Those who are expecting a detailed and educational travelogue may benefit from a spoiler alert and warning…….I am not Marcel Proust! Hopefully you will get a flavour of the island, its colours and culture and if there is an occasional laugh or giggle then that is a bonus.

Whenever possible when I am travelling long haul, I try to break my flight and this time I did so by stopping in Doha for a few hours to replenish caffeine levels on decent coffee and stretch the pins in this magnificent airport. Unfortunately, when we arrived we were advised that the second leg to Colombo was overbooked……after an hour of ‘teeth-gnashing’, however, all was good and we could prepare for round two of the journey only to hear the flight was delayed by two hours. If you are going to be stuck in any airport, I would recommend Doha; it is a huge terminal and we soon found a cabin in the airports indoor ‘forest’; yes they do have around sixty full sized palms and small trees in a relaxation area. It is amazing how the stresses once again fall away with a chilled beer and a Lebanese takeout from one of the airport shops!

The trip itself started in Negombo, a coastal town that's famous for its fishing industry and golden sands. It is the perfect introduction to Sri Lankan life; Negombo is a busy coastal town with a lively fish market and traditional ketti-maran (catamaran) fishing boats scudding across the waters - the capital, Colombo, is a short distance away, but we decided to save that pleasure for the end of the tour.

After settling in we headed down to the water to catch the atmosphere and spot locals bringing in the day's catch.

I was expecting the fish and produce markets to be a full-blooded attack on the senses and they didn’t disappoint. The energy of the fishermen bringing in the daily catch, together with the heat and vivid colours, reminded me, very quickly, that ‘we were no longer in Kansas’.

Whilst some of the smells by the vats of fish guts were worse than a ‘foetid dingo’s kidney’, the thing that most surprised was the lack of olfactory assault – a minor miracle given the volume of fish that, having been split and gutted and brined for twenty four hours, are then laid out on woven straw mats and left uncovered for three to four days before being packed as salted fillets for later use….. the art of preservation at its finest.

The variety of fresh fruit in the busy markets was fantastic with at least six species of local banana on sale along with papaya, pineapple and many, many more.

On returning from the market, Rachel and I grabbed a quick swim in the pool. Our first meal of the day - memorable jackfruit and fish curries together with very highly spiced sambol and chutney. A culinary triumph, except that the coconut sambol was hotter than the sun, and as we later wandered over the beach to get onto a catamaran I was concerned that being more than twenty yards from a ‘thunderbox’ might have been at best, a brave, and at worst, a reckless decision.

The Indian Ocean was calm but with a decent sea breeze the rickety old boat, held together with ropes, was soon flying across the lagoon into deeper waters. Ahamed and his crewmate from one of the few Muslim villages on the coast in this Christian area of the country were consummate sailors and whilst we were disappointed that we didn’t see dolphins, we did see a sea snake and an abundance of fish - despite the mounds that graced the market floor.

Looking forward to our next day in one of the wildlife parks and travelling to the centre of the country above Kandy.



This blog was conceived and written by Nigel Buckland