So when I just began writing this current blog we had come full circle and back to KL after a holiday away in Sri Lanka. After a three hour flight to Colombo and going back in time we found ourselves with the lovely Acarnley’s in the famous Galle Face Hotel. ‘Asia's Emerald on the Green ... since 1864,’ very quirky hotel with signs on the walls like the one in the picture.

Our main purpose for going to Colombo was to witness the wedding of the now Amy and Ben Hunt, Ben’s parents are old friends of Liz and Patrick. The whole wedding wasn’t without its Sri Lankan traditions, an unreliable priest, no rehearsal, a beggar walking down the aisle in front of the bride then singing loudly while the vows were being said until he got paid to leave. All in all a very memorable day, in a very beautiful setting.

Some more pictures are on Facebook of the wedding, please click the link below;

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=139870&id=503754742&l=c01cbe48f6

After five days in Colombo we drove three hours down the coast to the beach resort town of Hikkaduwa. Here me and Sophie were in surfing heaven, board hire started at 2 pounds an hour and the waves never disappointed. The town is well known for custom-made boardies (3 pounds) and rashies (5 pounds) so we went shopping to our heart’s content. Our villa we stayed in was a great modern build with a sofa (! – first one in ages!) It is owned by a English women so had been furnished to a high standard and was nice for us to have a proper base for more than two days.

During our time there we witnessed a surfing competition held by one of the surf schools. The competition was to a very high standard off the large reef break to one side of the beach, where we actually saw a few barrels (not were we usually surfed!) At the time Hikkaduwa had been infiltrated by the Welsh, 30 beach bums had come for a 6 week holiday, but none of the Welsh could beat the Singaliese talent.

One day we visited a Turtle Farm and Hatchery which was an enlightening experience; In Sri Lankan turtle eggs are viewed as a delicacy and so people actively search for turtle tracks and nests to claim recently laid eggs. The farm we visited finds these eggs and hatches them in safety and then releases the day old baby turtles into the sea en-mass to give them the highest possible chance of survival and even with that they only have a 1 in 1000 chance of surviving due to other sea creatures and birds. They had some day old babies (which Sophie tried to steal!) At the centre they also rehabilitate injured or sick turtles with the hope to release them at a later date.

We also had the privilege of meeting two of the biggest wild Ridgeback turtles I have ever seen, they were easily a metre long. They are wild turtles although are lured into the shallows most mornings with some seaweed, *Caution when feeding turtles or tortoises, their teeth/beaks are sharper than they look!* As well as seeing these turtles in the shallows nearly ever day while we were surfing we would see the odd head pop up in the surf or glide along in a wave, a very cool experience!

If you want to see more photos from our time in Sri lanka pus more cute turtle ones, please click the link;

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=139878&id=503754742&l=c8ec6af5b2

As on Phi Phi the stories of the tsunami were still as raw as ever. The owner of the farm Nimal, had lost his wife, sister and daughter in the disaster. Hikkaduwa town lost 1,200 people on one train after it was swept inland and over 50,000 people died in Sri Lanka alone. Our Welsh contingent on Boxing Day joined in a memorial service in the sea. Fifty-some surfers gathered in a circle on their boards and laid petals in respect for their brothers lost. Talking to friends we made the actual area we stayed in wasn’t so badly affected as the reef there took most of the impact and they only suffered from high water levels, whereas further up into the town there was more damage. Someone suggested this is because they have pulled up their reef to sell to tourists so had no breaker, true or not it is a example as to why not buy and take coral or shells from your holiday.

We heard many other sad stories from survivors; One man we met escaped only by climbing to the very top of a coconut tree with a broken leg and clung on for dear life until the water levels had dropped. Another one of our favourite beach sellers had suffered a lot of injuries after the water came into her house and left her with inches of air by the ceiling. She now even five years on has trouble sleeping. It just makes you think it was an ordinary day for ordinary holiday makers and locals. It appears the government has learned from this disaster, all the houses previously built on the coast have been moved inland, but the ruins of the homes are still there as an ever present remind to the tragedy. If my parents had fallen in love with Sri Lanka or Thailand instead of the Seychelles mine might be a very different story.

Although we had sadness in our time in Sri Lanka the good times and the amazing people bowled us over. We met a very nice Tuk Tuk driver and his family who gave us possible the best dinner of our entire trip. Lonely Plant also agreed that this was the best way to sample Sri Lankan cuisine. The whole family is geared around getting their daughter, who has dreams of becoming a doctor, the best education possible. The schooling although free in Sri Lanka isn’t great; the teachers even hold private lessons after school which parents have to pay for, which does bring up ethical issues as to whether they hold back teaching in order to get paid more in extra tuition!

So we have begun our 6 day journey to New Zealand to see the folks! Two days were spent in KL where we found possible the best hotel in the world! For a bargain price of 17 pounds a night (relatively unheard of in KL,) we stayed in the AirAsia hotel. The entire place is a walking advertisement which is how they keep their costs down. It was like staying in halls again though my room at university didn’t have a sign above the bed; ‘McDelivery 24 hours a day – NO MINIMUM ORDER!!’ It was hard to resist having a MacDonald’s brought to our bedside but we managed it, no wonder Malaysia is full of fatties!

We spent a brief day in Singapore with our new Kiwi friend Larnie, who we met in Southern Thailand. We wandered around the city in awe, the streets were clean and quiet. The public transport system worked and people didn’t drive cars like they are being chased down the road by Godzilla. Possibly the nicest city we have visited on our travels, although more expensive than we are used to, it was still cheaper than London…and did I mention quieter…and nicer...and everything worked…and the weather was hot! There are actually signs up saying ‘low crime doesn’t mean no crime, please stay vigilant’…! Not the London equivalent; ‘keep hold of your personal belongings as you're about to get mugged!’

We visited the world famous zoo and Sophie saw her nellies so all was right with the world. We also went to the newly renovated Sentosa island where a new Universal Studios is being built, we had great fun on the rides and attractions currently there, including a man made beach (see again better than London!) We all went on the Luge and our picture of using going to the top is pretty funny (none of knew there was a camera there!)

So in short the past two weeks have been amazing, a massive thank you to the Acarnley’s for putting up with us and for taking back 15kg of our stuff (aka rubbish!) We gained an amazing experience going to Sri Lanka, a country we probably would never have visited and also loads of toiletries, a bottle of gin and champers! We are looking forward to meeting the Magoo’s although not so much the 20 degree weather of NZ!

After parting ways with Sophie we met again a 24 hours later on the island of Koh Samui, the most southern of the three main islands of the eastern coast of southern Thailand. A very popular island because of its major airport, the beaches were a little crowded fill with door-to-door resorts. Because we arrived so late in the evening I prebooked us accommodation, though the website neglected to state that it was right next to the Muay Thai boxing arena. This martial art, not unlike kickboxing involves bare feet and fists and very painful knees to the ribs. Every night we were greeted by a Thai Tim Westwood who kept repeating every third word…’tonight, tonight, tonight, the greatest fight of the year, the year, the year!’ Well it can’t be THE greatest fight of the year every night! Every night there are around 8 fights starting with under 8’s then under 10’s. With crying children in the ring and screaming parents in their corners it is an event to be missed. Because of the lack of beaches and lack of sleep we moved on very quickly…

Koh Tao, well known for its amazing diving was our next destination. Here we met up with some friends we met in Vang Vieng, Laos and spent 5 days swimming, snorkelling and joining in with the night activities when all the divers returned from their trips.

We were booked for 5 nights on Koh Phanghan from the 22nd to 26th, although we were anticipating absolute chaos and mania we were presently surprises by the beautiful beaches. Every month around 5,000 people descend onto this island for the party which takes place when there is a full moon party. For the first time in 80 years actually lands on New Years Eve, so the party goers are expected to be around 50,000! They put on a fake full moon party on Christmas day which we joined in, alot of fun where the bars are vying for your attention and Baht by putting on firework displays and fire shows. Christmas day unfortunately just felt like another day, although we were in paradise it would’ve been nice to fly home to see friends and family for the day. We cheered ourselves up by hiring a red Jeep (called Rudolf) and going to the only English pub on the island to have a great roast dinner (and a snakebite!) We both got to talk to our families on Skype around Christmas day which was really nice, although it did seem like there was more staring at us than talking!

On the 27th we made the 8 hour journey due south to Krabi in Southern Thailand, the next day we hopped onto a boat and went to Phi Phi island. Phi Phi is where Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘The Beach’ was set and every man and his dog capitalises on this. The beaches are white sand with magnificent limestone cliffs surrounding them. We took a day tour around 8 of the islands in a longtail boat with 10 other people. Once again we attract misfortune; whether our boat was overloaded, the captain lost control or something entirely different, we managed to crash into one of the cliff walls of an island and come aground on the coral underneath. After we were pushed off from the wall we discovered the engine had failed. Trying to stop numerous luxury speed boats, as was our preference to carry on the rest of the journey on them, none stopped and some even just waved back. Another long boat came to our rescue and when the battery was finally jump started off we went missing half the front end of the boat. When we made it to Maya beach, where ‘The Beach’ was actually filmed; ‘Leo actually stood here!’ [Sophie]. We were met by hundreds of other tourists and their boats. It was undisputedly beautiful though this was spoiled by everyone else being there.

Our time on Phi Phi was humbled by its history and resilience. The island was hit by the Tsunami nearly exactly 5 years ago and was completely wiped out with masses of casualties not just Thais. Five years ago, hundreds of boats were out cruising the islands just as we were and thousands were sunbathing on the beach and this monstrous wave came and decimated it all. You can see by our pictures we took from a high viewpoint how low lying the town is so would have been completely covered in a matter of minuets with little warning. Now the town has been rebuilt with escape routes and a warning system.

In Koh Lanta we met up with our good friend Sarah who we worked with at CNCF which was really nice. The plan was to ‘rave it up’ on New Years but unfortunately Sophie got really ill so it was a quiet evening in.

We flew to Kuala Lumpur early on the first so it was a good idea we had an early night, we’ve done a whistle stop tour of KL ready for an early morning flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka for a Acarnley reunion and some English goodies.