Kids Club

HI everyone here's my next report from beautiful Sri Lanka. Now, what do we not have a lot of in Bahrain? Yes, you've guessed it. RAIN! Although, to be fair it was flashing lightning and promising rain on the evening we departed for our holiday and that same afternoon I even spotted a rainbow on my way home from work.

Over here for the first few days we were nearly drowned in rain. Coming from England I should be used to it. But the difference is that the rain in Sri Lanka comes down in absolute buckets and just keeps on coming! On the bright side though, it does come with warm weather.

Our first stop was at a hotel that Wendy and I stayed at during our honeymoon in Kandalama. It was even more lovely than I remembered it. The hotel is built into the mountain and is slowly becoming overgrown by the jungle in the most delightful way.

The next port of call was Kandy. Funnily enough we again stayed at a hotel that we had stayed at during our honeymoon. This time however we were not so pleased. We didn't like it last time and felt 'tricked' into coming back. You see, the hotel had changed its name and so it was only when we were driving up and up a seemingly never ending hill on one of Sri Lanka's most winding and pot-holed roads did we realise that we'd been duped.

Anyway, after having to wait nearly two hours for a room and not being allowed into the only child-friendly restaurant, we decided to cut short our stay.

Kandy however has a lot to offer and we enjoyed a tour of the Botanical gardens and saw the biggest (widest) tree in the world. We then went to the Temple of the Tooth Relic (of Buddha), which has an amazing history, and also witnessed a lovely cultural dance performance which ended brilliantly with an awesome demonstration of firewalking.

Next it was off to Nuwara Eliya which everybody calls 'Little England'. Many years ago the English brought tea to the area and it is now one of Sri Lanka's biggest industries. Nuwara Eliya is also one of the highest points on this beautiful island. We visited the Blue Field tea factory and learned all about tea growing and manufacture methods. Our hotel was one of the oldest in Sri Lanka; the 'Grand Hotel' which was built in the 1800s. It retains its grandeur and splendour from days gone by; with gorgeous chandeliers adorning the ceiling, lots of wood panelling and manicured and spacious gardens.

Nuwara Eliya even has a horse racing track. My daughter Hannah absolutely loves horses, so we had to take her for a pony ride. My wife Wendy also rode, (possibly because the ground was so muddy that she didn't fancy getting her shoes dirty). I was so surprised! I've never seen her on a horse and she looked pretty good at a canter. She admitted to being rather out or practice though, and was bruised in all sorts of places afterwards. Days later she could still feel it.

From Nuwara Eliya we had a day trip out to 'World's End'. We were picked up outside the hotel in a bright green Jeep to drive high up into the mountains. On the way the mist and rain started to disappear. When we finally arrived at our destination, there was a choice of a 5, 10 or 15-kilometre trek, so we started out and it was a lovely path (to begin with), then it became quite difficult, then almost impossible; especially for a four-year-old. When we finally made it the fog had unfortunately descended and as we peered out over the 600 foot drop, we couldn't see a thing! After a little picnic, 30 minutes of waiting hopefully for the mist to clear, and much debate about whether to go on or not, we turned around and scrambled back the way we had come. Grandad McN, Wendy and Hannah went on ahead and I stayed with Granny Maggie and when we arrived back at the starting point Wendy told me that she and Hannah had jogged/run the last half hour back! We needn't have worried that Hannah couldn't manage it, and we might even have a future long distance athlete on our hands. On the way 'home' we saw bear monkeys, mongoose and a very inquisitive stag; who happily put his head through the window while we gave him some fruit.

The next day was the most gruelling. (If you can call sitting on your bottom gruelling, that is). It was however eight hours of sitting on our bottoms as we drove down the windy mountain roads to Ahungalla; our first hotel on the beach. We loved it there too, and also enjoyed our day trip to the Dutch Fort in Galle. We went to a turtle hatchery and discovered some fascinating facts about these wonderful creatures. During the devastation of the Tsunami the whole place was swept away, but one blind turtle was found days later stuck down a well and was rescued and returned to its sanctuary. It's so amazing that in the midst of such devastation and human misery, someone was still able to care for a poor old turtle.

Our final port of call as our holiday draws rapidly to a close is at the Mount Lavinia Hotel on the outskirts of Colombo. We are now enjoying an 'off day' and some time to relax before heading out tomorrow to shop for some bargains and setting off home to Bahrain,

Keep happy and healthy and see you again soon, All my love Krazy Kevin