It's like Kandy

We spent three days in Negombo and delightful they were. Day two saw us take a trip to Negombo beach which was less than impressive. A big rip tide and two drownings occurred the day before we were there. The beach part of Negombo is a long stretch of tourist bars and hotels and was fairly unappealing to us. We didn't make it into the town that day. Instead we retreated back to our hideaway lodgings to pay over the odds for food and beer. We did make it into town the next day and I was sorry I hadn't checked it out.

Leaving for Kandy we caught the public bus. That was our first real taste of Sri Lanka. Once the seats on the bus were full we set off on our journey - only to stop five minutes later to let about thirty more people aboard. The tunes were banging out as we sweated buckets for the next four hours of the 120km journey. Some bloke had his arse stuck in Harry's head and a baby was puking out the window beside me. This was a good solid reminder that we were in Asia. It was reminiscent of several journeys we took in SE Asia a few years back.

Kandy is a peculiar place. It has world heritage status and is set in some spectacular scenery. The local tuk tuk tuk drivers and market stall holders hassle you a bit but a firm 'no thanks' generally sees them off. They're not as in your face as in other parts of the world. On our first night we went to the Kandy Muslim Hotel to eat - not so much a hotel but an eaterie. The locals eat out front but we were shunted out the back of the place to a dirty table with cockroaches on it. That might put the fainthearted off eating but not us. We ordered a load of food which was absolutely delicious. Our waiter knew very little English but knew who Gerry Adams was for some reason. Odd to say the least.

Today was Joe's 13th birthday. I had gotten my wires crossed and had hoped to bring him to the Sri Lanka v Pakistan cricket match. It turns out that it wasn't being held in Kandy but about 300 miles from here. Instead we went to check out the famous Kandy dance troupe - it was a mix of traditional Sri Lankan dancing, drumming and firewalking. Definitely one for the tourists i.e. us. Afterwards Joe wanted pizza so we all trooped off to get Domino's pizza. Our guest house owner made a fuss of him when we got back and we watched the last part of the cricket. Sri Lanka won handsomely. The workers in the guest house then took out a board game and taught the kids to play it. It was like a mixture of pool and shove-halfpenny. A truly good buzz to end the day.

Tomorrow we 'll try to plan our journey north to Aranadaphura and from there to Jaffna in the far north. Onwards and upwards.