Last night we ate at Lords Restaurant which is literally over the road from the hotel. I was amazed by the presentation of the food and it tasted great too! I had a coconut chicken curry served with a mushroom risotto - the risotto was served in a coconut shell beside the bowl of curry. Peter was a bit more adventurous with his choice of a fish curry!
Today marks the start of the Sinhalese and Tamil New Year celebrations. This morning our driver picked us up and took us to the Negombo fish markets which are alongside Negombo Lagoon. While we arrived at the end of the auctions, we were still able to see much of the catch - large tuna as well as shark, various small fish and prawns of all sizes. Everyone is very friendly and wants to know where you are from although not everyone is able to speak a little English. Before going back to the hotel we had a drive around Negombo City as we are a few kilometres out of it. Nothing much was open as we were fairly early but it appeared to have a number of main streets and a variety of shops.
Back in the hotel we took part in the first of what will be many buffet breakfasts - a selection of western and Indian cuisines, we tried as many as possible to do it justice!
It rained last night as we were coming home from dinner and it has started raining again this morning. The rain has played havoc with the New Year celebrations planned by the hotel but we were able to see traditional Sri Lankan music and dance as well as try much Sri Lankan food. There were numerous games organised for the beach area - draw the eye on the elephant (a variation of pin the ta on the donkey), blindfolded pot smashing - like piñata, a leaf weaving race, and lots of other games. It was great to see everyone getting into the spirit of things.