Sri Lanka that is! We’d not long all clambered off the now packed train at Kandy as the guys passed all our bags through the window to us.

The queue that had gathered anticipating our soon to be vacated seats, quickly filled them. Handshakes and goodbyes were given and we were on our way straight into another welcome from our next host at Hanthana Holiday rooms, a great kind of homestay 10-15 minutes drive up into the mountains. The owner and his son were really friendly as were their sausage dog and stocky cat. After a couple of hours bedding in, writing postcards and some down time, we were offered dinner which we happily accepted with no desire to head into a hot, busy Kandy until tomorrow. Now I know Colette’s already told you all this but the following for me just sums up our time here. We opted instead for a suggested short walk up the hill from our room to a great view of the city. Well, of course, this being us, on this trip – it couldn’t just be a short walk to a viewpoint could it? No – what then happens is we come across a young chinese couple also talking photos. A local man invites us all to get a better view from atop his roof accessed by a tiny spiral staircase. He comes up with us, tell us all about Kandy, how he’d been a tree planter all his working life and now at 76 still consults for new plots. He’d learnt tea planting from an Englishman, Mike Tomlinson, who’s now dead. Ronnie, as he introduced himself, now lives in a house built as a project of housing for the tea workers years ago on a patch of the old tea field. They never finished the job so Ronnie got the chance to buy 2 unfinished properties, one above the other on the hillside. The idea being that they’d be self contained homes for all 4 of his grown up children and their families, 3 of whom now live in the states and 1 in Colombo. Ronnie then gives us a tour of the whole sprawling place, introduces us to his wife, shows us his fireplace and all the quintessential English things around the house. It was like an old English country cottage. A copy of the Sunday Times (in English) lay on the kitchen table. Ronnie and Denise were another gem from this whole adventure – how the hell did that happen? We said our goodnights and sauntered back to our rooms listening to Hon and Wain talk about this being their singular 5 days off in the wholeyear, as most Chinese people are limited to. We reassured them that things like this will continue to confound them as they whisk around this total gem of a country.