Day 114 Colombo, Sri Lanka

Day 114 – His.

Well, our last day. We got up at 6:30 – oddly enough as we didn’t have that much to do. The main thing is transferring to our new hotel – which is 15 minutes to the airport. But for some strange reason we were both just awake. We went for breakfast and met with the rest of our group to say our goodbyes. It was hugs all round and lots of we must keep in touch. It was all very sweet and a little glum. We than packed and went to wait for the taxi we had asked for at half ten. We waited, and we waited and we waited - by half eleven it turned up. We only had to say good bye three more times which is a little less than I thought it might be, so it wasn’t too bad.

The drive over to the hotel took an hour and a half – so on the whole I am quite glad we decided to do this today as if we had left it until tomorrow I know I would have been stressing. The Hotel we are staying in is the same as the one we stayed in when we first arrived and it hasn’t changed much.

The big challenges for today are to go for swim, have a final curry and repack our bags. About the only essential one is the bag repacking as several people have told us that England has a temperature of 10 degrees in the day and five at night. Normally I wouldn’t worry about such things – but, after living at 35 degrees in the day and 30 in the evening i am finding I start shivering at around 20 so I had to dig out some long trousers, fleece and my down jacket in preparation for arriving home.

It is going to be so weird being cold!

Day 114 – Hers.

The taxi ride between the hotels did seem to take forever – but I preferred to think of it as one last sightseeing tour.  We saw the stupas, temples, mosques and churches we had seen yesterday and Galle Face where we had dinner last night.  We drove around the harbour – and the building site for its expansion.  We drove through the northern suburbs we saw on our first full day here – now appreciating considerably more the mix of cultures and how the locals live their lives.   In some ways it will be a shame when the highway is completed, bypassing all the sights – but I’m sure it will be much quicker and less stressful for those with a plane to catch.

The hotel had the big fluffy towels and huge range of toiletries that I remembered – as well as the inordinately large staff anticipating any perceived need or desire.  The suite is large enough for both of us to completely empty our packs – a bit of a necessity, really. As Rob said, we had to dig out the cold weather gear; I also had to cushion a number of purchases that I don’t want crushed or broken on the way home – I really should have thought a bit more about that when buying things.....

We went for a short walk and then I went for a swim (Rob had packed his swimsuit at the bottom, so watched a silly film instead.  “Well, it’s been four months since I’ve seen a film,” he said, making me think his packing order was deliberate....), a long shower (I didn’t want to waste all those toiletries.) and we went out to the lounge for a drink and dinner – our last Sri Lankan rice with curry (I’ll try to make it at home, but I’m really not convinced I’ll find all the ingredients.) – and a strange dessert called ‘Watalappan’ that defies description  really, but had coconut and ginger in it definitely....

There was a large evening party at the hotel - so we retired to our room to watch another film and (hopefully) get a last good night’s sleep before our long flight home.