"SRI LANKS" - DEC. 17

Phil and I arrived in Sri Lanka very early on the 17th after a TERRIBLE turbulence-filled flight. We were greeted at the airport by our guide, Lal, who drove us to the Silver Sands hotel in Negombo for a much-needed "morning nap"!

Breakfast was an interesting one. The guest house served us fresh pineapple juice (YUM!), fried eggs with white eggs yokes (weird, right?!) and "banana pancakes" (which are actually deep fried pieces of banana...eek!).



Lal came shortly after to retrieve us and we began our tour of Sri Lanka - visiting the local fish market, a prison (well the outside of it), the market (where I purchased my first elephant item - a t-shirt!), and a Buddhist temple (oh - it was SO BEAUTIFUL!). After these stops, we made our way to Lal's house to have dinner with his family. Now this is where we fell in love with Lal.



Lal's family - including his wife, daughter, son, grandson, and nieces - met us with big smiles as the van pulled up outside. You could tell they were excited to meet us and it wasn't long before the little girl was showing us her certificates from school, singing us Christmas songs, and teaching us how to speak "Sinhalese". The son was happy to tell us about the job he was applying for and to show us photo albums of his older sister's wedding. While waiting for dinner to be ready, we enjoyed a cup of tea and some chocolate cake and watched the movie "Home Alone 3" on the television. It was a HILARIOUS experience watching this with Lal and his family. They were laughing so hard that we couldn't help but roar with them. It was adorable.

Dinner consisted of rice and curry (both dal and chicken), papadums, and spicey dishes of eggplant, beans, and potatoes. It was DELICIOUS! Lal's daughter responded quickly to Phil's "spicey response" and brought him bottles of water and tissues as they ran out! Dessert was fresh pineapple, mango from the mango tree in the yard, and bananas! The meal was a perfect representation of the meals to come and we give the chef an A+ for having the best curry out of all the ones we sampled (and believe us, we sampled A LOT!).

After an enjoyable welcoming to Sri Lankan culture and cuisine, Lal drove us back to the hotel to catch the sunset on the beach! We were excited to be on the Indian Ocean for the first time and to have a few legal drinks to celebrate the holidays! It was a great day. And it was made even better by the excitement of Emily and Colleen's arrival the next day!