It has been 4 days of lazing by the pool since arriving from Nuwara Eliya. Although the 5 days touring round were exhausting we saw lots of fascinating sights and got to see a few different parts of Sri Lanka. 

This hotel well deserves its 5 star rating . The room is large, cool (rather than icy as it was until we worked out the aircon) and spotlessly clean. The staff are unfailingly polite and helpful and there is a good range of food for breakfast , lunch and dinner from local Sri Lankan dishes to those more familiar to western palates.

This hotel, does seem to host a lot of relatively short stay guests. Our guess is people stopping off before or after a stay in the Maldives. A fair number of people seem to use the coast hotels as a base for a few day trips into the centre of the country. This approach must involve an unbelievably early start (we heard somebody at Pinnewala mention being picked up by coach at 0300!) and vast amounts of driving. We are very glad we took the tour approach as although it involved lots of driving at least we were not going up and down the same roads. 

So handy hint no. 1 = A 3-5 day tour is better than day trips if you can put up with changing hotels every day or two. 

Paul is getting itchy feet after four days of doing nothing so will be taking a train trip to Colombo tomorrow. Let's hope he makes it back safely to do another trip update.