While your supervisors are reading your attempt at a thesis, the best thing you can do, I decided, is go on holiday. Early Christmas holiday. Real Christmas will see me back in the fray, and decidedly not on holiday.

So we went to Sri Lanka for 17 days with Intrepid. Good decision. Sri Lanka is fascinating, and far exceeded my expectations.

Amazing ruins from long-gone but highly sophisticated civilizations. Vibrant Buddhist rituals at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy (we even saw the president...) Stunning hill country, studded with tea plantations, wreathed in mist, and laced with waterfalls (best experienced on the train from Kandy to Bandarawela and on shanks's pony). Palm-fringed beaches. A colourful capital. Friendly people. Fantastic food. What's not to like?

Tourism dropped like a stone when the civil war flared up again, but the routing of the Tamil Tigers and the return of "peace" have brought about a rebound. Concerns remain in international political circles over the bases of that peace. For the sake of all the wonderful Sri Lankans we met, I hope ways are found to make it solid and enduring.