After a relaxing day in  Colombo, we hired a taxi driver as a tour guide to take us to Kandy. We stopped by Geragama Tea Plantation and Factory  where we had an educational tour in the art of tea making. Sri Lanka is the world's fourth largest producer of tea. It was interesting to see the process from wilting and preventing oxidation of the plucked tea leaves, rolling, drying, and sorting all the way to packaging. The famous Ceylon Black Tea is not to be missed and our trip was concluded by enjoying a cup in the tea room.

It's Ramadan in Dubai and we have a week left before I could happily gulp a cold soothing beverage while I'm out in the open. Where we are, it's unlawful to be seen eating and drinking in public. Being in a 49 degree Celsius ( 120 degree F) weather, we spend most of our time indoors in the confines of air conditioning. At the end of Ramadan, we look forward to having a 2-3 day non-working holiday in August for the festive season called Eid. 

Gangaramaya Temple

Around the same time a couple of years ago, our Eid holidays allowed us to have a total of 5 days off because it fell next to a weekend. I was supposed to travel to Spain with friends in an arranged tour since my husband didn't want to go anywhere. At the last minute, the whole tour package was cancelled because everyone in the tour backed out. I still wanted to go,but the overall expense for traveling solo was double than what I have personally budgeted for. I was extremely disappointed. 

Surprise Surprise

My husband decided to book a trip to Sri Lanka for us instead from the Travel Fund. He made all of the arrangements.  It was a trip of comfort this time around, not our usual backpacking ride-on-top-of-a-jeepney kind of trip. It was one of those rare moments where the accommodation was booked in advance and (gasp)  in a five star hotel. 

On the night of our departure, I was surprised to find an Emirates Airline Pickup Service at our front porch.  To my disbelief, he got us Business Class tickets. When we reached the dedicated Business Class drop off area of Dubai Airport Terminal 3, we were both in for a treat at the check-in counter when we were sent to First Class instead. It was one of those really unbelievable moments where we were both amazed and felt really lucky!

If there is one country I'd like to head back to, that would be India. Yohann was assigned for a month in Bangalore in 2008. I came to visit him there for a weekend, taking a day off work for a 3 day 2 nights stay using earned air miles. I had no expectations going there at that time. I have always been a fan of Indian Cuisine so that was one of my goals there- Eat as much Indian food as I possibly can. (which I happily and greedily did by the way.)

I remember arriving at Bengaluru International Airport on my own at 4AM on a Friday morning, happy to see my husband waiting for me at the arrivals after being away from him for a month. It was dark, but I can already see silhouettes of trees and structures rapidly moving as the cab driver dashed like a maniac on the other side of the road. I was too sleepy to care and I missed my husband very much, I was thankful that we arrived at the hotel apartment much earlier.

Here are some thoughts for this coming weekend. This wonderful view can be seen from the day bed lounge area of Peace and Love Resort in San Vicente, Philippines. 

Love & light,

Arni