Hello Wayand

I was out of the Sea Queen like a shot this morning. Breakfast was vile, rubbery pancakes and tasteless samba and the unpleasant male receptionist tried to charge me for using wifi, I fooled him with my 'oh sorry I've only got a 1,000 note' trick. As luck would have it I arrived at the bus station just as the super delux a/c bus was leaving for Sultan Batherie and so arrived by 12.30. My new hotel, The Mint Flower, is lovely. It's clean, smart and not in a building site and the staff cannot do enough for me. I've already been whisked off to see the Edakaal Caves and the Jain temple, both of which are very, very old and are examples of prehistoric engravings. There is a nice family run bakery and restaurant attached to the hotel and I plan to eat there tonight.

Tomorrow morning I'm off at 5.45 to the Muthanga Wildlife sanctuary and then some more local sight seeing, with my own driver... I could have gone by bus with the world's rudest Israeli family but I thought I'd have more fun and less chance of conflict on my own.