Sri Lanka....What a difference

Hi Guys, Just a quick note to update you on life on the road in Sri Lanka so far.

The arrival in Colombo from Chennai India was something else again. Our first impressions were of what would India look like if it had its infrastructure and refuse disposal situation sorted out. Colombo appears so quiet and organised with little horn blowing, zebra crossings that traffic actually stop at and blow me down, traffic lights, tidy walkable footpaths, lanes marked on the roads and so on, you know, all those things we take for granted in the west.

The apartment we booked was in south Colombo and was a complete apartment with kitchen, lounge etc which does not seem unusual except if you had stayed in the types of places we had over the months. Buses to town were plentiful and shops galore including dare I say, McDonalds, KFC and shopping complexes complete with food halls. What a difference to India and quite nice for a change.

Quite a similar situation as we headed south on the Galle road after attacking the morning traffic as we left Colombo. Within an hour or two we were cycling alongside lovely beaches with turqouse seas and it was pretty much like that all the way around the west and south coasts.

Being on the tight budget that we are means not eating out at restaurants 90% of the time so hence in Pondicherry we found the answer to cooking our own meals inside our rooms with a cute little 1200w induction cooker using magnetic waves to cook food through magnetic material dishes such as stainless steel but not aluminium for instance. Simply fantastic as our morning coffee water is boiled in 3 minutes and as you can see from the photo below, on the odd occasion we can buy meat then it's a full English breakfast. Nice change from Rice & Curry and street food like samosas. Food and drink costs are 30% higher than India but still about 40% cheaper than the UK except the brands like Nestles and Coke as they are the same price as the west which seems very unfair due to the average income being $4300 as against the USA which at the time it was measured was $43,000 pa.

The country side is simply beautiful with such lush vegetation where anything grows in abundance. So with the beaches and lushness it is a type of heaven really.

So far, with many stop days at the beaches etc, we are now on the east coast at a surfers beach with no surf nor surfers because as is always the case with us, we are here in the off season but the locals love informing us that next month is when it gets really busy. This makes for cheap accommodation however at £3.50 a night for our cabana in the shade. It is onward up the east coast and around and down to Colombo over the next month that we have here so we are taking in just the lovely people and sites along the road.

The tsunami certainly took its toll around the coast and over 10,000 lost their lives (see the two photos below of the dead strewn everywhere). Surprisingly however, with a lot of help and money, their is little sign of the damage, through our eyes anyway

We have placed a montage of large Newsletter photos of our adventure of India here.
Our route to date at the 15th of March is here.
The Video South India By Bike in HD is here
The On The Road - India Bikecam here and Fast Moving slideshow here

Description of the Photos below (Clockwise from Top Left)
1. The CBD of Colombo along the coast.
2. Our new £20.00 mini induction cooker with our breakfast ready to eat.
3. A typical tourist beach scene on the coast.
4. Open the door of our cabana in Unawatuna and 1 metre away is this scene.
5. It is always exciting seeing a different creature and this Monitor Lizard at 2 metres was on the side of the road as we were cycling along.
6. Many monkeys are swinging in the trees above us both on and off the road.
7. In the not so touristy areas or where Islam has its hold then you are left with this deplorable excuse for a Liquor store where I have to negotiate and avoid being ripped off.
8. One of many delightful lakes beside the road.
9. Peacocks are quite common, crossing the roads or meandering along in the grass.
10. Our first ever Elephant sign whilst cycling and yes as above you can see two of them not so far from us but they are wild so no risks are taken getting too close. What a Buzz.
11. Mary finishing yet another swim.
12. Just two happy bunnies disguising the incredible heat and humidity.