Bentota #2

Not much to report today as we've quickly established our relaxing routine of breakfast and then beach in the morning with our dogs and our sand salesman.

Shopping in the middle of the day and massage following that. Back to the room to wash the litres of oil off before pre's and then dinner with the ever dimmishing crowd. Reports on the ongoing situation here are sketchy. We've heard from our masseur that the vans carrying more potential carnage have been found. But we can't confirm it. As it turns out we were due to have dinner Friday night at one of the targeted hotels in Colombo. So instead we are doing a late check-out from here and going straight to the airport. Thus we have one full day of relaxation before the long haul home starts to play on our minds.

The locals here are so nice. E.g. the TukTuk driver was more than happy to take us to and from the laundry, drop stuff off at the hotel and then drive us around and wait at various shops whilst we (well Non-blogger) negotiated prices. All for few bucks. No arguments, no rip offs, everyone is just so damn happy. And considering what they are all emotionally going through it's incredible that they are so resilient. All I can suggest is .. don't let evil influence your thoughts and come to SriLanka now. This is when they need you. More than ever - Post ends here... Not quite ... As it transpires ...because there is always dinner. And you never know what's gunna 'appen over dinner.. Our restaurant is segregated by glass dividing an indoor and outdoor area. We've been generally choosing the outdoor one, whilst it's a heap more humid we Aussie's do love an alfresco experience. Indoors was fullish when we arrived even though we'd have liked to dine inside the aircon tonight. So outside we went. A bit slow with the service. Different staff on. Seemed a bit distracted by one families kids birthday party down the back. Getting near the end of our usual (buffet delivered) feast we had a full blown burkha dressed girl arrive. Along with her American baseball cap worn backwards male companion. Need to keep in mind that two of the recent purpertrators were wearing burkas. The general buzz of the staff went up a tone. 10 minutes later the entire inside (where all the food is obviously served) was empty apart from the cap guy and his black sheeted covered gal. Apparently there was a fair amount of too-ing and fro-ing between the couple and the staff. Blogger was playing it cool whilst NB (who had the view to report all the happenings) was getting jumpy. Things then raised a notch when a second couple arrived in the garden next to the our tables. Baseball cap backwards guys conversing together (with devices glowing in the dark) whilst black sheeted girls watched on from a distance. NB concerned something was going down. B starting to think ... you never know.... NB heads back to room. B starts to play detective, signs dinner chit. And surreptitiously tails the couple that headed to the beach. Found them playing on the swings and then tailed them as they headed into our wing of the complex.

This is spy catcher stuff. What they make movies out of. Suspense was in the air. So was the smell of citronella candles. And a sea mist. Oxygen too. As it happens the couples lodging are not too far from our room so when the black sheeted one was deposited in their abode, Blogger spy catcher was perfectly positioned to tail the cap (backwards wearing) as he went off to reception. A cleverly concocted cash exchange excuse was used to briefly not catch a word of their foriegn conversation, however the resulting ruse transpired in us walking back to our rooms together. They are from Qatar, have seen most of the sights we have and are not liking what's happened in Colombo. All gleaned in a 30 second broken English conversation Finnished with a handshake and a good night. Just thought it worthwhile sharing this ... Mostly because it was going to be a very boring post otherwise but also an insight into how everyone is so paranoid when these type of events occur. This paranoia is what the terrorists want and thus what we common rational thinking folk have to resist succumbing to. With any luck tomorrow's post will be extremely dull. Oh and by the way. Today an elephant appeared on our bed. So now we can discuss the elephant in the room.