"SRI LANKS" - DEC. 27

Today was a sad day. Colleen woke up feeling really sick and had to stay at the hotel. Dear Colleen, if you're reading this.....we had NO FUN AT ALL today. It was REALLY BORING and LAME. And if we could do it all over again, we WOULD NOT!

After breakfast, we sent the sicky to her room and headed out with Lal for a day of ADVENTURE! First stop was at a Coral Sanctuary, where we got into an itty bitty glass bottom boat (without life jackets) and motored out towards the colourful underworld :) It started with a cry (I fell into the boat and banged my knee), but ended with laughs, as we fed bread to "we haven't eaten in years" fishies! The trip was cut short due to Phil's motion sickness, but nonetheless, it was still a cool experience! (Dear Colleen: What I mean is - it was NO FUN AT ALL!)





Next stop was the turtle hatchery and MY OH MY - was this ever NEAT!!! We got to see turtles of all sorts, including turtles that had just hatched that very morning! We all got the chance to hold some turtles and Phil even got to hold a giant albino turtle! Emily and I were encouraged to pet some of the bigger turtles, including the albino one. Our tour guide told us, "You must pet him. He likes white people." We were also instructed NOT to touch another turtle because "he doesn't like white fingers". Who knew that turtles could be so discriminatory?! (See Colleen - better that you weren't with us!)





The adventure continued on a river safari, which consisted of monkey and crocodile holding, ducking under bridges (ugh, ya.....what happened to "safety first"?), cruising through mangroves, spotting monitor lizards, chilling on Cinnamon Island, and getting "friendship bracelets" at a Buddhist temple on one of the islands! Unfortunately, we also had boo-boo number two of the day, with Emily bashing up her heel while stepping out of the boat. This became a happy injury later, as her bruise was shaped like an elephant!!!!! I SWEAR!!!!!! (Dear Colleen: you would have hated every minute of it....)

After the boat trip it was back to Colleen, who was eager to see us and go for lunch! We grabbed a bite to eat, purchased some postcards, and spent the afternoon writing friends and family with tea in the hotel lobby. We also made a trip (or two! or three!) to a tailor who made us lots of pretty pants (Phil included!).

That night, Emily may have had the best day of her life when she discovered a GIANT SNAIL, who she decided to call "SNAILY". It became a fun game to find Snaily before bed every night. And on the final night....we saw him with his WHOLE FAMILY!!!!!!! Oh Snaily....we MISS YOU!