The tropical Christmas edition…
First a few days in UNESCO heritage fort Galle, quiet, quaint, a bit posh, cool Melbourne-like cafes and quite chilled for a few nights, needed that to recover from the 17 year old who drove us there from Colombo in a van….!
Next up beach, Unawatuna, even more chilled, ace view, three steps to floating in the sea, and another discovery channel moment, when Loc was met by a giant turtle looking him in the eye just 10m from shore….there are hatcheries further down the coast so awesome to know they survive in the open sea.
We didn’t do too much of note, just enjoyed the view, read, ate some string hoppers for breakfast with curry (like spaghetti rounds, yum) and floated in the ocean, I was missing home a bit, nothing to complain about, obviously given the photos you can see we were in an idyllic spot, it’s just that sometimes you get a bit tired of negotiating every tuk tuk ride, living out of your backpack, working out laundry dynamics, trawling the web for the next location, and eating every meal out, just kind of wanted my house, cats, fridge, deck, city, family (both continents!) and friends for a bit…probably a Christmas thing, anyway wombat on the mini tuk tuk cheered me up!
After umming and ahhing for ages we decided to head back to Colombo for Christmas in a bit of luxury…good decision, skpe on hand for all the timezones we needed to reach to chat with the family, view of and swimmable pool for traditional Oz swim (tough given hail in Melbourne this year I think), and space to decorate a little…
Just as we were starting to seriously contemplate the mini bar on Christmas Eve, after our tradition of shopping for silly stuff with a few thousand rupees each, there was a knock at the door and as if by magic we had a bottle of lovely champers, chocolates and flowers, thanks to ‘Mr Conrad’ and famiglia, awesome start to official Christmas!!!
To top off the indulgence…a pretty amazing dinner buffet at the Cinnamon grand where we were staying, so satisfyingly full as is traditional, a quiz to solve, family skyped, and a full belly, all up not too shabby a Christmas!!
yeehaahols 
Happy Christmas Marissa and Loc,Christmas cake with a spoon! Love maureen
Thanks Maureen and to you! With Laos was just after a few places you thought we should visit, I remember you gave us some great advice when we poured over the map many years ago in Trevignano, just can’t remember it!!!! We are relatively intrepid so don’t have to be the most obvious places…Happy New Year!