13.11.2011: I arrived in Colombo in the early morning and I first went to my guesthouse (I had a reservation) but they sent me somewhere else because the room was not free anymore. I arrived at a new Home stay with an older couple. The room was nice and big but they only rent 1 room so I didn't meet a lot of people there. I spent the day in Colombo and had my first fight with a 3-wheeldriver. We agreed on a price but later it wasn't enough for him. He said I could pay more because I'm rich ... Yeah, right! I just gave him the price we agreed on. That evening I went back to my Home stay and had a Chinese Noodle dinner. Let me explain the story about the Chinese Noodles: I bought them together with Yacine for our train ride from Beijing to Lhassa, you never know how those restaurant wagons are. We definitely thought we would eat them at some point but we didn't. They travelled through Tibet, trough Nepal ... Yacine said goodbye to the noodles and Valérie said hello ... They travelled trough India and Valérie said goodbye to the noodles ... and now they arrived in Sri Lanka and finally I ate one ... the other one is still travelling. Just so you know: I carried those noodles for 9371 km, took them on 1 train and 9 flights!!!

Day 39: I took the train from Colombo to Aluthgama and I absolutely loved it!!!! First there are no windows, the train is moving down the coastline so you can see the sea at all times and there're quite a few salesman on that train. They sell apples; they even cut them for you. They sell nuts with caramel, water, books and they even sell prawns and other deep fried triangle things. The children's smiles expressed a shy welcome and they spent their time observing me. After that I had to take a bus to my destination: the bus was packed, no room left and the driver insisted on taking me too ... There I was taking place for 2 because I have this huge backpack with me.
I arrived in Hikkaduwa looking for a guesthouse. My room was on the first floor of some small building that is straight on the beach, so when I come down from the stairs, first thing I feel between my toes is sand. I have to walk for 5, lets' say 6 meters and I'm in the water .... Nice .... But the room doesn't smell that great so I won't be staying here. I went for a walk around town and I stopped at ‘Rita's place because it was starting to rain. There I met Keeran (Irish) and we had a beer together. It was fun, he's also travelling alone and when I arrived at Rita's he immediately asked me to join him. I like this kind of people, they make travelling easy.

Day 40: I love it here! There's not much to do except eating (you know me: one of my favorites), reading (thank you Val for the book you left me, I cry at least 2 times a day), swimming (the waves are huge), surfing (just bought my made-to-measure surfing short) ... and doing nothing (also one I love). I think I'm going to stay here for a few days. Oh, and I did change from guest house. Now I'm at Richard's son Beach Villa: with a huge garden with coconut palms, hammock hanging and of course still at the beach!

Day 41: My first surfing lesson and I have to admit I kind of suck at it ... but it was fun. My teacher said: 'I love to be in the water with you because you always smile' ... he enjoyed it that much he even wants to give me more lessons for free. I like him; he's always smiling too. Anyway, I could stand twice on the board for about 3 seconds and I spent 1 hour in the water! I keep meeting amazing people here. I met Jack, Australian, who's been here for the past 10 years and showed me the cheap places to eat & drink (I'm on a tide budget after flying around India). He also wanted to teach me how to surf. Then I met Bill, who's building a restaurant at the seaside. It's kind of a lovely story because he has this Sri Lankan business partner whose parents had a restaurant and they lost everything during the tsunami, now they're building a lovely place together. The Sri Lankan business partner (forgot his name) want's to show me around the area: one day to Galle and one day to the tropical forest! (And for the one's who're wondering: no, they're absolutely not my type; they're like 20-30 years older than me; they're just nice people.). I met Tom and Lizzie from Israel, Renzo from France and Dylan from Switzerland: They're all staying at the same guest house I am.

Day 42 / 17.11.2011 (Happy Birthday Nyssens!!): I woke up with a headache and no it's not from too many beers ... so I did nothing except reading (finished Valérie's book: Les enfants de la liberté - Marc Levy ... absolutely amazing ... I cried again), had lunch with Dylan, read again, went for dinner with Dylan and went to bed.

Day 43: I really like it here; again I did absolutely nothing in the morning. During lunch with Dylan we decided we're going to travel together for the next few days ... we will be heading south to .... well other beaches ;-) In the afternoon I went by bus to Ambalangoda to see the famous Sri Lankan mask's and after that I went to Kosgoda to see the 'turtle conservation project'. With my 2€ of entrance ticket I already saved 50 turtle eggs. I had baby turtles in my hands ..... sooooooooooo cute ..... They were 1, 2 and 3 days old. They also have 2 albino turtles and a lot of injured ones. Some are injured because of the fishing nets and others because of the tsunami. Back to Hikkaduwa I picked up my laundry, went for a beer and then dinner with my new travel mate.

Day 44: I woke up too late and because of that I did not go surfing as planned. I did nothing for a change. At night there was a beachparty at Mambo's. It's a 3 minutes walk on the beach from our place - The guys from the guest house were there, Bill was there, Amila (my surf teacher) was there, I met a nice couple from Holland, Nick & Daphne. We had fun .... and I had a lot of drinks.

Day 45: I woke up with a small headache .... And yes, it's because of the beers this time. Last night, Daphne and I had the great idea we should surf together because we're both that good at it! So we met at 11 o'clock (yeah, I also went to bed really late), looked for the cheap renting stores and we were in the water at 11.45. I would not recommend to go surfing with a headache; it's exhausting. After lunch we got a little bit better at it. Again I did stand on the board twice for 2 seconds!!!

We're staying here a little bit longer!