I was completely blown away by Sri Lanka when I visited last month…well I just didn’t expect it to be so unspolit….well, so very lovely really…… it was like India without the poverty and stress. An easier, cleaner, more chilled out version of India.

I had chance to shoot a little personal work whilst I was there and I will let these set the scene for the wedding coming up tomorrow….. this is the West Coast of Sri Lanka, Galle and the surrounding beaches. I am amazed at how quiet it is and I really think they deserve more visitors, post tsunami, although not too many as that’s part of it’s appeal. I stayed at a wonderful place, Leijay Resort, which deserves a post of it’s own, and had a rather unexpectedly sweet time. There were chillis in everything, I travelled everywhere by tuk tuk and spent the best part of 6 days being very ex-pat, drinking tea on the veranda and talking non stop with my fellow photographer Aneta Mak who came along to assist. I saw a snake charmer, a dancing monkey (I couldn’t bring myself to be photographed with it, I’m way too much of an animal lover….but snakes…well snakes are snakes aren’t they?! I like to think they enjoy the music and are kind of dancing or something…..but then I do have an overactive imagination…..) and sea turtles. Oh, the sweet sea turtles….more on those later.

Let’s just say I immediately looked up buying property in Sri Lanka on the web on my return: always the sign of a good trip isn’t it?! Sri Lanka is one of the few places where you can, subject to certain conditions, actually own property as a foreigner. And it is incredibly affordable by Western standards. But I have my hands full with living in 2 countries at once, let alone adding a third into the mix so this is one idea I will be keeping firmly locked up in the fantasy box!