Pasta and parasols in paradise

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  Trincomalee, Sri Lanka
Friday, May 4, 2012

4th May - left early in the morning bound for Colombo. Another beautiful train journey, this time watching the sun rise over hill country. We headed straight to the Indian embassy to collect our Indian visas, after a quick 5 min appointment we were told we should come back later that evening to collect visa/passport. Thanks to Indian bureaucracy we had a full day to spend in our least favourite city in Asia! We spent the day attempting to dodge Colombo's traffic, noise and pollution in cafes, the cinema (twice) and attempting to book onward travel to trincomalee on Sri Lanka's east coast. This last task proved our hardest yet; we Initially wanted to travel by train, but upon arrival discovered ALL seats had been booked for the single departure that evening; we then tried to book a bus, only to be told reservations were unnecessary and to 'just turn up whenever'. What anyone failed to tell was that it was one of the biggest religious festivals of the year that weekend, and that ALL transport out of Colombo was booked solid. Consequently, when we went to the bus station that evening after collecting our Indian visas (finally, and after the third trip to Colombo), we discovered it to be literally heaving with people; the queue (/scrum) for the Trincomalee bus numbered close to one hundred people and we were unable to even move through the throng of people with out big rucksack and suitcase, never mind get on a bus! The upshot was we were stranded, captive in Colombo until the next morning. With no accommodation booked, and virtually no budget rooms in Colombo, we had to shell out roughly 3 times what we normally pay for a room. Needless to say we were more than mildly annoyed, frustrated and stressed, but such is life when travelling sometimes- we don't really have too much to complain about!

5th May- we woke early (again) to assure ourselves a seat on the train, only to be told at the reservation office, the same reservation office that assured us there was no need to book ahead, that there were no seats available. However, after a lot of perseverance, lots of queuing and pleading with various officials, we managed to bargain our way onto a train; we were escaping Colombo at last! After a typically 'robust' period of seat allocation (involving the use of elbows, knees and on one occasion a suitcase) we gained a seat and settled into the 8 hour journey, which passed mercifully without incident. We arrived at our resort late afternoon and spent the rest of the day doing very little, lying on the beach and recovering from the last two days travelling. It is safe to say we were only too ready for a week of relaxation by the beach.

6th-11th May - the week flew by with us doing very little, and loving it. We moved from our rather dreary prison block accommodation of the first night (we both agreed it bore more than a passing resemblance to S-21 prison in Cambodia) into a lovely little hotel run by some genuine Italians serving genuinely amazing, authentic Italian food, a real treat after too much curry and rice. Days revolved around meal times and lazing by the pool and the beach, and about the most energetic thing which happened was Ross swam out to the offshore reef and went snorkelling. Ross also (finally) got a haircut to remove the Jew-fro he had been culturing (think back to first year at Notts and you'll get the picture). Rather more disturbing than even Ross' coiffeur was one incident I witnessed while he was getting his hair cut where a man literally beat a puppy to death in front of a crowd who didn't even try to stop him, and who for some reason thought it was hilarious. This left us both feeling pretty shocked and appalled at how they treat animals over here, and made us realise how fortunate we are to live in the UK, where (we'd like to think, at least) that people would stop such behaviour. After seeing the way animals are treated over here I just want to bring all the puppies and kittens back with me to the UK- don't worry mum, only joking (sort of)!

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starfish	Ross mating the starfish	captain keeble!	the beach
hermit crab	beach	Ross and Scooby (mark 2)	Me and Scooby
Grilled seafood	The 5* resort we gatecrashed	Iridescent cloud	iridescent cloud and palms
cycling on the beach!	Ross and Etienne (we named her that)

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