Saskatoon to Sri Lanka ...
Greetings from Colombo, Sri Lanka ...
Sri Lanka? Well it's not where I expected to be tonight, I'd hoped to be in Goa with Wendy last Monday, but then the course of true love never seems to run in a straight line.
I returned to Saskatoon from the left coast the beginning of October just in time to greet Uncle Desmond (he's not really my Uncle, more like my mum's first cousin or something, but that's just a technicality - he's the closest I've ever come to having a real Uncle - but i digress) who flew in from Cardiff Wales to attend the Saskatoon social event of the season, the marriage of my nephew Michael to Kristin.
It was quite the event - ceremony in Knox United Church in Saskatoon, followed by dinner and dance in Martinsville. Everyone was quite resplendent, (we Smith's can all clean up well)and the bride was radiant and gorgeous - you could never call my brother Stephen and I that!
For pictures of the wedding go Here
I had arranged to fly back to the UK with Des, stay in Britain a couple of days, and then continue on the India, to join Wendy in Goa ... but then it got a bit complicated. As the day to leave approached, my visa for India, which I had thought had been applied for in plenty of time, failed to show up. Fortuantly I have a British Passport, so was able to leave as planned with Des to the UK, but then had to wait for Sandy to courier the overdue visa to me in Britain when it arrived in Saskatoon.
Thanks to Sandy, it arrived in the UK a few days after I arrived, but not quite in time to catch the flight I had booked to India, so I had to book another flight.
I chose Sri Lankan Airlines via Colombo for the good connections that avoid having to overnight in Mumbai. The plane however developed a mechanical problem - the delay was in finding space at a ramp at Heathrow to fix it, (That airport is HUGE and Crazy) - the repair only took them an hour. So we were stuck on the plane for 4 hours on the ground at Heathrow, which meant I missed the connecting flight to Goa.
The airline took a while to figure things out, then put us on a bus to the city (26kms - just over 2hrs travel time!) and put us (abt 30 folks) up at a swanky 5 star hotel, the Continental. I won't get to enjoy it much though. My wake up call is at 1:30 am, for a 2:00 am bus back to the airport, for a 5:00 am flight to Goa ... Columbo looks a bit like any chaotic Indian City, until you go thru numerous military checkpoints (Machine gun toting soldiers everywhere) and end up in the swanky part by the ocean where the hotel is located.
I'm too tired to sleep, and since my room has WiFi internet decided to blog this update.
With any luck I'll make it to Wendy's tomorrow morning.
Sri Lanka? Well it's not where I expected to be tonight, I'd hoped to be in Goa with Wendy last Monday, but then the course of true love never seems to run in a straight line.
I returned to Saskatoon from the left coast the beginning of October just in time to greet Uncle Desmond (he's not really my Uncle, more like my mum's first cousin or something, but that's just a technicality - he's the closest I've ever come to having a real Uncle - but i digress) who flew in from Cardiff Wales to attend the Saskatoon social event of the season, the marriage of my nephew Michael to Kristin.
It was quite the event - ceremony in Knox United Church in Saskatoon, followed by dinner and dance in Martinsville. Everyone was quite resplendent, (we Smith's can all clean up well)and the bride was radiant and gorgeous - you could never call my brother Stephen and I that!
For pictures of the wedding go Here
I had arranged to fly back to the UK with Des, stay in Britain a couple of days, and then continue on the India, to join Wendy in Goa ... but then it got a bit complicated. As the day to leave approached, my visa for India, which I had thought had been applied for in plenty of time, failed to show up. Fortuantly I have a British Passport, so was able to leave as planned with Des to the UK, but then had to wait for Sandy to courier the overdue visa to me in Britain when it arrived in Saskatoon.
Thanks to Sandy, it arrived in the UK a few days after I arrived, but not quite in time to catch the flight I had booked to India, so I had to book another flight.
I chose Sri Lankan Airlines via Colombo for the good connections that avoid having to overnight in Mumbai. The plane however developed a mechanical problem - the delay was in finding space at a ramp at Heathrow to fix it, (That airport is HUGE and Crazy) - the repair only took them an hour. So we were stuck on the plane for 4 hours on the ground at Heathrow, which meant I missed the connecting flight to Goa.
The airline took a while to figure things out, then put us on a bus to the city (26kms - just over 2hrs travel time!) and put us (abt 30 folks) up at a swanky 5 star hotel, the Continental. I won't get to enjoy it much though. My wake up call is at 1:30 am, for a 2:00 am bus back to the airport, for a 5:00 am flight to Goa ... Columbo looks a bit like any chaotic Indian City, until you go thru numerous military checkpoints (Machine gun toting soldiers everywhere) and end up in the swanky part by the ocean where the hotel is located.
I'm too tired to sleep, and since my room has WiFi internet decided to blog this update.
With any luck I'll make it to Wendy's tomorrow morning.
posted by Andrew Smith at 5:58 AM
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