sriiiiiiiii lanka

Somehow I get 20 holidays a year - 10 American and 10 Indian - and yet it STILL feels as if I have way too few 3 day weekends. So this past weekend I headed out to Sri Lanka with Behrang and Holly. My first trip to Ceylon was with my mom in January and it was fantastic - we crashed a wedding at Galle Face Hotel replete with gorgeous dress and backhandspringing dudes and drummers, we made a very uncomfortable driver take us to a casino which we hightailed out of after realizing WHY the driver was so uncomfortable, we visited the elephant orphanage and the temple of the tooth and saw lots of Buddhas. It ruled. So I was very excited to head back.

The flight was terrible. The seats' designers must have been trying to impress vlad the impaler. Although the in-flight video describing the safety procedures was top notch, awesome cartoons dudes with fabulous mustaches. When we checked in to our hotel they tried to give us a room with only one queen bed when we had paid for one with two queen beds. Quite a rucus was caused when Holly fought the man and instead of taking a rollaway bed she DEMANDED another queen and got them to actually bring a boxspring and a mattress from another room!!! It rocked. Thankfully that hotel was really only our flophouse for the evening since our flight got in so late and Galle is such a haul.

The next day we took the BEST van ever to Galle. Four hours of luxury. The a/c was not the best, the van was not so new BUT the seats were like big comfy couches and they leaned all the way back. Oh yeah. It ruled. As did our glamorous hotel. The Galle Fort Hotel. Colonial style. Boutique hotel. Gorgeous guy checking us in as I checked him out. Oh Ewen. Heart. A welcome bottle of Lion Lager that was pretty much a 40. We had the library suite. A lovely lunch and then a great stroll along the top of the fort to watch the sunset over the ocean. Perfection. Dinner at some rooftop joint called Mama's; yummy prawn curry with eggplant and pumpkin and lentils and coconutted on up green beans. MMMMMMMMMMMM.

Sunday was beach day. Gorgeous blue and green water, golden sand, lovely waves and swimming. A delicious prawn and beer lunch. A stroll to see a buddhist temple on the hill and a climb down to some rocks to watch the waves crash and the seaspray surprise a couple looking to be all romantic and then some policemen freaking us out. Beautiful.

Monday I had a morning stroll through town and also walked around the top of the fort to enjoy the morning light. Another beautiful breakfast at the hotel, delicious coffee and tea and fruit and buffalo curd hot cakes, so yummy. Wrote some post cards, packed up, had a lunch at another luxurious hotel on the way to airport. Made my way home even though I was convinced I would not leave. Back to reality!