Mudgways In Egypt: Sri Lanka R & R

At the moment I am sitting on the deck of a "bach" looking out to the Laccadive Sea watching the waves crash on the beach while I sip my glass of red wine. Jealous? We've been in Sri Lanka since the 8 August, mainly to catch up with Raymond but also to have a look around another country. I haven't seen so much rain in a long time! Don't get me wrong, it's not cold heavy rain but it's still wet and you don't really do wet in Cairo.
Anyway I digress. We arrived on the 8th and managed to fit in the National Museum, Viharamahadevi Park, Town Hall, hunted down some cashew nuts and visited Barefoot, a shop of local crafts. We figured Raymond wouldn't be interested in any of these. He arrived late on the evening of the 9th so we were already organised for the next day. Tickets had to be booked for Hikkaduwa, then we hired a tuktuk driver for an hour visited a temple, a gem shop and a tea shop. The cost of 200R was well worth it. Funnily enough we saw the sightseeing bus outside the Dutch Hospital district and it wasn't leaving for another 3 hours which is why we hired the tuktuk. The afternoon was spent searching for the lighthouse then heading back for a nap before dinner.

The Museum - not well sign posted but worth the visit.

Would you believe this is the sign for the ""New Town Hall"?

A Boy Scout Memorial.

Catch up time is quality time.

At the entrance to a Buddhist temple.

We found the lighthouse and it wasn't on the coast.

View from our apartment window.

We had to be up early the next morning to catch the train to Hikkaduwa. Two and a half hours later we were standing outside the station waiting for Chanaka to pick us up, ended up being a three minute walk to the "2 bdrm exotic apartment" which I would call a bach. Let's just say it doesn't look as immaculate as the pictures on Trip Advisor. It's comfortable and relaxing and right on the beach and that's really all that matters.
Our first day was just spent lazing around here, napping and watching rugby league on the laptop. The Number 1 Roti shop was closed for the off-season so we went next door for curry and rice which was just as good.
Day Two, we'd organized for Chanaka to take us to some local sights after breakfast. First stop was to the memorials for the 2004 tsunami. There was a small photographic museum on a side road, being maintained by a local woman who was keen to share her experiences and knowledge of the event with us - approx 50,000 died in Sri Lanka. Next stop was the moonstone mine & cinnamon plantation. They were still using basic technology to mine the stones, OSH would have had a field day. They also cut the stones, made jewellery and sold them to tourists. The side business the family had was the production of cinnamon. Luckily I'n not a fan of jewellery so we save some money. I did buy cinnamon oil for headaches and pain though. My favourite part of the day was the boat trip on the river. We spent over an hour out there, stopping off at the fish massage and the Buddhist temple. The turtle hatchery was not the one in Hikkaduwa, this was further out and supported by the NGO (whatever that is). Turtle eggs are delivered by local fishermen, who no longer eat them, then they are hatched and returned to the sea after 3 days. Any turtles that are malformed are kept and raised at the hatchery until they die. There were a few blind ones and turtles with missing limbs. I have to say I was far more impressed with this place than the exhibition in Lisbon for the four turtles. Our last stop was the spice garden. After listening to the young man tell us all about the different spices and what they were for, he herded us into the shop to purchase some of these wonderful miracle creams and oils. Unfortunately for him I'd bought some cream in Colombo and cinnamon oil about 2 hours earlier. He was really friendly though so we gave him a tip.