Green peppercorns growing wild, actually these are the same as white and black ones that are picked at different stages. Near Kandy.

A pineapple growing in the wild, the one and only that we saw in all our time in Asia.

Inside the Tooth Temple in Kandy, all this expense and a massive building to house a so called Buddha's ancient tooth that may actually be a fake!!

Malc completely chilled at The Pub in Kandy

Another'pensive' moment in grayscale!

A view over Kandy, the capital town of the Hill Country in central Sri Lanka and well away from the areas affected by the Tsunami.

Another similar view of Kandy..

Somewhere towards the right hand corner is The Temple of Tooth, which is fine if you know what it looks like in the first place!

A lone Buddha observing the view, damn I hate those side view head shots.

Look carefully in the middle where the land meets the sky to spot a Buddha statue.

An old London bus, the only one on the island.

A closer view of the bus, this was in dire need of servicing and jutting out tons of black smoke!

Stunning scenery in the hill country.

Lovely leather chairs, we later bought one from a shop in Hikkaduwa which almost certainly will be gone after the Tsunami.

Paddy Fields, hundreds of them.

Thought this was rather amusing, a crack down on bribery and corruption, somehow think they have a huge uphill task!

The Elephant Orphanage at Pinnewala, one of the most stunning beautiful places I have ever been.

Feeding time!

A whole herd of elephants on their way to the river from the orphanage, we were quickly told to get out of the way foor fear of trampelling..

Safety behind the fencing!

Elephants wandering all directions.

Moving very quickly on their way for a 1km walk to the river, presumably very thirsty and hot, it was around 40 degrees this day. 1st December 2004

The big old tusker that has to be brought down seperately.

Simply awesome, friendly elephants but in a superbly natural and wild environment.

Jen with the herd!!

Malc with a burning head, unbearable heat!

Over 60 rescued elephants here some of which have now bred, the young however are carefuly shielded by the adults.

This was the lazy one who simply lays down and loves to be washed.

He even had a poop whilst led down here the lazy sod.

Quick lads, I don't think they've spotted us, just over that bank and we're free!

Complete manic and mayhem and yet totally under control of the keepers!

A quick tip to the keeper and Jen had a go!

Showered and scrubbed with an old coconut husk.

Look carefully how these two are actually feeding each other!

Ahh, such love!!

He finally gets up after his big scrubb!

Mr Hugh Jarres

Porcupines on the roadside!

"It is my job madam, this is what I do"!!!

Jen with a handful of prickles!!

Another 50 rupees and Malc gets a turn!!

A rubber tree, not much produced but every penny counts, any locals who have these in the garden do this and sell miniscule amounts to local factories

Lots of old English cars for sale here, all in immaculate condition too!!

Our first glipmse of the Tea Hills

Huge carpets of tea plants. Did you know that there is actually only one type of tea plants despite all the varieties of the finished tea available!

Early morning and the picking ladies are already out in force..

Just 65p a day for a long hard day and most work 365 days a year.

Malc doing his bit in the factory, excuse the blurryness, crap camera woman you see!!

Too much like hard work this, excuse the blurr again, perhaps I was moving too fast to capture!

All manual work, pouring down one shoot to be collected by another lady below who shoves it down another, can't think why they don't just use long one

Jen in the tea factory, this lady wanted money for taking her photo, in fact so did everyone, who can blame them. No entry fees so we obliged!

Another part of the old fashioned and dangerous machinery, this was a shaker!

Fresh tea packed and ready to take to Colombo for auctioning.

This lady needs some serious deodarant.

An electro manetic machine that seperates the tips from the stalks.

Jen with her newly purchased tea!

Notice the Scottish name, most of the tea estates were founded by the Scots in the 1800's

Malc enjoying the idyllic countryside and sunshine.

More beautiful scenery!

An old 'British' post office in Nirwara Eliyah, up in the hills and pretty darn cold here compared to rest of the country!

A lovely hill club called 'The Hill Club', another old British built building serving dinner to well dressed guests.

Jen and Malc, beautiful people amidst beautiful scenery!

Jen considering a new career picking tea!

One of the hundreds of waterfalls around Sri Lanka

A lonesome Sri Lanka on the side of the road posing for a great shot!

Another waterfall

And another!

Almost all the greenery you see here is tea!

Terraced gardens growing fruit and veg, many villages are completely dominated by this and work as a co op to ship to the middle east!

Malc on a rope bridge on a long walk to Sri Lanka's biggest falls!

Sri Lanka's biggest waterfalls!

A romantic shot after a knackering walk!

A stray dog that looked so undernourished so we bought him a couple of packs of biscuits!

Malc the missionary!

Look carefully and you can spot 2 monkeys on the bridge. There were about a dozen in the overhanging tree waiting to pounce on anyone with food!