Colombo

Dave has very kindly allowed me access to "our" blog and is allowing me to write this post.

We arrived (with no problems at all, despite Dave's claims to the contrary) in Colombo the morning of August 5. Dave has to renew his passport because it will expire less than six months after we get back to Canada, so after filling ourselves with curry, finding internet and a printer to get the appropriate forms and having passport photos taken, we went to the Canadian consulate in Colombo (a trip that should have taken 10 minutes but turned into a 40 minute tour of the world's embassies because the driver couldn't find Canada) only to be told that Dave could only apply between 8:30 am and 12:30 pm- we were two hours too late.

We staggered back to the hotel, exhausted from sleeping on the airport floor in KL and the heat/ humidity of Colombo- unfortunately our hotel was just as hot and humid- and napped for a few hours before filling ourselves with more curry.
Galle Face Green

The next morning we went back to the consulate office and I sat there all morning reading about the history of Sri Lanka while Dave re-filled out the form he had carefully printed and filled out the night before, ran back and forth to the hotel for ID and money and tried to figure out who he had addresses for to use as references. When he was finally finished we ate more curry and set out for the day's planned activities.

Despite Dave's claims that I am the worst, that I'm always slow and late and stressing him out, he does seem to appreciate the fact that I am able to read the guide book, understand maps and plan activities- if it wasn't for me I don't think he would have left Jakarta- so I do all the planning and he trails along, hurling insults at me. In addition to his complete lack of direction, Dave is quite gullible- while I am much more likely to assume we are being ripped off, lead astray or lied to. For example, after our morning at the consulate we walked to the national museum, located in Colombo's largest park. At one end of the park in the Town Hall, an impressive white house- style building, with the park stretching out in front. We paused for a second to take a picture, and next thing I knew we were on a tour of the garden with the "master gardener", who claimed the museum was not open and we were better off following him around. Granted, he did show us some cool things- a cinnamon tree, a rubber tree that oozed rubber when he broke the bark, a tree full of flying foxes (which he terrified into the air for our benefit), a few nice flowers (a swan orchid), and a few different hardwood trees- then he said "good tour hey? I like dollars, American dollars, or Canadian dollars, you have Canadian dollars?" Dave didn't. He offered the equivalent of $4 dollars, but this was not sufficient for the "master gardener"- he graciously agreed to accept Rp1000 (about $10) as payment for our 10 minute "tour". The whole time I had a suspicion he had been lying about the museum (the guide book had told me otherwise- and it never lies!) so despite Dave's protests we marched to the museum- which, naturally, was open. We spent two hours there learning all about Sri Lanka before staggering home, exhausted again.

Flying Foxes

National Museum

Dave with a cinnamon tree leaf

That night, we watched possibly the worst movie ever. If it wasn't for the fact that it cost Rp215 ($2), there was air conditioning and chocolate, I would say it was the worst- M. Night Shamalan should not make any more movies, Dave and I have decided.

The next day we visited a Buddhist temple, a Dutch Reform church and a mosque. I left Dave alone to meditate and came back to find him meaner than ever- I was covered in bug bites or hives which made me so itchy I couldn't breathe, but all he did was tell me to shut up and quit complaining.

Today we took a bus from Colombo to Hikkaduwa, a small town on the south coast of Sri Lanka.