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Sri Lanka: days 1-3

Stumbling my way through the airport, juggling my travellers backpack, a 23kg suitcase and a sea of travel documents, I was filled with 75% excitement, and 25% nerves. Not only was this the furthest I've ever travelled, it was also my first time going away solo from family and friends. After bombing down the motorway to Heathrow before turning round and bombing back at twice the speed to Gatwick (my bad) I somehow managed to get there 4 hours early, and spent most of it bored out my mind and eager to board. 13 hours of flying and 0 hours of sleep later we landed in Colombo, and luckily it didn't take long to get through immigration and other such exciting things you unfortunately have to do at airports, so I was able to meet up with the coordinator for the project and the group of about 16 other volunteers who had landed at roughly the same time as me. Then it was straight onto a 3 hour bus ride to Ambalangoda, a rural seaside town in the south of Sri Lanka.
The rest of day 1 was spent feeling exceptionally jet lagged and unpacking, having our first Sri Lankan meal and sleeping, not before a sneaky trip to Hiros, which quickly became a favourite place to meet up with the other volunteers for pretty spectacular ice cream.






On the sunday, my second day in Sri Lanka, there was no waiting around for the jetlag to go away. An 8:00am start for an early orientation about the projects and anything and everything Sri Lanka took place before getting in the infamous tuk tuks to do our first proper day of exploring, starting off with a gem mine. After seeing how they mine, collect, polish and shape the gems and then turn them into jewellery, and a chance to look around the shop, we were back into the tuk tuks to see the largest sleeping buddah statue in Asia. It was our first temple visit of the trip and it certainly didn't disappoint, it was absolutely incredible. It was then back to our respective houses for dinner before turning in, as day 3 was also going to be an early start (for my books anyway.)








This first monday was probably the highlight of the trip for me: if I had to pick one day to relive it would probably be this one. We woke up relatively early and after breakfast were straight back into the tuk tuks to a boat trip. It lasted a couple of hours, but we managed to fit in seeing so much, including temples, a local Sri Lankan making cinnamon, a fish foot spa, holding a snake and a baby crocodile, and lots of wildlife. After this we went back to the houses, had lunch and then embarked on our first afternoons at project, mine being the government orphanage. It was nerve wracking going in, as none of us had any idea what to expect, but all the kids were so lovely and welcoming. On our first day we spent an hour and a half teaching the girls english, and then the next hour and a half playing outside with all the children before heading back.
















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