Saturday 31st January 2026

The wedding day finally arrived, and it was, quite honestly one of the best days that I have ever had in Sri Lanka. I have followed, and in so many ways supported, Daya's journey over the past 7 years and it was an honour and a privilege to not only see him get married today, but to know that I was able to make a significant contribution to his wedding. Vinothini is a lovely person and will most surely be a wonderfully supportive life partner for him from this day onwards.

It was, without a doubt, one of the most amazing weddings that I have ever been to in my life, partly because of the very close relationship that I have with both Daya and his family, partly because of it being a Hindu wedding (although this one was my third), and partly because I saw this wedding through from the very start through to the end, which made it all the more special for me. In fact, the whole thing was the most wonderful emotional experience.

The wedding ceremony was in one of the largest, most beautiful Hindu temples I have been in (having also been very recently renovated). At the point in the ceremony where Daya and Vino became husband and wife, Ragu and Rasi, Daya's brothers were extremely emotional, partly because they know the difficult journey he has been on to reach this point in his life, but also because of the huge amount of both physical and emotional energy they have put into today's wedding.

With the wedding ceremony over, and a huge number of photographs taken, we went on to the wedding hall for the wedding reception, which took place on the fifth floor of the hotel building, so there were some lovely views from the outside balconies. Far more people attended the wedding than were invited - almost 1,000 we think, although we couldn't be sure. I have met most of Daya's family, and many of his friends, but I only knew a tiny percent of the guests.

The food was served on the floor below, the fourth floor, and it was a delicious wedding lunch. Shortly after I had eaten my lunch, the group of guests from Tea Leaf arrived, so that was a lovely moment for me to be able to see so many of them one last time before I leave the Hill Country. There were hundreds more photographs, and some incredibly lively dancing, but we eventually finished around 18:00 and returned to Daya's around 19:00, having left at 07:00 this morning.

Vinothini received an official welcome into Daya's home, which was had an incredible number of family and friends crammed into it. By the end of the day, I was completely exhausted, and in no fit state to do my blog or my diary. I returned to my room at Chef King around 21:30, and I wanted to take a shower before I went to sleep, but I lay down on the bed and I was out for the count immediately, absolutely worn out, but immensely satisfied with the day.

Today's photographs have been carefully selected from a huge number that I took over the course of the day. I have just selected my favourites, as there were far too many to post on here.