A 28.5 Hour Day*

Wednesday 16th April

It is our final day in Sri Lanka and we were checked out of the Colombo Courtyard** by seven o'clock sharp. 

We then had a forty minute drive to the airport where we said our goodbyes to Ajith and exchanged contact details. He has been a superb Guide and Travelling Companion and we had found out from Ayesha at the Tamarind Garden that he had received a Presidential award for travel and tourism in 2011. We certainly plan to come back to this beautiful island and hope that we can recruit Ajith to be part of our next trip. 

By eight o'clock we were checked in and were in the air a little after ten thirty. Fourteen and a half hours later we finally touched down in Birmingham and were soon through immigration and the mayhem of the baggage carousels. 

It was only a forty minute drive home where we were met by a very vociferous Eddy. Noggin appeared a short while later but it will not feel quite right at home until T&M are collected tomorrow. 

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* Sri Lanka is peculiar in that it is 4.5 hours ahead of BST rather than a full four or five hours. 

** this was an award winning "Boutique" Hotel and I have to say that I was really disappointed with it. I could have been in any major city in the world. It lacked all of the things that had made our holiday so enjoyable; the open, friendly people, the sophisticated local cuisine and that special but difficult to define "something" that all of our other hotels had. This was five star anonymity.