Sri Lanka

We arrived a few days ago and have been relaxing in Negombo. Richard, as usual, found a beautiful accommodation for us called Waterland. Here are some pics:

Pool time for cooling off; though the temperature has been surprisingly comfortable, even with the humidity. The frequent wind and periodic downpours seem to keep the mosquitoes mostly at bay. We’re on the west coast and it’s monsoon season here, but we haven’t had any issues, only some impressive afternoon and nighttime rain.

It was a nice flight to Doha from Montréal and then onward to Colombo. Everything was on time. I always feel spoiled on Qatar. Could I just fly that way all the time? 🙂

Of course, there’s always something that doesn’t go according to plan. For us it was the 2:30 a.m. airport ATM. All was going great– bags claimed, immigration and customs navigated, no delays, driver present and waiting for us–then there was the cash. Again, just a reminder, 2:30 a.m. is not the best time to be half asleep with all your luggage and driver waiting, as you try to figure out the ATM. Three tries to get money with foggy brains and we gave up. In our defense, one of the challenges with some currencies is all the damn decimals you see, or the zeroes you have to count. In Sri Lanka, 1 USD is equal to 299.1094, not to be confused with the more zero-laden Cambodian Riel at 1 USD to 4,022.6390. Well, we were in Cambodia mode at the airport, trying to withdraw 1,000,000 and that just wasn’t working. The machine wasn’t having it.

The sunny morning, though, was a new day. Well, it wasn’t really; it was the same day. We got up, got breakfast and then fell back to sleep until dinner.

But now, it really is a new day. Tasks lined up include: getting a tuk tuk and finding an ATM (for obvious reasons), leaving an envelope for our driver with a very large tip, which we were mortified not to have given him in the first place, shopping and, eventually, a late lunch and/or wander on the beach.