Day one catch up

Day one catch up

It all began at 5am on Wednesday 22nd October as the group left their warm cosy beds to begin the journey to Sri Lanka. At 5 30am the students and other members of the Ocean Stars team said goodbye to their loved ones and headed for Heathrow airport. It then came to the baggage check in where the group faced the challenge of finding their various bags on various different trolleys. Following on from baggage check-in we went through security with no problems and then had free time to explore and shop around Duty Free, Costa Coffee, WHSmiths and many more shops! Eager to get to Sri Lanka we boarded our flight at 9 30am and for 8 and a half hours indulged ourselves on food, movies, music and laughter. We then arrived at Mumbai airport, which was decorated like an Indian Palace, even though Jake did request to go outside to see Mumbai and many of us wanted to explore the beautiful city we only had 1hour and 30 minuets to look around and board our second flight of the day. During the shopping free time a group of us found ourselves in the KFC while others wandered around exploring what the shops had to offer.

Once the group pilled on to the second flight, which to our surprise had TV’s, it was only a 2 and half an hour wait until we landed in the wonderful island of Sri Lanka. By this point only a handful of us had managed to catch up on much needed sleep so many of us found ourselves attempting to sleep but failing miserably in doing so. The plane then landed down in Colombo and we couldn't wait to get off and get on with the rest of our day. The group got through customs and exchanged their English sterling into Sri Lankan rupees. We were then welcomed Sri Lanka by the glowing and smiley face of Madushan (Cobra) and his team of drivers who would take us to a local hotel to freshen up and swim, which was a great way to start our first day in Sri Lanka. All nice and refreshed we made our way to the elephant orphanage, which during the bus journey the majority of the group managed have a nap. We then woke up to the overhead bus announcement of Madushan (cobra) requesting us to wake and get our belongings together so that we could play the elephants a visit.


Cobra showed us to the elephants roaming area and we got to take part in a brilliant photo opportunity posing with the elephants and carefully stroking their trunks. Nicole opted to pay the elephant keeper for a special vista feeding to disabled elephants some green leaves. After adoring the baby elephants taking a bath we strolled down to the elephant bathing lake and topped up on refreshing ice cold drinks. We then returned to the orphanage to witness  the elephants being fed.

After this it became apparent that everyone was very hungry so we tucked in to some lunch at a local restaurant by the lake. After this everyone hopped on the coach and we headed to Kandy to check into Hotel Thailanka. When we arrived at the hotel we were given a set time for dinner and were given then rest of the evening as free time. Some of us decide to splash around in the pool and others voted to relax in their luxury rooms.

We all then met for dinner at 8pm and help ourselves to a wide selection buffet, which had an irresistible desert section. The group was even lucky enough to be serenaded by a local trio band, Jake requested ‘Banana’ and it is safe to say that we will all be singing the Banana lyrics for the rest of the week (its very catchy).

Now it is around 10pm and the everyone is settling down into their rooms after a very busy two days and prepare themselves for a fun packed itinerary tomorrow.

Feel free to leave any comments and we will happily reply to them all tomorrow, we would love to here from you all.

 

Ps. there was a delay in uploading this blog due to a storm that cause a malfunction in the wifi connection.