Sri Lanka & India 2025
In February a group enjoyed the enormous hospitality of the Sri Lanka Air Force while visiting several major Air Force installations in the country. Sri Lanka has much more to offer so the group also visited several beautiful landmarks and enjoyed as safari as well.
After a week the group moved to Bangalore in India to visit the bi-annual Aero India at AFS Yelahanka.
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It wasn’t the first time 4Aviation went to Sri Lanka, but when that country’s air force allows you to do a tour of all airbases it is hard to say “no”. Of course we wouldn’t say “no”! Combining it with a visit to the bi-annual Aero India event in Bangalore, (you guessed it) India, proved to be irresistible for a group of 21 travellers hailing from all over the world. Let’s go!
Because that “go” had come late the tour was only offered with the “land only” option, with the result that the group members made the trip to Colombo, Sri Lanka, on their own or in small groups, some even arriving a couple of days earlier and already enjoying touristic Sri Lanka. It also meant that at several of our stays not a single hotel with enough accommodation could be found so the group had to be split up between two hotels.
For many arriving in country the warm temperature took a bit to get used to, but at least the weather was brilliant, and we would be enjoying sunshine all week long. Some real die-hards “confiscated” the hotel minivan (with reluctant driver) and went into town for a couple of wrecks & relics. Others just enjoyed the lazy Sunday to acclimate to the country. Some pieces of luggage had not accompanied their owners on the flights in, but on a later flight. Not wanting to wait for the luggage to be delivered to the hotels at their convenience we collected it at the airport ourselves, which was an exercise in bureaucracy and patience but worked out in the end. In the evening (still Sunday 2 February) we had a get together with the (by then almost complete) group where the 4Aviation tour guide held a short briefing on what to expect the coming days and agree on some “rules”. After that we went for dinner in a posh restaurant, but this being Sri Lanka it was nevertheless a cheap night out.
The tour started in earnest on the Monday (3 February) with a day long visit to the main operating base at Katunayake, at the opposite side of Colombo International Airport. Once we had everyone from both hotels in our rented touring car it was a half hour drive through Sri Lanka’s “funny” traffic to Katunayakes main gate. Here we met our two SLAF (Sri Lanka Air Force) escorts who would stay with us for the rest of the week, had everything prepared for us to the last detail, and proved to be invaluable to our needs as hungry photographers and number crunchers. While we were waiting to be let on base the final preparations for tomorrow’s Independence Day parade were in full swing, with a large group of soldiers “marching up and down the square”. Quite impressive.
It became (once again) immediately obvious that the SLAF is a proud, professional and battle-hardened organisation, but suffers from financial constraints ever since the civil war ended in 2009. The air force isn’t particularly large (looking at the number of aircraft and helicopters in its inventory) and struggles to have a fair number of these airworthy. Having said that, steps are being made to improve on this, with the most obvious example being the serious work undertaken to reinstate the IAI Kfir into the air force. A welcome development which alone would certainly justify another visit to the country by 4Aviation in the future.
Immediately our SLAF escorts proved to us that they came prepared and there would be no need to try to explain them what we wanted to see and do (within reason, of course). We were allowed in, and could take photos, in all hangars and aircraft shelters but one. Only the Kfir resurrection hangar was off limits (because of the original manufacturers maintenance personnel at work there) which was expected so not a disappointment, and at least the hangar was wide open to have a good look. The single (sort of) operational C-130 had been towed outside (the other one stood derelict nearby), an Antonov 32 did an engine run specially for our benefit, a F-7 (MiG-21) ground display had been set up, but the cherry on the cake would be another F-7. We had been informed that there would be no flying activity today, in preparation for tomorrow’s Independence Day, and that the single F-7 which was supposed to take part in the small flying parade had been cancelled. Not wanting to deny us the joy of an F-7, the unit commander therefore decided that if his F-7 couldn’t fly on the Tuesday, it would fly on the Monday instead! After this joyous event, and an applause from a group of happy photographers for the pilot exiting his jet, we boarded our touring car again and drove the short distance to the second set of platforms and hangars on base. Again, we were let loose with hardly any restrictions imposed and were even allowed to roam and photograph in the maintenance hangar and on the helicopter storage line. To top things off we could photograph the preserved aircraft on base, including the Antonov 32 fuselage hidden far away from the flying part of the airbase, not so much preserved but in use as a fire brigade training aid, a location not previously visited by a 4Aviation group.
And that was it for Katunayake. Initially it was planned to spend a good part of two days here, but after day one there was nothing else to see and do, specially with the “grounded” F-7 there would be no flying from here on the Tuesday (the couple of helicopters in the whole flypast operating from Ratmalana).
Tuesday 4 February; Independence Day! Choices had to be made, and it was decided not to bother with the helicopters in the flypast since we would be going to their home base the next day anyway. This decision was made easier as our SLAF escorts had booked us for a visit to the SLAF school at Ekala in the morning, which were prepared to receive us despite it being a public holiday. Here a mix of preserved and ground instructional aircraft could be seen and photographed. The number crunchers had again a field day trying to positively identify the SF.260’s on base (and in the rest of the country) which tend to carry false tail numbers, seem to be swapping these around now and then, and generally posing a problem because there are more airframes around than there should be! A visit to the air force on base, with photos of all air force personnel killed in action or in accidents was impressive. The memorial wall also listed a good number of details on aircraft crashes so that kept the number guys busy once again. Thinking we had finished here our hosts led us to some palm trees where SLAF personnel were already busy preparing fresh coconuts which had just been removed from the trees. What a treat! Those who could not get enough of the coconuts could even taste the coconut “meat” once the hard nut shell had been cracked open with a machete (not done by us, luckily, that would no doubt have dramatically increased the number of chopped off hands and other serious injuries from 0). It was amazing how different and better a fresh coconut tastes compared to what we can buy in a supermarket.
With nothing “officially” on our agenda for the afternoon we directed our touring car to a couple of preserved aircraft in Colombo (more SF-260s, and a Mi-24 Hind) before heading back to our hotels. Some decided to retreat to their rooms, the swimming pool or a bar, others going touristic and went to see monkeys by boat on an island.
Day 3 of the SLAF tour (Wednesday 5 February) had everything to do with Colombo’s second airport, Ratmalana. The bulk of the air force transport fleet used to be based here, but in the past the “heavies” moved to Katunayake, the light transports moved to new-built hangars on the opposite side of the airfield, and the VIP helicopter squadron made the reverse move from Katunayake to here. In the morning, we would be the guests of No.8 Transport Squadron, home of the Y-12 and a single Beech 200. Unfortunately the other two hangars were off limits to us, we already knew this for No.4 Squadron with their VIP helicopters (carrying either no tail numbers in case of the Mi-17, or all have the same tail number when it comes to the Bell 412!), but not being allowed to go to the two MA-60 aircraft was unexpected. A bit of persuasion didn’t help unfortunately, and it was explained away with “special operations” of some sort. Ah well, at least the number crunchers once again got lucky when both could be seen through a partially opened hangar door just before we had to board our touring car again. On the other hand, the Y-12s could be freely photographed inside and out, one did a low approach for our benefit before landing and taxiing in (with hideous back light unfortunately), and we took, not for the last time, the opportunity for a group photo.
After this it was off to the other side of the airfield and the Air Force Museum. Although the air force itself has always been rather small this is not reflected in the museum itself. It tells both dynamic and bloody story of the country’s military aviation history through images and the sheer number of aircraft and helicopters on display, many very rare specimens. A museum well worth to spend several hours in, and so we did. On arrival we were ushered to the cashier to pay our entrance fee. For some unclear reason it was not possible to pay as a group, and he had no change, which was a problem. After some encouraging words by our SLAF escort the whole paying idea was abandoned and we were let free! We had expected more people visiting the museum today but instead found ourselves as the only group here. It was still hot of course but the trees gave some relief, and so did the fruit juice bar.
In the meantime, a last effort was done by our SLAF escort to get access to the military university opposite of the road, where several aircraft are on display and in use for instructional purposes, but this was unsuccessful. It is not run by the air force but by the Ministry of Defence, which may sound as “potato, potatoe” but really isn’t. Anyway, we (or rather our SLAF escort) got as far as getting the university’s Superintendent on the phone which resulted in a polite “no, sorry”. It’s not that we didn’t try, both beforehand and here on the spot, but it would have been the cherry on the cake.
Back in the touring car we had some driving to do, leaving the Colombo area and going inland where nature really shows itself and elephants walk the streets or decide to go standing in the middle of a shallow lake. We arrived at our (again) two hotels in Habarana in the dark, with some confusion of how we would transport our people and luggage from the busy main road to the hotels a few hundred meters down a dusty back road. To our eyes sometimes appearing a bit chaotic, Sri Lankans take care of matters and soon a jeep and tuk-tuk appeared which hauled everything down the road in two go’s. More chaos followed in the hotel (really a nice tropical resort completes with swimming pool) when the friendly lady in charge had trouble comprehending that two grown men usually (at least in our group) do not like to sleep in a single bed. In the end we had to reorganise the room allotment and “confiscate” two more rooms which was not a problem at all apparently. Which is curious because we had booked three rooms in another hotel as this hotel couldn’t accommodate the whole group, and now they had plenty of rooms to spare… Anyway, once everyone was settled it was time for dinner, which was perfectly prepared by the hotel with a buffet. Extra points to this resort for that, and apparently the three guys in the other hotel had a good time too.
Helicopter time on Thursday 6 February! Which promised to be special as one of our SLAF escort was an Mi-17 pilot and “had made some arrangements”. We had received permission to visit Anuradhapura this time, which hadn’t bee on the itinerary the previous time. The plan had been to go there in the afternoon after visiting Hingurakgoda, but thanks to some inside information from our SLAF escort / Mi-17 pilot it was decided to go to Anuradhapura first for a Mi-17 take off going to Hingurakgoda, which we otherwise would probably have missed at both locations!
Not the busy base as it once was, Anuradhapura presented us with three black Mi-17s, one of which was soon towed outside of the hangar and into the sun. This was the one which was intended to take off in our presence, but it soon became apparent there was a delay. Although we would have loved to see the Mi-17 start and take off, it made more sense to quickly go to Hingurakgoda instead and hope they would get the Mi-17 airborne so we could witness it arrive there. But of course, not before we had taken another group photo in front of the Mi-17, and a quick look at the preserved aircraft on base.
At Hingurakgoda we were welcomed by the sight of a singe Bell 212 in the No.7 Helicopter Squadron hangar, plus a couple of tail booms. Luckily, we could already see there was another one outside, plus a Bell 206. A case of quality over quantity. The quality would even get better by the events unfolding. Once outside soon the Bell 206 was being prepared for take off, as was the 212. Then we were asked what we wanted these two helicopters to do. “Uhhh, hover, fly slow and fast, hover in formation, maybe?” And so, for the next 30 minutes we were entertained by the two helicopters, with especially the 212 not holding back and presenting is with a couple of great banking passes. In the meantime, we were a bit worried that maybe we would not be allowed near the Mi-24s we already noticed in the distance, these are not operational at the time, and we feared this would be grounds to not let us go there. All worries were unfounded however and after we had wrapped up at No.7 squadron we boarded our touring car for the short drive to the Hind’s. The one Hind we had seen in the distance being worked on had being towed outside and was being displayed with all the weapons it could carry, just for us. Several Hinds in the hangar were in (long) maintenance and it is hoped that a couple of these will return to operational status in the future. It was however explained that this has become a very expensive affair, with spare parts being hard to come by and at premium prices, specially since the Ukraine war and all the embargoes. In the end time will tell if the government wants to spend the money to reinstate the Mi-24 in SLAF service…
We had almost forgotten the Mi-17 at Anuradhapura, did it get the fuel from the fuel truck dispatched from Hingurakgoda, and make it to here? Yes, it did! By the time it arrived it was low on fuel and therefore only could do one low pass before it needed to land. Starting the pass over the runway, our SLAF escort in contact with the Hip pilot via a handheld radio quickly called the pilot “taxiway, taxiway!”, the Hip swerved left and passed right over our heads, fast and low. Not very helpful for the photos but a nice sight it was. The Hip then made up for the missed photo opportunity by hovering at the end of the runway where we were positioned, and then taxied in. To finish off a great afternoon at Hingurakgoda the preserved aircraft and helicopters on base were not forgotten, including a nice-looking MiG-17 recently moved from its old position near the control tower to a construction site near the runway, which more resembled a building site because the whole infrastructure at this base is being refurbished.
We arrived at our next stay for the night after dark again, in another resort in the outskirts of Trincomalee on the east coast. And again, we seemed to be the only guests in the whole complex. After sorting a few things out everyone had dinner and a great evening, with either beer or fruity drinks flowing freely.
Oh no, Friday 7 February was already our last day as guests of the Sri Lanka Air Force, how time flies! China Bay houses the PT-6 and Cessna 150 trainers of the Air Force academy. Also the K-8 jet trainers are based here but apparently the flying ones were at Katunayake (where we saw them indeed, one of these crashing only a few weeks later) so we did not expect to see any flying ones here at China Bay, and this proved to be the case. One of two Cessna 150s was apparently scheduled to fly that morning, but “the weather didn’t allow it”. It was dry, not too windy, with 50/50 cloud cover. Okay… The friendly people at China Bay had towed a couple of aircraft outside for our benefit, and later even moved them out of under the sun sheds and into the sun. We also were shown a K-8 and two more PT-6s in two shelters. But the large hanger was off limits which was disappointing to say the least: it was easy to see it was full of aircraft. The reason for this was not hard to guess, the one-and-only Dornier 228 “donated” by the Indian Navy to the Sri Lankans was inside, and although operating in Sri Lankan markings it is no big secret that it is manned and most likely still owned by the Indians. It is even known that in the past the airframe has been swapped for another Dornier when the aircraft returned to India for maintenance… We tried to persuade the people in charge but to no avail, and there wasn’t much our SLAF escorts could do, unfortunately. With some deception involved the numbers guys at least identified all the aircraft inside, but for everyone it was a disappointment that it was even not possible to tow at least a few more aircraft outside, like what they had done during the previous 4Aviation visit. We would gladly have helped them push the aircraft outside, but that was not to be.
After we had finished at China Bay we were driven to Marble Beach, a resort situated in a beautiful tropical bay operated by the SLAF. We spent a couple of hours here relaxing and reminiscing on the past week. And then it was back to the same resort where we had spent the night 2 days ago. Of course, a visit to Sri Lanka is not complete without a safari so for those interested a couple of open top jeeps were arranged and a lot of elephants were seen, it was a bit crowded with tourists and a traffic jam of jeeps on safari, but a fun time was had. The others who were less interested in a safari retreated to their hotel and swimming pool.
Saturday (8 February) was the day we had to say goodbye to Sri Lanka, and to two of our fellow travellers who would not accompany us to India. But not before we had a couple of hours driving in our touring car ahead of us, with our driver becoming more and more “enthusiastic” on the road. A stop at a touristic attraction, complete with a enormous gold painted Buddha statue, left a bit of a bitter taste for some as our Sri Lankan tour guide was not very clear on what to expect here and how much time that would costs, the bus crew seemed to be more interested to be back in Colombo on time than anything else. Therefore, the well know Buddha cave on top of the hill was missed by almost everyone because there was just not enough time (but we had in fact plenty of time…). There were a lot of monkeys though, which weren’t shy at all but thankfully also not too brutal. Finally, the touring car dropped the whole group off at the airport, where we said our goodbyes to our two fellow group members, the touring car crew and of course our two SLAF escort who had proven themselves invaluable over the past couple of days. With several hours to wait before we could start our check-in for the flight to India the group split up with some going into town while others just took the time to relax in the airport terminal. When it became apparent that one of the two group members who were staying behind had lost his wallet and passport there was a bit of orchestrated panic but in the end, everything was okay, thanks to a helpful hotel desk and an honest Uber driver who found it left behind in his car. With that sorted out we boarded our flight to Bangalore (or rather Bengaluru as it is nowadays called).
Our arrival in India started “well” with a long wait in the Immigration queue, and a touring car driver with who it was impossible to communicate with in any decent way. Speaking English apparently isn’t the same as understanding it. It resulted in the group going back and forward to several potential places where the touring car could be, but in the end, we found the driver had gone to a bus stop meant for airline personnel which was not sign posted and only accessible through a narrow-hidden corridor. Arriving at the hotel it was well past midnight, and everyone was looking forward to his or her bed. However, the hotel desk managed to make a simple thing very complicated, again not really understanding some basic English grammar, but in the end the problem that never was a problem got sorted out and everyone could finally retire to their rooms.
First thing on the agenda for Sunday, 9 February, was to go to a Defence office in town and collect our press passes. This seemed to be easy…but this is India and nothing is easy. We at least could use the touring car to get us there, pick up our passes, and do other fun things. At the office a big spanner was thrown into the works when we were told we didn’t have the correct visa in our passports. When applying for the press passes there was a note that a “J visa” (journalist visa) was advised, but in the meantime, over the last week, this advisory had been upgraded to a mandatory requirement! Two hours of discussing our standpoint, waiting, more attempts to show we were in the right, and trying to convince the officer that refusing our press passes would be bad publicity for the military and the air show, were in the end futile. This was understandably a big disappointment for everyone and not expected at all. In the end most of the group decided to buy a business pass for one or two days instead, which were not cheap but with no real alternatives left it was the only way to go.
With the mood in the group sombre we went to the HAL Museum. Earlier plans to go to the Yelahanka air base and maybe see some aircraft practising for the coming Aero India air show were shelved because we had wasted too much time at the press pass office. The HAL Museum isn’t big but there are some nice aircraft on display. This being a Sunday it was however quite crowded (go figure, in India…) and it asked for some patience to get all aircraft digitised without locals in front of them. After the museum the touring car brought us back to the hotel, where many decided to go into town for some more w&r on their own. Transportation by tuk-tuk is easy to find and cheap, its is also an adventure on its own! One of the locations visited this way was the memorial park, housing a MiG-21, MiG-23 and Mi-8 on its grounds. To our amazement cameras were not allowed in there, enforced by the many guards roaming the park with their whistles. What a stupid thing to forbid, in a public park, specially because taking photos with your mobile phone was very much okay…
Monday 10 February, the first day of Aero India. Most of the group had decided to buy a business pass for the next day (Tuesday), as today in the morning the venue wouldn’t be accessible anyway because of the opening ceremony. We also by now knew there would be a large flypast for this ceremony, but the formations would be coming from all directions instead of in one stream, making life for us photographers rather difficult. There would be a formation of Jaguars in there, by all regarded as the highlight of the flypast, and we tried hard to find the best spot to at least have a good shot at these. That didn’t work out too well in the end, as it was found to be very difficult to find an open spot just outside of Yelahanka air base. Not only because of high walls, trees and buildings, but also the literally hundreds of police men about didn’t help. Our touring car driver dropped us off at the spot we had thought would be the best option, but sometimes a Google Earth view does not correlate with reality, and we quickly decided this was no good. After trying to get access to a car park which was of course denied we moved a couple hundred meters down the road where we thought we had found the “least bad” spot. Here too we were about to be chased off by the police until their breakfast arrived and their priorities shifted. One of our groups went on a reconnaissance run (literally) and soon returned with news of a better spot, in the approach. This was just in time because once there we didn’t need to wait long for the flypast proceedings to start. The spot in the approach was indeed a much better one and most of the group would be here all day. The sun was in our backs, there was shade, there were a lot of locals so we didn’t need to worry about being sent off, and landing aircraft would be perfect in shot.
The flypast was exactly as we had expected. Some formations were nice, others were horribly far away and into the sun. The Jaguars were…. mediocre, and that is putting it nicely. It took some Lightroom / darktable magic in post-processing to make at least something out of it. On the plus side a couple of Tejas fighters had departed from Yelahanke for the flypast and duly returned afterwards, giving us a first taste of how nicely photographable this spot in the approach was. For the rest of the day, we were treated by the display aircraft returning to base, intermingled by Antonov 32s, Dornier 228s and helicopters, including a very welcome Alouette III. Much excitement under the locals when the Sukhoi 57 started its (admittingly quite spectacular) display. Our excitement however was less when the only times it came close to be photographed it was in a tight turn away from us, showing its underbelly. The US F-35 followed immediately after, but with a very underwhelming display consisting of no more than a couple of low passes. The Russians, not impressed by this, immediately flew the same Sukhoi again! The crowd went wild. We didn’t because again we saw nothing but underbelly. In the meantime, some of us went looking for an old prop aircraft tucked away at the back of the adjacent university campus, by walking down a (active) railroad track, as you do in India. Another walk was to a tiny ramshackle shop for ridiculously cheap refreshments. This was a great spot, with all the amendments you usually wish for. Maybe a bit less dust would have been nice. The locals were friendly too, and with one or two exceptions not annoying at all.
We had planned with our driver to come pick us up at six, with the sun going down fast. Of course, nodding and saying “yes I understand” that morning doesn’t mean that, and it took some time by phone to convince our driver to come and pick us up at the location we actually were. The drive back to our hotel was murder and took us two hours instead of the expected 45 minutes. Maybe our driver had a talent for picking the most congested roads, but the whole of Bangalore was one big traffic jam anyway so there was not much that we could do than be patient…
Amazingly, Tuesday 11 February was the last day of our trip already, and most of the group would be flying home either late that night or in the early Wednesday morning. Our driver dropped most of the group off at Yelahanka’s main gate, but two had decided not to come on base and were instead dropped off at the same spot we had been the day before. Tickets, passports and backpacks were checked several times but besides that getting on was uneventful, the fear that backpacks would not be allowed on base was unnecessary (despite being posted online) and soon we found ourselves at a still not crowded at all Aero India. The Indian Navy was a big participant this year which made the static display even more interesting than usual. You don’t see an Indian Seahawk, Sea King, Kamov helicopter and a carrier-capable MiG-29K every day! An elevated terrace at the side of one of the hangars looked like a promising spot but it was unclear if we could go up there, and how long we would be allowed to stay. Long story short: it was easy, and we weren’t bothered all day long. Until the flying displays started there weren’t a lot of locals up there, but that changed quickly once there were aircraft in the air. Some of our group tried to go to the grandstand, which had been accessible for the two of our group who went on base on Monday, but today it was for (real) dignitaries only and closed off unfortunately. Apart from the noise of the ancient air conditioning units blowing on the terrace, we had again found a great spot to spend the day. We were right in front of the parked Sukhoi 57 and could witness all the proceedings, and the interest the Russian personnel showed when the American F-35 taxied past. Some transport aircraft had come in and left in the morning, undoubtedly, to drop off the dignitaries who were now occupying the grandstand, and these returned in the afternoon. Including two Navy Dornier 228s who we found to be very welcome indeed! The flightline had (understandably) been off limits for most of the day, but late in the afternoon one could simply walk on and not be bothered by anyone if you kept your distance. Too bad that the real fast jets like the Sukhoi 30s were parked opposite the runway and were not accessible. But you take what you can get, and it was refreshing to be left unbothered all day long. All in all Aero India 2025 proved to be a great venue for us, both photography and numbers wise.
The only thing left now, was to get back to our hotel. With yesterdays traffic mayhem still in mind, and the first members of our group flying home in the very early hours of the night, we (thought we) had arranged our driver to pick us up at the main gate at 17:30. But not only the roads outside the air base were jammed with cars, also our driver was again showing no understanding of the concept of initiative and was instead of trying to be there on time just waiting for a signal to start driving from hist parking spot ten kilometres away. Also, he had apparently no memory of where he had dropped us off in the morning. It took “only” a 90-minute wait for him to finally show up, and then again, a two-hour drive to our hotel. With no chance of our touring car being able to also pick up the two guys who had spend the day in the approach, they just took a taxicab into town and had arrived at our hotel before the rest of the group did.
Just enough time left for the most of us for a quick dinner, a shower and a few hours of sleep before heading to the airport. We had the hotel desk arrange taxi cabs all through the night for the two or three group members who would be leaving on the same flight, or separate flights departing at roughly the same time. This was executed amazingly well, but it was not hard for any of the taxi drivers to be on time as they all were outside of the hotel already around midnight and waited! For some of us an interesting ride through the night followed with our luggage placed on the roof of the car without being strapped down, but all luggage arrived safe at the airport, despite a big swerve after (audibly) hitting a stray dog on the road. We expected to see all kinds of luggage tumbling off the car in the rear-view mirror, but this did not happen. We made it.
What can we say about this week-and-a-half, besides that it was for all a fantastic experience. The SLAF played the perfect hosts, as usual, and although we were denied access here and there, we did see (and photograph) a lot and were specially spoiled by the aircraft and helicopters being displayed and even flying just for our benefit, including the F-7. Sri Lanka is also a fascinating country for a tourist, so it wouldn’t harm to go back there just for the sight-seeing. India proved once again to be a different place to be in, with (to our westerner’s eyes) the chaos stepped up a few notches. The refusal of the press passes was a big disappointment and did forebode things might not be going well, but in the end, Aero India proved to be a great venue which brought big smiles to everyone’s faces. And with that you just take the “little discomforts” as they come and go, as the “charm” of the country. See you next time.
