3-4 Dec. Sri Lanka to home

Well, it's time to leave.
The manager at my digs here in the jungle in the Kimbulapitiya area of Negombo called a tuk tuk for me, and I got to the airport in good time.
It's that de ja vu feeling all over again.
Thankfully, the flights were relatively painless, but for now I feel like I've had enough of airports, queuing, passport control, officious jobs-worths in uniforms, and fellow passengers.
So, in this post I'll try to round things up with some thoughts on the last couple of days of this trip.
The photos were all shot around where I was staying for my final night in Sri Lanka: some of the people and places within a short walk from the place I was staying. The first shot is the view from my balcony. Yes, it really was out in the sticks.
Some final thoughts:
The people in Sri Lanka have generally been the most friendly and helpful people I've ever met. This has been a clear distinction between between The Maldives and Sri Lanka. Sure, The Maldives is blissfully pretty when the weather's fine, but the people there are often mainly interested in milking the tourists. This has resulted in a buoyant economy throughout the islands, but a latent sense of cynical commercialism that isn't quite my cup of tea.
Over the last few weeks, Sri Lanka has been buffeted badly by the hurricane coming in from Malaysia and Indonesia. I've managed to miss the worst of it whilst getting drenched a few times. The manager at the place for my final night told me that 800 families had lost their homes. I don't know how many died. The worst injury I got was a small burn when I ironed/dried out a few bits of clothing in a place I was staying.
Sri Lanka is interesting - from the viewpoint of it's ex-colonial ties to the British Empire, and from its religious and cultural mix.
The Malidives are islands I wouldn't mind going back to - given a lot more time and money. Does somewhere stand out above all the others? Not really. It's the variety I liked.
On the return to the UK, Manchester was just as wet as Sri Lanka, but darned cold to boot. Just when I thought the journey home was going to be trouble-free, the train from the airport to York was delayed by another train going through a red light 'at danger', as the conductor explained. So, they had to give me a taxi from York to Northallerton, then I paid the extra £10 to get home.
Blimey it's cold but, yeah, it's good to be back.Read more