As we landed in Sri Lanka, I knew it was going to be completely different from Abu Dhabi. We took a taxi to the place we were staying . Although they drive on the same side of the road as us, the driving is pure chaos, and every one has a contest to see who has the loudest horn.
When we pulled into the drive, the guesthouse was far from what I’d imagined; for a start it was tiny, and the man who came to greet us didn’t have any shoes on. The man took our bags to our rooms, which was part of a square building with a courtyard and pool in the centre.
While we went out for dinner, I saw how poor everybody was and how it was so different to England. All the shops were battered and had no doors and windows; some were little more than a few planks. Some of houses had people selling fly infested fish and old bikes. There were motorbikes, tuk-tuks and stray dogs everywhere; on the road, on the side and in driveways. Finally, we got to a litter-strewn beach, where we walked past local fishermen sitting on old painted boats .
Out of nowhere, the beach wiped clean and huge, fancy, boasting hotels came into view. We walked a little further before turning into a sidewalk and out onto the buzzing street. At last we found a restaurant with a sea-facing view, and sat hungrily in some chairs on the sand. I had an exquisite Indonesian dish with fish, egg and spice.
After supper, at around eight o’clock, we took a tuk-tuk back to the B+B. The journey was extremely windy as there were no doors.
We arrived and fell asleep to the dogs barking and the hum of the fan.
We had to get a good night’s sleep as we were up early the next morning to drive to Anuradhapura, where we would be staying with family with kids the same age as us.
