Going Bananas in Sri Lanka

While in Sri Lanka, we had our first experience with an organized tour and tour guide. It was not an entirely pleasant one. While our driver/guide was great, our tour company, Ceylon Tours, was entirely unhelpful and uncommunicative (once they had my money). The hotel they booked for us in Kandy was CRAZY (no kidding, Jesus on a cross was the only thing hanging in our bedroom and he was LIFE SIZE. Plus, no A/C or fan in a malarial endemic area. We went back into town to find another hotel.) and most of the rest weren't particularly nice either. Oh well, you live and you learn - from now on my control-freak self will book all of our own travel.

That said, Sri Lanka was beautiful and fascinating. Maybe not the best R&R out of Kabul - the chaos exhausted us - but I would easily consider living there someday. Yes, that's us, the "better to live there than visit" people when it comes to African and South Asian countries. People were friendly, there's lots to see and do, clean(ish) beaches, good surfing, delicious food, low malaria risk...see, we're not too hard to please!

And also, the fruit was delicious. I haven't had pineapple that good since Benin and the bananas were out of the world. Thanks to our driver, we had lots of opportunities to pull over to roadside fruit stands and try all kinds of different and yummy fruits. Best part? No food poisoning! More photos and stories to come, I just liked all these fruit pictures and am hungrily reminiscing from cold, gray, Kabul.