So this is where I wax lyrical (or not) about our pre-championship preparation....
So we got out the "bus" into the hotel, it was warm..hot, but the air conditioning was nice, we were greated warmly by the hotel staff, given orange juice (i think maybe it was fruit or tropical but after 12hrs flight who cared!) and casually given our room keys, after a few minutes aclimatisation it was off to the hotel room...
So the room, nice, airy, cool and my air-con was actually reasonably quiet! bed was a bloody great big concrete block and a mattress and a single cotton sheet... with the air-con set to 12 you went to bed just right and woke up just a little too cold, but seing as the rest of the day you were too hot that didn't matter. Room had a shower, a bath a sink a "tea table" and chairs, a mozzy-killer, a ceiling fan and a cute small balcony with a table and chairs... I think all the rooms were about the same and for the money it was great... you even get a "room boy/girl" mine was Dammika or something.... they clean your room when your not around, make your bed, switch the mozzy-killer on in the evening and even (sometimes) leave a lotus flower on the pillow...kool... of course we left a tip at the end of the 2 weeks...
So, after a little chilling, soaking up the view and ambience and a little random un-packing it was shorts, flops an' shades and down to the beach for a first chance to properly experience Sri Lanka...beautiful... the sand was warm (early evening), dunked my toe in the sea and that was AS warm! The sun was sinking there were locals, holiday makers and beach sellers all around, but it seamed soooo quiet and relaxed and chilled....
So, to the bar, meet up with the rest of the gang and spend our first Sri Lankan night together... so after working out the best beer to have and downing (in a slow controlled manner) its cooling refreshness, we sunk into the old routine of chatting, laughing, drinking and eventually remembering we needed to eat! Well it was Sunday night and they had some seafood specials on so I went for a LARGE plate of huge prawns/crevettes (shared with Chessie) that were cooked right before my eyes and had were fresh fom the Indian Ocean that morning... its a messy thing to eat but bloody gorgeous... others went for the typical curry and someone even had a fantastic looking lobster... wow the food is great... So we carried on in the usual vein soaking up the atmosphere and beer and chilled vibe... sunk into bed with the aircon buzzing in the background and woke...early(ish) to drag the boats out of the container before the heat got too intense...great fun!
So morning came, jeeze the air-con works well, went to bed feeling cool, woke up with a shiver! Nice to be cold once a day for 5 mins... down for the first breakfast... hmm, fruit, multi-coloured cereal, curry, pankakes, omlettes?? Hold on curry... have to admit I wasn't at any time on the trip brave enough to have curry for breakfats, regretting that now, but hey ho.. so fruit juice, great cup of tea, fantastic FRESH 'n juicy pineapple and watermelon and a ham and cheese omlette for breakfast, lovely jubbly...
So down to the containers at the "end of the hotel" on some wasteground come boatpark at the back of some guys jewelry shop.... it was still early 9-summat (3amin the UK) but the heat was already kicking in, so armed with gallons of water for "Tesco's" a load of us (but not everyone unfortunately) rocked up to the 2 UK containers and started the painful task of unloading and sticking back together team GBR! So we went into the containers for short burst of untying, lifting, pullin and a hell of a lot of sweating..nice!
It really did take a Herculean effort to get the boats out, trolley wheels inflated and put on and boats moved and many thanks go out to all that were involved and a large DIS to those that couldn't be arsed or just did their boat and piss-off (yes you speedo-man)... This was also the time that Mohammed of "Blue Oceanic Jewellry" saw a sales opportunity and hit us with his Sri Lanka charm and hospitality, bringing us water, chairs and offering shade for the weary boat-humpers. Little did we realise how much he had hooked us into his sales process!!!
So back to the room, showered off, swimmin' shorts on, sunnies on, flops on, bag of crap (ipod, sun-cream, water, book, speakers, hat...) and off to the pool we go.. major chilling, then a freshly made pizza at the beach-front cafe (15 secs from the sun lounger by the pool) and a chilled out in the pool out the pool on the lounger chatting and chilling kinda afternoon... nice... oh yeh and 'cus the sea was basically as warm a the pool I made a couple of trips to swim in the sea with my budski's.. the waves were big, the sea was warm.. fun...
So that was kinda the plan for the rest of the week, do stuff on boat before it gets too hot, chill out in/by the pool & sea, maybe have lunch, maye not then and hour or so in yer room sorting yerself out and off for "dinner and drinks" - Soulsailor way of life or what!
So things were cool, missed the family a lot and its hard communicating at midnight Sri Lankan time; enjoying the company and the whole Sri Lanka atmosphere (as well as the 34 degrees!). I like nothing better than chilling out and this is what Sri Lanka lives on so that was cool... but I didn't want to spend the whole time sat on my arse by the pool surounded by chipmunks and drinking "King Coconut juice" (which is really weird and kinda nice I think)... I wanna see Sri Lanka, the people, the stuff... I wanna be cultured, a bit...
So me 'an Steve were queuing up one evening talkin' about this and he was onabout wanting to go to see the "fekin large rock palace" called Sigiria; when this local guy pipes up and says, "hey I can take you there".. so thats how we met Lal, the most shiny-headed Sri Lankan guy we were to meet that trip, and he offered for a reasonable sum of money to drive, guide and sort out a day trip for us.. he showed us his "bus" and so we said Yay take us off dude... so, disappintingly only 3 of us (Me, Steve and Kathryn) could be arsed to prize ourselves away from the pool, but hell we had a good day....
By the way, Kathryn's photo's are now on the photo site so we have a pretty cool and relatively complete picture view of the two weeks.. it'd be cool to add Steve's disposable camera pics on as well some time.. I'll keep you posted..
The "Sigiria Road Trip Post" is coming shortly...
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