After many years of travelling I have learnt to never take a table close to the buffet. Yesterday was okay though because the restaurant was almost empty. Then a bus load of Germans arrived and we were instantly surrounded – I felt like Stalingrad.
Contrasting buffet bun-fights, one of the joys of regular travel is seeing and experiencing many and varied places and cultures and unravelling the history. A disappointment however is that you find yourself in the most wonderful hotels and resorts but for only one night. We are regularly asked “How was your stay?” We regularly answer “Wish we could stay more than one night”. There was the Hotel Sultana Royal Golf near Ouarzazate in Morocco which, intriguingly is nowhere near a golf course that I can establish. And the Bahari in Chitwan, Nepal. And on this trip, the St Andrews Hotel in Nuwareliya. And many more. The child bride and I tell each other how great it would be to come back and spend a bit more time, knowing the chances of that happening are slim. Who knows – maybe when I own my own jet.
In the meantime we’ve still got Sri Lankan stuff to do as we head off for a third safari, this time in mostly wetlands on the southern coast. While this place has the ubiquitous elephants and mongooses (again, I pose the question – mongeese?) and rabbits and crocodiles and crocodile food (deer) and many and varied birds, it also has pangolins which I’d never heard of prior to their being verballed for supposedly causing a global pandemic. Naturally we didn’t see one but neither have we caught covid (thus providing conclusive proof etc etc) and I am yet to see pangolin soup on any menu. Maybe we’re going to the wrong restaurants.
Speaking of retaurants last night I asked for the wine list at our otherwise excellent hotel and was shown two bottles of wine, one white, one red. The level of service sophistication doesn’t necessarily match the magnificence of the hotel building and facilities as we have found elsewhere. But that’s part of the charm of the place I guess. A week ago, I’d have got a bit irritated and I’m blaming that on fatigue. Nothing to do with the level of tolerance inversely proportional to age. Oh no. But now the pace has slowed a bit after we pointed out to our guide that relaxation is also part of the deal. We’re not here to simply stampede from one monument to the next from dawn until dusk.
That pretty much wraps things up for Sri Lanka. We wish we could have stayed in Galle because I love forts and this one has an international cricket ground in it. But you can’t have everything. We sacrificed some places for safaris, one of which was whale watching. We saw one whale very briefly so didn’t really have a chance to watch it as such. And luckily we saw a leopard otherwise our land safari record would be 0 – 5. So now it’s off to the Maldives where I may be able to squeeze out one more of these missives, between champagnes.