Day 2. Columbo to Heathrow

Sri Lankan Airlines sent Jon an email offering hotel accommodation. We arrived at columbo airport at 11 pm. We got to the hotel about 1 am after navigating a series of bored beaurocrats at the airport to determine which hotel we were going to and how we where going to get there. Once through immigration we shortly arrived at the Vivenda hotel. It was luxury! Prob a $300/night hotel in australia. The breakfast buffet was full of great sri lankan food; sambals and curries etc, very spicey, a good sample of what we might find on our way back. So many staff you never need to open a door!

At bandakaratne international airport waiting for next leg to depart. Just met an indian man called 'Ram' who was in sri lanka to procure gems as he was gem dealer from kerala. Jon said 'thats interesting' and fetched a small black bag from his satchel. Jon then tipped out three killicrankie diamonds, each the size of a pea. Rams eyes almost popped out of his head. He looked at them closely and declared that they were, in fact sapphires. Then to our suprise we discovered that were were surrounded by more gem dealers and much bartering and haggling insued. Ram showed us the gems he had collected in sri lanka and they were all the size of match heads. We quickly excused ourselves....

Now waiting for plane to depart to Heathrow....

On plane now. Approx 4 hrs in. Window seat this time. A young man, member of the cabin crew has been feeding us with whiskey and dry ginger ale. Turns out he is into cricket so i have been talking about great Sri lankan cricketers. Jon has been chatting to him about cooking and music.... He will give us contact numbers etc for people/things to do when we come back through. So far a much more comfortable flight than the first one.

Jon must be quite relaxed now, he's really letting them rip!

Ok made it to london. Just settled into our hotel, went to the bar and had a proper english beer.Read more