Wow how spectacular Sri Lanka is. It has been a hectic 48 or so hours. The arrival at the airport was hilarious. Smooth with regard to customs and visas etc and not a queue in sight but we had to laugh at the appliances being sold at duty free. Our departure from the airport was nothing compared to those leaving with fridges, washing machines and microwaves. Couldn’t help but think how funny it would be if mike came home with a fridge for me rather than a bottle of gin and perfume!!! Elrik our driver was duly there to meet us with his lovely air conditioned van And matter of fact manner. Although he is not your usual personable Sri Lankan his English is good and he is honest, a good driver and seems knowledgeable about what is to see.
The drive from Negombo north to Sigiriya was fascinating. Amazing quality of road but never faster than about 50km/hr. Typically chaotic, lots of horn beeping, crazy passing on blind corners. Plenty of police along the way one pulling us over we think fining us for passing on a blind corner. The countryside really undeveloped. Lots of coconut trees, wee stalls on side of the road selling coconuts or other fruit. Barely a real shop to be seen and where not coconut plantations jungle which as we went further north gave way to rice paddies. Stopped to see the Dambulla cave temple which was pretty impressive. Typical rookies ended up getting a guide who offered his services and kindly extracted $10 from us after telling us the cave was 2 thousand 100 years old and there were an absurd number of Buddha’s within the caves. Could have read our lonely for free.
Elrik drove us down a gorgeous narrow country road along the shores of some picturesque lake where the locals were swimming, Washing clothes and generally having a good time. He then dropped us to our hotel. A resort in name only. Clean rooms and a pool in the middle of the jungle run by the very personable Pio and his wife and their gorgeous gregarious Riley (or Amelia we are still not sure). A tiny wee 3 year old who loved playing with the kids. They hadn’t had a guest in around 2 weeks at a time when they would normally be booked out. Consequently the dinner menu was limited and the drinks menu but the pool was lovely for a much needed cool off. What they lacked was well and truely made up for in personality. We were the only guests so thank god we didn’t cancel! We all had an awesome sleep lulled by the surrounding jungle.