Chris and Phil Share a Bed

First of all, A+ to Phil and his Singapore Airlines PPS Credit Card. Even though technically it still isn't supposed to get us into the lounge, the lady at the counter looked way too afraid to turn us down after seeing that the card had the PPS symbol on it. The booze tasted better than usual, but that's because it tasted free. We landed at Sri Lanka airport at midnight where we first noticed that everyone was making quick duty free purchases. Not liquor mind you but full size Korean refrigerators. Sri Lanka must have an exorbitant tax on imported refrigerators, ahh it must be good to be a local Sri Lankan fridge manufacturer, go protectionism!

The first night we had a complete infestation of mosquitos in our hostel room and all we had were these anti-mosquito patches that mom stuffed in my backpack (along with countless other pariphinallea, if anyone needs 10 spare syringes "just in case" let me know). I already knew these were useless from previous experiences, but Phil and I in desperation adhered about 6 patches each, for each arm, leg, neck and forehead. With it already being hot I even decided to put on my jeans and patagonia to reduce my skin bareness.  We ended up not sleeping and instead kept telling each other "oh my god I hate mosquitoes" every 15 minutes.

At 5am we were practically looking forward to peacing out of the hostel and going for our bus ride. We've been warned of the experience on the public buses and they weren't exaggerating. It's either full acceleration or full brakes with these guys and the fact that I had to jam my knees in the seat in front of me didn't help (Da Zhong Guo). The driver smiles with glee after every successful overtake on the two lane road, and his smile is proportional to the amount of time he plays chicken with the every oncoming bus. Phil moved to the back of the bus to try and get some sleep after the previous night's festivities, as I watched in anticipation of which Lanka Ashok Leyland model bus would be the end of us. We picked up tons of passengers along the way at various bus stops (poorly named because the bus never actually stops, it just slows down just enough for people to hop on.) Thankfully our driver has serious bus driving skills, and they were nice enough to stop the bus completely so that Phil and I could clumsily hop off with our packs. We are such tourists.

Unawatuna is awesome, a great beach destination. We both agreed that this must have been what Phuket was like before it became obnoxiously touristy. Cafe huts and bars litter the beachfront, and are nicely done and aren't trashy at all. (read: no ping pong shows) We spent the day lounging on the beach, eating local fare and planning the next few days on this great island. Tomorrow we are going to TRAIN it back to Colombo and head out towards the wonders of inland Sri Lanka. Overall an excellent start to our trip.

Phil lost the coin toss and he is little spoon tonight.

-Chris