Greg and Deb's Travel Blog

We had an early breakfast, 8am lol, check out and we’re on the road by 8:35am on our way to Ella.
I haven’t mentioned this before but our transport for our trip is 10 seater Toyota van, plenty of room to spread out.
On the freeway we saw a sign saying “Beware of Peacocks”, they are the road hazard equivalent of kangaroos at home. Colourful pieces of roadkill. Later there were elephant warning signs!
The country side for the first part of the drive was mainly forest with a lot of palm trees broken up with rice fields on the lower flat grounds. The rice is dried on low mounds next to the fields, we saw people winnowing the chaff from the grain. The farmers isra biological control to protect their crops from mice. The place poles around their fields, during the night owls use them to hunt mice from, helping to minimise crop losses. Continue reading →

We woke a little rushed at 6:10am, we were meeting Hiru, our guide, at 6:30 to go bike riding through the paddy fields.
We got to “Idle Bikes” at about 6:50 and we’re off on the road by 6:55am with our guide Isuru. It wasn’t long before we were heading into the fields along narrow pathways shared with pedestrians, motor scooters/bikes and of course tuk-tuks (the paths weren’t much wider than the tuk-tuks, but it all seemed to work). Its been years since either of us had been on a bike. So for self preservation and our enjoyment we opted to take the shorter trail rather than the long one, a win for sanity! 🙂 Continue reading →

A slow start today, we both slept pretty well last night, which was good.
I’m happy to report that all the vehicle horns are still working properly and often/constantly! 🙂
Today we drive down the west coast to Galle, about 130km away, a bit over a 2hour drive.
One thing i haven’t mentioned is that Sri Lanka is hosting games for the 2026 T20 World Cup, and so is a bit busier than usual in tourist number terms.
We met Hiru in the foyer at 10 :30 and were on our way soon after that. He took advantage of the drive south to fill us in on some more Sri Lankan history and cultural background.
Hiru spoke of the many proposed origins for the name of Galle, from indigenous origins, to Portuguese and English, all seemed plausible and possible. Continue reading →

Happy birthday Ben, we hope you have an amazing day.
I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog, we got upgraded to a Jnr Suite at our hotel, The Galle Face Hotel, a very nice surprise for two very weary travellers. It is an old colonial style hotel of the British era in the country. A charming place to stay.
We both slept ok, and were up at about 7:20, that’s nearly 4hrs sleep!
The roads outside are busy, and I’m happy to report that the horns on every car, tuk-tuk, bike, truck and bus in Colombo are all working just fine.
Fun fact: Colombo is a city of 5 million and is divided into 15 administrative zones. The name comes from an English adaption of a of a Portuguese interpretation of a Sinhalese town named area “Kolon thota”
We have a slow start and made the most it, definitely no rush here.
We had breakfast on the terrace overlooking the Indian Ocean, a very humid induced hazy outlook. I think I might be in my element here, I mean, Sri Lankan curried chicken for breakfast! How good is that. Continue reading →

We left home at 7:30 and were checked in, through immigration and in the lounge by 8:30. That was really easy. Its the first time we have been in the new lounge on the other side of immigration at Adelaide airport, its comfortable, has all the things, but not lush.
We boarded our flight to KL at 10:25 and were in the air at 11:15am. For our 7hr first flight of the day. This is the first flight we have been on with lap/sash seatbelts, a bit different and we love different, but not quiet sure about this. Continue reading →

Just a tease.

Our next adventure starts in less than a month.

Stay tuned