Restart Sri La

, Good Morning I have been having trouble with the blogspot site this morning so have decided I just have to leave yesterday's post slightly unfinished and move on. Our driver is a competent young man but when we asked him to take us to somewhere we could have lunch we were not specific enough in our requirements. I began to worry when he took us away from the city block and climbed a mountain. It was a magnificent view but the restaurant was magnificent too and not what we wanted. We took a look at the menu and left much,to Sanjay's astonishment. We told him the food was too heavy and too expensive and he took us to the Cafe area down town where we had a delicious light lunch. Our accommodation is also up a mountain because Kandy is surrounded by them. The home is magnificent with an amazing central wood staircase over about four levels because the house is build down the side of the valley. Our hostess is an Australian of Sri Lankan birth who resides in Brisbane except for about three months of the year. All her other guests had left so she insisted on showing us three room options including the biggest of them all which was a family apartment with a small childrens bedroom. It also a balcony with great views. She said we could have it because we were staying three nights. So we are quite luxuriously ensconced. This was a good thing because Bob became quite unwell which we put down to the omelet he had for breakfast which was laced with unrequested chilli. We weren't hungry because of our late lunch so we skipped going our to dinner and just relaxed. Today our driver is collecting us at 11am which was to give us time to do our laundry. However our hostess has whisked it away to be done by her staff. It will be added to the bill of course but all expenses here are well below Aussie costs. Our later start is also because our driver suggested that we go to the traditional dancing exhibition at 4.30 till 5.30. This means we will miss our usual pm cat nap so we may have another early night. Our driver has a list of places to visit today in and around Kandy so more later.

Sri Lanka Sept 2025

 Hi, travelling again. This time three weeks in Sri Lanka. We arrived here at the hotel at 1-30 am. The flight went well but with a stop over in Singapore it really drew things out. It was only two hours, just long enough to grab a bite to eat and was the shortest stop over available. No direct flights to this small country.

We are staying at a small hotel on the outskirts of Colombo for 3 nights (2and 1/2 really). It is an interesting building almost looks like a restored British era church with very high pitched ceilings. Owner is a  busy, busy man and didn't get the chance to ask him in our brief conversation this morning.

I planned on having a nap this afternoon but crashed while Bob was wrestling with Boost  this morning. He says I was out for about 2 hours. We have just had a tasty seafood lunch  overlooking the water with a cool breeze blowing. There was heavy rain this morning while Bob was still asleep which has kept the temperature comfortable. Gentle introduction..

I will add photos when I can remember how.

Friday 26/9/25

Yesterday we took a TukTuk tour with a young English speaking Sri Lankan. Let me just say at the outset that although we are up at Negombo which is the Northern outskirts  of Colombo I was very grateful that he was skilled at managing the traffic. It has a semblance of road rules here but really it is "he who dares rules". I was holding my breath quite often at intersections.

Our first stop was an undercover, open air fish market where there was an amazing quantity and variety of fish. Everything from white bait to the largest deep sea fish. Outside on mats was at least an acre (Bob says a hectare) of fish drying in the sun. The. Birds were taking a great interest in them but there seemed to be a system of keeping them moving on which wasn't overtly apparent. The two varieties we have seen are a crow like brownish bird called a Growk (?) And small white herons.

From there we visited a locally famous beach which was a yellow sand replica of Scarborough. We dutifully went for a walk,  saw some young men having swimming/ surfing lessons and the adjourned to a very nice restaurant for a traditional lunch. This was cheese Koffta which was vegetables, chicken and melted cheese stir-fried into a tasty mound.

After lunch we moved on to a very beautiful Buddist temple complex which was an interesting mix of traditional and British influence architecture. After that the heat, which is not too bad and traffic exhaustion meant that we opted to go home to our comfortable hotel for an afternoon rest. .

Found a very nice restaurant for dinner last night with a great coffee and cake shop next door. Relaxed and listened to the thundering rain until it eased off and we caught a tuktuk home through very quiet streets. The distance wasn't far but pavements are non existent and the puddles were extensive.

Sat 27/9/25

Well yesterday was not really exciting  as it was travel day to Colombo Central. Our host had offered to book a car for the trip in and we accepted. However  he obviously forgot. I think a comment that he is a real  wheeler dealer might give you the picture. When we queried the non arrival of the car he obviously couldn't get one and rang back to ask if we would like to go by TukTuk. I said a definite no! He then phoned again and said we would be collected at 10,30. This was really no inconvenience as we had no fixed schedule for the day. He then came to drive us himself a bit later than the promised time and we set off in his electric Honda. It took an hour and a half to get into the city and as the traffic built up I was very pleased we had been firm about nixing the TukTuk.

More later Bob is anxious to get to the station.

We are now in Kandy after a 2 1/2  hour trip which took three hours. The train was posted as an EXPRESS and it did get up to 65kms/hour from time to time. However there were frequent stops to let passengers on and off. Some of the stations were tiny and some quite impressive. When we arrived we were me by our car and driver as booked which was a relief as this was booked yesterday with an agency based at the railway station. The sign above the windows in big gold letters said 

"Railway Travel Service" and being suckers we believed it. After agreeing to book all our car travel and our last train section with them, handing over the money(which was reasonable fortunately) we realised that we had been hassled. There was no identification of the agency's but we are convinced they were independent operators occupying Railway premises and delberately

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