The answer is Sri Lanka.

What's the question?
We've realised we go quiet when we're enjoyiong ourselves. Blogging becomes just a wee bit dull, this tends to coincides with when it becomes trickier and pricier, as well.
Sri Lanka is good, it's a contender, it may even knock Laos of it's perch, but as we've only done six nights, we're reserving judgement on that.

After heading to Colombo, which is dirtier and uglier than the namesake detective, we headed south. Colombo is the only thing we've done so far that we'll skip when we come again.

So to Galle, bright, sandstone-walled old town, with a great sea breeze and Mrs Khalid's home cooked curry, Mrs B. got very excited in the shops, but my cautionary shopping arguments won out (Mrs B warns India is going to be marketful and bag laden). Then to Unawatuna for sun and sand and too much relaxation - our room was luxy, two yards from the beach and only 15 GBP a night. After four days we thought a Sri Lankan style safari in Yalle national park would be in order - too much to tell (will bore you over dinner).

We've decided not to read the Foriegn Office advice on Sri Lanka until we're in India, but things are a little warmer on the Tamil Tiger front than we'd realised (like there is actually a front). This has had several consequences: firstly the Sri Lankans are not having fun, inflation is 25%, the governmnt taxes everything and they're killing each other - all of which lets face it sucks. The unintended consequence is some things are much pricier for us than we'd expected. There are also very few other tourists and no tour buses in sight.

We're 'up country' now, so must dash for tea. So far we love vegetable rotis, green bee-eaters, lime sodas, sunrises (even the getting up at 5.30 is good) and local buses!