On beach holidays and dutch forts.

We’re back! Apologies for being gone for so long. Steph and I decided to participate in a fun little experiment called “living without technology for five days” and we passed with flying colors. Feel free to send notes of congratulations and presents for accomplishing this feat to Steph’s parents’ house. Consequently, being without technology means we haven’t had a chance to update the blog and we have quite a bit to catch you up on.

Packing brings out the worst in us.

We had to renew our visas, it’s hard to believe we’ve been here for a month, and decided to sneak in a beach trip on the way. Our trip began at the crack of dawn on the 6 am train from Kandy to Colombo. The train was quite the experience—we spent a good portion of it hanging out of the car doors admiring the scenery and attempting to capture it on film. We were those annoying tourists who took pictures of everything from our seats to the British tourists we befriended.

We had a brief chance to appreciate the humidity of Colombo while waiting for Steph’s family and then we all squeezed into the backseat of the car and got to know one another real well.

Upon arrival at the beach we were so exhausted we promptly spent the first three hours of our holiday napping. Apparently in sleep Steph and I resemble Shireen’s Danish boyfriend—who knew. After naps we explored the beach and indulged in an extensive buffet before turning in again.

Crabs?

Our second day at the beach we got up early to enjoy the sun before the afternoon rains rolled in. We did all sorts of beachy things like swimming in the ocean, body-boarding, reading in the sun, walking on the shore, swimming in the pool, and such.

For Hannie.

That afternoon we decided to drive to Galle and visit the fort (mostly because Steph wanted to visit the turtle farm on the way—but the sudha prices were a bit much for us to swallow so we left without seeing the baby turtles).

At Galle we explored the fort. The most exciting part of our day was almost getting kicked out of the church. We were happily wandering around, snapping pictures and admiring the history, when we heard a rush of feet accompanied by clapping and hissing coming in our direction—apparently it’s against the rules to take photos inside the church. Shireen pretended she hadn’t heard and continued to take pictures until the man noticed and informed her, “you pay 100 rupees you take 100 pictures”. After we photographed everything possible we vacated the premises before we could get into anymore trouble (we also were reprimanded for climbing the stairs before we left). The church and the torrential downpour we experienced served as a memorable conclusion to our Galle trip and we headed back.

Love,

Alisa and Steph