With climate change causing the second Monsoon here to extend into December, Negombo is currently hot and humid. I struggled to find a cab at the Airport from haggling and being unsure how much a ride to my AirBnB should coset, not so smart but in the end I found a tuktuk for $10, some of which was needed to gas-up en route. My driver was a young blade more interested in showing off his traffic wrangling skills and pedalling drugs and hookers than taking me safely to my accommodation; more than once I imagined the thing tipping over and blood pooling on hot asphalt, must be getting old. Without going into too much gory detail, death is more vivid here.

Once arrived at the first AirBnB, Glenny the host proved charming, unlike the room with its ceiling fan that seemed to offer decapitation as much as ventilation, a broken air con unit, windows painted shut, muscular mosquitoes and a cockroach claiming squatters rights in the en suite. The whole experience, but especially the cockroach, reminded me a little too much of some less than salubrious nights in Morocco back in the day, I don’t think it’s a good idea to be too tight fisted here, the low budget experience of Sri Lanka is not for the fainthearted.

Green Wood Villas is an all together different prospect: short walk to the beach, marble wet room, comfy bed, crisp cotton sheets, minibar, air con + fan and a balcony over the garden and pool – yep glad to have cleared that one up, this is where it’s going to be in from here on.

The neighbours are a Scottish couple who though taken up with navigating through the layers of bureaucracy and scams necessary for getting back to the UK, nevertheless found time to invite me for dinner on the strip last night. Hearing their accounts of where they’d been whetted my appetite. By all accounts it seems there’s a well beaten tourist track here: beaches along the SW quarter, wildlife parks up the centre and historical ruins, cultural and religious sites in the middle. I plan on going round clockwise.

After a boozy walk back I couldn’t resist ending the evening with a midnight skinny dip in the infinity pool (well as if) and was rewarded with fireflies dancing around baby the banana trees in the garden; magical stuff

Tomorrow’s hopefully the first interview, a beach hawker and his wife, followed by lunch with them and a trip to Colombo to watch a 20 over cricket match, tomorrow’s busy.

One final thought –
Q. Have you ever wondered just how a 1.5Kg mammal with a 1.5m wingspan flies?
A. Particularly gracefully