Jill & George's trip: Unawatuna

After almost a week at the school in Maskeliya we were sad to be leaving as we felt that we had just begun to scratch the surface of what this project was all about. The kids and the staff where just beginning to get used to having us around.

We took the bus from Hatton back to Colombo going through some of the most ridiculously beautiful countryside you can imagine, it was unreal, mountains rising up over forests which blanketed the landcape plunging into the valley with waterfalls carving their way down the slopes! From there we jumped on a train south towards the city of Galle. The views from the window of the train summed up the many sides of Sri Lanka, miles of slums followed by the Mount Lavinia hotel (huge and posh!) followed by more slums. There was also much evidence of the 2004 tsunami that has had a huge impact on much of these parts of Sri Lanka, it was very grounding to see.

Once at Galle we took the short tuk tuk ride along the coast to Unawatuna with a rather strange and sad guy who was convinced we would buy him beers if he hung around long enough, yet another side to Sri Lanka I guess. Unawatuna is a beautiful coastal village that in recent times has become quite a popular spot with tourists and Sri Lankan's alike due to its long beach overlooking the Indian ocean and populated with bars and restaurants from one end to the other. We quickly made ourselves at home at the Nor Lanka hotel (a must if you ever make it to this part of the world). We spent our anniversary relaxing on the beach, taking occasional dips into the ocean and eating fresh pineapple, it wasn't bad I must admit!

We spent much of the time eating well for the few days we were there, Nor Lanka did a pretty fine rice and curry (best so far!) as did the South Ceylon (a close second!), which was a short walk down into the village.

On our final day we had a few hours to kill before we had to get the train back to Colombo to call time on Sri Lanka and move on to Vietnam, he thought that after a morning in the sun we should relax in a local bar and watch some beach cricket unfold, unfortunately, the batsman was a little too keen swung the cricket equivalent of a haymaker let go of the bat and it can flying straight at Jill. Fortunately no broken bones but and after much fussing and apologising we left the game to draw to an end.

So that evening we reached the airport and made the short hop over to Thailand and then on to Vietnam!