He was holding a sign that said "Zach Brady and Emily Canning, AAA Accommodation, Colombo", that was us! Finally, one of our life long dreams had come true (no not the one about the giant hot dog car), being met at the Airport by a driver holding a card with our names on it. We were important! (and imported)

When we arrived in Colombo I was not in the best shape, the Bangkok nightlife having caught up with me (I gave it a wrong phone number and false name but it still found me). I had lost my voice, my throat felt like I had been drinking battery acid and gargling sand for a week and the constant arctic air conditioning was making it worse. It was impossible to escape, every car, bus, taxi, plane, and building was air conditioned, and heavily so. It seemed Sri Lanka, Thailand and Hong Kong, had just discovered air-con and were in the first heady infatuation stage of the relationship. Not that I blame them, these are tropical countries and until the cheap cocktails and ciggies took their toll I had quite enjoyed the refuge from "The Eternal Sweat", happily paying the little extra for our own private supply. I spent the first couple of days in Sri Lanka in our room, drinking fruit juice, lapping up undeserved sympathy and bemoaning my lack of self-discipline. Why were the drinks so cheap? Why couldn't they have the decency to rip me off like everywhere else? Why was a $1.50 packet of cigarettes so appealing after the third bucket? But a couple of days of clean healthy living and I was feeling better enough to laugh at myself once again, one of the major signs of good health (the others being clear eyes, a wet nose and thick luxurious fur). We were staying in a nice little guest house run by Ron and his girlfriend Cleo, who gave us a lot of help planning our Sri Lankan itinerary. Strangely enough, it was the one guidebook we hadn't borrowed from the library before we left (we don't carry them cause they're a bit heavy and everyone else has them anyway) and the first place we would stay for longer than a week. We knew nothing about Sri Lanka, absolutely nothing. On the plane over, shortly before losing my voice, I had asked the man in the seat beside me a few questions I probably should have asked months ago. What is the currency? What languages do you speak? How's the Terrorist situation? Is it o.k to mention the cricket? It turns out chances are a Sri Lankan will mention it first, now that they have the No. 1 wicket taker in the world. You know I can't wait to get to England so I can talk about the world cup for 3 months.