The Villa!

27/04
We leave the hotel around 10 am and leaving Colombo is not easy, many military checkpoints, policemen everywhere, guns in their hands, we suddenly feel we are in a country devastated by conflict in a state of emergency, after 4 hours of coach, driving along the coast, looking at villages and seeing the blue sea, we reach our destination the Villa Victoria in Talpe, a true magical place!!The villa is breathtaking, two aisles with wood everywhere, old shutters, 5 bedrooms (we will be ten this week) old genuine antique Indian furniture, paradise garden with coconut trees, a swimming pool and a fabulous view over the beach! It has been created to be a home away from home and it feels magical!! We even have some staff members, a cook and a house dog Billie!! We all feel enthusiastic, a really luxurious amazing house!!!We spend the rest of the day swimming, resting and looking at the indian ocean, a tranquil atmosphere, a really restful house! We watch the sunset on the beach, it feels like we have entered paradise!!!

28/04
The day is spent lazing around in the villa, observing the waves, the sea, the coconut trees, the frangipani trees, swimming, talking together, sleeping, reading in the pool, a paradise!!
So cool to have our lunch and dinner prepared by the villa's chef and to laze around, we both feel we need that time to feel on holidays to recharge our batteries before the next BIG challenge: India! We relax, rest in a magical environment! It feels so secluded and protected, we are so not in touch with the conflict that is devastating the country up north. We hear the violence has escalated and that the LTTE is still encircling people in the north. So sad but so weird to be in a paradise and so close to a violent conflict.

29/04
After a little swim in the pool, Fab and I decide to go for a walk,to discover the beach and explore the coast, it is wonderful, lovely beaches, wild, white and black sand, active sea, lots of waves, the water is green, turquoise, and the places are delightfully unexploited by mainstream tourism. It is beautiful, fishermen on their stilts, nice villas and villages, again very clean. We observe the people, the natural wonders and it is great!! The waves are too big to swim but I manage to dip myself in the water. So nice to stroll gently with my man and the dog Billie who comes with us all the time, a great walking companion!! After so much sport, we have to rest!!The afternoon is spent chilling out, lazing around, swimming, reading in the pool and then it is time to celebrate our birthdays in advance!!! A BBQ has been organised, lobsters, gigantic shrimps, some champagne and creme caramel!!So nice to feel loved and surrounded, thanks to our friends!!! A really lovely eve!

30/04
We spend the morning chilling out in the villa, swimming, chatting, reading under the sun then after a fish soup the 4 of us decide to go visit Galle which used to be a very important port until the 19th century. We take the local bus, noisy but fun, and arrive in town, after looking around the new city, we make our way to the old part of town, the Fort, with its remparts and fortifications. It is hot and sunny and we are strolling gently, slowly, stopping to eat rotis and looking at shops, dreaming of buying old derelict hospitals or colonial houses to renovate! The fort is really interesting to visit, many small Dutch houses, narrow streets, boddhi trees, mosque, churches, greek temples, remparts, old gates, all those buildings were protected from the Tsunami thanks to the fortifications. So nice to walk in a town full of history, it is a really good well preserved colonial era city, it feels very Dutch and very colonial, so interesting and lovely too, watching the sun, walking on the fortifications, observing life, people around us. After a bit more shopping in the new town, we have to meet with Marie and Xavier (friends and guests at the wedding) who are in town for one night, we bargain hard to get a tuk tuk to take the 4 of us to their hotel! A mad fun drive, the tuk tuk is too heavy and I am on top of Fab, lying on Bertrand and the driver is struggling to keep the tuk tuk straight, we then arrive at the hotel to find out that our friends left this morning: complete mix up with dates and mobile phones messages arriving too late!!! What a shame!!We have a drink the 4 of us there, thinking of them, then decide to stay out for dinner, baby Timeo is looked after by his grannies so the parents can stay out late! We find a little local cafe and stuff our faces (literally) with parathas, kuthis and rotis, so good, we are the local attraction, people come to watch us eat, again we find the Sri Lankan very nice, very chatty, very friendly people. After this cheap feast, we decide to take the local bus home, and start to wait for 25 minutes at a corner of a street, buses go past us and never stop!!!Then somebody tells us, after having watched us for half an hour that it is not the place to stop bus and that there is a bus stop nearby!!! What a laugh!! We then go and wait, wait, wait at the bus stop, a tuk tuk driver is waiting for us to be fed up and do business with him, but we wait despite buses going again and never stopping too full or not going to our place!! Then suddenly what seems to be a big red bus stops, as we waive for it and we go and jump in it, it is NOT a bus but a big lorry, looking like a bus but the two drivers agree to take us home, we have a fun ride, laughing in the noisy lorry, imagining the tuk tuk driver seeing us jump in the lorry, so much fun!!! The noise is mad in the driver cabin and we all try to recognise the sights close to our village, hop we are home, thanks for a great hitch-hiking moment! The end of the eve is a bit dampened by finding out that baby Timeo has been ill again, many guests here have been affected by belly issues. Sandra and Bertrand will call a doctor tomorrow to check it is OK. I struggle with a big migraine and managed to fall asleep in pain...

01/05
We both wake up late, Fab goes into town with Sandra and Bertrand, I stay in the villa with the rest of the group, they are leaving tonight, we are leaving tomorrow, I want to read, rest, write, enjoy the view of the sea. Fab is going to book the Delhi hotel and do some shopping. Baby Timeo is still weak, and the doctor has been called in, a bad gastro, contagious so he needs to rest and be rehydrated today! Later after dinner, the group is reducing in number, Bertrand's family is heading back to France. Only 6 of us left tonight including baby!

02/05
Sandra, Fab and I wake up in the morning and visit a sea turtle hatchery. Endangered species eggs are being artificially hatched in order to try and maintain the population of the beautiful animals. We learn a little bit about the process, the charity buiyng the eggs from the local fishermen and burried in sand in a protected compound. When the turles hatch, they are being released in the sea under tight supervision so a maximum number of babies survive. Nature still does the selection after all, but more babies make it to the water. We see Green Turtles, Hawksbill, Loggerhead which head looks a little bit like a dog...Sandra and I pick some babies up (Leatherbacks), the tiny animal holding in the palm of our hand. It is funny to think that they will grow so big a few decades on...
We come back to the villa enjoying another fun bus ride before our lunch, we mange to spend few hours in the pool before going back to Colombo. A few hours later, we're back in the heavily policed and militarised city. We walk to get some dinner in a local, and stop on the way to the Cinnamon Grand Hotel (a palace) to have an ice-cream. The place is hosting one of those impressive wedding in the main atrium. Women in colourful saris, men in elegant suits, gigantic bunch of flowers. We watch the show...and return to the hotel to sleep through our last night in pamperland!!! A bit anxious as we are leaving for Delhi tomorrow and have so many expectations and fears about India!How will it be? Will we struggle? It will feel strange to get back on our bacpaking adventure, after having been pampered and in a group...but it is time to start the journey alone again.

03/05
We wake up and meet up with Sandra, Noelle, Timeo and Bertrand to enjoy a last breakfast. We've had a fantastic holiday, we've spent some time with dear friends. In a few hours we'll be in Delhi but the story will be different. We're looking forward to it but we're also a bit apprehensive. Fab especially. The holiday did him loads of good, the comfort, the good food, going back to a familiar surrounding, settling down in one place for while...and not having to deal with the bags...We're excited because we will go back to a more normal and real life, closer to the roots and to the people also. Luxury is fantastic but the drawback being that one tends to live cut off the realities of a place. But for a holiday it is priceless!!