Got up to another gray day. Packed, arranged a tuk-tuk to take me to Galle, and sat down to breakfast. Just like yesterday as soon as I started to eat it started to pour. The ride to Galle in the back of a tuk-tuk in the rain was not all that comfortable, but not as bad as I'd feared. I just missed the train from Galle to Colombo so I was going to have to wait around for a few more hours - a man approached me and asked if I was heading to Colombo, he was taking a van with two French girls up who were looking to share the cost. It would be a lot quicker, still cheap, and I wouldn't have to sit around for a couple hours so I agreed. They dropped me off at an office while the car went to get the girls. While they were gone I got the hard sell on gems, then they cam back and told me that because of the rain the girls had decided to wait until late afternoon to go north. I had them take me back to the train station and was a bit annoyed - I think it was all a set up. Walked across the street to the bus station and was in luck - jumped on an air-conditioned Intercity bus that was just leaving. Made it about an hour up the coast before the air-conditioning stopped working - so they kicked everyone off the bus in Ambalangoda. The good news is that I didn't have to pay anything to get part way, the bad news is that I had to wait nearly two hours for another bus. By that time the traffic was getting very bad so it took for ever to get anywhere. Near Colombo I recognized where I was and was able to get off the bus quite close to my guest house instead of going all the way into Colombo Fort and then coming back. Total time from Unawatuna to Colombo was nearly six hours - almost twice what I was expecting.
Reclaimed the bag I'd left at the hotel, arranged for a taxi to take me to the airport at midnight, and did some preliminary sorting towards getting fully packed again. Then set off to do some shopping. I hit the government crafts shop and a couple private stores as well. The prices were ok, but there just wasn't anything that I wanted. Spent a half hour at an internet cafe, then grabbed a bite to eat and returned to the hotel. I was planning on getting packed and trying for a few hours of sleep before leaving for the airport. But the power was off at the hotel - without the ceiling fan the room is stifling hot plus I didn't feel like packing by candle light so I sat in the lobby and had a couple beers with this English guy who jus got here today. Around nine I gave up and went to the room to pack in the dark - just as I started the power came back on! Packed, then settled down to try to sleep for an hour - but just tossed and turned. Got up at 11:30 to get ready and caught my taxi to the airport.
Extreme security entering the airport - search car (in and under), then baggage is searched twice by hand, and again by x-ray. The flight was reasonably on time and I spent most of it trying to sleep.
