Sri Lanka 2025

 So we've finally reached the last day after a busy couple of weeks. Only really one activity today, a tour of the cityç or at least very selective parts. This followed a breakfast at one the the biggest buffets I can recall. It is difficult to calibrate how much to eat at a buffet at the best of times, let alone when you're overwhelmed by choices. But we struggled through. I really can't bring myself to say much about the bus tour. We went to the usual places, big buildings, a Buddhist temple (the last one), and ended with lunch at the Australian-run Cricket Club Cafe which was over-stuffed with cricket memorabilia. Lynn and I just had a drink as we were still recovering from breakfast. Me at a Generic Memorial Then it was back to the hotel to spend much of the afternoon re-packing. When we got bored of this we walked around the adjacent mall and got some cheap food to tide us over. Apparently it's almost Christmas Early evening we caught up for a final drink with the ...

 Quite a long day today. That's the tour company trying to pack things in to catch up for the gaps in our itinerary. So we left Galle at 8.30 and drove around the coast, anticlockwise, towards Colombo. First stop was the Tsunami Museum. This turned out to be a cement block house aand a wooden shack containing photos and statements in poor English, and an explanation from the woman whose house it used to be, which was moving and sad in equal measure, and we tried not to stay longer than we had to (true of all our stops). Shortly after that we stopped at a combination cinnamon processing plant (they steam huge quantities of leaves for oil) and moonstone factory (a milky semi-precious stone mined from an on-site shaft). Similar to previous entries, the guide has a smooth patter that tells you this is all a sales pitch. Almost everyone except us bought something. Cinnamon Leaves The astop after that was a boat trip - a small, fibreglass open boat that went a short distance up the Madu ...

 Today was essentially travelling. We left at 8.30 in two minivans rather than our usual large bus. This was so we could take back roads south. It was just a one lane road, potholed and winding, and when we encountered vans and trucks coming the long way passing was complicated. For the first hour or so the hills were covered by tea plantations which essentially look like rows of hedges. It took us about four hours to reach a town on a main road, in Embilipitiya, where we stopped and had lunch in a hotel by the lake. This also gave time for the big bus to catch up to us. Then we could swap back and continue on our way; it was around 4pm by the time we were approaching Galle. We stopped at a turtle hatchery, essentially just a patch of sand where they bury rescued eggs, and a group of concrete tanks to rehabilitate injured turtles. Then we went on to the old town of Galle. Fortunately, this turned out to be interesting. Though I hadn't listened to any of the information, I gather th...