowls of vegetable curries between us, a mountain of rice and some pappad (poppadums to you and I). The vegetables were sweet potato curry, dry-cooked aubergine with pineapple, okra in a creamy curry, and a very dry but absolutely amazing concoction of what we think was ...