Middle-aged flash packers

A

s advised by the hotel manager, we were up early to miss the heat of the day while cycling around the old city.
The breakfast coffee was a real effort to drink. The water here tastes disgusting. Obviously I wouldn’t drink it straight from the tap, but even boiled it tastes like musty old lake water, which is exactly what it is. I couldn’t even discreetly tip it away as the waiter hovers all the time.
The hotel rented us a couple of old bone shakers and it was a quick practise run down the lane outside the hotel and then out onto the road.
Absolutely terrifying! I wobbled and wove my way along trying to ignore the tooting. Everyone beeps to let you know they are going to overtake you. It’s quite sensible and you do get used to it but at first it is nerve wracking.
I rode past some ladies and pulled an “omg what am I doing?” face and they literally wet themselves laughing.
I refused to ride round the roundabout and pushed my bike across but otherwise I managed ok.
The old city is huge and would have seemed amazing had we not seen Angkor watt and similar other things. Oh how blasé we have become!
What I did love though was seeing all the pilgrims in their white outfits, placing lotus flowers and other offerings to bhudda. We were also local celebrities again (as we were in Delhi) with people discreetly filming us and requesting us to be in their photos. Great fun.
Two negatives – the price and the litter. Locals pay around 50p to gain entrance, we paid £20 per person. Too much. And we didn’t even get a map!
Litter everywhere. For goodness sake, you’re getting enough money out of us, use it to educate people to dispose of their litter responsibly.
On our return, a late lunch and a beer saw steve snoozing at the pool while I researched accommodation for Trincomalee. It’s a hard life!
Tomorrow it’s safari Sri Lankan style at Willpattu national park. We might see leopards, sloth bears and elephants. Or we might see nothing. Tuktuk arrives here at 5am. Urgh.