From our last stop in India, Chennai, we flew to our 5th country – Sri Lanka! We started with a few days in the capital Colombo. We came to Sri Lanka in 2013 for our wedding in Unawatuna, near Galle and missed out seeing much of the country so we were looking forward to exploring further.

Colombo has a bit of a bad rep and most travellers skip it for the more exciting destinations but we were pleasantly surprised with our city break. Already Sri Lanka felt quite different to India, our first observation being of the existence of pavements! The city has many sights including bustling streets, malls, temples and street food so something to please all of our family. We started with a day in Viharamahadevi Park for snacks and pedalos (sweaty!) then wandered through the city to Gangaramaya Temple,  a Buddhist shrine. We continued to Galle Face for the sunset and kite flying next to the beach.

We tried many Sri Lankan dishes and our favourites include Kottu – chopped up roti fried with eggs, vegetables and spices and egg hoppers – bowl shaped pancakes with a fried egg. The bakeries of the world continue to give me great satisfaction and Sri Lankan offerings include kimbula (aka crocodile) buns which resemble a croissant.

No city visit for us would be possible without the girls dragging us to a mall so we had a very expensive visit to Burger King (UK prices!) and a fun afternoon at the cinema watching Wicked.

On the last day the rain arrived which is the first time we have experienced proper rain on our trip, sheets of it soaking us unprepared at the street food market! We left Colombo by train to Dambulla towards the centre of the country and our next stop Sigiriya.