Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey - chrischarly

Last day in Sri Lanka... :( :( :( :(

chrischarly — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Today is our last night in Sri Lanka and we are both gutted to be trading our lovely comfy bed to a thin mattress designed for the cheap-skate backpackers we will transform into by tomorrow...

Me, Chris and Steve squeezed into a tuk-tuk! Very cosy!

Mo, Chris and I

Chris and our super-friendly waiter

More importantly though it will be really upsetting to say goodbye to Chris' parents, Chris and Steve. 3 weeks has gone far too quickly...

Yummy pork roast

chrischarly — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Yummy Sri Lankan curry for breakfast... tasty gorgeousness

Monkey

The back of Rohan's head

Our spit-roast pork

Pig roast dinner

Pool...

chrischarly — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Elephant

Modelling the sarongs for us

Reading books in the pool

Enjoying a beverage in the pool

Denushka up a tree picking coconuts!

Nope, you'll never catch me doing that!!

Another relaxing day at Shangri Lanka!

Chillaxing

chrischarly — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

A chill day...

Reading books in the pool

Enjoying a beverage in the pool

Chris' mum and Maisie on their balcony

Our pool

as with any other day!

A crab fighting back!

Alive crabs back home

Fish market

Lovely weather so barely left the pool except to get some crabs for dinner!

Rain...

chrischarly — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Chris tucking into his breakfast

Chris looking silly eating a mango

Posing with a banana...

Chris still eating his breakfast

A not-so-lovely day today... too much rain all day...

rain rain go away

raining in paradise

Admiring the pool from a distance as it's raining :(

Stupid rain storms spoiling our sun-bathing

amazing thunderstorms though!

Sri Lanka

chrischarly — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Locals playing volleyball

Elephant on a main road!

The road down to our guest house

A pretty pond!

Hot and flustered

A lovely day...

Releasing the turtles

chrischarly — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

This evening at 9pm I went down to the beach to release some turtles into the sea.

A HUGE turtle

A huge turtle at the hatchery

When they are picked up still as eggs off the beach by locals, they are brought to the turtle hatchery where they are cared for until they hatch.

A very friendly turtle

A poor turtle unable to be set free as he has a broken back! :(

A swimming little turtle

Hundreds of day-old turtles

Then, when the are merely a day or two old they are released back into the sea where they will have a greater chance of survival than they would have had if the eggs remained on the beach.

About to set my turtle free...

The turtles walking to the sea after we let them go

The reason they are released at night is so the birds etc wouldn't see them as clearly, but still they have only 1 in a 100 chance of survival!

My Hair..

chrischarly — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

After too many people have asked... begrudgingly here is a photo our me with short hair :(

Me with short wet hair...

It had to ba photo taken when my hair is wet as it frizzes up to a fluff ball when dry here and lots unfortunately even shorter and VILE!!! :) Only kidding, I'm getting used to it now :)

Anyway, took a little stroll all the way down to the beach today!

Lovely beach yet dead deserted

Bentota beach

Footprints in the sand

Sri Lanka...

chrischarly — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Monkeys!!!

Cute monkey

Monkey in the trees in our garden

Monkey!

Yummy meal

chrischarly — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Me and Steve

Chris and his mama...

Today we had a yummy meal at Marley's once again venturing out of the villa, yet the staff were so sickly sweet it made you want to vomit!

..............

chrischarly — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

After leaving the villa the last night to recover we once agin stayed in...

Lunch...

Yummy arrack cocktails!!

kinda running out of things to stay as we do NOTHING!

....

chrischarly — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Nothing much happens here in Paradise...

Off for a swim...

Me after a swim

Sorry to rub it in to all the people working 9-5 :)

Note to everyone... get you hair cut by someone who understands English!!!

chrischarly — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The land turtle

A land turtle

Today I left the guest House once again but this time to get my hair cut!!! It's so short now!!! Although I repeatedly said 'keep it long' I don't think he understood me and kept saying 'I will make it nice' and granted, yet it does look nice but I like my hair long! Now I struggle to put it all up :(

Gone Fishin'....................by Chris

chrischarly — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The alarm on my phone bought me to life at 0538, I had planned it to be 0530 but keyed it in wrong and figured I could do with the further 8 minutes.

I quickly dressed and donned my lucky hat to ensure the fish would be biting. The fishing team consisted of me, dad and Mark (our northern pal) - I was very excited and so were the rest of the team..........

Don't look too interested boys !

The first thing we caught was a fantastic view of the sun rising over the coastline, then it went all quiet and the four trawling rods didn't even twitch.

Sunrise from the boat

Finally, one of the rods started to run and Mark took it, unfortunately not with fish still attached.

At about 0830 we decided to crack open a beer, we were at sea after all. However, Dad was slightly green and did not partake in any beverage consumption. I couldn't even tempt him with a hardboiled egg form our picnic, although I enjoyed trying!

Steve and Mark before Steve goes green!

A few hours in, and our only highlight was seeing a pair of randy sea horses having it off, the captain sent the "full stop" order, and we prepared ourselves for some hard-core reef fishing. With our sophisticated hand lines wrapped around old plastic bottles, we searched the deep for a monster catch. We hooked a few goldfish and one interesting looking creature - that I was advised was not good eating.

Steve's head replaced by a fish

After an hour or so of this riveting entertainment, and the gentle roll of the boat sending dad a further shade of green, we headed back.

Waiting for the fishies

Demoralised by our poor catch we still put the trawling rods out in hope of the monster. Then, when we had finally given up all hope a reel started screaming and I jumped to action, striking hard to make sure and taking up position in the fighting chair!

Chris reeling in his big catch!

The fight was not a long one, but was a tough one, as it appeared the fish was foul hooked and was trying its best to get free, so much so that close to the boat a rather larger Barracuda thought it could take my prize off me - a few seconds more the captain would have gaffed them both but the Barracuda departed leaving only teeth marks in my catch.

Gaffed by skip

Chris' massive catch !

Big fish!

Now I know it doesn't look much but it was a nice catch and went down very well with the folks after I filleted and beer battered it later that day. Keep watching, as I'm keen to get out on the sea again, as is Mark, dad however will be leaving the team and we are actively looking for a replacement.

Until next time, CJ.

Leaving the Guest House Haven!!..

chrischarly — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

This evening was the first time I had actually left the guest House ever since arriving for some yummy dinner!

Us at Esscofier

Karen and Rohan

It was pretty scary, but I suppose I had to do it some time!

Celebrating 100 (joint) years !

chrischarly — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Today was both Karen and Mark's 50th birthday so to celebrate we spent pretty much the day drinking champagne, setting off fireworks and eating some of Chris' delicious food!!!

Me enjoying a champagne breakfast!

Birthday morning

Our table

Chris in his element cooking

Champagne!

Some fireworks set off from the balcony

Chris bringing out Mark and Karen's 50th birthday cake

Mark and Karen blowing out their candles

Mark dancing with Bobby

What a treat!!!

A Huge Snake...

chrischarly — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The pool ready for our swimming challenge

Right behind the pool today was a huge snake hiding in the toilet/massage room!!! The photo is in the photo album though and not on this entry as Chris' mum is so petrified of snakes she can't look at the photo! Bless her she won't even go and have a massage now in case she comes face-to-face with them!

A Huge Toad

chrischarly — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Yet again another chill day...

check out the massive toad though!!!

The toad

The huge toad

A wine bottle put behind the toad to show just how big it was

Lovely Lovely Lovely Lovely Lovely Lovely Chill day...

chrischarly — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Today was a great day spending time doing very little and loving it...

Charly and Mum chilling

Our balcony

although not much sunshin here today... at least we are not in the U.K though!!! Hehe...

Finally in Paradise!!

chrischarly — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

It is amazing how clean it is here!.. No filthy streets littered with litter!! No stinky smells!! Paradise!! After waiting for over 6 hours for Chris' parents to arrive it was great to see them again and driving to the luxurious Bentota and stay in Karen and Rohan's gorgeous Guest House...

Our lovely bedroom, for 1 night, till we get moved !!

Our lovely bathroom, for 1 night, till we get moved !!

1st night in Sri Lanka

Mmmmmm, Lion beer... first one for 2.5 weeks!!

Charly and her 1st drink for 2.5 months!!

Time for some pampering!! Yay!!