The Trip

Just one final word. Thank you to all those who have read this when I have feverishly typed away when I got the chance. Thanks also to those of you who have emailed and told me how you've liked it. It's nice to get compliments. One pair of hands clapping is always embarrassing. Especially after sex.

I am coming back to England this Friday, bringing a temporary end to my travels for the time being. The reasons I am coming back are few, though the main one was a good job offer. The overlords at Barclays made me an offer that I could not really refuse. Plus on this contract I will still be able to get to Australia at the end of the year as I had originally planned. Yes, as a whore the money swung it. But as I thought about it more advantages came to mind. For a start I would have more money to use when I got away again, which would be good. On my current budget I would effectively be broke by the time I touched down in Australia and have to get a job there quickly. This way I do not have to worry about that so much. I would also be able to get a motorbike licence and set about procuring the documents necessary to import a bike back in to England from India. I have a half-baked idea of buying an Enfield bike there and riding it back to the U.K. I would also get to see my frie...

After the cool hills of Kandy I went eastwards to the coast there. To remind you, this is the area that is not having a monsoon at the moment. The weather is hot, slightly humid, and the beaches uncrowded and pleasant. Only honeymoon couples though. This obviously scuppered my nympho plan (see passim) though I would have settled for any woman, so long as all her limbs and teeth were intact and she could speak English. So I took the bus from Kandy, always a bad idea as I have an aversion to Asian buses though there was no other way to get there. I was more fortunate than some other travellers who I met in the guest house I was staying in. They were told that the only bus to Trincomalee, where we were going, was to leave Kandy at 0530 every day. I walked to the bus station, found someone who looked like they knew what they were doing (i.e. a fruit seller) and he insisted that there was one per hour. I caught the 1130 one and was off. I won't elaborate on what was a boring bu...

To travel from one side of Sri Lanka to the other you must go through what the locals call "up country". This is the only part of the island that is formed from hills. This is also the only place where they grow the tea that they export so much of. I took a train from Colombo up to the city of Kandy, which is more of a small town than a city. This is up in the hills and the train journey there is one of the prettiest I have ever taken. The small train would bump over the tracks up the mountains and from the carriage you could almost taste the mountain air, such a change from India, as well as look at the valleys beneath you and the clouds rolling in over the mountain-tops. Once you're up in the mountains the climate is very cool and pleasant. It was the first time in a while that I was able to wear trousers and go out for a walk without sweating profusely. The experience of being able to walk from my guest house to town and around without being hassled or stopped a...

Sri Lankan Airways is one of the nicest airlines that I have ever used though I've not really used that many outside of the low-cost bracket. I flew economy from Delhi to Colombo and they gave us curry for dinner, and it was nice , steel cutlery even though the chaps at the airport had gone to extraordinary lengths to take my cricket ball off me, and unlimited booze. This last point always bonds me to something. Arriving in Colombo I was pleasantly surprised to see that my baggage arrived with me and that I was not ripped off on the taxi fare from the airport to my guesthouse. The guesthouse is really nice too! Instantly all my pent up aggression and ball-of-hatred that Delhi had put inside me melted away and I slept like a baby. Colombo is the only place I have been in Sri Lanka so far and it is pretty nice. As far as Asian capitals go it is remarkably sane and clean, though I have been to only a few and Kathmandu was not bad. I even managed to walk to most of the places th...

This morning Matt left me. We thought that things were moving too quickly and have decided to take a break from each other for a while. We thought that we should try and see more people. Actually, he has gone onto a national park to see a tiger then he's back to the UK via Bombay. I am still in Delhi though on Tuesday I fly to Sri Lanka for a little while. This trip serves a couple of purposes: one, I need a holiday, and two, I need a new Indian Visa. Sri Lanka is supposed to be lovely so I'm just going to lay on a beach, sip cocktails, and hang out with a pouting nymphomaniac for a bit. I've got it all planned out you see. I'll try and see a game of cricket as well, as so far cricket in India has eluded me.

I had a good time on the train back to Delhi, which surprised me. Matt and I met up with an American guy in his 60s called Wayne. A very nice chap he was too. He retired from selling insurance in 1991 and has spent the last 13 years living in Honduras with his partner. He travels for three months at a time whenever he wants to. I guess the pension goes a long way in Central America. An interesting man to talk to, he is a veteran of traveling the world since his youth as he started out in the Navy and spent 5 years aboard the U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt. He has been stabbed several times (he showed me his scars) and he still has a "woman in every port". I saw the photos but I'd sooner not dwell on that. He seems younger than his years which gives credence to the saying, "You're only as old as the girl you feel." He's a nice guy, though I never got his email address. Before Matt went back to merrie England we wanted to see the Taj Mahal. The Ta...