Day 167 and 168: Poops, Meetings and Monkeys

Day 167

Of all the days to wake up with unbearable stomach cramps and diarrhoea, the day we are picking up Lee and Angela isn't a good one. I feel like crap and want to curl into a ball but am determined to go the airport as I'm so excited. Imodium is always my friend and Ben goes out to get breakfast whilst I get dressed and spend every 10 minutes in the toilet. Sigh.

Once he's back and filled me with flat lemonade and biscuits, we grab a tuk tuk to the bus station. I've heard there is a fast bus to the airport but our driver doesn't really understand and takes us to the local bus which is leaving as we pull up so we run and jump on and settle ourselves down for the long ride. Oh god it's hot, at least it's not as cramped as the last few buses we have wedged ourselves on. We arrive at the airport, all hot and sweaty and make our way to arrivals which we have to pay £3 for the privilege to enter. 

We don't have to wait long for them to come through and it's so nice to see them, especially as they both comment on how brown and slim we look, why thank you. They have a driver booked for the first week of them being here and he meets us at the airport Vand we make our way into Colombo. We tag along as they check in which is a win for us as we get a free drink and snack, can't complain. Our tummies rumble and not in a worrying way so off to barefoot we go to show off the delights of Colombo, unfortunately the main Sri Lankan dish they do isn't on and the rest of the food is a bit of a let down for everyone (apart from me, I get to eat hummus again, nom) 

After filling out faces, Sivah our driver takes us on a tour of Colombo, we whizz past the park and the fort area and then stop at a really cool Hindu temple,hunch is all inside a bit of a non descript building but it's beautiful inside. The only annoying thing is that I have to wear 2 saris oddly places to cover up and the locals get a good laugh at me. All the walking and the heat kills me so I sit out the Catholic Church across the road. Our plan is now to go and see a lake but I'm waning and Lee and Angela look knackered so we head pack and we pack for leaving tomorrow.

Day 168

I'm still not feeling great so it's another Imodium day. We get picked up at 7.30 and we begin our adventure Lee and Angela style. We pick up some food from a bakery on route before hitting the highway and starting on our 4 hour journey to Dambulla. The scenery here is incredible and its so nice to be seeing it from the comfort of a car. We stop for King Coconuts which is delicious and I wish I'd had some sooner on the trip, it's so refreshing. Once we arrive in Dambulla, our first stop is the Temple Caves. I'm feeling a little better so head off with everyone to climb the steps up the huge rock but within a few steps I feel awful and so dizzy. I know it's low blood sugar and thirst but stupidly I don't get anything from the water sellers on the way up.

By the time I'm at the top, I'm almost fainting and spend about 3/4 of the 45 minutes we are up there resting in a wall whilst everyone else goes round. I do perk up a bit and go in the first couple of caves and my they are beautiful. The scenery up here is amazing, I completely understand why they built these temples up here. There is also tons of monkeys here that are so cute and they little antics take my mind off feeling pants on the way down. 

We grab some lunch now which is simple for me of veg and rice but yummy and Ben, Lee and Angela go for a huge Sri Lankan feast. We part now, and arrange to meet in the morning for breakfast and then Safari!

Day 165 and 166: Shopping and Dinosaurs

Day 165

We've got 2 days to fill in Colombo before Ben's Dad and Angela turn up for our 10 day tour but the weather isn't looking great so it looks like we are going to be a bit limited. We've heard of a nice shop we want to check out called Barefoot so we start walking down there to check it out. Breakfast first though and we stop off at the restaurant we ate at last night for some more of their roti but instead of it being oh my hot but I can handle its oh my god bastard hot I haven't got a mouth left. I unsurprisingly don't finish it. 

I am in a foul mood today and breakfast doesn't help improve it and then we get lost, not good. I get grumpy, Ben kicks a coconut and I shout. Then the shop appears and apologise within 2 minutes "Sorry for what I said when I was hungry" The shop is so cool and I could buy the whole lot, it's a mixture of an art gallery and a local handicraft and book shop. I settle for a more in our price range basket and get a Roald Dahl book and 2 cool postcards to frame once we are home. There is also a delicious cafe here and the food looks so good, we break our budget and I get some houmous and pita, nom.

There's another shop we want to check out called Push which has been set up by local skaters and has some really cool designs so we grab a tuk tuk and Ben gets some cool tees which he needs as his bag was starting to look a little bedraggled. It's a cool place to hang out and it has a puppy so I'm happy to be there for a while. The weather starts to turn once we leave the shop so instead of getting damp exploring we head back. 

Day 166 

We are having a lazy day today as we don't really know what else to do to fill our time in Colombo. It's a cool city and its worth staying more than a few hours but it's not got enough to fill 2 days. The weather has dramatically improved though so we decide after grabbing a breakfast that we will go to see the promenade. Finding food that isn't the restaurant we've been going to every day turns out to be a little hard. Our plan is to explore the restaurants in the mall opposite us but after a creepy explore turns out its empty and we just walk round a building sight, odd.

We finally make our way out of the dusty maze when we spot a cinema just across the road and its showing Jurassic World. Well it would be rude not too, we book tickets for the first showing of the day which is 4.30 and go off in search of norms. Just next to the cinema is a bakery so our good luck continues and I fill my face with curry filled pastry that doesn't burn off my taste buds, woohoo.

After our tummies are full, we carry on down the road to the Galle a Face promanade which is right next to the snazzy hotel that Lee and Angela are staying at, very nice. A guy stops is on the way to complement us on our tattoos which is always nice. There is a little beach in front of the prom which is too rough to go on but we nab a bench and watch the cocky crows trying to eat a whole slice of bread. We take a little walk down the prom after a while but it's a bit smelly so we head back after about half hour and spend the afternoon blogging before a cheeky Burger King just before the film, nom.

This cinema is awesome, we have to wait for an age before hand as there's only one screen and the first film over runs (how that is possible I don't know) and its tiny! There isn't any proper aisles and we have to clamber over seats to find ours and then theirs the screen, I think I've seen bigger ones in people's houses but it's actually just right, we put our 3D glasses on and get ready to be wowed and I so am!! It's amazing and made all the better by the fact half way through we have an intermission for snacks and the baby in front of us makes Dinosaur noises most of the way through the film. I would recommend the film (again, I think I've loved all the films we've seen here :D)

I'm very buzzed after the film and natter on about it for hours, in which time Ben grabs a curry and rice that's big enough to feed a family of four and we head back to the hostel to nom and get ready for having to speak to other human tomorrow. 

Day 163 and 164: Turtles, Tragedy and Roti

Day 163

We have a delicious Sri Lankan breakfast this morning of coconut sambal, so good and rice and dahl. I love it all. The heavens opened last night as we worryingly thought it would and it's still raining now so hopefully all the things we want to do today are inside. A car turns up, it's quite snazzy and we all jump in and set off. This area was quite badly hit by the 2004 Tsunami and I heard there was a photo museum you could see so I put a little detour into our day and we head there first.

The building is a little hut but it's really informative. It first explains about tectonic plates and how tsunamis happen, then what actually happens in Sri Lanka and specifically this area and then the back room is full of pictures of the aftermath and then the redevelopment. Karu tells is his story of the day and him and his family only survive by clinging to the stupa behind his house. He also tells us of the horrific train accident that killed nearly 1700 people as the wave hit it and they couldn't get out. We go and see a memorial for this and it's very humbling to think about.

After this we head to the turtle sanctuary which, although I'm not sure how ethical is it, I really enjoyed. We see a lot of babies and big ones, even getting to hold some though we are careful to not touch the shell as we've heard doing so can cause permenant damage. We also meet a huge albino one which was really cool and looked darn heavy. It's rained the whole time we've been out and it's put a really dampner on things (lol) and we aren't sure about staying the extra days here as there really isn't much to do. We decide to move on, even though we will lose money, and plan to head to Colombo in the morning. 

Good job we did as about an hour before we are meant to eat dinner with Karu and his wife, a family member comes over to let us know he's been in an accident. The language  barrier means we don't know how serious till his son comes over later and lets us know he was hit by a truck and in a bad way. We let him know that we are leaving early morning and although he protests, we are firm, they don't need us hanging around.

Day 164 

Karu plays in my mind and I can't stay asleep so give up from 5.30 onwards. By 8am, we are both ready to leave and we grab our bags and head to the bus stop. One of Karu's neighbours stops and helps us flag a bus which is so kind of him,. It isn't long once we get on that the heavens one and I'm so glad we decided to leave early. The journey is its usual fun self, filled with bad Sri Lankan pop music and interesting scenery outside. We arrive in Colombo at 11 and go straight to the hostel we stayed at before. We haven't got a reservation due to the odd leaving of the last place but they luckily have room and they give us a room till the 2nd which is when we leave with Lee, Ben's Dad and his friend Angela who are meeting us with us for our last 10 days in Sri Lanka.

We are both starving so we drop our bags and then grab some yummy food from a small road side cafe and eat the yummiest roti parcels and prawns but man they are spicy! I've been warned Sri Lankan food is going to be hot but this is unreal. It looks like it's going to rain again so we head back to catch up with everyone after our internet free days. I've got a hideous craving for Burger King which Ben lets me fill for dinner and it's so bad but so good. We have a movie night tonight and watch the very funny 22 Jump Street, I would recommend.