Last days in Sri Lanka

February 2nd and 3rd

For most of yesterday we all relaxed in and around the hotel, and I caught up on all the blogs from Sri Lanka. It was too hot to do much except read and relax and we didn't even explore the bit of coast where we are staying, which is in front of a lagoon.Today after breakfast we found Marcus waiting for us, bless him, still looking out for the old folk  and taking good care to the end of our trip. Today we went along the coast to Mirissa, passing through the southernmost point of Sri Lanka, where there is a very tall lighthouse, and now a large and moving statue as a memorial to the 35,000 victims of the tsunami.

We stopped at Matara, just short of our destination, to have tea and cake and a last chat with Marcus. It is so sad to be saying good bye to him- he has been a real friend and we will miss his humour and his knowledge about all things Sri Lankan. He found us our next and last hotel. The Morning Star, on the road just across from the beaches of Mirissa. He made sure that we has agreed a time for the taxi that would take us to Colombo airport on Saturday, as he now had to leave to get back to Colombo in time for his next customers, on Friday. He lives in a village north of Colombo, with his wife and son, and I am hoping he will have had a day of relaxation at home at least. We had filled in the evaluation form required by Pradeep, and possibly Rajesh in India too, with excellent  evaluations and crediting Marcus with having made all the difference to our tour. With promises to keep in touch via email, we said our very grateful farewells to him.

February 4th and 5th

The Morning Star is a small family run hotel, with several generations of the family much in evidence in and around the hotel all the time, all of them very smiley and friendly. Our rooms are pleasant with A/c, thank heavens, since the temperature is rising all the time and we would have been very uncomfortable without it. Our bed is incredibly high and I have to do a kind of running jump and then climb up the wall, heaving my body using the headboard, to get into it! It is hung about with mozzie nets which just make Andy furious and irritated. With the bed so huge there is very little room left for any other furniture, so it feels a bit squashy. We soon discovered that five new 'Superior' rooms have been built, together with a very nice swimming pool, and these were only finished twenty days ago. Down beyond the Superior rooms and the pool there is a coconut grove which is much frequented by small brown monkies who leap about noisily in the branches. This morning a mongoose dashed across the tiles by the pool, and disappeared under the lounger next to mine and then off at great speed.

Our days here have been spent lounging and reading by the pool, mostly, apart from a walk along the beach to the larger Mirissa beach where there are lots of eating places  and hotels, some of them fairly posh looking. Pam and Brian found the one they stayed in when they came last, but it is of course totally rebuilt after the tsunami, which came right up and over the whole of this area, with waves rising to ninety feet- taller than the very tall coconut trees. Pam says that at first the government tried to prevent people re-building for quite a long way back from the coast, but this has obviously been ignored now as the coastal strip is highly populated. We also managed to find some shops at last, which sold tee-shirts suitable for our grandchildren, we hope. Memo to selves, we must get our boys' measurements before we next go on holiday as it seems impossible to guess sizes when one is away from them. In one shop a kind young Russian girl from Moscow offered to try on a tee-shirt for me as I thougtht she was about Lily's size. 

Pam and I also had a very enjoyable trip to a batik maker's shop, where we met Jezamel Mohammed, who has been designing and making her  batiks for more than fifty years. We saw where the designs are drawn and where the wax is heated and applied. She draws directly on to the cloth. Her helpers, who apply the wax and then dye and boil the cloth, are all getting on in age like her, because she just cannot interest young people in coming into the craft. She has many beautiful pieces and does orders which are exported to Europe. She made a long piece with elephants which she sent to the Queen for her Golden Jubilee and the Queen accepted it. We could have run amok here with our plastic money, there was so much that was really lovely. 

As I write, we have set alarms for an early start as we have a taxi at 6a.m for the airport. It is incredibly hot out on our balcony, but fortunately the room is nicely cooled by the A/C. We have just eaten our delicious special meal, provided for us by Rajesh, cooked by the main man in the family, who does delicious curried prawns. This was followed by his wife's top (Mary Berry award) buffalo curd and syrup. Tonight when I said Oooh that is REALLY nice, he took the hint (last night he did not and we were very disappointed) and offered us a second dish.

It's been a super five weeks in India and Sri Lanka, hot, busy, tiring, but never dull and always exciting and very very rewarding. Can't wait till the next time!