Apr 8 5pm
Seery's Place, Bentota

Tuesday morning we left Ray & Ange to their dull workaday lives & fantastic pad & got a van to Bentota, which is one of the first beach resorts South of Colombo.

The journey was uneventful in a nearly-but-not-actually-getting-killed-by-a-gas-truck/tuktuk/family-on-a-moped kind of way so by noon we were settled at Seery's Place (spelling uncertain.)

Seery's is what is known in Sri Lanka a homestay, which is essentially a Bed & Breakfast with an all day bar & kitchen service. These places can vary in style greatly; we stayed at one in the mountains on our last trip in which we ate with the family & were expected to be able to converse fluently on the finer points of the leg break, which I worked out after a while had something to do with cricket... Seery's is a more commercial affair but still has that personal touch for which the Sri Lankans should be world famous.

We are diving with the "Dive the Snake" dive company which is (predictably) German an (less predictably) excellent. The dives we did this morning included a sight of a stingray &, less common, 3 lion fish all out from under their normal hiding rocks & in their full glory. Next techhy purchase definitely a waterproof camera housing.

Of course, as is our ritual when ever we dive, Andrea & I were suddenly full of plans for our next dive trip & all the stuff we should buy before then to make the whole trip more rewarding (fins, w/suits etc etc.) Of course we had the same discussion after our last dive trip. Ho Hum.

Our dive guys & girls are only going out in the mornings at the moment because of windy afternoons making beer drinking preferrable to looking at your own hand at 20m 'cause that's all you'd be able to see. It's a compromise we can live with.

Bomber out