This is not the end my friend.......well actually it is!

Today I begin my long slow journey home.
I have the old eight hour van trip to Colombo to look forward to........then three hours in the airport before my flight to Bangkok. I have a couple of days there and then home again on Wednesday the 10th.
I will miss Sri Lanka, the friendly people, the awesome weather, the great waves and the cheap food....but I am also ready to head back home. . . . . . I think :)

So in overview;
INDIA . . . .i am glad that I went. The history is awesome, some of the temples were fantastic and the food was really really good. But that is balanced by the extreme poverty, the filth everywhere, the lack of motivation / will to change anything....-and while some of the people were lovely there wereso many more that simply wanted to rip you off. India seems to me like a place devoid of hope. It seems like a country and a people simply resigned to its fate. Nothing wrong with that of course butit is not somewhere I plan to visit again.

SPAIN. . . . I loved Spain. It rocks. I could definitely live in Spain ( at least in the north) and I have no doubt that I will go back. The people are awesome, the food is great, the culture is very family and cafe focused and it has a really vibrant and full of life culture.......plus it has good surf.

FRANCE. . . . Been there and done that a few times before. The south is ok but spain is next door....enough said.

SRI LANKA . . . A relaxed country with beautiful scenery and possibly some of the most consistent waves in the world. I had a ball.....and a really good relax......and some brilliant surfing. The people were really friendly and the wildlife was amazing. I probably won't come back but a great place none the less.

Hope you are all well and being kind to each other.

Have fun and goodbye
Ant 

Surf and sun

The title says it all.

Arugam bay is all about the beaches, the waves and the sun. And for the last two weeks all of those have been awesome.

My normal day looks a bit like this;

(1) get up at 5.20am. Have a cigarette, put sun block on my face.
(2) 5.30am. Meet my tuk tuk driver outside my beach hut. Strap the surfboard on the roof and drive to my favorite break.
(3) 5.50am. Paddle out into the sunrise and enjoy the fact that at most there will be only one other person in the waves. Catch lots of waves.
(4) 7.30 or 8am. Paddle in to the beach and order a pot of tea from the beach hut. Drink a few cups of tea and smoke a few cigarettes while talking to the locals and other surfers arriving for their "early morning surf".
(5) 8.30 or so. Paddle back out and surf till either the wind changes or lots of surfers arrive.

Then it is back home for breakfast (coffee and a huge bowl of fruit salad), and then the rest of the days spent reading, snoozing and swimming.
If the surf is good then I may have an afternoon surf before meeting up with some friends and going off for dinner.

It's a tough life.........and I am loving it.

Have fun

Loving Sri Lanka.......

Sri Lanka is awesome. I guess that in a way it is much more like I was expecting India to be. The people are really friendly, kind and laid back, the weather is hot, hot, hot and the water is so warm.......just beautiful.
There is also tons of wildlife. The area that I am staying in is almost surrounded by national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. So I have been seeing wild elephants, deer, pigs, buffalo, crocodile, millions of pea cocks, huge monitor lizards and at least three kinds of monkeys.
Seeing the crocodiles was interesting. The lakes around here all tend to dry up at this time of year and as a result the crocs all head to a local river. The river itself can't be more than 30 feet wide at its widest but it is absolutely chocka with crocs. If you walk quietly along it's banks (about 3 or 4 feet above the water) you can see them everywhere. They re not huge but there were lots around 8 feet or so long.......and I really would not want to take a dip in the river......which would be easy to do as there are no warning signs :)
And the wildlife is not as friendly as you might expect. I took an early morning trip south to the furtherest surf break from here a few days ago. The break itself is a fair way into the national park and we pulled up a little village near the waves to get a cup of tea. While we were standing there a pack of dogs chased a chittagong deer into the middle of the village. One of the local guys decided to intervene ( I am not sure whether he was trying to help the deer or catch it to eat) but the deer did not take it kindly and charged him butting him in the balls again and again. The poor old guy was trying to hang on to it and punching it as hard as he could......meanwhile the rest of the village were rolling around on the ground in fits of laughter. Fortuneately the deer eventually lost interest, and wandered off with the man's pride in tow.........moral of the story..........I'm not sure.
Things have also been interesting here today. We ( western tourists) have been told to stay out of town and keep off the streets. The local Muslims are outraged by some US YouTube video that has offended them and have been marching around chanting death to America all morning. It is interesting times.

Have fun

It's like coming home........

The Sigur Ros concert in Arles France was simply amazing. The setting was inside an ancient (and half ruined) amphitheater  and I guess that it probably held only a couple of thousand people. It took ages cuing to get in but the band themselves (all eleven of them) just blew Susan and I away. We weren't expecting there to be sooooooo much energy and their music was (as expected) rich, beautiful, colorful and multilayered. It must rank right up there with the best concerts I have attend
We also got to stay in the most amazing and characterful bed and breakfast. Probably the cutest and most endearingly funny place that we stayed.

We spent our last two days together in Paris. The highlights included going to hear Vivaldi's four seasons in the beautiful Saint Chapel church, and visits to Sacre Cour and the Pompadieu.
Again we stayed in a hilarious hotel that had a special room of the lobby called the "love capsule". It was done completely in red with a great honesty bar, a fun little library and constant music. Susan and I made sure we went in for a dance every time we passed by!!!

It was very sad saying goodbye to Susan. We had such a great holiday and it was fabulous to spend time together without all the normal daily distractions.

I am now in Sri Lanka! and staying at Argunam (spelling?) bay on the south east coast. It took an eleven hour flight to get to Colombo and then a further eight hours by van to make it here........
However, the countryside is gorgeous, the people are friendly, the weather is hot and the water is a warm 30degrees. I have also managed to hire a surfboard and got my first couple of surfs in today. The waves were average as there is not real swell here at the moment. However, the rumor is that the swell will pick up tomorrow and this place can be awesome when the ocean cooperates. We will see. Either way I have a five am start tomorrow so that I can be surfing at first light ;)

Have fun

Spain is officially freakin awesome

There is no doubt in my mind that Spain is officially freakin awesome. The climate (at least at the moment) is glorious, the people are friendly, kind and helpful, the countryside is gorgeous and the food is beautiful. I would love to live here for a time........maybe I will stay on :)

Our time at Sitges was really lovely. Lots of swimming in a gloriously warm Mediterranean .....lots of beautiful meals.......and tons of shopping for Susan!

We had four days at the beach and then headed north by train to Girona for the night, before hiring a car for two days. We drove further north to Figueres and visited the Dali museum. The museum/exhibition was lovely. It contained some of his major works and was really interesting......particularly the sculptures and installations. I love Dali.....and this visit confirmed that.
Following our stop in Figueres we drove inland through the Spanish Pyrenees. The scenery was just beautiful. Very rugged, and worn but with strong powerful landscapes......a bit like the people I guess. We had a great time driving through the mountains and staying in strange hotels before heading back to Girona.

We crossed into France by train yesterday and are currently staying in Arles. The major attraction here is the Sigur Ros concert that is happening tonight in the ruins of an ancient amphitheater. I can't wait!!!

In the background of all our travels has been a problem with my Indian visa. Despite having a double entry visa........mine has a condition that I must have two months between visits. It makes absolutely no sense but I have got nowhere trying to get it changed..............
So in the spirit of improvisation.......and with a big fuck you to Indian bureaucracy ......I am taking my sunny personality and my money to Sri Lanka for the last part of my holiday. However .....before then we have an amazing concert tonight and a couple of days in Paris.....so life is good.

Have fun and be kind

Back to the beach.......

Time is flying at this end.........so much beautiful food to sample, Sangrias and mojhitos to sip.....sites to see and places to be :)

We have spent the last four days back in Barcelona, visiting the Picasso museum and doing lots of shopping. Susan is good at shopping. My shopping skills need working on.....I am sadly not up to scratch in the shopping department :)

We have also visited a lot of the Gaudi buildings and the Sacrada Familia was just astonishing. If you haven't seen pictures google it as it has been 100 plus years in the making (and is still far from complete) but is such a glorious building.....even in its partially completed state.
Another highlight was a Spanish/classical guitar concert at the  Palau Musica Catalana by Manuel
Gonzalez - who is by all accounts the pre-eminent Spanish guitar master! . . . And he was outstanding. I was slightly underwhelmed by the classical pieces but the Spanish music was really moving and quite beautiful in a slightly sad way.

Today we moved on to a smallish beach town about an hour south of Barcelona called sitges. It has a lovely laid back atmosphere and our hotel is only 40 meters from the beach. So I have been swimming in the med!!!
Susan and I took a walk along the beach to find a restaurant in the town centre today and she laughed when I told her I was surprised to see so many obviously gay men on the beach. I didn't quite understand why until we reached the centre of town........which looked like a gay maradi gras!! It turns out that our little town is quite the gay holiday centre :)

It is really quite beautiful here so we are hoping to stay for a few days to soak up the sun and swim to our hearts content.

Have fun
Ant

Sun, Sangrias, Spain and other S words

I love Spain and I could definitely live here! The weather has been amazing and hovers between 28-35 degrees every day. The Spanish people so far have been really friendly and really helpful, the food is awesome and we have spent our evenings sipping Sangrias..........it's a tough life.
Susan and I spent the first three days in Barcelona. She really wanted to see the Vuelta a Espana....which along with the tour de France and the Giro d'talia is one of the three big cycle races in Europe.........and as it happened the race went right past our hotel on the sprint finish.
We had a ball in Barcelona and have really enjoyed walking the streets (and getting lost) in the old city as well as visiting the museums and galleries.
The pace of life is very relaxed and the people are the same. There is a real outdoor cafe feel to the city......and people seem to take their time with everything :)

The last two days and nights we have spent at Montserrat monastery and have been staying in the hotel / hostel here. The monastery is a most amazing place. It is set high up in the mountains and is reached mostly by cable car or train. The views are breathtaking and the monastery itself is simply gorgeous. The Basilica itself looks impressive enough from the outside but it is simply awe inspiring inside. It's hard to describe how beautiful and how peaceful it is.......simply amazing.

We attended what was described as the "famous and well respected" boys choir singing in the basilica last night. I have to say that I was somewhat surprised when all the old monks entered the church and started their singing.......I thought that calling them a boys choir was stretching things a bit as some of them would have been in their nineties........and the singing was under-whelming. After about 45 mins with our interest seriously waneing........an actual boys choir filed into the basilica.....and just blew us away with the most amazing singing. You felt like you could soar with their voices.

Today we decided to walk up to the top of Monserrat and while the walk was fairly strenuous the views were so beautiful, and breath taking.

So we are loving it here.......and will drink a sangria for you all tonight :)

Have fun
Ant