Travel is quite often not about the big in your face experiences but about those quiet discoveries.

• Tomato sauce with Chilli

There’s nothing quite like the moment you discover that taste of a rich ketchup with a little bite of chilli – enough to sharpen, not enough to burn. Quietly addictive.

• Franciscan sisters marmalade

I like a good marmalade preferring the dark traditional ones like Keiller’s (I used to be able to see the factory chimney from the window of my auntie’s apartment when it was Keiller’s of Dundee) or Frank Cooper to the lighter fruity ones. but I’d willingly make an exception for the fruity orangey one produced by the Franciscan Sisters. Truly a marmalade to enjoy at breakfast.

• Elephant trucks

Ever wondered how they get elephants to poya festivals – all over Sri Lanka on poya days they have elephants in parades. These are local events without the exuberant lights and costumes seen at Esala Perahera in Kandy, but they do have elephants. And when we were in Habarana it was Poson Poya, which is very popular in the Ancient Cities area, and you would see these trucks with elephants riding in the back being taken to the various local ceremonial posessions. I defy anyone not to smile at the sight of an elephant in the back of a 1950’s Bedford truck …

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