Our month in Sri Lanka started with a night in Negombo as we arrived into Colombo airport late. From there we did a little tour staying 3-5 nights in different places taking in Kandy – Siguria – Trincomalee – Polonnaruwa – Arugum Bay – Ella and finally Galle.

If you like curry the Sri Lanka is gonna suit you very well. We managed to get a couple of cookery courses in. The first was around Kandy in a typical mountain family home. Very basic facilities but a great experience cooking as the locals do with seasonal vegetables and all done on a double gas burner like the ones we used to use camping with the scouts. The second was at a restaurant in Ella in a professional kitchen which was much more of a demonstration. Both gave us very different recipes and left us with a determination to pickup some spices and have a go back home.

Sri Lanka has a lot of buddha, some amazing ancient cities and a varied history. We deliberately split our time with some mountains, culture, beaches, history, then more mountains, a bit more history etc etc.

Other highlights included climbing Adams Peak, the wildlife, crazy bus journeys, taking the train through the tea plantations and also learning to drive a tuk tuk.