Observations on our trip to Sri Lanka in no particular order:

For some reason cyclists use their heels to pedal! This means that their knees stick out putting them in peril from overtaking vehicles!

Tuk tuks - you’ve got to love ‘em, unless they are holding up traffic which makes them almost the lowest of the low road users (cyclists being the lowest).

I’m not sure about the driving!!! It seems there is a thin line between courtesy and the acceptance of fate! One of our drivers believes that the lack of accidents is down to the fact that drivers value their vehicles and their lives just enough.

Overtaking (esp tuk tuks) on blind bends is, it seems, acceptable! It is also quite common to see a vehicle (bus, lorry) coming straight at you on the wrong side of the road. Somehow everyone escapes!

Horns. These are mandatorily used by all bus drivers at any times for any, or indeed no, reason. Other drivers of cars, tuk tuks, motorbikes etc use them as warnings for a variety of reasons.

In the gridlock of Colombo a two lane road quickly became a FIVE lane road requiring drivers/riders to negotiate with millimetric precision! And not a single touch of a mirror!

Sri Lanka is not a country where you would wish to hire a car! However, I am thinking of buying a tuk tuk and driving around Fleet!

Other vehicular problems one comes across are bullock carts and hand tractors.

On our first day we saw a Hindu wedding and a Buddhist funeral - but no births!

The guy selling king coconut juice was happily chewing betel leaves and we noticed a number of drivers also doing this. Don’t try this at home!

There is a lot of rice grown in Sri Lanka! The paddy fields yield two harvests a year and when the rice is still in husks it is called ‘paddy’ and only after is it called rice.

The national game of SL is - volleyball.

Like the Indians, the Sri Lankans suffer from ‘wobbly head syndrome’. Thus, when they are in agreement with something they give a wobbly shake of the head which can be confused with a negative rather than an affirmative.

There is a general confusion between ‘mousse’, ‘cheesecake’ and ‘blancmange’.

A short story. At one of the hotels there was a visiting tea expert who gave a talk on tea and hosted a tasting. Lin decided to attend and, as dusk was falling, a baby bat flew into the overhead fan. With fatal results. Which caused a bit of a stir amongst the audience! Lin now considers herself a bit of a tea expert.

There are a lot of peacocks in SL. They are noisy - especially at dawn. That is all!

Chefs in this country are not as good at omelette making as those in Vietnam. They do however make a mean egg hopper, which is a very thin rice flour ‘pancake’ in a small bowl shape with an egg which is poached inside at the time of cooking. We like them!

In only one hotel room (or washroom) did we find a basin tap which didn’t move. Why? Also, why do they use the cheapest plastic loo seats even in expensive hotels?

While we are on the subject of toilets, one hotel used toilet paper made from wheat chaff. This was fine except that it turned dark brown as soon as it came into contact with water - causing early consternation.

In the hotel at Galle there are quite a lot of Chinese. Regular readers will know that this is not my favourite race. However,one Chinese lady was carrying a camera around on a three legged stand. I think she might be a member of one of those dangerous Chinese tripod gangs!!!

To sum everything up, we loved the country, the people, the history, the food and the scenery. We didn’t like the driving experience and the cost of wine - but that’s about it

OK. That’s it for another trip - you can all look forward to tales of the Deep South in June!

Over and out!

ADO/LMA xx