A week ago Negombo.
Return, lag, disbelief.
WhatsApp works;
Britain doesn’t.
Back From Sri Lanka
I’ve been back from Sri Lanka for a couple of days now, it already seems hard to belive that a week ago I was sitting on the golden yellow sands of Negumbo Beach.
Pervious to that I had been on Mirissa for NYE, and before that Tangelle beach.
Tangalle is one of the most amazing beaches I’ve ever been on, totally empty. My Trip wasn’t all beaches tho. The first 2/3rds of the trip was wall to wall mountain hiking and jungle adventures.
We passed though both Kandy and Ella. Kandy is the site of the temple to the Buddha’s Tooth, and it was really interesting being somewhere that has been a tourist site for like 1500 years. I didn’t take any photos in the temple, but it was a very place and experience. Puja was just ending as we arrived.
Other than the food, which is absolutely amazing where ever you are — I basically ate curry for breakfast lunch and dinner even at some of hotel breakfast buffets (I completely understand the appeal of daal and milk rice now) and Kottu for lunch every day.
One of the highlights of the trip was going to Udawalawe. We spent nearly 10/15 mins completely alone in the Safari just after dawn with a wild elephant and her baby. No more than 3 meters way. Amazing.
Tourism is completely mediated by the smart phone over there, but without any middle men. There’s a total lack of intermediary ‘apps’. I’m exaggerating slightly, but it feels like you can literally WhatsApp any shop or hotel in the country with a question, and expect a reply within a few hours. Its amazing. I can’t imagine what south asian people/tourists arriving in the UK must think — What do you mean I can’t WhatsApp Premier Inn?.
Sri Lanka is an amazing country, way more of an ‘adventure’ than previous trips to Thailand or Indonesia. If you have ever thought about going to Sri Lanka, but have been on the fence, I really recommend it.
Getting Around In Sri Lanka
Also to close out this ‘holiday posting’ indulgence massive shout out to Real Lanka Holidays. We used them for all our taxi’s and transfers for the whole three weeks we were there. We initally booked them to pick us up from the airport, but eveyrthing is done by whatsapp, and you can just message them any time to say ‘we need a cab from x to y at this time on z day’ and they’ll sort it out. Amazing service. 100% recommend them.
On The Blog
On my return I found my blog overrun with bot traffic. I’ve had to turn on some stricter tools in cloudflare. If your RSS reader is no longer updating please get in touch (not that you would even know, as you won’t be reading this)
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Photo 365
The Ministry Of My Own Labour
Since I’ve been back, I’ve basically been setting the mech cockpit up for 2026. Updated spreadsheets, planning etc.
Started work on my 2025 reflection post and took a look at editing the opening of episode 302
Terminal Access
Bix was interviewed as part of Manu Moreale’s People and Blogs series.
Reading
I started a lot of books on hliday but only managed to finish a couple.
Whilst I was away I read / finished the following:
Laozi’s Dao De Jing: A New Interpretation for a Transformative Time by Ken Liu
The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters by Adam Nicolson
The Solar War by John French
Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places by James Hollis
Berserker Club by J. David OsborneBand
Remember Kids:
It’s dangerous to confuse self-expression with communication.
Ursula K. Le Guin — Steering the Craft
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