Tag: food

Day 3 – Sunday 12th May 2024- Par, Cornish Staycation.

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Big shout out to Pendeen Holiday House….lovely comfy beds, windows which open to allow air in and heat out and a shower powerful enough to easily get shampoo out of hair!!!! The former and later are rarities in many holiday home rentals……so a great nights sleep and a slow leisurely breakfast. After which we drove around to Snowlands fishing lakes……we were walking down memory lane as John and I used to bring the motorhome/RV here. We had a nice walk around one of the lakes, seeing some Canadian goose goslings, late bluebells and lovely yellow irises.

We had already decided to have a slow day. So after our walk we dropped John at the Roselyn Bus garage so he could take some photos for his flicker transport site, and we nipped to the CoOp to get Dads paper and a small bag of sugar for his coffee, as I’d forgotten to order it. We drove on around to the St Blazey level crossing so John could take a photo of an unusual working….it was a little late but both Dad and John enjoyed seeing it.

Then it was time for the beach…..we parked up at Par beach and walked over the dunes onto the beach…it is always good seeing the sea and people enjoying the sand, sea, paddle boards etc makes you realise that Summer is well on its way…we’ve had 3 marvellous days of sun.

We stopped at the Cognitive Coffee bar in the beach car park……we all had Americano Coffees….unfortunately the warm brown water scored very lowly on our usual ‘how many out of 10’ coffee tasting….. Dad gave it a generous 4/10 and John gave it 1/10…I refused to be drawn because you can’t give a negative score !!!!! At £9.30 for 3 cups of dishwater we defiantly felt had!!
We had booked Sunday Lunch at The Welcome Inn in Par….it’s diagonally opposite to Pendeen House and we soon learnt that they are the owners of the Holiday Rental. I was delighted to see a whole array of ciders on tap…..I don’t usually drink but I occasionally have a nice cider and their Thatchers Gold Cider was delicious. We had a choice of 3 different roasts…Lamb, Turkey or Beef…we all opted for beef….Dad had what was called a small plate for £9.00 and John and I had Standard plates at £11.00……it was a real feast…I think I counted 10 different vegetables plus the meat, Yorkshire pudding and stuffing…..all beautifully cooked. Absolutely full to bursting we waddled back to the house for a lazy, sleepy afternoon and maybe a game of Rummikub later…if we can be bothered!!!

What a lovely relaxing day we have had ….more planned for tomorrow.

Day 21 – 25th February 2024- Sun, sea watching, pool and not a lot else.

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After a wonderful nights sleep, listening to the large waves rolling in we had a slow start to the day and meandered down to breakfast just after 9.00am. We selected a table at the edge of the deck closest to the sea.

I must say that although breakfast was very pleasant it was slightly under par compared to Sea World Botique. We were offered either a plate of fruit or a fruit juice, we’ve been having both since we arrived in Sri Lanka. The plate of fruit was nice and today it included half a passion fruit along with a small banana, pineapple, papaya and a rather dry quarter of a tangerine type fruit. This was followed by toast and the usual jelly type jam and a small pancake wrapped around another banana with coconut honey and coloured sprinkles…..all wash down by an undrinkable cup of coffee.

Breakfast ended and my what’s app pinged………Sue and Steve Turner who used to teach PE in Bedford, have been working in an International School in Sri Lanka for the past 12 years. They were staying just down the road over the holiday weekend……they walked along the beach to us and we spent an hour or so catching up and having a drink…not having seen them for about 14 years it was nice to exchange news. After they left we had a swim, sunbathe, and watched the people strolling along the magnificent beach….its such a shame we couldn’t go in the water but the waves are pretty massive, it’s quite a steep drop and we were told that there are some strong undercurrents……hence the reason we hadn’t seen anyone swim on this fantastic stretch of golden sand.

Soon a siesta was needed back in the room…..it’s so tiring doing absolutely nothing !!!!!

We succumbed to a late lunch, I had seafood Tom yum soup and John had a cheese and tomato sandwich…which actually arrived as one cheese sandwich and one tomato sandwich!!!! We repeated the morning activities again – swim, sunbathing, people and seascape watching…

It didn’t seem long before we were returning to our room to shower and ready for supper…looking in the mirror I find that my usual Rudolf impersonation ( with a sunburnt nose) has progressed to one of a lobster impersonation ( sun kissed whole body !!!!), whilst John is just turning an enviable shade of bronze.

Once at supper, the chef showed us a fresh red snapper he had…but knowing how bony they are I declined. He also had barracuda which I’d never had so I went for it. John had battered calamari. Both were excellent, thoroughly enjoyed my barracuda a tasty fish not as firm as tuna or sword fish, but meatier than sea bass or white mullet. John also enjoyed his.

After such a busy old day!!!! …time for bed.

Day 3 – 7th February 2024- A once in a lifetime experience.

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A much better nights sleep was had by us both and we readied for the excitement of new experiences with another lovely breakfast sat on the verandah overlooking the nicely manicured garden and pool.
Suminda picked us up promptly at 10 am and we headed off to view the sites of Colombo. We saw lots of former colonial buildings, the floating market and street markets.

We also stopped and had a walk around one of the largest Hindu temples in Colombo.

We continued to see several other temples both Buddhist and Hindu and an array of churches and other religious places of worship.

After much sightseeing Suminda headed for his home in the small town Kesbewa. We picked up a small bunch of flowers and I had selected a gift from the presents I had brought from home which on arrival I gifted to Disna, Suminda’s wife. It was so wonderful to meet his family- Methika whose birthday it was today is 19 years old, Minuka is 16, and Senithi is 10 years old. We were also joined by Stanley and Grace, Disna’s parents, who are on either end of the middle group picture. Suminda also introduced us to his mother.

We tried hard to get the formalities of greeting each other correct, hopefully we succeeded without causing any offence. We were given a drink, then asked to touch a plate with a drink on it which Disna held out to us. This is a traditional invitation to eat some food. Wow, wow, wow …Disna and her mother Grace had prepared a feast for us. We sat down with Suminda to a real feast of plain and pilau rice, jackfruit curry, jackfruit seed curry, chicken curry, Dahl, potato curry, bean curry and a grated coconut and onion sambal it was absolutely delicious. We had never tasted some of the dishes before and they were fantastic, spicy and flavoursome without being chilli hot. We have to admit to being totally overwhelmed by this magnificent spread and the effort which had been put into its preparation. This was followed by us tasting buffalo curds for the first time…very similar to thick yogurt …delicious, and Sri Lankan cherries, pomegranate seeds and an array of fruit…

After lunch we stood around Methika and sung happy birthday whilst he cut his cake. He then took a piece to each member of his family to take a bit from and we were included in this wonderful celebratory tradition. As we were leaving Disna gifted us a very useful notebook and a wonderful carving of an elephant which we will treasure for a very long time.

What a wonderful experience we have had meeting Suminda’s family and enjoying the feast they prepared for us and celebrating Methika’s 19th birthday…what a privilege and an honour thank you so much Suminda.
For those of you reading this and thinking of visiting Sri Lanka, we can thoroughly recommend Suminda as a driver and guide..a true gentleman.. Suminda Dissanayake can be contacted at Suminda711@gmail.com. or what’s app/ phone number is + 94772279050

Our drive back to the Ayubowan Guest House was about a 1.5 hours drive Suminda told us it was the first time his family had met foreigners in their home, we felt doubly privileged.

Arriving back we decided a dip in the pool was required to cool off before what has become an habitual and necessary siesta/ rest.
What a truly wonderful day.

Day 1 – 5th February – The start of our Sri Lanka adventure.

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Our adventure really started yesterday when we boarded Air Sri Lanka an hour late…..however after an uneventful flight with good food and on-board entertainment we landed just a few minutes after our scheduled time. It was hot and sticky waiting for 30 minutes to disembark the plane, but we eventually made it into the arrivals lounge. I should have filled the arrivals form in on line but no problem, John got 2 good old fashioned paper copies which we dutifully filled out and patiently waited in a relatively short queue to go through immigration. By the time we arrived in the baggage reclaim area one of our cases was already there and waiting for us and the second one came fairly shortly after it….time from entering arrivals to leaving it was less than 45 minutes – puts Heathrow to shame. Immediately outside the customs are foreign exchange booths. We had read up on the Sri Lankan Tourist Facebook site that these give you the best rate so we quickly exchanged some US$ although contrary to previous information they also exchange sterling £.
We then went in search of our driver who was stood immediately in front of the arrivals funnel with JACKSON on a board. We greeted each other and stopped on the way to the vehicle to buy 60gb of data for US$13…. Very reasonable and the vendor put it in our router and checked it was working…great service. During this transaction I asked the driver if he was with us for the full 23 days, he looked a bit bemused and whilst I was buying the gb he told John he was just taking us to a hotel in Columbo…….”hey!! We’re not going to Columbo, our hotel is in Negombo” was Johns reply …..as it soon became clear that there must have been 2 Jackson’s on the flight and he was meeting someone else…. John quickly went back to the meet and greet area and reappeared with Suminda, our driver and guide for our complete holiday..phew…. He greeted us with such a welcoming smile and a garland of orchids each, before taking over the trolly and our airport departure.

Suminda chatted happily whilst driving us the 30 minutes to the guest house we were booked into. We explained that we had been recommended Ayubowan guest house by a blogger, as we wanted to submerge ourselves in the Sri Lankan culture. We were thus a little surprised when Brenda and Ron welcomed us…if I’d investigated further I’d have known it was an English run Guest House….absolutely charming and a very warm welcome from our hosts. We made a plan for the next couple of days with Suminda and said goodbye until tomorrow.

We welcomed our cool room and had an afternoon’s siesta. Brenda recommended some local restaurants and at 7 pm she kindly called us a tuk tuk…Desmond our driver took us to The White House restaurant, known for its seafood curries. It lived up to its reputation. John had a King Prawn Sri Lankan curry whilst I had grilled swordfish. We had 3 Coke zeros and John had ice cream as desert and the whole lot came to £14.

Desmond returned to take us back to our Guest House. We probably should of haggled the price with him but at £1.20 each way it didn’t seem worth the effort.

A Great first day to start our adventure…more tomorrow.