Goodnight Sri Lanka, Good morning Vietnam!

We spent our last 2 nights in Sri Lanka at Natasha’s Garden Boutique Hotel in Negombo which is a resort close to Colombo. Natasha is Slovenian and quite a character very hospitable, making us feel very welcome, she runs the place with her dog Lady. To get to the hotel you have to pass through some ugly apartments which were built to house people who lost their houses in the 2004 Tsunami - over 30 thousand Sri Lankan people lost their lives when the Tsunami hit the west and south coast.

The grounds of the small hotel are lovely with 2 small swimming pools amongst trees and fountains it is vey peaceful compared to the rest of Negombo we saw. Although there are some high end hotels on the beach front, the beach is quite dirty. We spent the 2 days we had there lazing around the pool and arranged a late check out for our evening flight to Vietnam.

It was a long night flying from Colombo to Hanoi via Bangkok, we left Colombo at 11pm and arrived  in Hanoi at 8.45am so got virtually no sleep. We will be in Vietnam for 2 weeks and as a visa is no longer required for UK citizens for a stay up to 15 days immigration was a breeze. We are staying in a small hotel in the old quarter, close to Hoan Kiem Lake.

It is much cooler here and has been raining which is a bit of a respite from the stifling heat of Sri Lanka.



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