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Published: September 3rd 2017
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I've gotten off a train at the wrong stop before but never a plane! Glyn and I were concerned that we seemed to be arriving 2.5 hours early because we had arranged to be picked up from the airport and there would be a lot of waiting. It wasn't until passport control that we found out that we were not in Sri Lanka, but the Maldives!
No one told us that the plane stopped on the way from Istanbul. Looking out of the window at the many tropical islands below, a lot of which were entirely holiday accommodation, I did think it looked like photos I'd seen of the Maldives but just thought it must be similar. I also thought that the airport seemed very small for a capital city too... Apparently this does happen a lot and we had the walk of shame back to our plane, past the flight crew and other passengers who somehow knew about the stop. It was a bit embarrassing.
Eventually arriving in Colombo, we descended through the thickest of thick clouds to a damp but very hot green and lush country. The land was covered in dense trees with a few clearings
for farms and homes. There were mostly palm trees but I also spotted bamboo and others that I cannot identify because I know little about trees.
Passport control was very quick and we soon met the guy picking us up from the Elephant Project. He spoke very little English so barely any conversation was had. And so, after a 4 hour flight to Istanbul and a 10 hour flight to Colombo (and a little walk in the Maldives), we began our final leg of the trip: a 2 hour drive to Kegalle which is east of Colombo.
The minibus we were travelling in was old with no aircon, so the windows were open. The air smelt hot and damp with a hint of sweetness. I could see why tourists are advised not to drive themselves; the roads were good but the driving level was dodgy with lots of tail-gating, extreme overtaking and stray dogs lying in the road. Random cows strolled worryingly close to the road, seemingly completely free to roam wherever they fancied. Mopeds overtook cars over taking tuk-tuks whilst oncoming traffic did the same. The journey took us through a few towns of higgledypiggled mismatched buildings
of various sizes and repair that put me in mind of hastily erected frontier towns. There were trees everywhere. In between the towns the trees and foliage was dense but the road edge was lined with shops, cafes and businesses the entire length of the journey. I saw places offering ECGs, X-rays and blood tests next to fruit stands and general stores.
There were lots of stray dogs but I did not spot any cats, but Glyn saw one sniffing a motorbike. So at least I know some are about.
We arrived at The Elephant Project around 6pm as the light was starting to go, it did turn dark very quickly because we are quite near to the equator. The accommodation is basic but Glyn and I have a dorm to ourselves, simple beds adorned with mosquito nets that have been repaired many times. There's only one other couple staying, two Germans who had their Elephant experience today and said it was great but there was some rain.
We went for a brief walk in the dark where I finally saw my first Sri Lankan cat sitting in a garden staring at me. We then returned to
be fed some lovely Sri Lankan food that the Germans had helped make earlier. We struggled with the electric sockets being the old three round pins that we used to have in the UK, none of our travel adapters worked, but the nice lady who works here jammed in a pen into the top hole and so the lower pins went in, probably not that safely! We're both very tired, so it's an early night as the next few days are jam-packed!
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
That walk of shame...
...even though I was laughing, I really did feel your pain :) It's interesting reading about that first glimpse and impression of a country - high levels of travel excitement no doubt. Looking forward to the rest of your adventure in Sri Lanka