We arrived in Colombo yesterday evening after a week of reorganising and frustration. The problems were precipitated by the Tamil Tigers and the fallout from their recent activities. Not long ago the TTs used a light aircraft of some sort to drop two bombs over Colombo airport. So Cathay Pacific decided to cancel all flights until october 2007! Stuck in New Delhi for the rest of our lives we decided to find our own way to Sri Lanka. If you've ever been to Delhi you'll Know that everything takes a little longer than you might expect and complications can arise unexpectedly! Well, with a few more chairs to paint at the Delhi Bible Institute we needed a good excuse to wander off occasionally. On monday night then, clutching our Sri Lankan airways' tickets we took a taxi to Indira Gandhi International Airport - and it seemed most of Delhi had decided to come as well. Up to the check-in desk and....... CANCELLED!!! An American gemstone dealer who lives in Sri Lanka said this had never happened to him before. It was like a scene from the TV show Airport but without the shouting and screaming. Well, when you've been in these parts for a while you just shrug your shoulders and try to have a laugh with the guy behind the desk. So yes, you've guessed it, we were all taken to a luxury hotel. Because Colombo airport is closed at 21.00hrs every day to avoid casualties from any future bombings, and because our plane had had a technical problem, it could not take off in time - that was the cause of the cancellation. We were flown out in the afternoon the next day, so the man waiting to transfer us from the airport to our hotel only had to wait about 14 hours instead of 24!!! Colombo is a very peaceful place and about 10 degrees cooler than Delhi. So nothing to worry about. Oh, except, Richard was just reading in the local paper about the start of the rains. And last week parts of Colombo were under five feet of water - we thought the lobby of the hotel smelled a bit damp: [we hope our mothers aren't reading this!!] No sign of any water now though, except that the Grand Oriental Hotel is right by the docks! They started building it when William 1V was on the throne of England, so a few drops of rain shouldn't cause any problems. More later, hopefully!

Please go to last Delhi blog for details of our North India tour.