Hello everyone I've made it to the south-to the city of Galle where Chamika was brought up and where her parents currently work and live. I spent a couple of lovely relaxing days in Kandy (where the temperature was more bearable for me!) before taking an early morning train to Colombo yesterday. I met Chamika at the railway station and we took a bus to Galle. Her father met us and took us to their home where I met Chamika's mother and had lunch (which she had kindly made without hot spices and chillies!). After lunch we went back into central Galle and walked around the old Dutch built fort which encloses lots of old Dutch style buildings. It is a fascinating area (and is listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site). We ended up getting a bit wet as an afternoon thunderstorm descended upon us! It was really quite refreshing! In the evening Chamika's brothers (2) and sister-in-law arrived and we had dinner together before watching Harry Potter and the Philsophers Stone (in English with Singalise sub-titles!) This morning we woke to the news there had been a grenade attack at a pop concert in Colombo last night (with Indian Bollywood stars featuring) with 2 people killed and a number injured. Not good news at all..at this stage its not really known who did it-whether it was a group or an individual. All we can hope is people keep cool heads and reprisal attacks don't happen...Sri Lanka is such a beautiful place with friendly people it is such a shame violence is not far from the surface in daily life (as it is in so many places around the world at the moment). Chamika and her father took me to visit her aunty and uncle and Grandmother this morning then we went to a reserve area with forest with some fantastic big tropical trees in (the last remaining area in Sri Lanka with virgin forest). We got back to Chamika's parents place for lunch (and inside just in time as it has been pouring with rain for the last couple of hours!) Tomorrow I head a bit further around the south coast to a small beach settlement of Tangella to have a couple of relaxing days before making my way back north to Negombo and flying out to India on Friday. Love to you all, Sonia