A Trip on Thomas!!

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  Negombo, Western, Sri Lanka
Monday, August 16, 2010

Our last couple of days in Sri Lanka were packed full of incidents..far more so than the first two anyway, so I'll try and be brief!  We visited Galle on Saturday which is an old Dutch settlement, so plenty of history there.  Milton (guesthouse owner) took us in his car and although he was far more sedate than the surfer bus man, I must emphasise again how MENTAL Sri Lankan driving/traffic is!!! I heard the motto "good horn, good brakes and good luck" and that about sums it up!

We walked around the fort walls and went to the church...very bizarre, they dug up the graveyard when it was rebuilt and moved all the bodies under the foundations, then laid the headstones as flooring!! We also went to the museum where Mel was educated by a very pleasant Sri Lankan chap, and I gawped at old HMV records!! They also had three George Crosses on display...oddity after oddity really.  We then looked over the cricket ground watching the team train, and Milton regaled us with Sri Lankan cricket stories and scores...Mel says her dad would have been impressed with her knowledge (blagging more like!) The Tsunami damage is more apparent the further south you go and we have heard more and more about it as we speak to people.  Everyone has a story to tell, from the boatman who took us turtle spotting ending up on a hotel roof in his boat, to Neela and Milton running to the jungle because they forgot they could go upstairs!! (the water was about 6ft deep in Hikkaduwa apparently) And of course, many people have lost someone.  We finished up our Galle trip buying king coconuts and rambuttans from a very honest roadside trader (we tried to pay him twice)...rambuttans were lovely, coconut ok!! Back in Hikkaduwa, we took a boat to see the coral reef - not worth the effort, but we did spot turtles and stripey fish.  Mel wants me to mention the fab curry she had that night - 900 rupees (about 5 quid) and enough food for 4 people; various dishes and rice and salad galore! Yum!

The following day we had to get back near the airport for our early morning Monday flight, so we decided to take the train! Best decision of the week!! It was dirt cheap (90p each for 2-3 hour journey) and loads of fun.  We sat in the open doorway and watched Sri Lanka go by; jungle, beaches, markets, people's homes, rivers, wildlife etc etc.  Each place had a different smell (some not so great admittedly!) and the breeze was cool.  The train was an old ricketty thing, with old style carriages that look like Annie and Clarabel, wooden doors, dusty lightbulbs and the foot plates between carriages banged together at every bump making a right racket...worse than listening to Drippy's funky house music!  They also have plenty of sellers walking up and down with fruit, hot snacks, popcorn (very popular with the locals!) etc...and the beggars also come round.  It's hard not to give them something, but once you start, where do you stop? We made an exception for a guy with no legs who was pushing himself round on a tea try with wheels.

We only stayed the one night in Negombo - not great really, old and tired, but without the redeeming qualities such as the lovely beaches etc that Hikkaduwa has.  On the whole Sri Lanka has been a good experience; the more we saw of the country the more we liked it.  It is very old fashioned and worn out for the most part, the building are grimey on the outside and the streets are covered in sand.  Inside however, most places are clean an tidy, the people take great pride in their homes/businesses and also themselves.  They are quiet, calm and friendly on the whole (not whilst driving!!), though they do have a permanent expression of bemusement when observing loopy westerners!  We would both like to see more of the country; hill temples etc, but five days is not enough!! It would also be interesting to see it in high season, but we were talking yesterday would that change the place and the people? It's kind of a privilege to see the "real" Sri Lanka going about it's daily business.

Not missing home too much, although doing/getting anything here is a challenge, couldn't get a newspaper for love nor money and lunch is a no-no as everywhere is shut! I'd like to know all the football scores (well done Knowle by the way, great debut Lexie and get well soon Crouchy) and a Dairy Milk wouldn't go amiss, though I did get biscuits!! Mel is missing proper tea and salad!!

So now onto Bangkok - Colombo airport is a complete nightmare by the way, if you ever go, turn up very early as every flight joins the same check in queue!!

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HMV??!	Fort walls at Galle   Comments!	Hikka train station - beautiful writing	Six!!!   Comments!
2nd class?? Moi!??	Very tropical - king coconuts   Comments!	Clock tower, Galle	Do I look like me Dad?
Amazing curry!	Sam and the guard!   Comments!	Choo choo!   Comments!	Great journey!
Lakes	Market

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