Just back after a four-week adventurous vacation in Sri Lanka together with my family. Traveling around the country was fantastic. Of course, for me this trip wasn’t all play and no work. I needed to do a bit of research for my next book in the Eagle King’s Academy Series. Still, we had a fabulous time, and to keep our families updated, I wrote several emails along the way, describing our adventures. Now that I’m back, I thought I might share a few of them with you.
So let us begin with day one – June 20th 2017
Hi everyone,
We’re now at the restaurant by the pool and have just ordered lunch. It seems Wi-Fi is only working here and at lobby, so I’ll keep it short.
It’s been a loooong flight. (We travelled from Sweden to Amsterdam, from Amsterdam to Kuwait, and finally from Kuwait to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka). We touched down at 6:45 local time, exhausted and yet we had several more hours of travelling to do.
We collected two of our bags and then stood like idiots while we waited for the third one. We waited and waited, until eventually we had to accept that it had been lost. Great. The bag contained all of Cindy’s clothes, as well as the kids’ swimsuits.
At the baggage claim, a tired (and certainly bored) woman informed us that the bag was probably in Kuwait. And, she added, there would be no more flights from Kuwait until the following morning.
Tired and annoyed, we went down to the arrival hall where we found our taxi driver waiting for us. He was going to take us to Dambulla, a small town situated northeast of Colombo. It was a five-hour drive. I don’t remember much since I slept most of the way, but I do remember seeing a lot of palm trees and rainforests. It’s so green here!
Oh, here comes our food. Got to go. Will write you soon.
Chris.
4 hours later…
All right. After lunch we took a tuk-tuk to the centre of Dambulla, a twenty-minute drive from our hotel. While the driver waited for us, we ran into a few stores and bought four t-shirts and a pair of shorts for Cindy, plus swimsuits for her and the kids. We also bought some sunscreen and a few other things, all of it for about 500 kr (about 60$, which was a total rip-off if you ask me. The swimsuits were butt-ugly. Apparently not many people buy swimsuits in Dambulla. The shop clerk seemed amazed when he found them in the back room, but even he seemed unimpressed by their appearance. Had we not been so desperate to cool ourselves in the pool, I’m sure those ugly things would have remained unsold for eternity.)
Traffic here reminds me of Africa where it seems the only rule is that there aren’t any rules. Everything is so green and we’re enjoying the warmth. Our hotel room is okay. Not really what we had expected based on the photos we’ve seen, but hey, the pool area is great.
We’re all tired. I think we’re just going to have some dinner and call it a day.
Love you all
Chris.
That was all I wrote that day. I will soon post the next letter.
