Our last (😱) major stop in our adventures was the teardrop isle of Sri Lanka, where rice and curry reign.

They’d had a bad cyclone (Ditwah) come through in couple of weeks earlier and we weren’t sure we should even go but after following some social media groups it seemed like things would be reasonably normal by the time we got there – at least on the tourist trail. A few of the train lines were still being repaired and some of the more out of the way places were still difficult to access due to landslides. While we weren’t at all keen to be in the way of rescue efforts or gawking at tragedy, spending money in Sri Lanka at local businesses is a great way to help them get back on their feet, so we decided to stick with our original three week plan.

We did the classic tourist route heading down to the south coast, into the central highlands and then back to Colombo in the west. M & I had done this last time we were here with some Scottish friend for the (cricket) World Cup in 2011 and we’d have loved to have done something more out of the way but between the cyclone and the weather it just wasn’t going to happen. (Also, you’re a lot less adventurous with kids in tow!)

After a very late flight into Colombo and a battle to get a ride to our nearby accommodation, we collapsed about 2am just to get up and try for the train south, which ended up being a bit of a disaster with us standing in third class (no AC) for a couple of hours. We all got seats for the last half an hour at least 🥵

We stayed in Unawatuna, just next to the colonial old town of Galle (very pretty and equally expensive). One of the things to do in this area is silversmithing and we found a tiny place just near our accommodation that offered classes. After the fun we had making our own rings in Java I thought this would be a good activity, this time with gems! (oooh sparkly 🤩)

M bowed out, not being a jewellery person, but the kids were keen. I made the mistake of giving them the choice of anything but we finally managed to settle on some designs that were (maybe) doable in two hours. To my surprise, I was the only one to chose something with a gemstone (did I mention sparkly?) and one kid decided a pendant over a ring. The WhatsApp conversation with the shop owner was quite long and I did feel a bit sorry for him (and me) but we got there in the end:

This workshop was a bit different from our Java experience in that it was not really set up for teaching, it was literally their workshop and out the back door was the train line:

The first step was to discuss final designs and, for me, choosing gemstones! Obviously this was an extra cost but I saved money here by not choosing something like sapphires and going semi-precious blue topaz (which is actually my favourite anyway!).

We got to help melt the silver into a little (firey!) bar and then had to hammer it, stretch it out and heat it again to make a thin strand to then work into rings. In Java we just got given the strand to work with as our first step.

For the pendant, some more silver was melted and made into a flat circle. Then the heart shape drawn on by I to be cut out and polished.

The heart shaped ring was a bit more tricky with the heart shape needing to be bent and filed, taking patience and time, especially when the two sides aren’t the even length you would hope! (not us, that was the staff’s mistake – but they got it sorted)

In the end, it took over three hours for all this and that was with the staff doing more than us – joining silver is tricky and, for my design, setting the stone wasn’t my thing 😬 The results were pretty great though and we all have been wearing our creations quite often since!