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However, this is not an island without its troubles. Sri Lanka has had to come to terms with the devastating effects of the 2004 , which killed 30,000 people and destroyed huge swathes of the coastland, and the recent return of violence in parts of the country.

What the country is united about is its love of cricket and here. Four years ago, England bravely hung on to draw the first two Test matches in Galle and Kandy before finally being worn down by the heat and the skill of the Sri Lankan team in Colombo.

This year's tour begins here with two warm-up matches in the capital before we move to the Asgiriya stadium in Kandy for the first Test.

Having arrived here on Friday, I feel jet-lagged and tired and not quite sure where I am or what time it is. You have to be very careful when you are feeling like this.

Four years ago on my first day of the tour in Colombo myself and commentators John Murray and Jonny Saunders went for a walk along the sea front which took a rather unexpected turn.

I was wandering down the road minding my own business when I noticed John and Jonny getting into one of the city's numerous three-wheeled rickshaw taxis or "" as they are known. They beckoned me over and said I had to get in because the driver was going to take us to a special religious festival only taking place that day.

Not feeling at my most switched on, I suspended my normal suspicious mind-set and got in. The driver then proceeded to tell us that he actually worked at the reception of the hotel where we were staying, but was on a day off and was willing to share with us a special experience.

Today he told us was the only day of he year where we could visit a temple in the city to see a unique religious artefact. "All the people you see walking on the pavement are all going to see this today," he told us.

We then pulled up at what was clearly not Colombo's premier temple and I was starting to become more and more cynical about what John and Jonny had agreed to, but it was too late to pull out so we took off our shoes and went inside.

Our guide then took us to a small dusty room full of cobwebs and what looked like a heap of junk. He then excitedly opened a small cabinet to reveal the item which he told us would take our breath away. In a small pink dusty pot was a tiny white object which he announced was "part of the tooth of ".

By this stage I was feeling more and more suspicious. "So this artefact can only be viewed by the public today?" I asked. "It is not on show at any other time." "No sir," he replied.

"So if I came back here tomorrow you could not show me this?" I asked. Our guide paused for a moment and then answered "For you, sir, I will be able to show this to you again tomorrow."

As we left the temple we all had to pay a substantial "donation" to the upkeep of the temple followed by a extortionate demand for the cost of our "Tuk-Tuk" trip. We had been well and truly had - but the trip may have had an amazing longer-term effect on our lives.

During the course of our tour of the temple John, Jonny and myself were all invited to drink from a "fountain of fertility". We thought nothing of it at the time, but just over 12 months later we all became fathers.

And the due dates for our babies were in exactly the same week .

I've already told our team in Colombo for this tour to be especially careful where they drink from.