The Travel Diaries - Sri Lanka Day 5

The last day on the island. We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. Anjali did not want to go to the beach but she sure wanted to go to the pool. That left me going back to the room to do some reading. The day was scheduled for the long walk down this Negombo road which has such lovely shops and eateries on it. We had to do some shopping also - cashew nuts and tea - and whatever memorabilia one wants. Most importantly we wanted to go back to that lovely restaurant opposite Jetwing Blue where we had a lunch minus beer on day one thanks to the full moon day. It's a bit of a walk.

Fish and Chips

So we started out on the walk, looking into shops, picking some stuff, book marking some. It started raining so we stopped at a quaint coffee shop and ate some pastries and drank coffee. The walk again. Some particular shop that the ladies wanted to visit and it took up much time and in a while we were seated in the restaurant - the name escapes me now.

Let's go

We ordered the reliable fish and chips for Anjali and fish thali and some such stuff for ourselves. I finally got a taste of the Mendis arrack which was highly recommended. A fine lunch done we strolled back to the hotel, picking up stuff we had bookmarked earlier. The enterprising Chiron was at hand to drop us off at the airport and we checked out, got rid of as much of the Lankan rupees as we could and landed up at the airport pretty fast. Perhaps Chiron's non stop chatter about how his girl friend was troubling him on Valentine's Day kept us all busy. 'What to do? I have to work no,' he said. 'But you also have to take care of her,' I advised. 'Can't afford to make her angry. Buy her something nice and make her happy.'

Some requests!

In the airport we wandered about a bit, bought M&Ms for Anjali and headed to the flight. It was really nice to be herded ahead of the rest - one man came and said - families, families please come. The lovely Sri Lankan ladies came with their Ayu Bowans and life was pleasant again. Thank fully they even gave us something to eat else I am getting tired of these flights with no food. They can as well do away with their air hostesses as well and keep some Irani cafe chotus on flight.

Sound of laughter - heavenly

Touchdown in Chennai at 8. Anil's home by 930 and a lovely dinner before a visit to Cream and Fudge - an old promise to Anjali. We actually jumped the wall to get to the ice cream shop which made it far more exciting.