The flight to Muscat was a quicky up and down, I had a window seat with the view of Dubai (the Burj al Arab, marina, Damac hills, etc.)
Everything was again quick and easy, I waited for Ellie after security in transfers hoping she would find me easily. She came in five minutes after me; and of course I cried, she cried, we both cried and then we were all okay! (Still got that weird empty feeling like I don’t really know how to feel about anything that’s going on, in a bit of a shock and a daze I think?)

Of course we hit the one and only Irish bar in the airport (those things are like creepy crawlies - they get everywhere!)
Natter natter natter over food and drinks completely forgetting that we were in the airport and where we were going - again! We had way too much time to kill in this place as the airline pushed our flight back to early hours of the morning so the 7.5hour lay over was a bit minging.

We called it a night after a pot of tea and tried to find somewhere to sleep - so you think we could find anywhere!? There were people sprayed out all over the place on benches and padded seats, the floor, the big holes on the wall. We headed to the gate hoping to find somewhere to sleep, again nowhere! They had these ridiculous wavy wooden benches that you couldn’t lie down on properly because of the bloody shape on it. Great for the back I tell you! I tried to nap but nothing was working I just had a very numb arm from how I was lieing on it. It was also bloody freezing in there, Eventually at 12.45 they open the downstairs departure were there were proper seats and carpet to make it a little warmer only now I had a very loud German guy chatting in my ear whilst I tried to sleep - sheizer!

Not sure why everyone legs it to the plane door as soon as they say “now boarding business class” they aren’t getting on any quicker. When we finally got onto the hot sweaty and rather fart smelling sardine can we as usual we sat at the back of the plane meaning we had to wait forever to get off it at the other end..
flight was crap, I managed to seep a little bit the turbulence was awful me and El just kept looking at each other in that way you both know that your worried but you don’t want to say it so you telepathically say “s***!” to one another.

Landing in Sri Lanka was easy, we got straight through security and bags were fast behind us. We were making good time so decided to bit the bullet and splash the cash out on a private taxi to Colombo fort train station so that we could get the earlier train up to Kandy. (2900 ruppees which i think is around £15)

Reminds me of India but a lot calmer, less people and traffic and a lot cleaner! I’m not sure Ellie thought it was very calm as there a few screeches and squeaks coming from her every now and then with the 4 lanes of traffic in two lanes kind of thing haha.

Sri Lanka was already a lot more picturesque than India with palm trees everywhere, a little like Kerala I guess. It was just nice to see greenery and it not be too hot to stand outside for more than one minute without loosing your breathe from the heat. Although the humidity was around 85% it was very sticky!

The train station was simple, scramble into the queue that said ‘trains to Kandy’ and then walk to platform 3. A guy was helping us, told us to sit down and wait for the train. Wrote on his hand the next train time, he was a-mute.; not even a grunt. He was helping a few western tourists get to the bus, moving platforms and getting our bags on the train. We thought he wanted money but when he came to us he wanted donations for his deaf society to support learning materials. I’ll play nice and go along with it this time but I can find my own way from the platform onto the train and put my bag in the overhead department next time (call me cruel but that’s going to add up on our extremely tight daily budget!)

I had to shut the window because the rain started belting it down, luckily it stopped soon so that we were able to open it again and get some fresh air in! A Sri Lankan guy in his I would say 40-50’s jumped onto the 2nd class carriage as we pulled out of Colombo station and stood in the end part near to the toilet, taking a good old Gorp at Ellie. She got pretty freaked out over the 20/30 minutes he was there (I didn’t realise this until at the end) before he was about to get off he threw a business card in her lap with his name (Rushan) on it and his number, swiftly walked up to the other end of the carriage and got out of the train only to stare at us through the window opposite, Ellie not really knowing what to do... I gave him one of those awesome scowls I can do with my Elvis lip and teared the card up into little teeny weeny pieces. :) He got the message then (Rushan, the train creep).

The rest of the train ride to Kandy was way more relaxing especially with the scenery surrounding us, just fields and palm trees, mountains and little huts tucked away. It was pretty breathtaking.

The New Zealand v Sr Lanka cricket game was playing in Kandy this evening and didn’t we know it , the carriage two in front of us had a load of men on it with drums singing at the top of their lungs for most of the way.

Nevertheless it was still a lovely train journey!