My Sri Lankan Blog I am coming to the end of my epic 91 day Midlife Crisis trip, and this Sri Lankan blog post will be one of my last. What an adventure it has been. By pure chance every time I have moved on I have enjoyed my adventure more and more. And, most importantly, my accommodation has got better and better. You may recall that in Nepal I had a cow shed with mattress and barely a bathroom, in Goa I had a bed with legs, and hot water, but no air conditioning, and in the Maldives I had air conditioning but no hot water. This was so cruel. Jumping into an ice cold shower after working in 33 degrees heat was hideous. Still, I did learn how to shampoo and condition my hair in 19.6 seconds. Living In Luxury So here I am in Sri Lanka, where…

Volunteering In Sri Lanka There are 40,000,000 (yes million) street dogs in Sri Lanka. When I decided to volunteer at a rescue centre here, I envisaged an underfunded complex, full of tatty cages and ramshackle buildings. How wrong I was. Dog-Care Clinic RV resembles a 5* luxury resort. There are lily ponds, streams, ornamental bridges, and a doggie swimming pool, on a site which sprawls over 25,000 square metres. This volunteering in Sri Lanka is very different. I was totally stunned when I arrived, and actually considered moving in myself, as the accommodation here is better than anything I have enjoyed on my trip. In 2007, an inspirational German lady, Marina Möbius, came to Sri Lanka on holiday, and saw the plight of the street dogs. She started by caring for a few herself, and then funded a small clinic which has grown into the state of the art centre…

It was with a very heavy heart that I left the crazy concrete island of Naifaru last week. This curious little atoll had welcomed me warmly and made me feel a part of island life for 3 weeks. The diverse team team at Atoll Marine Centre became my best mates, and it was a good job we did gel, as there was absolutely nothing to do there, apart from swimming and sunset watching. Paradise On our weekly days off we were taken by speedboat to nearby uninhabited islands which were really Paradise. We ate coconuts, sunbathed and swam, then lit fires at sunset and toasted marshmallows and bananas. These were the only days that us girls could actually wear a bikini rather than a burkini so these times were special. We left making fires and cracking coconuts to the boys, who pretended to be Bear Grylls and Robinson Crusoe combined.…

Snorkelling In The Maldives As part of the application process for every volunteering project I chose, I had to write a short piece on why I should be considered for that project. Why a Surrey interior designer could add value to a turtle conservation project was a tough one to answer.  So I hurriedly flicked through some David Attenborough documentaries on YouTube before replying. I also had to state that I was a competent swimmer (which I am) and a competent snorkeler (which I am not). Truth is, I had never actually been snorkelling until I arrived here. Mr Fit When I was staying in the luxury resort a few weeks ago, I hung around the watersports centre until a very attractive and tanned Australian instructor walked in. ‘Yippee’ I thought, and immediately signed up for a one hour private lesson. I have to say that when Mr Fit glided…

Life on the Maldivian island of Naifaru, which I have nicknamed ‘Turtle Town’ moves at a leisurely pace, yet the days are flying by. Every morning the team does a 4 hour shift cleaning the turtle tanks, refilling them, and feeding the Maldives turtles and baby hatchlings. This is hard manual labour, carried out in the searing heat, but it is good fun. There is great banter and loud music blares out continuously from a rusty speaker. I was very anxious when it was my turn to put on my playlist for these youngsters, as it is usually met by ‘Oh Gawd Mum PLEASE!’ at home. I am pleased to announce that this gang had way better taste. They announced that they loved all my melancholic toons, unless they were being terribly polite to ‘Granny.’ I did do a quick ‘fast forward’ before Shirley Bassey though… Maldives Turtle Poo I…

Maldives Local Island On Friday I left the opulence of a 5* resort in the Maldives and headed to a local island to work on a turtle conservation project. I had found this luxury a welcome respite from my travels, however it was time to move on. I had got tired of looking at size 22 Russian women, with tattooed eyebrows, who had squeezed themselves into size 10 bikinis. Likewise, blokes from Yorkshire who were maximizing the ‘All Inclusive’ package by quaffing pints from 9am and consuming obscene amounts of food at the hotel buffet. Those who weren’t there convalescing from a heart attack were certainly long overdue one. I caught the staff boat to the Maldives local island called Naifaru with the resort workers. They had finished their 12 hour shifts, and most of them fell asleep, exhausted, as soon as we headed out to sea. This left me…

Weather In Asia There is one big negative which is going to stick in my memory of this whole trip, and that is the weather in Asia. Particularly the RAIN. In Nepal it never stopped. On the first day I dressed appropriately in my new lightweight Berghaus jacket and trainers, and soon concluded that this wholly appropriate attire was a total waste of time. Within minutes I realised that the jacket’s label stating ‘waterproof’ did not apply to Nepalese rain, and my shirt underneath was clinging to me like a wet frog. I also decided that the Nike ‘Tick’ on my trainers should have been a ‘Cross’ if considered in such conditions. The next day I did as the locals do, and just sported flip flops. They were far more effective for wading through road rivers, and required no drying time. Drenched When I got to Goa we had a…