An early start gave evidence to a second day hangover but being the brave courageous northerners that we are we cracked on. Packed for Sri Lanka, uploaded the blog in an Internet cafe and caught the shuttle to the airport. It is worth noting that at this point only a select number of people know about our journey to Sri Lanka and our pending Xmas day surprise to the family. That is if Sheila and John can hold their water.
The flight was not a good sign of what was to come in the next few weeks. We are very worried and this is why. We visited Sri Lanka in 2011 for Sig and Vic's wedding and it was the place that set our hearts on traveling and let us discover a tiny piece of what lies beyond our normal lives. The idea of coming back here was for some familiar, safe bet, beautiful memories and a 2 week holiday before surrendering to normal life and our ever dwindling bank balance. What we experienced on the plane was a cocktail of Chinese rudeness (disclaimer - not all Chinese but many), plain old ignorance and not realising that anyone is in the wrong (the worst crime in our eyes). The latter means that people don't even know what they are doing and are not socially aware of their own actions. At least rude/ignorant people do it on purpose and are prepared for a good old argument over manners and the European phenomenon which is queuing. How can you shout at somebody that doesn't know why they are wrong? You can't. It would be just like when a puppy urinates/poos in the wrong place and the owner rubs the dogs nose in it. The dog thinks "oooo not doing that again but I don't really understand the issue!" We mean can you imagine that....... Curry stings coming out of the right end but what about in the eyes. INHUMANE. Don't even ask how the baggage claim went.
After our few bad experiences with the general population of The plane we had more bad memories that came flooding back. In 2011 when we were Asia virgins we arrived at Colombo airport at 4am and were forgotten by our taxi driver we had arranged. The same happened today. As it was late (12.30am) we needed to make extra arrangements to be picked up and check in. We walked through the arrival doors to no one but this time we didn't panic. Just as we were considering our options a lovely smiley Sri Lanka taxi driver holding a piece of A4 with our names on arrived to chauffeur us to our hostel. This is the type of person we remember, trustworthy and chatty. The journey was mildly hazard free as we only nearly hit 1 car, 2 dogs and the wreckage of a crash that had already happened. This caused Matt to voice his opinion very strongly to the driver, without realising. Too blue for the blog unfortunately.
On arrival at our hostel room it seemed as if the mosquitoes were reproducing faster than we could kill them, so a very late night mozzie net erection (Only smashing one light fitting) gave us refuge for the night ahead.
M & C xxxx