Djpekingman Not seen these for donkey's years. To think they were the height of biscuitness back in the day.
Djpekingman On the road to Ambewela as the train lines around Kandy were mostly destroyed by the typhoon. Massive tea plantations, to be fair, on land not fit to grow much else on. Most of these are owned by massive multi-nationals which pay their workers a seasonal pittance while filling their own pockets. Weather still shit.
Djpekingman Train from Ambewela to Badulla via Ella. Scenic apparently. Not that we could see thanks to continuing shit weather.
Djpekingman Mooch down to Dunhinda waterfall through varying degrees of rain. The path is pretty precarious after being washed away by last year's typhoon.
Djpekingman Ella - tourist central with commensurate prices and intermittant rain. And bloody tuk-tuks.
Djpekingman Train and long drive back to Kandy via Ambewela. The drive is long due to repairs after numerous landslips caused by the typhoon. More rain.
Djpekingman The ginnel up to Castle by Don Luis, a hotel up a hill with a restaurant with no chef or beer. So we left there to another, the Manor house, the former Governor's residence which appears not to accept european credit cards. So were now up the jungle in the Eagle Regency which also has no bar despite claims to the contrary on bloody booking dot com and not having the room we booked, but they did send out for beer for us. Only one more night thank god. Oh, and it's pissing it down again.
Djpekingman Arrival in Istanbul, Turkey a country I never thought I'd visit after bratfut Dave's diatribe after watching Midnight Express and later the mindless murders of Leeds fans Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight by a dickhead from Galatasaray. But here I am, and to be fair, first impressions are good.
Djpekingman Our hotel. Very grand and after the shit we put up with in Sri Lanka, very pleasant indeed.
Djpekingman Lack of time means see as much as possible as quickly as possible, hop-on hop-off bus here we come. From european Istanbul across the Bosphorus to Asia and back. The football ground is Besiktas.
Djpekingman Day 2 from the hotel past some big sheds, the blue mosque and a beautiful park with massive shitehawks.
Djpekingman Graffiti Istanbul style and on to the Egyptian Spice market which has been beautifully restored at expense of losing all its character.
