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 ...