Richie wanted to go on holiday for his 40th birthday, but he wanted the destination to be kept as a surprise until the very last moment. He ‘kindly’ gave me a brief of sunshine, animals, beach, not too long-haul, and an adventure. This may seem to be quite a broad brief, but in fact without breaking the bank or travelling to the other side of the world my options were limited, but I embraced the challenge and booked it.

So two days after the big birthday we set off on our travels, with a pit-stop lunch at the Ivy on the Square in Edinburgh first. As it was new years eve Edinburgh was a bit chaotic but we made it to the airport in plenty of time – you’ll see a theme emerging that we are always early. At this point he still didn’t know where we were going, or even where we were flying to for a connection.

When we got to the check-in desk Richie was quick to point out to the man from Emirates that he didn’t want to know where he was going so could he do the passport bit first and then go away while I sorted the rest out, and luckily the he was completely on board! He was so helpful and understanding, and a bit excited about the prospect of our trip that it all went off without a hitch – we were checked in and on our way.

We did a spot of shopping and settled into our usual spot at Flutes and Tails champagne bar – why not! It was at this point Richie found out the first part of his adventure – we were flying to Dubai! We boarded our plane and off we went! As it was new years eve, it turned out we celebrated the bells somewhere over Bulgaria – as announced by the pilot.

When we arrived in Dubai there was the usual faff of getting through security, finding the terminal you’re meant to be in and then getting on a train to get there. But once we were settled and having a spot of breakfast it was time for Richie to find out the big surprise, where we were going! We were going to….SRI LANKA! Needless to say he was quite surprised!

And one final treat was that for this leg we were going Business Class – something which we will probably never do again! I have to admit that Business Class really is another world, the fact you can lie down fully to sleep, have noise cancelling headphones and are presented with cocktail list and wine list is just the beginning. The most surprising part was when we they laid out a table cloth for lunch, with a proper napkin and proper cutlery. All in all it was a lovely experience, which has slightly tainted all our other economy flights ever since!

By this point I felt I was doing quite well on the surprise adventure fronts. I gave Richie the two guidebooks I had bought, Lonely Planet and the new edition of Rough Guides, and we settled in. Look out for my posts about our adventures in Sri Lanka!