Trincomalee

Trincomalee is a lovely little town on the East coast of Sri Lanka. It is apparently monsoon season here, and going by the guidebooks the weather should be windy and rainy. However, as you can see, this was very much not the case!

All along the beach here are ruins left from the tsunami in 2004, which were interesting but sad to see.

My visit here almost left me despairing about a lot of Sri Lankan men (after asking where you're from and whether your married, the next question will often be a very to the point proposition), but instead my trust in the people that live here grew. I found that a lot of people will show you no end of kindness and not want anything at all in return.

I was treated with such wonderful hospitality - cooked for, bought cups of tea and snacks, given free lifts in tuktuks, introduced to peoples family and friends, shown around peoples homes and lovely gardens... and yes, I was also aloud to drive someone's tuktuk! That was a lot of fun, and very amusing seeing the looks on people's faces as I, the tourist, drove down the main road with a Sri Lankan passenger.

I also spent some time climbing up a big hill through the army barracks, to where there was a Buddhist Temple half way up, and a Hindu Temple and views all around the coast at the top. There were loads of very noisy green parrots in all the trees on the way, and also lots of pretty spotted deer. I wasn't really allowed to take photos there because of being in the barracks, but the kind army guys allowed me to so long as they could check the photos were ok afterwards. Apparently they were.