Days 1 and 2

Taj Hotel, can't remember much about it. It was a very good hotel, rooms on the 6th floor with fabulous views of a park, comfortable beds and we slept all day.

Next day very tiring drive through a lot of traffic to Colombo, it took 2 hours. Manic traffic, loads of tuktuks, we passed International Cricket Stadium, many Buddhist and Hindu temples, red state buses chasing private buses to get to pick up customers first.

We have arrived at the time of a very special Buddhist celebration. It is 2600 years since Buddah attained Buddahood. He was born on a full moon, attained Buddahood on a full moon and died on a full moon, so the full moon is very important to Buddahs and they have a holiday once a month on the full moon. But this year the full moon is also the 2600 anniversary so there are huge celebrations. Everyone is busy making lanterns to hang outside their buildings and across the streets. It looks just like Christmas here. They also erect a Pandol which is a very large, colourful thing - how can I describe it? I suppose it is a focus for their celebrations.

After another 2 hour drive we arrive at Habanara and the Cinnamon Lodge Hotel. Very luxurious little bungalows in the grounds of a huge park with lakes full of water lilies and lotus, monkeys running around all over the place and masses of beautiful trees, notably the flame tree with its gorgeous red flower high in the sky, the the frangipan with luscious large white blooms, mostly white, although some were a salmon pink. Some lovely birds too.

The hotel is mainly open air. The dining room is open on all sides, so monkeys, mongoose, and chipmunks wander in and out and pinch your food if you are not careful.

No time to rest! Our first excursion was a much anticipated elephant ride for 1 hour. It was AWFUL!!! The howdah was simply a mattress strapped to the elephant's back with some webbing across and a heath robinson structure of iron bars which we were supposed to hold on to. The elephant swayed as he lumbered along and it was all we could do to hang on to these iron bars. The mahout kept telling me to move more into the middle but I kept slipping back to the barriers which dug into my legs and hips and back. My arms ached from trying to hold on and pull myself back into position. Along the way boys were selling bunches of bananas for 100 rupees which we were expected to buy and feel the elephant who put his trunk back and it was hard to reach him through the bars which then dug into ones arms. Fortunately I was not in the front so it was not my job to feed the elephant. Once on the way he stopped to eat grass and palm leaves.

Eventually when you thought it couldn't get any worse, the mahout took the elephant into the river and scared us all to death. Then another half hour walk back to base. On the way the mahout had the elephant pick up palm leaves to carry back with us. Then another hair-raising experience trying to get off!