The Pearl Negombo

... as a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and styling gel. From us you learn the state of your nation, and especially its management by the people you elected to give your children a better future. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant one. But while you may grumble in the privacy of your armchair, the journalists who hold the mirror up to you do so publicly and at great risk to themselves. That is our calling ...

... because it is so close to where I live - only about 16km away. There are a series of caves where the walls and roof of the cave itself have been carved and decorated and date back to the third century BC. We went to the top of the rock where we 4 young visiting Monks from the Galle area were who were very obliging for us to take a photo. This was quite welcome because it can be considered insulting to take a photo of a Monk and is ...

... in, they were full so we stayed at the Star Beach having looked at and rejected the second hotel in the Silver Sands group. We did have a look at The Silver Sands and it looked quite nice so we booked for our first night after our return from the Maldives.

... what the Muslim, Hindu and Christian minorities think. The security situation is not quite as bad as painted, except in the north. There are many checkpoints in and around Colombo but we were only stopped once and that was on our way to the airport in a tuk-tuk; they were only interested in the driver, not us. There are also army check posts along the roads, cars are stopped and inspected but not before one approaches the eastern area. Curiously, buses drive much faster after one ...

... fighting occurs in the north and east ends of the island where the extremist group, the Tamil Tigers, maintain their influence. We, obviously, stayed on the west and south ends where it was calm. Even so, the military was everywhere and you couldn't travel a day without getting stopped on the side of the road for security checks less than 3 times a day. We had it easy though, as our white Scottish/Irish skin clearly indicated we were not the ...

Day 31: Colombo - Sri Lanka The dreaded day of going home arrives and we check out of our hostel and have breakfast at an Indian place. I have a cheese masala dosa, which is one of the best breakfasts I ever had. :D After that we head for the airport where we spend some time shopping and spending our last Singapore dollars. We were supposed to fly out of Singapore early in the morning, but due to night flights from and to Colombo (our stopover in Sri Lanka) suddenly being ...

So my last stop and bit of a let down. A beech you cant swim in and now where the feel of the south beeches. So when the weather continued to act up I decided it was time to leave. The others had all flown home and it was my time to. I managed to change my flights and after only one night here I was heading back to the UK.

... apparently home to one of Buddhas original teeth. After this we spent the afternoon wandering around Kandy City, through the markets & shops, to the railway station so Ted could snap some trains & get a souvenir ticket. The highlight was the 8 of us hiring out 4 tuk-tuks &amp ...

... challenge for pastoral care. Lieve: I had an ecumenical marriage but what is going on in the West, Catholics and Protestants have closed themselves off from each other. The effect is that both are losing their members. Astrid: the challenge is to organize a group of interfaith families. Workshops 10 am Workshop A Paper 1 : Kochurani Workshop A Paper 2 : Jeane Agnes: tragic moral situation: women are not only victims and also agent of choice. Abortion ...

... so beautiful. so much so that i extended my stay here by another day. The people that work here are all extremely friendly, much like the rest of the negombo population, and the food is awesome. On my first day i took a walk on the beach and stopped and spoke to a few local people. i then Sujee - a tuk tuk driver who has been with me for 2 days now. we arranged the next days sight seeing and i went back to the guest house to sleep. Later that evening i met Victor while i was eating in ...