3rd July 2013

Arrived early this morning at the airport north of Colombo. I discovered the night before I left that I needed to buy an electronic visa. Who knew?? $30. Dimuthu was there to meed me - phew! He's a young chap. We emerged from the airport to the warm, moist, distinct smelling (curry mixed with something else?) air of Colombo. Then it was 'that' drive into Colombo - a long straight road that is very congested from 7-9am and 4-6pm each day. There are policemen and women about every one kilometer who stand in the middle of the dual carriage way waving the traffic on - which is a joke as the traffic is doing its best to move but cant due to the congestion. I aws wondering what the police were doing but then discovered that they stop traffic to allow pedestrians and school children to cross and also they stop traffic to allow cars to turn right across the traffic,something that would never happen without assistance from the police. There was heaps of traffic - bikes, motor cycles, tuk tuks, vans, buses, cars - all vying to make some headway. Basically might is right so the bigger the vehicle the more authority you have - but then the bikes and tuk tuks are dodging and weaving. Geez - its enough to give you a heart attack. Once we got past Colombo there was a beautiful new road which I have never seen before. At that stage I went to sleep! I awoke down in the south where the road is close to the coast. Very pretty but still with evidence of buildings that had been damaged or wiped out by the tsunami. We stopped at an ATM to make sure my debit card was working - it was - and to buy a Sim card and some minutes. I'm all set up now. I wasnt sure if I would need the dongle I kept from last time - but luckily there is wifi here at the hotel so no dongle necessary. We arrived at midday at the Palm Paradise Cabanas. Its delightful. About 15 cabanas - simple but quite adequate with hot water in the shower, so better than the Hideaway from that point of view. My cabana is about 20 meters from the beach! I went straight to the beach and there were about 5 people there and a little cafe place where I had a lime juice!! The cafe owner said things are getting better tourist wise with Germans, Russians, English, French and more recently some Chinese and Arabs. This is low season for them now. I am meeting with Minerva at 8.45am tomorrow and we will go to visit Minhath Montessori Preschool. I am very keen to see it in action and what they have done. Ramadan begins on 10th July so this is the last week of school before they close for the month. .