Colombo and Kandy

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Firstly, apologies for being quiet on the blog front for a few days - the past couple of days have consisted primarily of 5am starts and full day coach journeys, which will be explained in more detail towards the end of this blog!

Having been introduced to Colombo on an unusually quiet day, it was decided that we needed to be thrown in to the deep end, and shown how busy the streets normally are. So on Saturday, we were taken to Pettah, an enormous wholesale market in the middle of Colombo. However, the day didn't start too well, with Nick and Kirsty getting lost because their tuk-tuk driver didn't know where the clocktower at the market was - a tribute to the sheer size and intricacy of Pettah's streets! When the group was eventually reunited, we wandered around for a couple of hours, where some of the guys bought shirts and sports equipment, and generally absorbed the hustle and bustle of everyday Colombo living. We then had a KFC lunch - there is only so much culture we can absorb in one day!

After a nice meal and wine (courtesy of Nick) at Lavoire Blache on the beach, we then went out for a few drinks to Kama Bar, the haunt on the young and wealthy of Colombo, and had a fair few laughs to boot. However, the night took a slight turn for the worse when we arrived back at the hotel to find that 2 of the rooms had been flooded due to rain water pooling on the roof - all of the girls clothes were soaked, and there were a few other big casualties, including a laptop and hair straighteners - a massive downer to a great night.

Sunday morning consisted of most of the team helping to salvage their belongings, whilst me and Alison went to the airport to pick up Abbi - a tiring 5 hour round trip after a very late night! After we got back, we quickly changed and headed to the Galle Face hotel to meet for high tea with a lady called Gowrie, who is in charge of CORD in Sri Lanka, our partner organisation, for a catch up on what is happening. After leaving the hotel, we were greeted with amazing scenes of thousands of local people flying kites, playing sports and generally enjoying the beautiful sunset. We then returned to the hotel and chilled out, watched a film and went to bed.

On Monday we had a quiet morning and then returned to the Mango Tree for another incredible curry, and then went to show Abbi the sights and sounds of Pettah. Unfortunately the weather was pretty poor, so we came back early, picked up some snacks from the supermarket and then headed off to dinner at the exclusive Colombo Swimming Club, an amazing colonial building, courtesy of Gowrie and her husband Mahes. Dinner was a brilliant spread of seafood, and certainly went down a treat with everyone, and it gave the newer members such as myself a great opportunity to find out more about the work we are doing in Jaffna.

At 6am on Tuesday we departed for Kandy, in central Sri Lanka, and arrived at the elephant orphanage just in time to see the baby elephants being fed! We also saw the production of poo paper, as well as all of the elephants playing and bathing down by the river, and had the chance to feed a few of them... safe to say we all thoroughly enjoyed the morning! After lunch we then went on to another place down the road, where we were lucky enough to ride on an elephant called Nona, who soaked us all with water on the walk, quite a refreshing experience to say the least... A short trip to Kandy town followed, then back to pack up, ready for a 5am leave again for Dambulla, Sigiyura and finally Jaffna. Should be a tough long trip, speak to you on the other side!

Tom

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