Super stupa (to be said in a geordie accent)

In the hills it's tea, tea and .... hot milk. Tea is everywhere, all bushy and extra verdant. Having spent ten minutes watching tea pickers, Mr and Mrs B came to very different opinions as to the merits of the job.
Mrs B. (ever the optimist) saw sunshine, the ladies only crew, obviously high levels of gossip, good perks (one has to assume they drink a lot of tea) and decided this was an OK sort of job.
I on the other hand saw no men (it's hard work), the afternoon downpours, the lack of mechanisation and concluded being a tea picker is not a good job. These ladies have done it all their lives, they're so short even Mrs B. towers over them, so weather-beaten you'd think they slept outside, yet they couldn't stop grinning and cracking gags, we think at my expense. So maybe Mrs B did get it right.

After the hills and a tooth in Kandy, we headed for the central plains and the Ancient Cities. The most glorious part - besides of course the temples, stupas (Geordie accent), general assorted ruins and big Buddha statues, was the near total absence of tourists. These big sites never had more than five or six westerners and generally none. The only downside was it meant touts invariably out-numbered us, but even this wasn't too bad, as in true Sri Lankan form they'd hassle you altogether at one spot and then you'd be free for an hour until you hit another 'tout spot' and then it would start again, a fairly stress free way to tout we decided.

While ranging through the various means of transport available, hunting out the better guest houses and places to consume curry, a special mention should go to Mike and Marion who we saw on and off for a week. We first met them on the train to Adam's peak and we ended our travels together with some mild to moderate (in the case of Marion and Mrs b. moderate to heavy) Arrack and Sri Lankan curry consumption. Other than us, the bathroom salesmen were also indirect beneficiaries of this brief travelling bond. Marion and Mike I think we'll see you again...