OMAN

Oman was dry and dusty. Beer was difficult to find except in hotels and the expats club. Camels wandered everywhere and we saw frankincence trees. Waddies were oases of green where birds and other animals gathered.

MALDIVES

Next stop was the Maldives. We had a beautiful anchorage off one of the northern atolls called Uligan. It was totally unspoilt. There was a small village ashore where we were made very welcome. They took us around some of the other islands and cooked a meal ashore for all of us. They had a school and a small health clinic. We were able to chill out here, swimming off the boat and lazing around , recharging our batteries for the long passage to Oman.

SRI LANKA

we arrived in Galle , Sri Lanka in mid January. Security was vert tight there because of the threat from the Tamil Tigers. There were gun emplacements at he harbour entrance and check points in and out of every town. There was still some evidence of tsunami damage but they seem to have recovered quite well. We went on a trip into the hill country where the tea plantations are. It was a time warp - the architecture was circa England in 1930. We saw elephants in the wild and visited an elephant orphanage. We received a blessing in a Buddhist temple in Columbo and saw temples full of Buddahs.

The people were very nice as individuals but they were out to rip off the tourists, which left an unpleasant taste in the mouth.

PHUKET

We spent Christmas cruising round the lime stone pinnacles of Phang Nga Bay. We were planning to BBQ on the beach on Christmas Day but it rained! We swam through caves into open air hongs.