Horton hears a.... load of noisy school kids!

The time delay in uploading blogs is a result of our whirlwind and sometimes arduous journeying in Sri Lanka. As anyone who's ever visited will know, it takes flippin ages to get anywhere. Roads are busy, full of pot holes and once heading inland, as hilly and winding as can be.

We left Kitulgala at 7am to visit Horton Plains and the famous World's End; a sheer cliff that looks across to the SE and on a clear day, you can see the coast. Our day was not a clear day. In fact, it rained from about 10 minutes in to the 9km walk and didn't stop... for the rest of the day and night! We had followed the LP advice to wear walking shoes and fleeces as it can be chilly on the plains, they say. From our experience, if you're walking in monsoonal rain, the best thing to wear is walking sandals and the least clothing as possible without offending the locals. Thanks LP. All our trekking gear was soaked through. By the time we reached World's End, the clouds were rolling about around us, but they broke slightly to give us a bit of a view down the steep cliff to the forest below. We were also surrounded by hoards of noisy Sri Lankan school children so any eeriness of this high plateau walk in cloud forest was also lost. Very similar to Mount Kinabaloo in Sabah we thought, but maybe that was just the incessant heavy rain.

The rain made the roads to Kandy rather treacherous and even Prasana was looking exhausted and concerned. We were all well and truly exhausted by the time we reached our next destination, but were soon revived by an incredible reception at the wonderful Serendip, our guesthouse where we planned to stay for a few days and get married.

Everything went to plan in Kandy, which due to the approaching new year is as packed as anywher I've seen. I don't think there is any more room for any more people. We gave the Temple of the Tooth a miss as the crowds were overwhelming, and instead sought out some of the hindu and buddhist temples in the surrounding villages. Going in the evening was a good move. No tourists and evening puja with chanting monks. Just wonderful :o)