Sri Lanka.... again

Last month during mid-term break we headed to Sri Lanka for a third time, but the first time with Frankie.
We rented an amazing villa in the south, just outside of Galle with two other families, all up 6 adults and 7 children under 6.

It was a fabulous holiday with lots of laughs, champagne, fresh seafood, swimming and relaxation.

If anyone is considering travelling to Sri Lanka, do it, I could not recommend it enough. Of all the travelling we have done it ranks in my top 2 favourite countries.

The villa we rented was called Auraylia, right on the beach with about 2 acres of gardens, swimming pool and several pavilions for relaxing and dining in the evenings. It also came with lots of house staff, a chef and security guard, very luxe but worth every bit of it.

After a lot of beautiful weather and far too much food we left the south and headed to the capital Colombo. We have never stayed in Colombo in the past other than airport hotels while travelling so this was a first for us.
I am so mad we have not discovered just how awesome Colombo is underneath its grimy, confronting exterior before now. Homewares shopping heaven, friendly people and unique places, the Cricketers Club was a fabulous hidden gem for a cold beer and lunch after a morning of shopping.

Snapshots from Sri Lanka #2

A couple of days ago we visited a turtle research project/sanctuary in Bentota. The sanctuary is not only a hospital and home for injured turtles but raises baby turtles for release to aid in saving the turtle population.
Sadly turtle eggs and turtle shells are still illegally sold in Sri Lanka. Local fisherman collect the newly laid eggs before poachers can get them and sell them to the sanctuary. These eggs are then buried in a caged hatchery on the beach until they are born and then housed in a safe tank until they are old enough to be released back into the sea.
Lucky for us on the day we visited the sanctuary we were invited bakc the following night to particpate in the next turtle release. It was an amazing moment on a beautiful Sri Lankan evening.

Tuk tuk ride to the turtle beach

Snap shots from Sri Lanka #1

As you would of seen from my last post, we arrived in Sri Lanka safe and sound..... eventually.
Our flight was delayed on the tarmac in Dubai for over an hour and we had to wait on the plane. As we had purchased cheap flights with Emirates budget airline Fly Dubai our plane was full of labourers heading home to Sri Lanka who spent this hour drinking their duty free alcohol and subsequently sang the entire four hour flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka. It was also the first time I have been on a flight where the passengers cheered loudly after take-off and landing which was a little disturbing.

We are now in Bentota, Sri Lanka which is south of Colombo by 3 hours and just north of Galle. It was an area hit by the 2004 Tsunami and there are reminders of the devastation everywhere.
Bentota is a stunning town wedged between the ocean and a massive beautiful river. There is not a large tourist trade here and as such the town itself is rather humbling and very eye opening.

Below are a few of our favourite snaps from the last few days. I will add more over the next few days.

Although Bentota is only 70km south of Colombo the drive took over 3 hours as there are no highways and this is the major road and traffic conditions

There are squirrels everywhere, and now that we stupidly fed them once they stalk us out the front of our hotel room. They are pretty cute and very harmless

This was not what we expecting to run into on our evening walk along the beach road on our first night. He was walking home from a hard day at work.

Amazing to be this close

Then the following morning we discovered this handsome little man in the front garden of our resort

Piper insisted on sending Naz back to our hotel rool to collect all of our banana's we had purchased in town to feed the elephant.

Time for relaxing

I know I am terrible at making time to relax, but even I was a little surprised when we worked out it has been over 3 years since we last took a real holiday (not revolving around my work or taking the laptop) and that we have never had a real family holiday with all three of us.
Well that is about to change! In just over 2 weeks we are off to Sri Lanka for a weeks holiday. 6 days in Bentota Beach and 1 in Colombo on our way home. I will try and post some updates when we are gone but most likely you will have to wait until our return..... pretty sure Naz is going to ban the laptop from coming.
In the meantime the weather is beautiful in the evenings at the moment and we have been making the most of our big balcony in the evenings to relax.
Piper has no trouble relaxing as you can see below, last night I read her bedtime stories to her while we lounged on the balcony overlooking the pool.