30th & 31st August- Arrival and Day 1

Wow we made it, after nearly 24hrs door to door of traveling, a stop over in Mumbai and a 3 hr taxi to our hostel from the airport, we are all settled in to hostel number 1 in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

The hostel is very basic, but is clean, safe and has a great view of the city we are staying in for 3 nights. It’s a very surreal feeling being here and Ellie and I keep looking at each other and thinking ‘what on earth are we doing’ but we know as we get into the swing of it we will be fine.

Day 1 has been crazy busy in Kandy and we have stumbled upon little gems of culture! We decided when we arrived to have a nap as we hadn’t actually had a proper night sleep since leaving Heathrow, however that was rudely awaken numerous times by the horns of all the vehicles outside our hostel. It appears that the Sri Lankan’s use their horns at every opportunity; to make others aware they are there, they are annoyed, they are saying hi, they are overtaking... the list goes on! Nevertheless our little cat nap gave us the energy to wander around the city after noticing the white Buddha in the distance from our hostel. We ended up getting a tuk tuk there as it was an incredibly steep incline, and the tuk tuk struggled a lot prompting us to ask ourselves were we going to make it, but we did and the 88ft religious statue was breathtaking.

Following a huge plate of various Sri Lankan snacks and a top up on water we ventured to The Temple of the Tooth where we saw some traditional ‘dancing’ involving warriors, girls dressed as peacocks and even fire breathing and walking!

We are now back in the hostel having had a traditional Sri Lankan meal (we aren’t too sure what it was, however Ellie was very happy!!) and are planning our day tomorrow!

We are missing everyone lots and have had a few moments, but we know we will be a okay once we get into the swing of things!

C xx