From the hills to the sand

It was a welcome relief to hit a resort for a night in Kandy. The temperatures were no long freezing (we had to get more warm clothes when in the highlands - I basically wore everything I had). As much as I love curry, a plate of French fries went down a treat. The view was amazing, and it was a shame we only had one night here. We looked out over the mountains from our free upgraded suite and shared our lovely large deck with the monkeys (giving spike a hell of a fright to open the curtains to one). It was time for some book time by the pool and a massage or two.

They had a lovely traditional ayrveda centre in the hotel so we nipped in for an afternoon massage and some reflexology the following morning. The massage was, interesting, I can't say it is a type of massage I would fully recommend. There was a bit of pinching invovled... The reflexology was great though.

Though we didn't do anything really, not even a trip to the Buddhas tooth relic, it was still a great night relaxing and been attended to. Finally I started reading my first book of the trip too!

The next afternoon we hit the evening train back to Colombo. We were a bit late booking and got the last two first class seats (well worth it for the air on etc), so we sat apart for this journey. Luckily it was only a bit over 2.5 hrs, so went by in a blink. We then needed to get down to Galle fort from Colombo. Our travel wits weren't the best and we ended up ripped off big time after negotiating the price with the "boss"of the taxi company before hand and the driver not following through during the journey. We were so tired, and it wasnt worth the fight over $15. All the same probably the most bitter taste Sri Lanka had left in our mouths to date.

Yet again though our faith was restored once we got to Galle and met Ravi. Another fantastic guesthouse owner. Him and his parents kept the place immaculate and he even remembered my pineapple allergy and served other fruits for breakfast. Ravi was cheerful, friendly and a great guy to chat with. Plus spike was pretty happy that he made a decent coffee too!

In Galle we took a trip down to Unawatuna beach, one which got badly hit during the Boxing Day tsunami and is now crawling with tourists. The beach loungers are so packed in front of the bars and restaurants that the water literally laps at the end of them. Nice beach though all the same, even if the waves were pretty rough for swimming. Our tuk tuk back was driven by an ex under 19 Sri Lankan cricket player - loved the sport and was stoaked to share all the big name players he had met while on the bench at the World Cup. The Sri Lankan players were practising to right by the road for the following days test match, which was cool and required a quick photo stop.

We followed this up with a sunset stroll around the fort walls. From here we could see the cricket stadium and coastline. It was so so hot, it was hard to get out and about in Galle. At least the shower at ravi's was pretty good as damn it was hot!!

The next morning we had double breakfasts - one at the guesthouse and another Sri Lankan style one down the road. Loaded up with food we headed into the stifling heat for a couple of hours of the first day of the Sri Lanka/Bangladesh cricket match. I had on spikes newly purchased sri lankan cricket tshirt, which attracted a bit attention, as it looked totally ridiculous over my dress. A whole nzd$2 we were in the galle cricket club grandstand, drinking 50c 400ml ginger beers in the crazy heat. It was so hot, we only lasted until they broke for lunch. Great views though, and it is neat to see how they get the locals invovled in helping out with things (e.g. they got a heap of guys to come into the stadium when it looked like rain to prepare to drag the tarps over the pitch). Next we found a car (and some welcome air con) and were off down the coast a couple of hours to the beach for our last few days in Sri Lanka.