Around The World With Lena: Last days in Sri Lanka and a Summary

FInal day in Sri Lanka. I'm sitting in my hotel room. On my own - for the first time in 2 weeks. It is nice to have my own room, but still I miss my room mate Annie. We left her in Galle this morning. She will stay in Sri Lanka another week. Good for her!

The last days of the trip have been as busy as the previous ones. There have been both transports and sightseeing included. And of course some nice meals. You can see some of what I have seen the last days below.

So I guess it is time to make a summary….

Destination:

Sri Lanka is beautiful and fantastic. The food is great and people are very friendly. There are so many things to do and to see. I could easily have spent another week here. It is one of my top destinations and I could consider to come back later in life (which is top grades for me, since I usually don't visit a place more than once).

Trip:

As an Intrepid trip it is not one of my favorites. Our guide was very sweet and took really good care of the group, but he made things too complicated and talked forever. I got very impatient at times, since I like people who get to the point fast. The group was ok, but far from the best group I have travelled with. One reason was that half of the group was British and I realized that my English is not good enough to follow fast speaking British humor. It was quite a revelation for me, since I usually don't have any problems to understand English. I guess my English is more American than I thought.

Exercise:

I have only jogged 3 times on the trip, 2 times on the beach and one time with uphill training. I'm not totally happy with that. But I couldn't find the time for more, which is a common problem when you travel with a group. But I have managed to swim 2 times, we have done lots of walking, some biking and some hiking. So I haven't been laying still at least.

Packing:

My "backpack packing system" is great (it consists of 5 soft boxes formed to fit in a backpack). If you ever get the possibility to buy it - don't hesitate. You will not regret it. You never have to look through your whole bag to find what you are looking for and it is easier to pack and unpack when you are moving from place to place.

Contact lenses:

I have learned some things about traveling with contact lenses. It is funny it should take me 33 years (which is as many years I have had contacts) to learn about this. But I guess I have become sloppy through the years. So here are my findings:

Don't put your glasses in your purse if you can't put them in a compartment that you lock or zip. I lost my glasses somewhere in Kandy halfway into the trip. They must have fallen out of my bag at one point or another. First time ever!
Don't put your spare contact lenses together with your glasses. Then you have lost both plan B and C at the same time. I did that - thought it was so convenient to have all my eye things on one space.
Don't take out your contacts or put them in if you don't have good lightning. I lost one when I wanted to put it in my eye in a dark bathroom. Which is actually the first time ever I lost one lens.

So I had a lot of bad luck with my lenses and I ended up spending 2 days with only one. It was very confusing. Especially since it was my camera eye that didn't have any lens. It was so difficult to take pictures. To walk in stairs or read a book was two other things that got very complicated. Finally i bought one extra lens from an Optician in Galle. She had only one kind of lenses and luckily it fit my eye.

I will write at least one more blog from home. So follow me the whole way.