Bentota, Sri Lanka (Villa 80)

So after a few more days we decided to make our first move.
Only a few miles down the beach but we felt we wanted a treat.  The new home is more expensive but amazing. At $90 a night it's more than our budget but we did get to watch England's disappointing performance in the rugby. Mikes could rant forever about it, but let's just say at least we don't have the hassle of constantly looking for a way to watch England at 12:30am now. Even the Arrack didn't soften the blow!

We are now closer to Bentota and this, coupled with the fact that it is the weekend, meant we got a bit mobbed.  Our day at the beach today became more like a celebrity photo-shoot as our mini-fair haired stars were greeted by the paparazzi. I knew the children were bound to get a lot of attention, they are white blonde and look so alike they could be twins, but even we were a bit taken a back by how many times we were asked to pose for photos.  The kids weren't quite sure what to make of it.   I guess at one and just turned 3 they don't have a lot to compare this experience with.  No pictures mummy was shouted quite a lot and I did get to a point where I felt I had to politely decline the photos, but I fear they may have to get used to this level of interest as we've got another 6 months planned around Asia before we hit Australia.  

Everyone was fascinated by both of them and very friendly and warm to all of us. We managed to get one reciprocal photo back with one of about 20 families we got talking to. 
The people of Sri Lanka have already proven themselves to be incredibly warm, friendly and kind to us, which has reaffirmed our decision to take this year off travelling with them. It is definitely different for the children as they are a little overwhelmed by the attention but we have had a good talk with them about it and hopefully have established a way of all of us feeling comfortable with the new found attention.  They both have some way to go before they are comfortable being picked up by strangers but hopefully this trip will give them confidence that people all over the world are lovely.