We left the safari lodge and hit the road for Colombo. Our first chance for a leg stretch was along the side of the road in Ratnapura - one of the most well known gem areas in Sri Lanka. Given that the country is home to 40 of the 85 types of gems in the world, we’d imagined it would be a fairly high-tech and commercial affair. But not so much. Basically, with a licence, you can put up a hut and dig a hole and haul gem bearing dirt up, seive it and find gems...

Standard protocols dictated a 7.30 am departure (the nicer the hotel, the earlier we leave). We had a good breakfast and bid a sad farewell to the Jetwing St Andrews. It was a long (5 hours+) and very bendy drive down the other side of the mountain. I had planned ahead and taken some anti-motion-sickness medication so was fine - others on the coach, despite warnings in advance, were not so lucky. The large breakfasts and late night probably didn’t help. We...

This morning we left Kandy via a stunning scenic viewpoint then took the coach up to Sri Lanka’s most pouplar hill resort - Nuwara Eliya. Why so popular? The invigorating mountain air and the breathtaking scenery of course. We had the option to take the local train up, but took one look at the truly evil spectre of third class carriages (bench seats... you know how we feel about bench seats) and decided taking the coach up - and having it all to ourselves - w...

The trouble with beautiful, comfortable, scenic and hospitable hotels (with particularly comfy beds) is having to leave them. Having to leave Jetwing Lake at 7.30 am seemed to add insult to all sorts of injury. Breakfast was incredible - they even had bacon - and we sat in their indoor/outdoor dining area looking out towards the lake as the day’s curtain of humidity arranged its skirts and settled into place. We had had a serious discussion during the prior ...

We had a great breakfast at the OZO Colombo and particulrly enjoyed the super ripe papaya and all sorts of fabulous dishes. It was an early departure, 7.30 am or so and we knew the breakfast would hold us in good stead as we started on our tour-proper of Sri Lanks. First stop, the Dambulla Royal Cave Temples. This is an ancient complex of caves dating back to the 1st century BC tucked beneath a vast overhanging rock. The rock towers 160 metres over the surrou...