What a trip! 22 hours after leaving home, 15 of us arrived at the Jagabay Resort – tired, ready for a shower, but excited to finally be here.
The trip had been relatively smooth and uneventful. The first leg of the journey, Newcastle-Dubai, took about 8 hours. The plane was half-empty which meant some of us could spread out and commandeer 2 seats…always helpful in Economy Class! Arriving in Dubai shortly before midnight local time we had a couple of hours to kill before boarding our next flight. Following a detailed examination of the options available at the food court, which clearly catered more for business travellers than a bunch of cash-conscious MBA students, we settled on an unadventurous, but nonetheless filling, McDonalds meal! At US$8 it offered far better value than the US$30 lamb chops on offer elsewhere! Shortly after 2am we boarded the onward flight to Colombo…which was promptly delayed for about 45 minutes! Once we were airborne, a 4am breakfast was served and we tried to grab what sleep we could – at 4.5 hours this leg of the journey was shorter.

Touching down in Colombo at 8.40am local time, I must admit to being pleasantly surprised by Colombo airport: very clean, very efficient and not what I was expecting, especially as I have experience of various third world airports! We were through immigration within minutes, and I think this was the first time in my life that I’ve had an immigration officer smile at me! We all had our bags within 15 minutes or so, and then we left the airport to find Jagath, our host, waiting for us! After a quick gander at the various money-changers near the waiting area, we exchanged our dollars, euros and sterling for Sri Lankan rupees, and piled into 3 minivans (1 for the luggage, 2 for the people) for the 4-odd hour drive to Weligama.

The heat hit us immediately and even the airconditioning in the vans wasn’t enough to keep us from continuing to roast! However, I was again pleasantly surprised, this time by the roads. The physical condition of the road to Weligama is excellent – I would suggest that roads in London have more potholes! Additionally, while there was some traffic, it was not as copious or as chaotic as I had expected – perhaps being a Sunday afternoon had something to do with it! That said, it was a bit of a white knuckle ride, with the highway code here seeming to comprise just 1 main rule: look in front of you and drive……fast!

After a drive of a little over 4 hours, we arrived at the Jagabay Resort, our home for the next week! It had been 22 hours since I left home and was around 230pm local time. A quick shower later and we were ready for our first celebratory beer (the locally brewed, 4.8% Lion Lager!), following which most of the group left for a visit to a nearby beach, while  a few of us decided to stay at the hotel to relax, explore the compound, and get the air conditioning going in our rooms! We’ve also made   friends with the semi-stray dogs which frequent the hotel and seem to enjoy following us around…we’ve named them Vincent, Norman, Susan & Dwayne – very friendly but I wouldn’t want to stroke them!

Another beer and a discussion with Jagath about tomorrow’s itinerary led us into a delicious dinner – soup for starters, followed by chicken curry, vegetables and rice, with fruit and ice cream for dessert.  Off to bed early for all of us to try and shake the jet lag, and then meeting’s start tomorrow. We’re off to visit the Agricultural Facility at Ruhuna University to learn a bit more about the cinnamon industry and its key drivers. Hopefully the monsoon will keep away and allow us a fruitful day out!