11 Apr, 8am
Mirissa Village Inn, Mirissa

Too pissed / monged out to write yesterday. Very unprofessional, I know, but then I'm on holiday so I'll do what I sodding well like.

Currently on the beach in Mirissa (south Sri Lanka) paying 5USD/night for a bungalow. Life could be (a lot) worse.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, we leave for HK tonight, arriving back Mon lunch time.

Who said that "all good things must come to an end" crap? I must remember to open up a big can of whoop-ass on them GW style

Comments on the blog have been thin on the ground this week however this from Big Dave in Taipei;

"Reading Bombers Blog is like being kicked in the arse with a boot made of flaming meat, until you puke blood"

You have to know Dave to understand how truly touching a comment that is.

We called my sister in law in London last night, just to fill her in on how relaxed we were and let her know how well the beautiful sunset was mixing with the gin & tonic. After a brave attempt at appearing a good sport, followed by a brief bout of swearing (really I overstate the situation; but what is the truth when measured against taking a poke at the familials?) she promised that she has been faithfully reading the blog but noted that it wasn't clear how to make comments. As Daph is a computery type person, if she can't work out how to comment then we definitely have a problem.

So, here it is 101 "how to rant at the bomber";

press the "Rant at the bomber" link above the Onion & Blogger buttons to the left of this page. Your email software should then automatically bring up a blank message to dear old me. Fill it in, including definitions of any terms so grovelling that I may not know them, and click send.

I will try to publish all, which so far would not be too challenging, & will give pride of place to the most grovelling / rabid.

We stayed in Bentota for 3 nights and managed 5 dives. Most of the diving was quite deep (around 30m) but the visibility was good enough that you could see a good 20m. There is very little coral, some soft, no hard, but tons of fish life. Our diving group was always small, maximum 4 divers. There are several dive centres in Bentota but we were never diving on the same spot as anyone else.

The best single moment had to be on the last dive where I rounded a rock to find 4 stingray resting on the seabed, bodies overlapping like a clutch of really big, poisonous puppies. The biggest was around 1.8m diameter. As I discovered them, one began to move and swam right up to me (I changed my underwear later) before veering off and settling on the bottom again. At it's closest I rekon it was about a half metre from my face; I could have touched it if I had the nerve. Four things were going through my mind;

1. Is the sting only on the tail or around the body too?
2. Can it use the tail like a whip?
3. I do not want to be stung at 30m by something that weighs more than me
4. How fucking cool is this?

There are usualy 6 month gaps in my diving so I often forget how much I enjoy it. The last 3 days have served as a timely reminder.

Leaving Siri's place, we were picked up by Ray & Ange, who had left Colombo at 9 to meet us off the dive boat at 11. Apparently 2 hours to cover the 70 k from Colombo to Bentota is better than average.

Bentota to Mirissa is about 80k. The road is absolute mahem, driving in Sri Lanka is definitely not for the fainthearted. About half way we noticed a couple of cyclists on the road in front. That they were riding single speed shopping bikes was not a surprise. That they were Lycra clad & moving at 40kph through the traffic was. There was a bike race on. On the Galle Road during a holiday weekend with the road choked with vehicles ranging from tuktuks to mecedes, from bulluck cart to articulated container lorries. I felt vulnerable in our Toyota Corolla, these guys were fucking fearless.

Further along & we came upon the peleton, 20 or so riders all going hell for leather. Moped riders flanked the peleton, flinging buckets of water at the riders.

The peleton was not easy to pass, they had majority control of the road. As we were trying to pass a breakaway sprint started at the head of the peleton. This helped us in that it thinned the field out a bit but once clear of the front runners we rounded a corner to be confronted by hundreds of people thronging the road.

It was the finish line.

Oh.

The crowds parted and waved us through, although their opinion of the width of our car was lower than ours. Once through we looked back to see a car & a van behind us. I have no idea who won the Colombo - Hikkadua race but my hat goes off to each and every one of the crazy fuckers.

Bomber out