New Year’s Day was a restful one for us. I wanted to go swimming one more time in the ocean before we went back to Colombo – because the beaches are just not the same there.

However, Hikkaduwa is known for their surf competitions – which means they had some pretty large waves. After a little bit we decided that we needed a more relaxing swim and opted for our hotel’s pool.

We had breakfast and made our way back to Colombo. We stopped to pick up a few souvenirs and then had lunch with Sabrina’s family. This was another traditional Sri Lankan meal – Kidu (sp?).

Sabrina’s flight was in the early hours of January 2nd – just like our flight. So we spent some time organizing our stuff and repacking. We tried to take a nap – but none of us were very successful.

Andy I went out to Galle Face Green to say goodbye to the ocean and get a cocktail. We were enjoying the day until Andy clipped his heel on the stone step and started bleeding. That wasn’t so great – but he is on the mend now.

Once we got back we had a fruit salad as a snack and I learned how to peel this wonderful alien fruit. I swear, Sri Lanka has some of the best fruits around!

We had dinner and we said our goodbyes. It was truly a wonderful time in Sri Lanka and what made it so much more special was Sabrina and her family. We truly got an authentic experience.

There were a lot of flights around the same time because the airport was packed. Security has increased since the attacks on Easter – I think our bags went through the machines no fewer than 5 separate times!

We got the pleasure of hanging out in the Executive Lounge – which sounded fancier than it was. It definitely made for a great place to take a nap though.

This was the flight that it was important that was on time – because the next morning we were heading immediately to the Taj Mahal right at 8:00 AM.