We had a stopover for two weeks at Sri Lanka, en route from The Philippines to Spain. Sort of breaks up the journey
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| We had a reasonable pad in Galle where we ... | ..explored the old fort. | ..complete with lighthouse and.. | ..lots of big cannons |
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| The sea was too rough to swim. | And when it rains here, it really rains | But next morning we were ready for breakfast | We never worked out why hotels here had large wooden horses |
We moved on to Tangalle
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| This is what a cinnamon plantation looks like. Dull | We learn something new every day. Cinnamon comes from .. | ..the bark of the trees, and they strip it and bundle it to sell | We had a meal here, a curry, the madre dliked this mild curry |
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| All meals in Sri Lanka are curries | Mango smoothies all round, bartender | And a bit of sustenance , too | It took 12 men to launch this colourful boat |
We left the sea and headed into the hills. Tea country
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| Nice pool for the madre | And a jacuzzi | Only really poncy hotels have the real afternoon tea like this | ..and they did a decent pudding |
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| There was a Christmas tree | We hung up our stockings as we forlornly do every year .. | ..but this year he came to see us. Ho ho ho and a bag of presents. | We don't think he had read our whole list. But we were happy to have just seen him |
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| A Christmas dinner with turkey | ..really poncy crackers ..and | ..a really good Christmas pudding | ..and Carol singers |
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| It was a bit of an anticlimax to go to a tea factory | ..they certainly produce lots of different sorts of tea | We tried them all , in the hope of getting some cake. But no cake | The madre seemed to enjoy the cakeless tea |
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| If you want to see tea growing, this is where you would come. | There is tea as far as the eye can see. and further | And this is the only bit they actually pick. Bit of a waste | Almost another cup of tea for us |
Kandy and some entertainment other than old stones
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| We went to a show with jugglers .. | ..fire eaters and .. | ..fire walkers.. ouch. |
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| Then we had to pay for the show by queuing for hours to see .. | ..the Buddha's tooth. Well you do not actually see the tooth.. | It is hidden inside a box, but this apparently is what it looks like |
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| The Temple by night | From a view point over Kandy, we spotted the Temple .. | ..of the Tooth far below |
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| A breakfast at our hotel, gets a good start to the day | An a visit to a hefalump carver's workshop. | They had a hefalump bigger than mummy bunny |
More Buddhas. They are keen on buddhas here
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| But first a moth eaten herb garden. We have seen more in Moraira | Then a forced march up lots, and lots and lots of steps | She found it hard going too | We have never seen so may buddhas |
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| Line upon line of buddhas. | We tried to have a chat to some of them. They were inscrutable. | So on to a new lodging | We keep on seeing lots of curry and very little of buns |
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| That is us with Sigiriya, one of the big attractions here | Then a day doing old stones. Mainly big old stones | or big stupas | or big Buddhas |
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| We went on a "safari", which was mainly jeep spotting. | Certainly more jeeps than heffalumps - one in distance here | Here is one of the big fellows avoiding jeeps | Pembroke spots a heffalump |
We come face to face with a policeman on the make , .lots of old stones and a nice lady
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| Our driver was stopped by a policeman who claimed we had .. | ..crossed a white line. He did not realise that Pembroke | had the technology to prove otherwise | Another Buddha tree, We have seen lots of them |
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| A series of old stones | We are unable to workout why tourists pay good money on .. | ..old stones | A bit of a climb here , but |
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| ..there was a good view when you puffed your way to the top | Our next hotel. You think you have seen it all, then you get this. Magnificent | We celebrate with a midday G&T |
Food was pretty decent here too |
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| Then we met this nice lady that really liked small bears | We managed to keep on eating. Breakfast was perhaps | ..a little too healthy | He is a brave bear with a large Monitor Lizard behind him |
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| Their Christmas tree was still here, nut no Santa Claus | Our Leopard safari yielded ..no leopards | But all sorts of other things like crocodiles .. | ..a cheeky tortoise |
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| A Water Buffalo | ..and a lot of thick, gooey mud | We went for a poncy meal. Where the quantities of food were | ..too much even for us. But we could've done with more cocktails |
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| Even with the padres involved, we could not eat it all | The chef came to see why we had not eaten it all | A peacock in full display | And we all say "goodbye" to the nice lady. |
And on to Colombo, our last stop
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| We were nearly washed away by this floodwater | But we managed to get to our billet | They even had a big rocking horse for us. | We settled in with a cocktail or two |
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| And supervised the padre to make sure he was not overdrinking | A nice lady bought us lime sodas in Colombo | ||
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| We left Colombo on a Turkish Airways flight to our favourite | place - the Business Class lounge at Istanbul Airport | We checked out everything from omelets to croissants | Got our mobiles re-charged |
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| Made sure he was only drinking Orange Juice | And carried on eating on our flight to Valencia | We touch down at Valencia and | ..head for Moraira |