Negombo, Sri Lanka

We're here, finally! Eventhough the flight was only 13 hours it seemed so much longer were we had to change over at Mubai. The airline was so good. They gave out free drinks, fed us twice on the first leg (curry for breakfast? Why the devil not) and again on the second leg which was only two hours so that was good. 


You shoud see some of the stuff Lee has brought. We were sitting in Heathrow and he goes 'You know what I've brought that could be really useful?', I'm thinking he's come up trumps with something, I don't know, maybe a makeshift washing line or something a bit good at least. He goes into his bag and pulls out none other than a first aid emergeny guide and his first aid badge hahaha. I was laughin my head off and he got offended saying he brought it for my sake, asthough if I were dying you'd have the time to rumage through your pack and read a booklet, ha bless.


When we arrived in Colombo and we left the airport, we got a free shuttle to a bus station were we then got on another bus to Negombo bus terminal. The buses are mad, people just jump on and off whilst it's still moving. The hostel was meant to be walking distance from the bus terminal so we turned down the gazillion offers for a tuk tuk ride. After walking round in a loop for 20 minutes looking for the place, we decided to go back with our tail between our legs and get in a tuk tuk. So we clambered in, taking off our packs and struggling to fit inside, then he took us literally 100 yards down the road. Oh. We had walked past it twice. What made is worse was that the gate to the hostel was locked anyway. A young lad on a motor bike was going past and he stopped and asked if he could help. He tried calling the hostel on his mobile bless him but it rang out. We weren't sure when it would open & we didn't want to go for a walk as it would render the tuk tuk ride pointless yet we didn't want to stand outside the hostel indefinately. After much deliberation we just sat on a rock and waited...and waited. 9am he opened, but give him his due he cleaned the room straight away for us and didn't charge us extra, despite us only having booked to check in 6 hours later. I'll take the blame for this one, because I'm a spaz I booked the hostel for a day after we arrived. Anyway..


The hostel is nice, very basic but very clean. Beds really comfy. There's no hot water but we don't mind. It's really hot so would have been having cold showers anyway. 
We got in the room and slept til 8pm our time (6 hours ahead) and we then went out to have a look around. We got talking to a man in the street called Nimal. He showed us round a bit, took us to a supermarket and got us some herbal stuff they use for mosquito's. According to him they do have Malaria and Dengue Fever. So seeing as we weren't given Malaria tablets (thanks Dr Duffy you prick!), we took his herbal medicine.


In this town it's like spot the honkie. We're like celebrities, people stop and stare, bib as they go past in the car.. On the bus one woman squished on the same seat as me despite the whole bus being empty. Another woman stroked my arm and stood smiling infront of me. Slightly creepy, but the people are lovely.


It's not letting me upload pictures at the mo, the websites being a bit weird, so I'll do it soon! xxx