Bentota

Sri Lanka

December 2006
4 days

So after a pretty painless flight from KL, only 3.5hrs we arrive in Sri Lanka and thanks to my parents there is someone at the aiport to meet us and take us 100km south to our hotel on Bentota Beach.

We arrive after 3hrs in a minibus - turns out that travelling by road in sri lanka is pretty slow - at our hotel 'Wunderbah'. Its a really nice place, dead smart rooms with a nice pool and rigt on the beach - we know we are going to be happy here. My only concern is that it is so nice i hope it wont overshadow our wedding hotel.

I am going to talk about food for the next paragraph, because it was SO darned good here. My parents booked us half board, and normally as experienced world travellers we'd be a bit bored with eating at the same place for 4 days - but the food was fantastic! 1st night we get 2 courses of starters! the best vegetable soup ever, followed by some sri lankan bread stuff and coleslaw - feeling pretty stuffed i am then presented with a whole bbq'd red snapper in a bannana leaf - it is beautifully cooked and even lorraine had some and said it was the nicest fish she ever had (she had bbq chicken which was a bit lame). The 2nd night we get 7 dishes of various curried thigs (after only one starter this time) - the whole table is completly filled with stuff and we struggle to make a dent into all the fantastic tasting dishes.

On our 2nd day at wunderbah lorraine and i are looking forward to seeing my mum and dad as they are flying out to meet us for the wedding and have also booked themselves into wunderbah. In the morning Chan, the hotel manager knocks on our door to let us know that my folks are here - as lorraine and i wander down past their bags (we thikn they have overpacked as usual as there are 3 large cases there) we are surprised in the most wunderbah (wonderful) way - my brother and his girlfriend Amy are there to meet us along with my parents - knocks my socks off! It was amazing being surprised like this and not having seen my parents or conrad and amy for nearly 2 years it was a great meeting.

Well over the next couple of days we are all one big group and having a great time catching up, sun bathing, drinking and eating (the food just got better and better - i had the most succulent bbq'd king prawns here, another incredible selection of curries and some beautiful parrot fish).

We had booked ourselves (me and lorraine) into a boutique hotel called the River House, where we also planned to get married for the 6th december so sadly had to say goodbye to everyone and get a tuk-tuk down to our new digs - of course we were to see everyone on the 7th anyway,