Postcard from Sri Lanka: Makhaya Ntini

When we arrived here in Sri Lanka on the 1st of July, there was nothing much happening but as the tour progressed and the days have gone by, we've ventured out a bit into the city of Colombo to check out its features.

The Hilton Hotel has been a favourite place to visit for the boys with the Blue Elephant club being our place to hangout and kick back. Most of the team went out on the night we lost the final to Sri Lanka and even though we had lost the match, we never allowed this to dampen our spirits and we had a good time. Even better as my baby boy Masimphe was born into the World.

It's amazing how most of the guys spend their free time browsing the shops and markets looking for the elusive "real deal". I found a place to buy a few CD's from as well as some really cool material to take back with me and to have a suit made from.

Every tour has its difficult moments. In Australia, its the continuous amount of flying one has to do; in England its contending with the inclement weather, but here in Sri Lanka its definitely the bus trips we have to take to get from place to place.

Take for instance the bus ride up to Kandy where we are at the moment. There is no keeping left and passing right, its just go for the gap my China! We have a policeman who rides ahead trying to direct the traffic out of our path but each time he makes a gap, it gets filled by another Lankan vehicle also trying to get somewhere through the maze of vehicles on the road.

I've never watched so much TV in all my life before. Here we have Channel V (an MTV-type music channel), Star-Movies or Star-World to choose from or for the nature lovers like Lance, there's National Geographic. This gives you an impression of how we live on tour in the sub-continent, playing cricket by day and watching the box at night till you can't channel surf no more with sleep coming slowly.

Tonight after play should be an interesting time as the Fizz has challenged us twelthies to a 4K uphill run up the hill to our hotel. Le Kandyan Hotel is perched atop a lovely hill and the Fizz and Corrie did the run three days ago in 23 minutes. Remember that there is no "keep left, pass right". In fact, these roads resemble the ones I know back in Butterworth, Transkei. Nor is there any level part of this hill climb to rest up or recover again; its uphill all the way for 4 K's.

Something else that has bothered me a bit on this tour is the nature of the Lankans when they want to get your attention. They don't call or gesture to you or ask, "excuse me"; they just make these sounds with their lips like a birdcall or a lip kiss as if you're calling your dog or cat at home. At first it was irritating and we thought they were making fun of us but then we realized that this was just their nature and now we take no further notice.

So far I've enjoyed the trip and will take with me some more experience of touring the sub-continent. This is Makhaya Ntini signing off for CricInfo. Cheerio.