Chandanna picked us up bright and early to drive to the hotel near the Wilpattu National park. About 4 hours that gave us a sense of this part of the country. The first thing that hits you is the colour. It is so green! We thought that it was just our hotel that was in the middle of a tropical garden, but it seems that the whole country is a garden with some buildings filling the gaps in the borders. Coconut palms grow like giant weeds in every space and underneath banana palms and bamboo vie for attention. The suburban towns out of Colombo sprawl for miles with roadside shacks and shops selling everything from motorbikes to bananas. The road is good – few pot holes here – but seems chaotic at first with multiple bikes, tuktuks, cows, dogs, buses and trucks all using the space as well as the cars. But once you get used to it it feels safe. There is a system of overtaking is understood and it works. Except for the dogs. They are everywhere and mostly sit on the side of the road but also like to lie in the middle of it, or to randomly cross without warning, or, even better, they run out and try to attack the car from behind. Not the brightest…

Many street corners have a shrine to either Buddha or a catholic figure of worship – usually Mary. They are in glass cases with coloured fairy lights behind the statue. Hinduism is big here too but they don’t have so many of the shrines, just the odd brightly coloured temple. Our timing was that school kids were on the road. At the bustops, on bikes, on the back of mopeds, in pristine white uniforms. The girls in white starched dresses and the boys in white shirts and blue shorts. Immaculate. I struggled to get mine out of the door in a clean sweatshirt and matching socks – if I’d had to iron and starch a uniform every morning i may have expired.

As we left the suburbs, the school children still trotted along pristinely, but the land became softer and the green even greener. Less houses, more trees and paddy fields giving a bit of space to the view.

After about 4 hours we got to the hotel, a complex with only 7 villas in the park. Only 3 were occupied so it was very quiet, and with about 20 staff we were completely outnumbered. We were shown to our room with strict instructions to keep the doors closed in case of snakes and not to go out at night in case there was an elephant in the grounds. We saw neither elephants or snakes but lots of monkeys in the trees and we had a visit from the resident dogs – there to keep with for elephants apparently. We got one bikes and had an explore. The local village consists of a through road and a few shops. As we cycled past kids came running out to wave and say hello and the older residents stopped to stare at the strange white people who couldn’t handle a bike. There was a drunk lying at the side of the road talking to himself and a pack of dogs chasing monkeys. And a shrine to the Virgin Mary in front of a disintegrating army base not far from the sign warning of elephants crossing. Standard village life I’d say.

We came back to our tightly locked hotel room, checked under the beanbags for snakes, and went for dinner in the restaurant. One other couple was there so with 6 staff the service was attentive to say the least. We had the Sri Lankan feast and it was amazing. Curry all the way for this trip I think.