The Palace Negombo

... There we swap yarns, discuss politics and joke about the good old days. A few remarks to him would therefore be in order here. Mahinda, when you finally fought your way to the Sri Lanka Freedom party presidential nomination in 2005, nowhere were you welcomed more warmly than in this column. Indeed, we broke with a decade of tradition by referring to you throughout by your first name. So well known were your commitments to human rights and liberal ...

... diseases and illness can be caused by demons and there is a devil dance (which is like an exorcism ceremony) which summon the demons who are causing a person to be sick, make offerings to them and request that they leave their victim in peace. There are different groups of demons, which are responsible for certain diseases, each represented by a different mask (35 different masks) and some of them are pretty hideous looking. There is ...

... entirely sure if its a very large mouse or a very small rat, but either way it enjoys popping out of the ceiling, running down the wall and scaring the **** out of me just as im about to fall asleep. Had a great day today (Saturday 1st March) chilling down by the beach. I got talking to some local kids and we all went jellyfishing (or jellyfish fishing, whatever you want to call it). Now this isnt the Spongebob kind of jellyfishing with nets and goggles and what not - the Sri Lankan ...

... This budget hotel is Rs3300 a night, with AC, mini fridge, TV. I have not seen or heard any mozzies. Just around the corner I am sitting in Surf n' Play internet shop, for Rs60 an hour. Fast internet. average meal cost Rs200 average soft drink cost Rs60 Pepsi bottle 1.5 litre Rs115 auto rickshaw - tuk tuk - everything seems to be about Rs200. airport magazine set price at Rs30 per km, but you must have to haggle alot to get that price.

... back to the table wh**e our ord** was still being packed ( minus the vaccines that come last ) and eventually when ev**ything had been triple checked the vaccines w**e brought to us in a cardboard box packed with ice bags The journey home took about 2 hours and I was fretting that the vaccines would get to warm and be useless ( I could have done with seeing a chap on a bike deliv**ing blocks of ice like in Colombo bus station around the time ...

... far happier running in and out of the hokey pokey! I think Wednesday has to be my favourite day! We were a teacher down today. Millani was off sick. She is one of the two full time teachers so there was just me and Kandyima at preschool. That was 2 of us for 28 kids! It's much more laid back here, in terms of ratio's of adults to children, as you can tell! Tonight's entertainment will be doing my washing - fun filled for all!

... fixed so Saturday night was a chance to catch up on emails. I don't know what i was doing, but after typing a very very long email, it decided to wipe itself off the computer! wasn't impressed so started to retype for a 2nd time and the same thing happened!! Needless to say i wasn't happy! But as they say....3rd time lucky! Roderick also left last night. He was meant to stay until ...

... or at least some women thought of us as fitting the category of theologians.  In our group of 8 women plus our Sinhalese driver/guide, we had Josephine, a 72 year old retired principal from Myanmar; a Sinhalese lawyer Marini, who weighs more than 200 lbs; Julia, a Singaporean nun with a pronated foot who had some difficulty walking up and down stairs so used us as substitute for the walking stick that we said she didn't need; Teresa ...

... a little bit cleaner than Indian buses. Local buses were similar but the views from the widows tended to be greener and less poverty-infused than their Indian equivalent. Trains We only took a few train journeys on the island (Hatton - Haputale; Galle - Colombo; and Colombo - Negombo). The Galle train was uncomfortable and of a similar satandard to second class Indian trains. The Hatton train was a lovely journey - the best by train on this trip so far. Not ...

Today we fly to Colombo, Sri Lanka. The flight took 45 minutes with Sri Lankan Airlines and is one of the best flights I've ever had. We landed just after lunch time and airport security was at its maximum. We had no idea where we were headed so we stopped at one of the travel desks and discussed our options. We only have two weeks and want to pack in as much as we can ...