Emma and the kids took the last week of school off to fly to Sri Lanka to see Latha. They spent a few days in Colombo and then went to stay with Latha in Kandy. They got to meet all of Latha's friends and family. Emma will have to share the rest of the details. I flew into Colombo after I finally finished school for the term. I got in very early on Saturday morning and met them at the hotel. The next afternoon we all flew to the Maldives. It is about a 45 minute boat ride from Male, the capitol to get to Asdu. Alex was very impressed that it was a speedboat with 2 engines that was faster than Uncle Brad's boat. It was almost ten years to the day since we were last on Asdu and it has changed very little. Even the towels were exactly the same. It is a small island with only about 30 rooms. No TV, no hot water, toilets barely flush, but it is paradise. Even though the island was full, sitting on the beach it seemed almost deserted. As it turned out, there was another couple there with their son who had been on the island ten years ago before they had kids! Days were filled with snorkeling, kayaking, swimming, playing on the beach, ping pong and lots of card games in the down time.
The snorkeling is the best we have ever seen and starts only a few meters off the beach in knee deep water. On our first snorkel Alex quickly pointed out a stingray swimming just next to us. Over the week we saw every single fish from the 3 fish charts hanging in the restaurant. The coral is also amazing. On one snorkel on my own I saw a black-tip reef shark as big as me and an eagle ray that let me just follow him around. In the shallow water the kids quickly found the local baby black-tip reef sharks that spent their evenings swimming up and down the length of the island. Ellie soon had to discard her snorkel because it was keeping her from talking. Without the snorkel she could talk and discuss every single thing she saw. Alex loved snorkeling but we are now worried we have spoiled him as it will be hard to find many other places in the world where the snorkeling would even be close. Every evening we could follow a small black-tip reef shark as he cruised up and down the beach just a meter from edge of the water. He was frequently joined by a sting ray or two also. The wildlife added great excitement to the nightly sunset show out at the narrow end of the island. The sunset and sky colours were spectacular. The sky on the opposite side of the setting sun looked like the sun was rising it was so bright and colourful! Every night all the guest walked out to enjoy the beautiful show and all the kids watched the sharks and rays and played in the waves.
They also had a great time kayaking and one day the the kids and I kayaked around the island. (It only took about 20 minutes!) One day while Emma and I were snorkeling Alex and Ellie were each kayaking in a single kayak and Ellie ended out in the deep water past the end of the pier. She was calling for help and Latha doesn't swim so she couldn't do much. Alex went to her rescue and kayaked out to her and pushed her kayak around and pushed her into shallow water. Alex was very proud of having rescued his sister and Ellie likes to play it down and point out she helped rescue herself a little.
The island caters to mostly Italians. The chef has trained in Italy and most of the guest and the dive instructors are all Italian, as they were when we were there ten years ago. The meals were at fixed times and in the European tradition, dinner was at 2000. It was fun to see the kids begging for bed even before dessert and falling asleep at the table. Nothing can break them from arising early and after a full day playing in the sun, sand and water were barely able to stay awake until 2000. At the beach we were all covered in full rashies (swim shirts), hats and sunscreen as is preached and practiced in Australia ( the kids learn at school early on to slip, slap, slop, seek, and slide) and relaxed in the shade at midday. The Italians, even the men, were all out in the sun in their bikinis and speedos! There were several older kids and Alex kept trying to play with them even though they didn't speak English. He just loves to play with other kids and make new friends.
Without TV we had lots of time to play ping pong and some new card games we brought. There were lots of hours waiting for dinner while playing "Wig Out" and "Too Many Monkeys". I highly recommend them as a family game to play with younger kids that event the parents can enjoy. Alex has also fallen in love with the movie "Mama Mia". During rest time he would watch it over and over on the ipad and sings and dances the song all the time. I even noticed him singing "Dancing Queen" in his sleep instead of the usual talking. The kids frequently asked if we could stay for several months or even move there. Alex and Ellie do love to travel and always feel at home wherever they go. After a week in paradise, without having worn shoes for the entire week, it was time for one more speedboat trip back to Male and our flight back to Sri Lanka.
We spent a quick night at the Green View Hotel hotel near the airport in Colombo. It was a nice hotel but the power kept going off every few minutes most of the night. The kids still managed to get a swim in. We went to the restaurant for dinner as there was nothing nearby and it was getting late in the evening already when we got there. Even though it was empty, it still took a very long time to get our dinner. It seems they probably went out to the store to buy the food after we ordered. We were off south down the new expressway to the south of the island for our next beach sojourn near Galle. We hired a van and driver for the trip as we found that was the easiest, quickest and just about cheapest way for the five of us to travel around. It took a while for the driver to find the villa as the streets were not well marked. We stayed at Villa Hibiscus. We stayed in the large villa which was just beautiful. It was a large two bedroom open and airy villa that was decorated beautifully. It was right on a small bluff overlooking a stunning beach.
The beach was different from Asdu as there were lots of waves. The kids enjoyed this and spent hours playing in the waves, being smashed and dragged across the sand and scaring Latha and the villa staff who thought they were being a little too daring. Every afternoon there was a group of local boys who came down after school for a swim. They wanted to borrow the kids goggles so they could look at fish and the coral. They were also a few surfers out in the waves every day too. The kids thought seeing one of the cows that hung out at the end of the beach pee was a highlight of going to the beach in Sri Lanka. One afternoon Ellie popped up from the swirling backwash of a wave, covered in sand and asked me "What is a democracy?" I answered and then after the next wave she popped up and asked "What is a constitution?" She asks the most interesting and out of the blue questions for a five-year old! We spent most of our time hanging out at the villa and playing in the waves.
There was a a full staff at the house including a chef who would prepare whatever you wanted for the meals. We had lovely dinners each night. Our favorite was the local Sri Lankan chicken curry with all the trimmings. Breakfast was a huge plate of fresh fruit along with eggs, toast, pancakes and more that we could not even consider eating as it was just too much food. We didn't need much for lunch. I found a new game for the kids to play on their ipads for the times when they were too tired to run on the beach anymore. Mystery Math Town is a ipad maths game that we had to force the kids to pause to come eat dinner and make them stay at the table and finish their meal as they wanted to get back to the game.
One day we made the 30 minute trip into the town of Galle. It is a beautiful old town centered around an old fort. The fort was so well built it survived the tsunami in 2004 even as the wave wiped out most of the new part of town and killed hundreds. The architecture is a combination of British, Dutch and Islamic as Galle was the major trading port in Sri Lanka for several hundred years. We walked along the top of the old walls and wandered through the narrow streets. We had a lovely lunch at the Crepe-ology Restaurant. It was a very warm and humid day and Latha treated the kids to some yummy gelato as ice cream treats from Latha were a daily ritual.
On our last afternoon we popped in to the nearest town, Weligama. It is a bustling regional town with music blaring from most shop fronts. We took a tuk-tuk into town. Alex was thrilled with seeing so many tuk-tuks and any chance to ride in one was a thrill. We wandered along the beach looking at the fishing boats and all the fish and other sea creatures in the little stands. After an interesting stroll and some ice cream, all five of us squeezed into one tuk-tuk to head back to the villa. On the trip home we were stuck on one of the narrow back roads behind a funeral procession. It was quite a circus trick to all unpack from the tuk-tuk that we forget our backpack with Emma's wallet in the tuk-tuk. We didn't even realize we had left it until the driver found it and returned to the Villa to return it to us a couple hours later.
Eventually our time was up and our van came back to take us back to Colombo. We had two nights at the Hilton Residences which is where Emma and the kids stayed for a couple nights when they first arrived at the start of their trip. The hotel has a lovely pool and the kids loved swimming and made lots of friends with all the other kids that were there. We wandered around town for a morning to see a lovely lake and a temple with an elephant. Emma and I were able to have a date night and went to dinner at the Galle Face Hotel. It is a beautiful old hotel on the beach which is where most famous politicians, royalty, actors, writers and astronauts stay when in Colombo.
It was a fantastic trip and our first real family trip to somewhere exotic. Our worries about what our picky kids would eat were never realized as they were quite adventurous and never went hungry. They were not keen on sightseeing for too long but relished seeing new things, people and places. The people of Sri Lanka and the Maldives were just as friendly as we remembered from our first trip. They really love kids and the kids enjoyed meeting and talking to so many strangers in a strange place. They also loved seeing Latha again and it was like it had only been a few weeks since we had seen her last. As I mentioned, Asdu has not changed in 10 years. Sri Lanka has changed a bit. A big change we noticed is how even the tiniest hotel, well outside any big cities, all seem to have wifi now! We used to have to search for an internet cafe and pay for a really slow connection to stay in contact with family and friends. The kids now have the bug and want to go on more trips, especially back to Sri Lanka and Asdu! Who knows if the travel bug infection will remain! (PS, since it has taken me so long to write this, Emma has taken the kids out of the last week of school for this term and they are in the UK again. I won't be able to join them this time but it is the kids 4th international trip in a year!)
They also had a great time kayaking and one day the the kids and I kayaked around the island. (It only took about 20 minutes!) One day while Emma and I were snorkeling Alex and Ellie were each kayaking in a single kayak and Ellie ended out in the deep water past the end of the pier. She was calling for help and Latha doesn't swim so she couldn't do much. Alex went to her rescue and kayaked out to her and pushed her kayak around and pushed her into shallow water. Alex was very proud of having rescued his sister and Ellie likes to play it down and point out she helped rescue herself a little.
The island caters to mostly Italians. The chef has trained in Italy and most of the guest and the dive instructors are all Italian, as they were when we were there ten years ago. The meals were at fixed times and in the European tradition, dinner was at 2000. It was fun to see the kids begging for bed even before dessert and falling asleep at the table. Nothing can break them from arising early and after a full day playing in the sun, sand and water were barely able to stay awake until 2000. At the beach we were all covered in full rashies (swim shirts), hats and sunscreen as is preached and practiced in Australia ( the kids learn at school early on to slip, slap, slop, seek, and slide) and relaxed in the shade at midday. The Italians, even the men, were all out in the sun in their bikinis and speedos! There were several older kids and Alex kept trying to play with them even though they didn't speak English. He just loves to play with other kids and make new friends.
Without TV we had lots of time to play ping pong and some new card games we brought. There were lots of hours waiting for dinner while playing "Wig Out" and "Too Many Monkeys". I highly recommend them as a family game to play with younger kids that event the parents can enjoy. Alex has also fallen in love with the movie "Mama Mia". During rest time he would watch it over and over on the ipad and sings and dances the song all the time. I even noticed him singing "Dancing Queen" in his sleep instead of the usual talking. The kids frequently asked if we could stay for several months or even move there. Alex and Ellie do love to travel and always feel at home wherever they go. After a week in paradise, without having worn shoes for the entire week, it was time for one more speedboat trip back to Male and our flight back to Sri Lanka.
We spent a quick night at the Green View Hotel hotel near the airport in Colombo. It was a nice hotel but the power kept going off every few minutes most of the night. The kids still managed to get a swim in. We went to the restaurant for dinner as there was nothing nearby and it was getting late in the evening already when we got there. Even though it was empty, it still took a very long time to get our dinner. It seems they probably went out to the store to buy the food after we ordered. We were off south down the new expressway to the south of the island for our next beach sojourn near Galle. We hired a van and driver for the trip as we found that was the easiest, quickest and just about cheapest way for the five of us to travel around. It took a while for the driver to find the villa as the streets were not well marked. We stayed at Villa Hibiscus. We stayed in the large villa which was just beautiful. It was a large two bedroom open and airy villa that was decorated beautifully. It was right on a small bluff overlooking a stunning beach.
The beach was different from Asdu as there were lots of waves. The kids enjoyed this and spent hours playing in the waves, being smashed and dragged across the sand and scaring Latha and the villa staff who thought they were being a little too daring. Every afternoon there was a group of local boys who came down after school for a swim. They wanted to borrow the kids goggles so they could look at fish and the coral. They were also a few surfers out in the waves every day too. The kids thought seeing one of the cows that hung out at the end of the beach pee was a highlight of going to the beach in Sri Lanka. One afternoon Ellie popped up from the swirling backwash of a wave, covered in sand and asked me "What is a democracy?" I answered and then after the next wave she popped up and asked "What is a constitution?" She asks the most interesting and out of the blue questions for a five-year old! We spent most of our time hanging out at the villa and playing in the waves.
There was a a full staff at the house including a chef who would prepare whatever you wanted for the meals. We had lovely dinners each night. Our favorite was the local Sri Lankan chicken curry with all the trimmings. Breakfast was a huge plate of fresh fruit along with eggs, toast, pancakes and more that we could not even consider eating as it was just too much food. We didn't need much for lunch. I found a new game for the kids to play on their ipads for the times when they were too tired to run on the beach anymore. Mystery Math Town is a ipad maths game that we had to force the kids to pause to come eat dinner and make them stay at the table and finish their meal as they wanted to get back to the game.
One day we made the 30 minute trip into the town of Galle. It is a beautiful old town centered around an old fort. The fort was so well built it survived the tsunami in 2004 even as the wave wiped out most of the new part of town and killed hundreds. The architecture is a combination of British, Dutch and Islamic as Galle was the major trading port in Sri Lanka for several hundred years. We walked along the top of the old walls and wandered through the narrow streets. We had a lovely lunch at the Crepe-ology Restaurant. It was a very warm and humid day and Latha treated the kids to some yummy gelato as ice cream treats from Latha were a daily ritual.
On our last afternoon we popped in to the nearest town, Weligama. It is a bustling regional town with music blaring from most shop fronts. We took a tuk-tuk into town. Alex was thrilled with seeing so many tuk-tuks and any chance to ride in one was a thrill. We wandered along the beach looking at the fishing boats and all the fish and other sea creatures in the little stands. After an interesting stroll and some ice cream, all five of us squeezed into one tuk-tuk to head back to the villa. On the trip home we were stuck on one of the narrow back roads behind a funeral procession. It was quite a circus trick to all unpack from the tuk-tuk that we forget our backpack with Emma's wallet in the tuk-tuk. We didn't even realize we had left it until the driver found it and returned to the Villa to return it to us a couple hours later.
Eventually our time was up and our van came back to take us back to Colombo. We had two nights at the Hilton Residences which is where Emma and the kids stayed for a couple nights when they first arrived at the start of their trip. The hotel has a lovely pool and the kids loved swimming and made lots of friends with all the other kids that were there. We wandered around town for a morning to see a lovely lake and a temple with an elephant. Emma and I were able to have a date night and went to dinner at the Galle Face Hotel. It is a beautiful old hotel on the beach which is where most famous politicians, royalty, actors, writers and astronauts stay when in Colombo.
It was a fantastic trip and our first real family trip to somewhere exotic. Our worries about what our picky kids would eat were never realized as they were quite adventurous and never went hungry. They were not keen on sightseeing for too long but relished seeing new things, people and places. The people of Sri Lanka and the Maldives were just as friendly as we remembered from our first trip. They really love kids and the kids enjoyed meeting and talking to so many strangers in a strange place. They also loved seeing Latha again and it was like it had only been a few weeks since we had seen her last. As I mentioned, Asdu has not changed in 10 years. Sri Lanka has changed a bit. A big change we noticed is how even the tiniest hotel, well outside any big cities, all seem to have wifi now! We used to have to search for an internet cafe and pay for a really slow connection to stay in contact with family and friends. The kids now have the bug and want to go on more trips, especially back to Sri Lanka and Asdu! Who knows if the travel bug infection will remain! (PS, since it has taken me so long to write this, Emma has taken the kids out of the last week of school for this term and they are in the UK again. I won't be able to join them this time but it is the kids 4th international trip in a year!)
