Sri Lanka March 2025
Book reading for the trip. I read all of the following. Most are about some aspect of the civil war, which would have affected the thinking, decisions and mindset of every person on the island and all of the diaspora who had escaped. No one alive thought those 30 years of killings and disappearances would not have some kind of PTSD. [Sinhalese people on the trip, talked of the ‘unfortunate period of terrorism’.] I rate all these as excellent novels. All are hard to put down and all leave a lasting impression.
- Anil’s ghost ✔️✔️
- Elephant Complex – a travel log after the end of the war – with lots of history on places visited ✔️✔️✔️
- Jam Fruit Tree – pre civil war ✔️
- Road from Elephant Pass ✔️✔️
- The Village in the Jungle – pre civil war
- When Memory Dies
- Island of a Thousand Mirrors ✔️✔️✔️
- Mosquito ✔️
- Bone China – spans 3 generations – effects on those who stayed and those who left ✔️✔️
- Elephantine Tales – anecdotes about elephants mainly from Uda Walawe NP
- Winds of Sinhala ✔️✔️
Friday 21 February 2025. Day 1. Wagga to Colombo
To bed at 8:45 last night and alarm set for 4:45 for taxi at 5:15. Our cat got out just as the taxi arrived. Fortunately she came back fairly easily. Flight to Sydney uneventful. Luggage is checked through to Colombo. Issued with boarding passes through to Colombo. Getting through security is tricky. Maybe I’m getting out of practice.
Singapore is a huge spacious airport. We landed at Terminal 1, hunted down a replacement for a broken bit of kit, caught the SkyTrain to T3, had some Singapore street food, tracked down our gate which kept changing. Much sitting.
Sri Lankan plane delayed by about 45 minutes because it had lost its takeoff slot by arriving late. (Our second hint that Sri Lankan Airways is a second class citizen in Singapore.)
At Sri Lanka airport, the usual huge line up for immigration with bored looking officials. Picked up bags without problems. Just outside departures were stalls selling SIM cards. Bought one each – installed valid for a month with no problems. Taxi via highway to hotel. Grand Oriental Hotel that I had found on booking dot com for lowest price.
Very tired and brain dead getting to bed.
Saturday 22 February 2025. Day 2. Colombo
Breakfast at hotel. Extremely good just what I wanted. All Sri Lankan foods; string hoppers, sambals, curries.
Walked down to the old Dutch hospital precinct for lunch. This old Dutch hospital city block has been occupied by small restaurants. We had an excellent rice and curry each followed by a ‘curd and treacle’✔️✔️✔️ Slept much of the afternoon. Confusion from lack of sleep decreasing. Helen slept for quite a while.
For tea, we went to the hotel’s restaurant. Again an excellent small dinner after our large lunch. Looking at the restaurant bill, taxes are 25.5% of the total. Not a bad whack.
Sunday 23 February 2025. Day 3. Colombo
Breakfast at hotel. Excellent. Different from yesterday’s. Two excellent curries amongst the best I’ve ever eaten. The chef here probably wants to make the best food in Colombo. House crows drinking from aircon outpipes. After breakfast we used Pick me (Sri Lanka’s Uber) to go to the National Museum. Interesting but too much for me. I was worn out by room 6 of 15. Headed out to the cafeteria which had many locals. Pick me to get back to the hotel about 300 rupees (A$1.60) for each ride. Depending on traffic. Because it was Sunday traffic was light.
After a rest at the hotel we walked the 400m to the Ceylon Curry Club (in the old Dutch hospital) for lunch. Extremely good. Tried the hoppers (a form of crepe made with rice flour and very brittle). These had fillings of prawns, chicken curry and egg, and three with milk – soufflé. Quite good. Also tried coconut crème brûlée ✔️✔️, lime drink ✔️ and cinnamon tea ✔️✔️✔️ Meal expensive at A$52.
A rest in the afternoon. Then to Galle Face Green with the hordes of locals watching the sunset and enjoying the sea breeze. Many kites flying. People wading in the shallow surf. Much colour and people enjoying themselves. We tried two bags of diced pineapple. The locals like to add chilli. Nice but we preferred without. There by Pick me. Return by metered tuk tuk – driver asked his father/uncle where the hotel is.
The tap water here is NOT drinkable. Bottled water for sale everywhere. Price varies. Restaurants lkr 350: yesterdays supermarket lkr 270; today’s lkr170.
Monday 24 February Day 4. Our train to Galle.
We hung around at the hotel all morning reading. A pick me to the train station at 12:20. Train departs at 2:40. Waited on platform with a horde waiting. Hot with a slight breeze. Lugging my bag up and down steps tested me. Little egret roosting under the platform roof. The Galle train arrived and departed Colombo Fort on time. A crush of westerners battling to get into the carriage, glaring at each other. We are in aircon carriage B seats 21 & 2s.
At Galle, the Pick me taxi driver did not arrive, deliberate?? After a long wait we ended up with 2 tuk tuks. Over charged but done.
Tuesday 25 February. Day 5. Galle.
Best sleep I’ve had for quite a while. We are staying at Shoba Traveler’s Tree Guest House in the old Fort in Galle. (Pronounced Gaul or Ga-lay. Shoba as Soba.) This is part of an old Dutch house and it’s alley to the next house. We are in a balcony room that overlooks that closed in alley that is part of the hotel – full of trinkets for sale.
This morning we walked 70m to a breakfast cafe (Sugar Bistro at the Heritage) and had hoppers for breakfast. Much better hoppers than the ones in Colombo. King coconut, 1 egg hopper and 3 plain with coconut sambal and another sambal and a fish curry all as flavouring for the hoppers. Followed by Ceylon tea. Extremely good meal.
For today I had booked us into a cooking class. It began at 11am. Four of us in the class. The other pair were a Dutch couple. We made 6 dishes – 4 curries and 2 vegetables. These 6 we had for lunch after the class. Extremely good. The business, like our hotel, occupies what was once an alleyway. Restaurant and its kitchen at western end, cooking class in the middle and drinks at the eastern end.
Walking any distance in the heat of the day is energy sapping. A very high humidity.
Slept for most of the afternoon. As dusk approached we went for a walk along the outer ramparts. Very good sea breeze from the western side. Out of that breeze, very hot and sweaty. I was hoping to find a curd & treacle. We found an ice cream shop. Cinnamon and tamarind. Both excellent. We will go back to try others. We stopped to buy 2 bottles of water and got caught up in a 150 year procession from a local Buddhist school. Fireworks. Escaped back to our aircon room.
Galle, the town where we are staying is fairly large. We are staying in the Dutch-built fort that occupies all the blip of a peninsula off the southern part of the town. There are three main streets – two run parallel-ish north south and one (Pedlar) runs east west, one street rings the fort just inside its ramparts. We are on Pedlar. Most buildings along Pedlar are accommodation, eating, sell gems, clothing or trinkets. All other main streets have these five to a slightly lesser extent. These appear the main/only industry in the fort. For the most part it is quiet and clean. All Sri Lankans we come in contact with are friendly. The cricket ground is just north of the fort covering the base of the peninsula and separating the fort from the rest of Galle. The 2004 tsunami wiped out much of Galle and its cricket ground. The fort’s ramparts protected the fort itself.
The Sri Lankan government has placed an 24.5% gst/surcharge on most things – certainly on restaurant food.
Wednesday 26 February. Day 6. Galle.
Another very good sleep. Helen felt like a bowl of granola. Our mistake begins. We went to The Cakery near by which advertised granola bowls. After ordering and paying, we are told ‘sorry we don’t have that’. Helen chose a waffle instead. She didn’t finish it. On leaving we walked about 200m to the end of the street. Helen suddenly became light headed and threw up. Fortunately we were under a large shady tree with a low wall. We were there for 2 hours. The cafe opposite ‘Gaffe’ were very concerned, brought out a glass of water, provided me with a chair and brought out a cup of tea. Eventually, Helen was able to walk back to the hotel.
About 2pm, I went down to the restaurant downstairs and had a fried rice and papaya smoothie. Rain. I was fortunate enough to have a rude Englishman sit at the next table for entertainment. Something was wrong with everything and needed to be shouted about. Coffee too cold; fried rice not right. His wife pleading with him ‘please don’t dear’.
Thursday 27 February. Day 7. Galle.
Helen much better today. We walked down to ‘1710’ for breakfast – granola bowl and a white tea. Both very good. Photos of a palm squirrel and a yellow-billed bulbul. Saw red-vented bulbul. A bit later we walked along Pedlar Street to buy a shirt for me and to find the ATM. Very taxing walking in the heat.
A lie around for the rest of the morning. We have an excellent ice cream shop a few doors away with unusual flavours. I went there for lunch. – tamarind and passion fruit. Walked along Pedlar Street for a Pizza (the only thing Helen is up to eating), then on to one of the two ATMs in the fort to get cash for our taxi back to Colombo, then a walk along the ramparts back to our hotel. Saw black-hooded oriole (a bird with bright yellow wings and body) and a white-fronted kingfisher. Finished reading Geraldine Brooks’ book ‘Horse’.
Friday 28 February. Day 8. Galle.
Another good night’s sleep. We are getting the aircon worked out. Granola bowl again for Helen at ‘1710’. I had roti and chicken curry. Excellent. ✔️✔️ After breakfast we went for a walk around the northern end of the fort ramparts. This took us past the cricket ground where a match was in progress. Birds seen: red-wattled lapwing, Indian pond heron, cattle egrets, a few very big peacocks. I arrived back very hot.
For lunch, we went back to the pizza shop of yesterday. Same pizza as yesterday. On the way back, I bought a sarong. We are buying and drinking a 1.25 bottle of water each, each day.
Saturday 1 March. Day 9. Galle.
Breakfast at our usual ‘1710’ – granola with a bit of treacle. We then went for a walk along the northern part of the western ramparts. I broke out the big camera to try for birds. Oriental Magpie-robin, Spotted Dove, young Red-wattled Lapwings being hunted by a largish goanna/land monitor and parent Lapwing diving a goanna; and a rock in the sea with terns: gull-billed and whiskered. Failed to find the Indian pond-heron from yesterday. Ice creams for lunch.
I slept in the afternoon then sat around reading. Pizza for tea.
Sunday 2 March. Day 10. Galle.
Slept well. Down to ‘1710’ for our usual granola bowl. A sunny day – therefore hot. This is our last day here. We have arranged a late checkout of 1 pm. Our taxi is booked for 3 pm. When we vacated our room at just after noon, the manager asked if we would like the taxi a bit earlier. Taxi arrived at 2:30. A Prius for a fast drive (100-120 kph)along the tollway to Colombo. (19.7 km/l) A few showers along the way caused a slight slowdown. The 2:15 minute 158km fast drive along the tollway cost us just A$109 plus A$5 tolls. We arrived at Tamarind Tree Hotel Resort just before 5. A very nice room. Our Sri Lankan guide Saman had arrived moments before us. White-breasted Waterhen and another Yellow-billed babbler.
Monday 3 March. Day 11. Tour day 1. Dambulla
Breakfast at 7:30. Meeting at 10 to introduce ourselves and talk about the upcoming trip. Lunch at 11:45. Bus at 12:30. Drive 3 hours to Dambulla. Birds: Asian openbill. Dambulla is a set of caves in which there are 173? carvings of the Buddha. To get to the area where the Buddhas are requires quite a walk up a steep road sometimes steps. I was buggered at top and needed lots of sitting along the way and at the top. Quite a crowd of people visiting crowded into the ‘caves’. The caves are actually long overhangs with the entrance part filled in after the Buddhas had been carved. Quite spectacular and worth the effort. From there is short drive to our hotel. Very plush. We are in a series of separate buildings spread over a couple of hectares. We have about 3-400 metres walk to the restaurant. “Do not leave your room door open. We have monkeys here.”
A bit of geology. India/Sri Lanka was attached to Antarctica. About 100 million years years ago, it broke away and began its voyage north and crashed into ‘Asia’ about 40 million years ago. Sri Lankan broke away from India just before that crash. Sri Lanka has the same ancient rocks as Antartica – pre-Cambrian metamorphic. Much of these are silica rich gneiss. When this decays, it leaves sand and clay which are very poor in nutrients. Most of the country we drove through between Colombo and Dambulla is now fertile enough to grow only coconut palms (that are happiest with just sand). Even the patches of jungley vegetation looks to be struggling. This is not a fertile soil/regolith.
Tuesday 4 March. Day 12. Tour Day 2.
Breakfast at 7. Departure at 8. Two hour drive to Polonnaruwa, ancient capital of Sri Lanka. Tour of its museum, then three of the major ruins. I sat in the bus for the third one. An hour’s drive back for lunch. This was an excellent meal probably the best in Sri Lanka. Very flavoursome with spices but not at all hot. As it turned out I had chosen only vegetables – so many different vegetables and ways to cook them. It would be very easy to be a vegetarian here. After lunch we drove about half hour back to the Eco park to see elephants. This park was chosen because the other two parks nearby are impassable because of recent heavy rain. We were in a ‘jeep’ with seats lengthways looking in. We stood where possible. We saw quite a few elephants – a couple of lone males and a few groups of females with bubs. Usually in tall grass. After we had left the Eco park, driving back along the bitumen road, more elephants, some walking along the railway tracks. Two young males trunk wrestling. On returning, we sat with Diana as she went through pix from our tour with her in May 2023.
Wednesday 5 March. Day 13. Tour Day 3.
A morning off for us. Most of the others have gone to climb Sigiriya lion rock with its 1,200 steps. I slept. Helen watched monkeys terrorising the house boys who have to leave their carts unattended while they service a room. Great fun for the monkeys, not for the house boys. After lunch we went to visit a silk shop – scarves, dresses, saris, sarongs, shirts. I finally found a pair of shorts. From there we went to visit a village: first by a tractor drawn cart; then over a reservoir/tank by tandem canoes to a very good cooking demonstrations. The lady pounded rice to dehusk it, winnowed it, ground it. She also de husked and split a coconut and scraped the flesh out. She then combined equal quantities of rice flour and coconut plus a little water and finally some coconut oil. Kneaded them together to make two rotis that she cooked over a small open fire. While these were cooking, she mixed the ingredients for a coconut sambal; coconut, red onion, lime, tomato. The last few were cut up on a sharp knife she held between her hip and table – sharp side up. She rolled a few chillies and garlic with coconut oil on a stone the added the mixed dry ingredients rolled with a stone roller. We ate the result with the roti. Excellent. From there a short walk to where tuk-tuks were waiting to take us back to our bus. Dessert for tea.
Thursday 6 March. Day 14. Tour Day 4.
Up at 6am. Pack up. Breakfast at 7. Finish packing. Check out at 7:50. Bus ready about 8:10. Along the way to Kandy, we stopped at a spice shop (LuckGrove): a walk around the spice bushes and trees; an excellent massage with numbers 16 and 17; then to the spice shop to buy a few recommended products. From there, a 2 hour drive to Kandy. We took on fuel; diesel A$1.56 per litre; total A$101. (price regulated by government changed each month.) Arrived at Kandy about noon. Thilanka Hotel. Waited a few minutes for the room to be available. A bit difficult finding our way around. Lunch at 12:45. Quite a big meal. Back to room. After a short rest we were off to the Buddha Tooth Temple for a guided tour through the various temples. Crowded. A few rooms/temples very important. We were there for close to 2 hours. From there a short walk to the Kandyan Cultural Centre for a dance display. Crowded. I couldn’t see much without dodging and wearing around the bloke in front who moved a lot.
Most of the main highway from Sigiriya is fringed with continual stalls and shops and other businesses. Traffic is slow with our bus constantly pulling out to pass and dodging oncoming traffic. Many tuktuk, buses, motor scooters, pedestrians, dogs. Makes for a slow journey.
Friday 6 March. Day 15. Tour Day 5.
6am alarm for a 6:30 breakfast and 7:30 bus. Very slow though morning traffic. Schools begin at 7:30. 45 minutes drive through the centre of Kandy to the gem factory (Handini’s Gem & Jewellery) that showed a short video on pit sinking and alluvial mining; followed by a guided walk around a series of display cases. Then to the workshop to see faceting, setting and sorting. Then to the showroom with many display cases each with a person behind it waiting to sell us something. Onwards through Kandy traffic to the Royal Botanic Gardens, first a cup of coffee and then a walk around. Many big tall trees; also a few small birds; difficult to photograph. It gradually grew hotter and the heat got to me. I was a bit wobbly by the time we got to the orchid house and then the exit. Another long drive through Kandy traffic back to the hotel for lunch. Not hungry. Four course meal. Then back to the room for an afternoon off. [Kandy traffic is complicated by the river running through the centre with only a few bridges and being trapped in a narrow valley between two very steep ridges. Considering the number of vehicles; buses, tuk tuks, motor scooters; and pedestrians, the traffic is calm and kind. Very few horns honked. Careful of each other. Even though it is jam packed in both directions with vehicles weaving through where possible.] Slept for a while and read.
Saturday 8 March. Day 16. Tour Day 6.
Away at 8am when our bags took a while to come down. No school today so traffic not as crowded. Still calm and kind. A longish drive (windy and many buses). The road winding along and up very steep slopes. Tea plantations began when we reached sufficient height. On western facing slopes. Stopped at Damro tea plantation for a tour of their tea factory, and a short tasting of two teas. We bought three teas – silver needles, green tea and cinnamon tea. We continued to climb until the pass at 2010 m. Then down to Nawara Eilya at 1900 m. We are at another huge plush hotel. Araliya Red. Lunch first because rooms not ready. A forgettable a la carte lunch. After lunch I had a 25 minute kip before we headed off to the Victoria Gardens. A few good birds. Return from the Gardens at 5:30. Many people in the restaurant for dinner at 7. Buffet and very tasty.
Sunday 9 March Day 17. Tour Day 7.
Very early start. Bus leaves at 6am for our trip to Horton Plain National Park. Two stops along the way. At one we saw Purple-faced leaf monkeys (much bigger than I had imagined). The others set off for a 10 km circuit, Helen and I turned back after one km. Clearly I won’t be able to do any heavy pack walking again. The others did a 10.9 km loop. Back at the hotel at 3pm. Too late for lunch. Slept in the afternoon.
Monday 10 March. Day 18. Tour Day 8.
Up at 6:30 and away at 8:04. Very good considering the number of buses trying to fit into the very narrow hotel access lane. Cloud at first and then rain as we made our way down to Tissa in the lowland on a 4½ hour drive on a steep windy road (it’s sides crowded with ribbons of shops in places) for the first 3:10 hr (including a short stop at Ravana waterfall). The road a very skinny two lane with traffic passing all the time if it can fit – often three or four abreast. Size matters (and probably expense) but no one is forced off the road. Dogs asleep on the road. Milk churn on back of motor scooter with sieve flapping behind. Arrived at the hotel Mandara about 12:40. Lunch – another good meal. Room large again. Left for drive through Bunbara NP at 2:30. This time we are in facing forward seat in ‘jeeps’. Cannot stand up or get out. Many birds. The driver of our vehicle was an excellent bird spotter. We came across elephants just after leaving the park at 6pm. An extremely good outing. Back for meal at 7:30. I took 252 photos today.
I continue to be impressed by how kind and caring local Sri Lankans are with each other and everybody and even animals on the road. Slowing and even stopping at very inconvenient place to avoid hitting/injuring a person or animal. Where does this come from? Buddhism? Is it different in the north Tamil country? How does all this fit with the 30 year civil war? This thought might work. The gentle, kind, caring Sinhalese Buddhist people, when threatened by the Tamal Hindu people from the north of the island, found that they had to gradually ramp up their response (and violence) until the uprising (terrorism) was quashed. Now, they keep their army strong to ensure the uprising does not break out again. This allows Sinhalese to go back to their kind caring. [The Tamils would argue that they were pushed into uprising by Sinhalese declaring ‘one island, one language, one religion’ and put the whole civil war at the feet of a very few trouble makers: politicians, Buddhist leaders.
Tuesday 11 March. Day 19. Tour Day 9.
5:05 alarm for a 5:30 am departure on safari jeeps to section 5 of Yala NP. Entry to the park at 6am. Quite a lot of birds and spotted deer. Quite a lot of time looking for leopards. A jeep saw one this morning crossing the road. We hung around that spot hoping it returned. Eventually we drove on to a breakfast spot near a dam wall. Outside the park on our way back, we saw but not photographed a mongoose that ran from the road and a robber elephant that held up cars for food. A goodly number of birds, a golden jackal, pigs. Back at the hotel by 11:30. Slept after lunch. It was raining heavily at 4pm so I didn’t go out for the owl walk. 254 pix today. It is going to take much work to make something useful from them. Quite a lot of heavy rain this afternoon and into the night.
Wednesday 12 March. Day 20. Tour Day 10.
Woke to sunny skies. After 7:30 breakfast at the hotel we headed off to the Tissa Temple, the oldest in this part of Sri Lankan. From there we followed our guide (who was on a motorcycle) to look at owls; he knew where they were. Into people’s backyards. Back to the hotel for lunch then immediately off for another run through the part of Yala we were in yesterday. Still no luck with the leopard, pangolin, anteater or bear. We drove from 2:30 to 6:30 looking for them. Few photos taken. On the way back, in the dark, 4 elephants (one with a bub) bailed us up for food. Very dangerous. No wonder the Human Elephant Conflict HEC sees 350 elephants killed each year – one a day.
Thursday 13 March. Day 21. Tour Day 11.
My hearing aid charger has blown up overnight. The hearing aids do not work today. (And did not work again. until we were home.) I have nothing to change them with. A 9am departure from Tissa and a slowish drive to Udawalawe where our rooms might not be available until 1 and lunch began at 12:30. Interesting drive with rice spread to dry on the motorway. When we got to the boundary on national park, we began to come across robber elephants just on the inside of the electric fence and each elephant with a kiosk selling bananas on other side of the road. Lunch was brought forward to noon. Yet another excellent meal. We are at the Grand Udawalawe Safari Resort. The hotel/resort has signed cricket bats from teams who have stayed here in the lobby. After lunch we headed off for our game drive through the Uda Walawe National Park, renown for its elephants – mainly due to the work of the fellow who wrote Elephantine Tales. We drove around for 4 hours. We did see about 10 elephants. The highlight was the baby elephant just a week old. It fitted neatly under its mum. Today was the full moon holly day.
Friday 14 March. Day 22. Tour Day 12.
First check out, then off to the Elephant Transit Station where they look after and feed orphaned baby elephants until they can be released at about 8 years. They have about 50 elephants now. Feeding began right on 10:30. Elephants were led in a line to a holding point and then released in groups of three. Babies first who ran to the milk station. After the milk feeding babies, all the rest still in threes headed to deal with corn stems and a grain that was in plastic tubs. All elephants mixed together. Grain was quickly demolished and tubs overturned and beaten. Within 20 minutes it was all over. There was quite a crowd, mostly school kids, maybe 200+ on three tiers seated and one standing. (The school kids next to us had begun their journey today at 4:30.) A very good explanation building. From there we went to a small restaurant where they fed us an excellent rice and curry meal. Drive to Mirissa . We took the coast road which took a while. Traffic difficult at times. This would have been a tsunami coast in 2004 with many thousands dead. We are at a multi level beach side concrete block. Paradise Beach Club, Mirissa. Europeans sunning themselves around a pool on the beach.
Saturday 15 March. Day 23. Tour Day 13.
Down in reception 6:15am for our whale watching trip. No whales. So we chased a couple of pods of dolphins. We did see a couple of green turtles. I think there were about fifteen whale watching boats. We were out for four hours. Lunch and a big sleep in the afternoon before a bird watching jaunt to a wetland. This was just back from the populated ribbon along the coast and its road and just before the freeway entrance. The track we took led to a village kampong. Quite a few bigish birds. Again finding it difficult to focus on kingfishers. Something about their iridescent plumage causes the automatic focus fail.
Sunday 16 March. Day 24. Tour Day 14.
A noise overnight caused much complaining. Underway at 8:10am. First stop a turtle conservation, hatchery and care place. Injured turtles are kept until they can be released. Batches of eggs are collected buried, bubs collected and released. Privately run. On to Galle where we stopped first at a government run craft trinket shop (bought nothing) then into the fort for a walk around – too hot for me. We withdrew SLR for room and taxi on our last day. Then to an Indian restaurant for a biryani lunch. Then a long drive to Sinharaja with a stop at a freeway service area – very popular. Thunderstorm rain began just after we left the freeway.
Rules of the road. Do not run into or hit anything animate or inanimate in front of you. Adjust your speed and position on the road to achieve this. Don’t force another vehicle off the road. Adjust your speed constantly so that you can achieve all the above and not leave the road yourself. Failure to stay on the road, causing another vehicle to leave the road or hitting anything means you were speeding and not driving to the conditions. I have a feeling that these caring, kind Buddhist people would see that they would be taking on a very bad karma by killing or injuring any sentient being (human or any other animal) that every effort would be made to avoid such an act. [They don’t even like the dogs that sleep in the road and cross whenever they like. They just won’t injure any and will go through much avoidance and inconvenience to avoid harming anything.]
Monday 17 March. Day 25. Tour Day 15.
At Blue Magpie Lodge – a delightful place to stay. No wifi or phone connection. Overnight we had fireflies in our room. This morning we were to have gone on an early morning bird walk on a slippery track. Helen became very anxious about my falling on this, so we cancelled. After breakfast we sat on their high balcony and watched birds (glimpse of blue magpie) before settling in to read and sleep. Late afternoon 4pm we were driven to the entrance of the Sinharaja reserve where we could see blue magpies when we stood in a certain spot.
Tuesday 18 March. Day 26. Tour Day 16.
Bird walk after breakfast. Too hot for me. I turned back after an hour. After cooking down and a nap, we showered and packed. Lunch and departure just after 1pm. A long 4.5 hour drive to Colombo. A short stop at the Service area we stopped at a few days ago. At Colombo, we drove through the suburbs before entering the city itself: embassies, monuments, sports fields and expensive public schools. Stopped for sunset at Galle Face Green then on to our dinner hotel (The Kingsbury Colombo) for a huge meal all excellent (though over the top). Then out to the airport to drop everyone off except us. Then a back track to our hotel which is in a gated suburb 13 mins from the airport. Very kind man signed us in and sorted taxi and breakfast for tomorrow.
Wednesday 19 March. Day 27.
A sleepless night for me. Up at 7am to pack. Breakfast at 8. Taxi arrived at 8:45. At airport at 9 for a 12:10 flight. Very thorough security. Vehicles underside scanned on approach to airport, baggage, hand luggage and us scanned before entry, us and hand luggage scanned again to enter gate seating. Quite a lot of shops selling trinkets. Expensive coffee. A family emigrating to Oz going to Townsville both sons doctors. All went swimmingly well until 19 mins out of Singapore the aircraft did two holding pattern circles. Our one hour transit time to our next flight almost disappeared. If we had made a very quick walk to our next departure gate all would have been well. However, Sri Lanka airlines was eagerly helpful and cancelled us off our QF2 flight and rounded us all up and took us to a transfer desk. Then the two SL airlines staff had a disagreement and headed us in different directions. Eventually sorted. We are going via Melbourne 4 hours later. And on to Wagga from there. Well… the flight to Melbourne was delayed with a navigation light problem and took off 4 hours late. Now an 8 hour gap. A very rough night. I got little sleep and managed to lose my glasses. Luckily found again. In Melbourne we collected our bags and cleaned customs with no issues. Flight to Sydney and flight to Wagga. Taxi home – same driver who took us to the airport 4 weeks ago.
Ayubowan (ai-bu-an) is a normal greeting for Sinhalese = long life.
