We’re in Sri Lanka for just over a week and having a ball. The girls have turned into seasoned travellers already. It’s amazing how quickly kids adapt. For anybody debating on whether their kids would be able to handle the craziness of travel, I’d really have to say don’t worry. Kids are way more adaptable than we give them credit for. We thought we’d have to travel slowly with them but that hasn’t been the case, they take each move in their stride.

Colombo airport was our first stop. We got through security and got our visas issued without any problems. Then you walk through the most bizarre duty free I’ve ever seen. There are tiny shops selling dishwashers, washing machines and all manner of electrical goods. Then there are others selling dustpans, brushes and cleaning equipment. We could have repacked our backpacks with the kitchen sink!

Once we got through bizarre duty free, we hit the baggage area. Our bags came through quickly and all was fine. Only problem we had now was that we had nowhere to stay! We had booked somewhere a couple of days earlier but had to cancel with our flight delays and then hadn’t heard back after trying to rebook. So we went to a travel desk and asked the guys there to book somewhere for us. We spent far too much money on a hotel but at 8pm in a strange country with tired kids, we needed to get something sorted quickly.

We left the airport and piled ourselves and all of our bags into a taxi and off we went on a 15 minute journey to our hotel. Most travellers who fly into Sri Lanka choose not to stay in Colombo, the capital. We were the same, we picked a beach resort near the airport called Negombo and decided we’d stay there. Our room was huge in a hotel called Topaz Beach Hotel. It had 2 large king size beds with AC, 3 ceiling fans, mosquito nets, a bathroom and separate kitchen area.

We weren’t overly enthused about the room when we arrived, mainly because we were mad at ourselves for not having had something booked and as result, it was expensive. However, when I woke early the next morning and looked around, then looked out the windows, I got really excited. The night before I hadn’t a clue where the beach was. The next morning that mystery was quickly answered when I looked out the window and saw this….

Looking out the other window was just as exciting, you saw a crazy higgeldy piggeldy street with multi coloured Tuk tuks driving up and down. We had arrived!!

The beach in Negombo isn’t great, there’s a lot of rubbish on it which is a shame. Still it was great for our first two nights. The kids had an absolute ball in the hotel pool, that was the highlight for them.

Negombo is a very Christian town, which I found really surprising. It was full of christmas decorations and cribs. There was a crib on nearly every corner, the girls loved them.

On our 2nd night, we went for a wander to try some street food. We’d read a lot about it being delicious and served in paper bags made out of old school homework. Wasn’t sure what that meant until I saw it but yes….. Our prawn treats were served in a little paper bag with English writing practise on them.

We left Negombo the next morning to head to our first port of call; the beach and surfing area in the South called Mirissa. We piled the 5 of us and all our bags into a Tuk Tuk, this time heading to the bus station.

Bus stations in Sri Lanka are mad but also pretty organised. It’s not hard to find the bus to your destination and people are really helpful. The destination is written in English on the top of every bus. We caught an AC bus to Colombo, it’s important to get the one which takes the expressway as it’s much quicker.

The bus was really comfortable, a big coach with a TV showing a Bollywood movie. The drive was a bit of a knuckle clencher. Sri Lankan bus drivers like the horn! They don’t have any regard for lanes. There was an exit off the motorway with 2 lanes filled with traffic. Instead of our bus waiting patiently behind the traffic, the driver drove up the hard shoulder and then started edging in beeping his horn, forcing the cars in the lane into a random non-existent 3rd lane. Crazy…..

We arrived in Colombo driving through the middle of a busy market thronged with people selling all manner of things. It was crazy, no idea how the coach got through. Glad we weren’t driving.

We were getting a train next, according to the website, the next train was at 2pm, this was about 10am. We thought we’d just wander to the train station, see could we dump our bags and go get some lunch. At the train station, they have a really handy tourist information room. He told us there was a train leaving in half an hour. Just as well we checked! Perfect. He said we couldn’t book seats so may have to stand… That wouldn’t be fun…..

We grabbed some egg sandwiches, biscuits and water from a little kiosk and waited for the train. Freya was under strict instructions to just grab any seat she could find. The train arrived, we piled on… I grabbed 2 seats, Freya grabbed one beside a family and we all squished on. Ahh…. We could relax.

The train was an experience. The doors are left wide open with people hanging out for a breather. To the delight of the kids, the windows are wide open too so they were sticking their heads out watching the madness pass by.

It was roasting on the train and definitely not the cleanest. I was glad we had a packet of wipes handy. After a while, you just ignore the dirt but if you’re a clean freak, trains mightn’t be for you! About 4 hours later we arrived in Weligama, hopped in a Tuk Tuk and 20 minutes later we were in Mirissa…. Now, where to stay??? You’d think we might have learned from the last time!