This weekend the team travelled up to Kandy Perahera festival. We set off very early on Saturday morning (6am!) from Moon Bridge excited for the three days of traveling and sightseeing that lay ahead. Along the way we stopped in Tangalle and picked up the four postgraduate students that had arranged to come on the trip with us. This was lots of fun as we get on with them a lot and it was nice to spend a few days with them. Saturday morning we stopped at the Udawella Safari Park where we spent two hours on a jeep driving through the huge national park. Along the way we were lucky enough to see lots of toucans, eagles, lizards and elephants. For many of us, especially the girls, the elephants were the highlight of the trip. They just looked so happy and comfy plodding around munching on their grass. It was incredible to see them in such a natural setting.

After the safari we continued traveling North through the Hill Country. This was an experience in itself. The scenery was breathtaking through the mountains but there were several occasions when I was sure the bus was not entirely safe on the windy road. I got particularly nervous every time our driver decided to overtake something driving us perilously close to the edge of the road. It was a lot of fun. Saturday night was spent in a really cute little hotel in the hill country. This was the first time all trip that we felt cold with hoodies and blankets coming out; it was almost like being back in England. We all had a really fun night. The staff at the hotel were friendly and accommodating as always and really went out of their way to make sure that we enjoyed our stay. One of the more surreal moments of the weekend was when we were sat in the hotel bar that resembled a quirky English pub, singing along to Britney Spears and Abba.

Sunday morning we left and travelled up to Kandy, stopping at a tea plantation along the way. We also stopped at the Botanical Garden in Kandy which was really fun to visit. We also saw the famous Kandy Temple where we were shown round and told the story of the Sacred Tooth Relic which is what the Perahera is celebrating. Along with the visit to the temple we were taken to see the cultural dance show which featured traditional Sri Lankan dance and even fire-breathing! We all enjoyed ourselves immensely, especially as it taught us more about Sri Lankan culture.

Sunday evening was when we went to see the Perahera. We arrived on the streets at around 7pm ready to find a place for the 9pm start. The streets were absolutely swarming with people; many of them had arrived as early as 9am to get a seat for the festival. We tried for a while to find somewhere to sit on the street but there was no place for anyone. What resulted was a rather surreal moment. We were led down a dark alleyway where we were ushered into an even darker building. We clambered up a dark staircase at which point it felt like we were on an undercover fleeing mission. Here we walked through many living rooms until we reached a roof made out of scaffolding. This was one of the balconies where tourists pay to sit and have an overhead view of the festival. The festival was amazing. In total there were 72 elephants and there were thousands of dancers and lights, it truly was unlike anything we had ever seen before.

One of the funniest moments of the weekend was experienced up here by me, Rebbeca K, Georgina, Aimee, Anna and Katie. We were surrounded by a large group of Japanese tourists who upon finding out that we had come from England proceeded to cover their faces with anti-germ masks. At one point, I needed to cough and when I did I was faced by four or five ladies offering me masks and looking very worried that I was coughing. It was quite funny for us to see. The festival was marvelous and we were all so glad that we were lucky enough to see it.

Monday morning we began the long journey back to Matara. We did spend a few hours in the elephant orphanage in Pirawella, however we were not prepared for the tourism of the place. It was very clear that every opportunity to extract money from tourists was being taken advantage of. Every price was increased ten times as much for foreigners, including the price of an ice cream! We did enjoy seeing the elephants although not as much as we did seeing them in their natural environment on the safari.

All in all the weekend was incredible. We had so much fun and got to see so many wonderful and beautiful sights of Sri Lanka. We all felt incredibly lucky to be there.