The Pearl of the Indian Ocean

The others have gone to a tea plantation then are lunching afterwards. Tea plantations I have seen and a day to myself sound like much more fun so I stay behind for the day and started slowly.  Some time during my day of hanging out I remembered the disgusting chocolate I bought the other day. Full of palm oil and coated the roof of my mouth. I was happy to offload it. Palm Oil is widely used here and often mixed with cheap coconut oil. Gross Wandering the streets I see a number of restaurants despite being told they were only in hotels. Most have ready made cabinet food, same old, same old. There was one that I would have liked to try but it was full and had no fans. I pass a temple. Then a mosque. I hear church bells all within the space of a few metres. The mosque was the plainest mosque I have ever seen. All white, no tiling, quite boring.  For my 120 rupees spent on last nights lottery I got 40 back which I reinvested together with another 80 = 120 ru...

At the moment I’m on the train going through the central highlands passing through the highest point in Sri Lanka. The train track was built by the British so it’s slow going especially uphill.   My group have been split up although we are sitting relatively close to one another. It seems consecutive numbered seats dont mean you sit together but at either side of the aisle. It was a bit confusing and I ended up with an aisle seat but quickly realised that our ‘spare’ seat hadn’t been nabbed. That was next to the window and offered great views for the first part of the journey.  Some dipstick and his partner insisted on sitting together and caused a bit of drama resulting in a french boy with a massive pout sitting in someone else’s seat next to his equally dour partner. Oh dear how sad.  So far I am in a seat by myself. Perfect score. Another rucus begins. It looks like a scuffle and I can see Mr French pout in the centre if it. Yay! Another scrap. But it was...

Ah the joys of travel I say it each trip. I hate travelling. The act of getting from one place to another, border control, bumpy flights, screaming kids, queueing, people fighting to board and rubbish food at airports. Hate it.  But without it I cant indulge in my passion of embracing new cultures, learning traditions, tasting new foods and meeting like minded people. And so I suck it up.  Right now I am at Auckland International Airport, Gate 8 waiting to board a flight to Singapore having arrived in Auckland from Wellington a few hours ago.  We are squashed into the gate area, with said screaming kids, waiting to find out what ‘engineering issue’ is holding up our departure. Thank goodness I have a long lay over in Singapore so no need to panic yet!   The queue of people is getting longer as passengers line up as if they will miss out if the don’t get on the plane before anyone else. Its not like they don’t have an allocated seat and we have been to...

Being in the town considered the centre of Buddhism, a World Heritage site, we had to visit the Temple that holds the left canine tooth of the buddha which was bought to Sri Lanka in the 4th century ad.   The shrine itself in built inside a rather interesting building with a traditional ornate Sri Lankan roof style and further along a simpler roof made of real gold. Value immeasurable!   Many people were wearing white to show equality and purity and many carried offerings of flowers.  We were lucky enough to see a blessing ceremony opened by musicians with drums and a flute. The room containing the casket with the tooth is opened for monks and the musicians to enter. The doors a closed behind them and the ceremony ends.  Hundreds of people have gathered to watch the ceremony. Most of them appear to be locals. Most of them are short but each has a smile from ear to ear and has an absolute belief in their religion and associated traditions.  Our n...

We set off at a reasonable time headed for Kandy. Ananda gave us each colour coded ribbons to tie on our bags so they could be checked off as they were loaded.   Of all colours he picked for me - pink!   The one colour I hate. At least I wont forget what colour I am.   About half an hour from home he gets a phone call to say a bag had been left behind. Blue. The same bag that didn’t make the flight from Singapore with its owner. Ananda then tells us he only checks off the big bags not the small ones. Note to self: take your own bag to the bus.  So we turn back, collect the bag and set off again. We are on a main highway which cuts through a national park and intersects an elephant corridor so they often cross the road and quite likely to attack pedestrians or small vehicles.  Someone didn’t plan that well. Its weird seeing elephants just wandering along the road and not taking too much notice of anyone.  Our tour leader’s (Ananda) mind is full ...