Ever since I was little Sri Lanka or Ceylon as my grandmother used to call it was a place that I imagined to be beautiful, colourful and exciting. I went for the first time in 2005 and had a great time. We were fortunate enough to go just before the civil war resumed and as a consequence made it to the North East pretty easily. It was as simple as arriving in Colombo and going to the airline office and booking a ticket for the following day. My dad and I went to Sri Lanka last week and thought that it would be as simple an exercise to get to Jaffna. However, it seems that the Sri Lanka government still don't really want foreigners to be travelling to the region. First, you had to get a certificate from the Ministry of Defence to allow you to go to Jaffna, then you realised you were only allowed to travel by sea or air. Then when you went to the airline company to book your flight you were told no flights available for the next two weeks. Papa was bitterly disappointed as he was really looking forward to going to Jaffna. We therefore had to re-adjust our plans and spent a couple of days in Kandy instead and I spent my last two days in Sri Lanka on the beach in Negombo. In the end it all worked out pretty well but I really hope that things will change in Sri Lanka and that life will get better for the Tamils and we'll be able to visit the North East soon.

In Kandy, we visited the Elephant Orphanage (which technically isn't in Kandy but Pinavalla), the Buddhist Tooth Relic Temple ( I am sorry I really don't think that's Buddha's tooth, just like the hairs at the Top Kapi in Istanbul aren't really prophet Muhammad's yeah?) and went for a walk around the lake and one of several spice gardens in Kandy. In the evening we saw the Kandyian dancers, fire walkers and fire eaters. We also spent several evenings just drinking beer under the jackfruit tree at the Freedom Lodge. Please can I recommend the Freedom Lodge to anyone who is going to Kandy. It's a terrific place and Sarath and Nalini who run it are the best hosts in the world. It's no wonder it's number one on places to stay in Kandy on Tripadvisor.

I'll write about the resort in Negombo the next time, there are plenty of funny Russian granny stories to tell.