On October 14th we landed in Colombo after a calm and pleasant flight.  Only the Captain gave me some headaches:  25 minutes prior to our landing he announced that the crew had to sit down as he was expecting turbulences.  I do not worry much while flying ……… as long as the crew moves through the cabin!  The crew disappeared and my heart beat rose.

 So we sat there awaiting the turbulences and nothing, not even the least bit happened!  After a perfect landing, we made it through immigration within minutes and called Anura.

He was waiting at the airport.  As a matter of fact, he had been there already longer than an hour and it took 30 more minutes to figure out that he was waiting for us inside, while we were waiting for him outside of the arrival hall.

After a very warm reception we drove to Anura’s house in Battaramulla, close to the new Parliament.  We had a most comfortable stay there and a great weekend together with him and his family.

We tried to cut the work for Iromi down as much as possible and went out for dinner.

Saturday night, Humaid and his family also joined us and we enjoyed ourselves very much.  Anura had been to Jaffna only days ago and Humaid peppered him with questions.

He was not able to give us any recommendations concerning accommodation as he had been staying with his family at Army quarters.  No option for us, but because of Humaid’s widespread family and friends that problem was solved very fast.  The first friend he contacted regarding accommodation in Puttalam, offered us two rooms in his house as there was no Hotel in the area.

In Mannar, either a friend of a cousin or a cousin of a friend was running a little Guest House.  It slipped my mind how the relations to the owners of the accommodation in Jaffna and Habarana were.

Iromi made a point to not only spoil us with delicious breakfast but to serve rice and curry for dinner on Sunday night and we retired early.