There is a lady who looks after the guest house we stayed in. She was very kind and helpful. Once we were awake she made us a Sri lankan omelette which unfortunately was full to the brim of onions. It was very hard to eat two bites but charlie read the situation very quickly and whenever she left the room he ate a huge chunk of mine. She ordered us a tuk tuk to get into town which was 700 (roughly £3.50). Once in town we were bombarded with stares and questions and offers for more tuk tuks. It was very hard to take it all in. You didn't really want to get your phone out either. You stood out a mile as a tourist and there weren't that many tourists there. The tourist help desk tried to sell us all our transport around the island for £275 but we refused feeling it was either a con or a rip off. Everywhere we walked we couldn't get any peace or a moment to collect our thoughts. It was very hard to know where we were so we just walked around and took a backroad to get away from everyone.

Strangely enough, in this back road we stumbled on the shop 'barefoot' which is the shop that Lena recommended to charlie. We bought a purse and used the phone to work out where to go next. A man starting to talk to us and reccommended the temple so we got in a tuk tuk and made the fatal error of not asking for the price first. When we arrived, he charged 1400 (£7) for the journey and we argued a lot with him. We kept saying too much too much and he said 'I ama Buddhist, I wouldn't lie'. I didn't want to be the last one in the tuk tuk so I'd hopped out the window. Little to our knowledge a policeman heard our dispute and was approaching. Charlie left 1000 and walked off. The policeman said he had overcharged and it should be 500 maximum for that journey but the tuk tuk man had left. We walked around the temple feeling like fools. Still, least we hadn't paid 1400.

When we left another tuk tuk driver approached us and said his brother lived in England in Somerset, he showed me a photo of his brother outside old Trafford stadium.... Hmm. Colombo is exhausting!

With so many people bombarding you, it's so hard to browse a shop or have a look at a menu because they are talking over your thinking all the time. Luckily charlie had bought a packet of biscuits when we bought the water and we ate then in the park.... That was lunch! The park was lovely relief from the city. Columbo is a very useful city but it's not very pretty and it take hard work exploring. Even in the park, many people, children, women, the old were staring at me. We went to the national museum which was very interesting as it started with the Stone Age. This is a topic I am teaching next year so it was good to brush up on my Neolithic knowledge. In the Hindu section there were several artefact replicas that had notes on identifying the real artefact is in the British museum.... Bit embarrassing! Luckily, king George gave back the royal throne and swords so we got to see those.

We left and wisely asked a tuk tuk drive how much to get home. He said 250.... Maybe we'd been ripped off all day? Charlie returned to the same shop to get some water and crisps (called mister potato) and biscuits....and that was dinner!