First of all, we cannot be held responsible for the spelling of the subject. It is the greeting of the indigenous Veddah people in Dambula where we camped last night.

Since the last post we have just completed over 300 rickshaw kilometres in the 'More Whoopee for your Rupee'-mobile. It has been a steep learning curve navigating the rickshaw amongst some quite stressful traffic. In Sri Lanka, rickshaws are considered the lowest form of transportation and are rarely paid any courtesies on the road. Add to that the following elements: chickens, monkeys, goats, cows, dogs (5 dogs/person in Sri Lanka!) and you've got yourself a good mix of obstacles to swerve.

The first day, understandably, the competition side of the Lanka Challenge was paramount. However, the sence of camaradarie has overtaken most participants' competitive streaks... On a daily basis in our current life, running out of fuel, mechanical breakdowns etc is a constant that adds to the adventure. With 24 rickshaws to maintain you can only imagine how busy the mechanics are once we arrive at camp at night.

You don't have to travel far to see people, and smiling and waving goes a long way in interacting with the locals. People are extremely friendly and helpful even if they do not speak English, and we are practising our broken Sinhalese daily, not to mention our navigational skills. Yes, we have more than once deviated from the given route... however, we'd like to think this is not a direct reflection of our navigational skills

Today's challenges was to find our way to the Central Markets in Kandy locate a man by the name of Abdullah (this was the only clue given) within the markets (that were visited by several hundred locals at the same time) to collect instructions. The task was then to buy fruit and snacks for LKR300 and sell to the locals waiting to board the buses. The goal was to reclaim the same amount of money spent if not more. This gave us an insight into how hard it is to be stallholder in this country.

The next two days will be spent at Amaya Hotels in Kandy. Judged by the views this could very well be paradise. Stay tuned for photos next time.

We are lucky to have a good Internet connection here in Kandy, however, we cannot promise when we will check in with you next. Having said that we are sure more stories are yet to be shared (such as the one where Em deleted a week worth of photos, snake charmers, meeting a local family, the charity work and meeting the recipients of Jaipur limbs and much more)

Until next time, have as much fun as we are

Over and out
AirAsia Gypsy Queens

PS Apologies for not being able to upload any photos to this post... next time we are online we hope we have better luck

We left Australia early on Tuesday morning on AirAsia X D7 2703 and I must say we were treated like royalty in the premium seats.

It was a very smooth flight over to Kuala Lumpur and when we arrived we were positively surprised to see the new LCC Terminal. What a great job that has been done here. One of us visited a year ago and the improvement since is fantastic!

We met up with Flora and Derek from the AirAsia team that has been outstanding in their efforts to support us on this journey. Thanks guys!! Another special thanks to Sue, of the AAX team in Australia - thanks for the last minute tip, it has come in handy believe it or not.
Here are a few snaps we took on our way over.

Having arrived in Sri Lanka early on Wednesday morning we were greeted like royalty by the Sri Lanka Tourism Board at the airport with hand made flower leis.

The 30 minute drive to Club Dolphin Hotel in Waikkal offered some amazing sights. Not far from the airport we started seeing rickshaws everywhere and we started to realize that we are finally here...and what exactly it is we are in for.

At the hotel we were greeted by fantastically friendly staff and even though we arrived at 8 am our room stood ready for us. We took a walk around the massive hotel area and found the pool. It is not just any pool, Club Dolphin has the largest pool in Sri Lanka and yes, it is overlooking the ocean. Ever since we arrived we have had overcast skies, but we are blending in nicely with the other British guests after getting a good bit of colour on the first day. We took the opportunity to have an hour massage to really kick start the holiday mood. That naturally followed by cocktails near the pool. So far, it has been great.

Yesterday we decided to put on our adventure boots and head in to Colombo. After bargaining with the local taxi drivers for a good price we ended up catching a rickshaw to the Waikkal train station. In Waikkal we found out that the train was going to depart in a bit over an hour so we took a walk down the road to engage with the locals. At one of the roadside fruitstands we met a gentleman who firstly introduced us to the local delicacy of king coconuts - and the sweet coconut water inside. Having finished our drink he invited us to come and visit the denim dye factory he worked at. It was a very interesting experience for both us and them I am sure. Most of the orders come from the USA or the UK and the fabric arrive in Sri Lanka from China or Pakistan. Some garments are made here in Sri Lanka before ending up in the wash. We were taken through the entire process from dying, sandblasting and how patterns are made. Unfortunately Sri Lanka has also been exposed to the financial crisis and we heard mentioned that up to 40% of the workforce here has been affected. The factory had been forced to let go of as many as 20 staff as orders have been slow lately.

After our visit to the denim wash factory we walked back to the train station to do the 50kilometer ride to Colombo. The scenery outside the windows was quite diverse, and really put things into perspective. On the other hand, the children on the train thought we were quite exotic and a lot of smiles were exchanged over the next 2 hours. (insert pic 9)

Once in Colombo we walked around the city and after a long day under the sun we went to the Cinnamon Grand Hotel which we will be staying at the last few nights of our trip. We refreshed with a couple of cocktails before heading to Sayagiriya to attend a Rotary Dinner.

As part of the Lanka Challenge we have chosen to contribute funds towards Jaipur Limbs for people that have lost their limbs in landmines etc here in Sri Lanka as part of our chosen charity. In doing so, we have through a colleague been introduced to the Rotary Club of Capital City, in Colombo, to assist them in raising funds jointly with the Rotary Club Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast. As it happened yesterday the Rotary Club of Capital City had their Installation Ceremony of the 9th President and we were kindly invited to join.

During the meeting there were presentations to the audience on what has been achieved by the club in the past year. We were amazed at what great a job these people are doing in their own country, and we are really looking forward to do our part. Once back in Colombo, towards the middle of the month, the Club will arrange for us to visit one of the factories where the limbs are made. That will definitely be the icing of the cake – we will keep you posted! Both Abbie and I feel privileged to have been invited to be part of the Installation Ceremony and send a warm thanks to the Rotary Club of Capital City for the fantastic hospitality. (Insert 10 and 11)

So, tomorrow is the day it all begins… FINALLY! We cannot wait to get on the road on Sunday morning but we are really looking forward to meeting all the teams tomorrow as we register and go for our first rickshaw driving lesson – stay tuned for photos which will be posted on Sunday.

All we can say is, we are so ready to get started and look forward to bringing you the best of stories and photos on the way.

Over and out for now

AirAsia Gypsy Queens

Firstly, thank you to all of those who read our first blog post, and a special thanks to those who made comments on Facebook. We truly appreciate your support so far!

So, after the big packing day yesterday we are sitting here waiting for Tuesday to come around. Time is passing as slowly as it did waiting for Christmas to come around when we were kids. Thought we might give you an update on how we have spent the weekend so far.

Abbie got her camera out and started snapping away on all things that could possibly be packed to come along for the 10 day Lanka Challenge adventure.

Here is why it was so hard to pick the shoes. FYI - we managed to negotiate it down to four pairs each in the end, but it was hard.

When I told Abbie over 1,000 people had seen our blog post (and it has increased massively since) on AirAsia’s blog she could not believe it. She was all smiles when she logged on to check for herself.

Once finished we headed down to the newly opened restaurant Glass, at Marina Mirage, for a few glasses of sparkling wine in the sun. This is such a great spot, overlooking the beautiful yachts in the marina. The weekend farmers markets at Marina Mirage are not to be missed. We are lucky to have this available to us just on our doorstep. Get on the next plane to the Gold Coast and check it out for yourself.

The evening was spent googling ‘basic rickshaw mechanics’, organising our MP3s with the best upbeat rickshaw music around – we will let you know if our choice proved successful. Rumour has it you cannot hear much over the rickshaw engine.

Tuesday morning we set off and even if it is an early start we are really excited to experience the fully refurbished Gold Coast Airport first hand. We have heard some great things and cannot wait to check in and sit down in the terminal with a good cup of coffee. What better way to take in the exciting ambience airports exude prior to boarding our 1st AirAsia X flight headed for KL en route to Sri Lanka.

The real countdown has begun – 36 hours until take off! You will hear from us again once we touch down in KL, and we will give you an insight into the Premium Seats cabin – These Gypsy Queens travel in style thanks to AirAsia.

Over and out for now

AirAsia Gypsy Queens

PS - Happy Merdeka Holiday to all our friends in Malaysia

After many weeks of preparation and anticipation we are finally wrapping up the last hours of work before our holiday. It’s not just any holiday either. We’re bound to leave the beautiful Gold Coast for stunning Sri Lanka to participate in the inaugural LankaChallenge. This is our invitation to you to come with us along our journey, share our highs and hopefully infrequent lows and follow the small steps we’re taking to put this amazing country back on the tourism radar. If you haven’t already checked out our profile, and the other teams’, please do so on the LankaChallenge website.

In the past few weeks we have been putting the puzzle pieces together having dreamt about, spoken about and planned most things around our holiday, and we are now very close to departure! Thanks to AirAsia we can fly to Colombo with only one stopover and as we are both avid travellers we are taking full advantage and spending one night in KL en route, due to arrive in Sri Lanka early on Wednesday morning.

Our final weekend is dedicated to packing, re-packing and since we know ourselves really well, we’ll need to use each other as our conscience, particularly when it comes to shoes… are those really necessary? We’re already up/down to 4 pairs each (AT LEAST!) and since we fully expect to have the contents of both bags twisted, muddled and thrown around rooms, only to be repacked in the wrong place, it’s best to know exactly what each other has.

Once that’s done, we can breathe a sigh of relief knowing we are more than over prepared for departure. A quick brush up on our Sinhala skills en route (it is more complex than you think! Don’t be surprised reading something about how we thought we ordered fish but got snake instead) and a little more discussion on our start line attire for race day (who doesn’t like a bit of a dress up) and we are set!

Settle in with a good cup of coffee because this is one adventure you are not going to want to miss! We look forward to receiving your comments along the way.

Until next time…

AirAsia Gypsy Queens – over and out.